CONNECTICUTT - MYSTIC & OLD SAYBROOK/ESSEX

He Said:  Hello to you all.  First things first.  We got fogged in at Mystic and could not get out of Dodge - so no Jimmy Buffet,.  I called JB (great initials) and told him we would not make it to NYC on Thursday morning.

 

We safely made it on Sunday to Noank - a little city with just a few little stores and that is about it - and stayed for 3 nites total.  This is like a lot of the NE little towns and as cute as can be.  The town of Mystic was about 2 miles away.  The hilly roads made it very scenic.  At the Noank grocery store you could rent a bike for 10 bucks for 24 hours.  A great deal so of course we were all over that. We peddled our asses off to arrive in Mystic - like I said not so far but way too many hills.  We had a fun time there and caught the end of a nice art show then off for a little bite to eat.  Not complaining, but we have had lots of seafood so for the first time in 3 months we had Mexican - kinda like being back home.  We went to some joint with Margarita in the name, go figure, and had some good Mexican and a couple of cold ones.

 



Picturesque Noank

 

Crazy as it sounds, we got together with our Captain Doug for dinner in Mystic at a cool little lobster joint right on the water and within walking distance of our marina.  It was BYOB which to us is great news, no bar bill!!  Doug was heading from Annapolis back to Boston to deliver a boat, just like he did with us.  It was fun catching up with him.  He really is the only person we know very well in all of NE so it is kind of a small little world.

 

Lobster Rolls with Captain Doug
 

 

 

We left Mystic on Wednesday AM and headed to Old Saybrook/Essex and had no problem getting there.  We are not trying to get full of our stuff, but we are doing a pretty good job of navigating - especially after only about 3 months.  Like the rest of our little towns this place is also cute as hell.  What we really like is you can stay at North Cove Yacht Club for 000$$.  They offered nothing, but charged you the same for a 72 hour visit - pretty sweet. We took the bus over to Essex on Friday to check out the town.  It was very cool, but we did not spend a lot of time there and headed back in the afternoon to Old Saybrook.

 

Our plans are to leave the fine state of Connecticut on Saturday morning and head to the Big Asshole (I mean Apple). We hope to spend a few days or so in NY before heading to NJ. We understand that the trip thru the New York Harbor (Hell’s Gate) can be a little squirrely due to the strong currents, so we will travel with the current pushing us not us going against it.  It’s also more efficient in the fuel world.  While in NY we hope to do some fun stuff including catching the Today Show on Monday morning.  Hated missing Jimmy, but not even the man is worth traveling in fog especially when you have never done it before.

 

That is about it for now.  Did not bore you with the weather but it has been pretty nice, mostly 70s during the day and 50-60 at night - hard to bitch about that after all we have been through.  Catch up with you guys in about a week from probably Jersey.  Maybe run into the Boss, just like we didn’t with JB, oh well!! Take Care, Jack

She Said:  We finally got a nice day so it was time to head for Mystic, RI.  It was about a 25 mile journey and we put almost 4 hours on the engines.  Departing and arriving are slow processes with mooring fields, channels and no wake zones.  When we’re cruising we’re around 10MPH. 

 

We found a marina that offered mooring balls in the town of Noank which is at the mouth of the Mystic River and about 2 miles from Mystic.  The staff at Noank Village Boatyard was great.  My top priority was laundry – there was only one washer and one dryer, so it took longer than we hoped.  While the laundry was doing its thing, we worked on getting the dinghy motor fixed.  After a couple of hours, we identified the specific broken part, found out it’s not a stocked part, and the mechanics are booked out about a week.  Maybe better luck in our next stop.  In the meantime, Jack was going to be doing a lot of rowing getting us from the mooring field to the dinghy dock. 

 

 We found bicycles to rent and rode them the short distance into Mystic.  Mystic is a cute town and we enjoyed strolling the streets.  We hadn’t had Mexican food since leaving Phoenix and thought we’d give Tio Juan’s Margarita a try.  It hit the spot!  We then pedaled back to the boat, but not before I decided to hit the curb and go down for the count.  I blew out my flip-flop and got myself some good road burn – mostly on my knee – and bruising, but I’ll survive.

 

On Monday we toured the Mystic Seaport Village.  It’s an outdoor museum set up as Mystic was in the 1800s.  It was interesting to see how things were done back then (including an old printing press).  There were several old sailing vessels that we toured.  We had a fun day (and no mishaps riding the bikes home).   

 

Original Buildings from 1800s in Mystic Seaport

Historic Sailing Vessel in Mystic Seaport
 

Although Jack has shown no interest in fishing, he is intrigued by the fishermen and their catch.  Whenever he sees fishermen on the docks, he stops by and asks them all kinds of questions about what they’re catching, what they do with it, etc.  Believe it or not, almost all of the fishermen – mostly commercial - have been very friendly and have given us all kinds of information.  In Noank, Jack was talking to a recreational fisherman who just came back from fishing Block Island where he caught 200 pounds of “striper.”  He was trying to get rid of it (he couldn’t legally sell it), so he gave us a huge filet (enough for 4 dinners).  We were so excited to fix it for dinner that night, but we had other plans.  Earlier in the day we got a call from Captain Doug.  He was moving a boat from Annapolis to Boston and was meeting us in Mystic for dinner that night.  We went to Abbott’s Lobster House where we had the most incredible lobster roll.  We also tried the Rhode Island-style clam chowder.  It’s similar to Manhattan clam chowder, but it has a clear broth.  Neither one of us cared for it.   We had a fun evening with Doug!

 

Tuesday morning we were up early for our trip toward NYC.  Our plan was to take 2 days to get near NYC and travel by train into Manhattan to see Jimmy Buffet on the Today Show on Thursday.  We woke up to thick fog, but the weather report said it was supposed to clear up.  And it did, so we decided to head out.  We stopped at the fuel dock and had to wait for another boat to finish fueling up.  Wouldn’t you know it – the other boat was Captain Doug.  We talked about heading out in the fog (projected 1-3 mile visibility) and Doug said we’d be fine.  I swear, the fog got thicker as we were fueling.  As we pulled out into the channel, I could see the buoys on the GPS screen, but not in front of me.  Jack and I looked at each other, and without saying much, decided Jimmy was going to have to play to a Today Show crowd without us.  It was back to our mooring ball.  We stayed on board all day.  For dinner we grilled some of the striper, and it was excellent.

 

We could now take longer getting to NYC, so we re-routed ourselves.  Our next stop – Old Saybrook/Essex, CT.  We found a cove that provided free mooring balls for 3 nights, so we thought we’d give it a try.  Old Saybrook turned out to be a great place – much larger than we’d expected, but still quaint.  Our first order of business – get the dinghy fixed.  When you’re on a mooring ball or anchored, your dinghy is your connection to land.  Even though there were more marinas and parts stores than in Mystic, the end result was the same – no available parts and no one able to look at it until next week.  So now we got smart.  We figured out where we would be in about a week, found a marina/mechanic, and made an appointment.

 

Jack rowed us to the dinghy dock and we walked into town.  Everything we needed was within an easy walk.  Walking to the grocery store we found a Wal-Mart.  I can count on one had the number of times I’ve been in a Wal-Mart, but when you’re on the road like we are, Wal-Mart is like Disneyland.  We did some major stocking up including a lantern.  A lantern will help us find MTB in the mooring field at night and also give us better reading light onboard.  We also found a Verizon store.  They were able to look at our JetPak set-up and made a modification on my computer.  Hopefully, this will help my data usage problem. On our way back to the boat we stopped at Walt’s (a tiny grocery store) to pick up some fresh scallops (caught today) and local tomatoes for dinner.  OBSERVATION:  With a minor exception in Newport, we haven’t seen a chain store, restaurant or fast food place since we left Boston until now.

 

On our second day in Old Saybrook we finally made it to the grocery store and got other general tasks accomplished.  We stopped into Penny Lane Pub for dinner and ended the night at Jack Rabbit Tavern for a night cap.  All and all a lazy, relaxing day.  On our final day we took the bus into Essex.  It’s described as the quintessential New England town and it lived up its reputation – worth the bus ride.  Back on MTB we were relaxing on the bow when we heard a bang – maybe more of a clunk.  The boat on the mooring ball next to us swung around and bumped us on the port stern.  Since there was no speed involved there was no damage, but it did startle us.  We called the marina and they didn’t seem to care.  We tied up our dingy on the side of the boat where we bumped to protect us just in case it happened again.  Fortunately, it didn’t.  If all goes according to plan, we’ll leave CT tomorrow for a 60 miles trip to Long Island.  We have really enjoyed CT.  The people and sights have been great. 

Famous Griswold Inn, Essex