Grand Fromage pulled out of Liberty Landing Marina on July 23 to head up the East River to Long Island Sound. I had planned to take many pictures of NYC from the perspective of the East River. However, as soon as we pulled out into the Hudson River, we discovered our gps was not functioning. Go back or continue on without the gps??? It was a cloudy day but with excellent visability. We had radar. We had the charts that Robert had been studying. We decided to continue on.

Manuevering into the East River, it was obvious we would need all eyes keeping watch for the many small boats, ferry boats, and barges. No time for pictures here. Traveling up the East River did not decrease the number of boats and activity. If anything, it became busier. I vaguely remember going by the UN building, but no time to grab the camera. We came to the area reknowned to boaters as “Hell’s Gate”, where the East River comes into Long Island Sound. Amazing current and rapids. We had no problems, but I could see it could play merry havoc with a boat with a small engine.

Hell’s Gate behind us, we entered Long Island Sound and yikes, fog. At first the fog was not bad and we had adequate visibility. However, there was no time for relaxation. Constant vigilence was the key to avoiding boats and lobster pots, which were now popping up all over the place. A boater does not want to hit a crab or lobster pot. The line from the pot can get twisted around the propellor, necessitating a dive down to cut it out. Robert was very busy keeping our course manually on the chart. There were many buoys and markers in the water to make finding our place on the chart a little easier.

When Natalie was in NYC, I explained to her how boaters navigate, matching a numbered buoy in the water to the same numbered buoy on a chart. Natalie, here is an example of a green buoy…this one is number 5. For a short time it seemed that the fog was lifting, but then it came in with a vengence….does fog have vengence? Whatever the case, we couldn’t see, plus interestingly enough, we didn’t know where we were as the further we got up the sound, the further apart the buoys. When we realized our gps was out, we had fired up a hand held gps. Robert manally entered in the gps co-ordinates into our chartplotter. Now we knew where we were, but it is hard to locate boats and lobster pots when eyes aren’t constantly on the water. Suddenly we realized we were right next to the harbor entrance of our day’s destination….Stamford, CT. Whew!!!! We entered the harbor and the fog magically lifted.

We had planned to spend only one night in Stamford, but first priorty was fixing the gps. A very nice man from Jersey City drove over the next day and fixed us up. We enjoyed a nice dingy ride in Stamford, a large, industrial place with a lot of barge traffic, but with very scenic shoreline parks

We left Stamford on a beautiful clear day with fabulous visibility and had an easy run to Clinton, CT. We stayed at a fun marina on a lovely river. The marina provided a free shuttle into town. Our shuttle driver did far more than scoot us into town. She gave us the complete tour with commentary.

We chose to eat dinner at APizza, where we enjoyed a yummy pasta meal. A family owned business, we chatted with one of the sons who knew all about Modesto, Ca. He had gone there the year before to arrange for daily shipments of tomotoes. While at APizza, Robert had a celebetory first, a white birch soda. He reported it tasted like a cross between a cream soda and a rootbeer.
Clinton, CT was a wonderful town for a dingy ride up the river. It was such a peaceful place with people out enjoying the water.
Osprey parents enjoying an al fresco lunch with the kids. We enjoyed another New Enland first in Clinton….the all important lobster roll. According to the locals, the Clinton lobster rolls are the best of the best….just lobster chunks, butter and lemon juice. We will attest to the fact that they were delicious. According to reliable sources, too many lobster rolls are constructed like a tunafish salad…minced lobster blended with gobs of mayonaise. After two nights in Clinton, we had a nice ride to Say Brook, CT, where we spent one night. Here comes the same song, second verse…when we left Say Brook, it was a cloudy, but very clear morning. We get a few miles up Long Island Sound and here comes the fog. This time we have our gps working on our chartplotter so we can track to a waypoint. However, the radar shows boats everywhere so we are trying to match the blips on the radar to boats in the water. We blow our fog horn. We are looking for lobster pots and other boats. We feel confident with our position and our ability to manuever to our next destination. We do not feel confidence in the many small boats who don’t have radar and who seem oblivious to the fact that the visibility is 50 feet. To confirm our fears, a little boat comes screaming out of the fog right next to us, going at least 25 mph, followed by another little boat going just as fast. Whoa Nellie!

Lighthouse at a harbor entrance with the fog behind.
We were very tired when we arrived safe and sound in Mystic, CT. We stayed at a very nice marina, Mystic Shipyard. I’d like to comment that the dockhand who helped us tie up was the best in three summers of cruising the East Coast. His name was Kenny and he was a wonder….Mystic Shipyard….time to give Kenny a raise. Kenny was not only endlessly energetic and cheerful, but he knew the procedures to logically tie up to their fixed docks.