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This was a land day. We spent time reading and went back to the supermarket for more stuff. I tried the outboard again and it started almost straight away. I went to pick up more diesel for Timeless only to have the outboard conk out. After this I could only get it to run for a second or two.

I picked up 5 gallons of diesel in our can and rowed back to the boat. I still had no further luck with the outboard so I went to talk to the boat yard next door. They said they could look at the engine in the afternoon but could make now promises. I agreed to let them so I borrowed a cart and lugged the outboard over to them and left it there. I got a call later to say they had cleaned out the carburetor but didn’t have time to put it all back together and could I collect in the morning. This worked out ok but was a little disappointing as I had wanted to use the outboard and dinghy to explore the river.

That evening we had take away Chinese with wine on board the boat.

Looking at our itinerary, we opted to skip Clinton and head straight for Milford where we planned to stop 2 nights. The wind wasn’t strong enough to sail so we made a beeline for Milford on the engine leaving at 5:20am and arriving at 1:35pm.

We chose a slip at a marina closest to town. We had a walk around town in the afternoon. It was hot, humid and windless. We found a supermarket where we picked up more provisions. In the evening we ate at a Mexican restaurant close to the slip and had three margaritas each which went to our heads.

Distance traveled was 40.4nm in 8 hours 14 mins.

This was our first day with Helen aboard. Our goal was Essex on the Connecticut River. We started by having breakfast in a local diner. I had the best ever omelet.

Leaving the seaport we had to wait at both bridges so our journey was initially quite slow. Heading out of the Mystic River Helen got to see the sights Bob and I saw the previous day. The whole area is very scenic and full of boats.

The current was behind us, winds were ahead of us. In this case, this made for an exciting day as the current gave us a good boost making our tacks into wind quite effective. We had an enjoyable sail. We included heading through “The Race” which is a notorious area where currents merge / diverge and depths change dramatically giving rise to very interesting surface conditions. This was a good first day for Helen – I don’t think she would have enjoyed our first few days.

Essex was a really quaint little town. We only had enough time to walk down the high street and eat. This was the first time we were on a mooring ball rather than a slip. Rather than use our own dinghy, we used the provided launch to get to shore and back to the boat. Helen had decided she wanted to stop somewhere for a full day. Quaint in Connecticut also means exclusive and expensive. It was nice to take a look around, the setting was very pretty but we decided not to stay in Essex.

Upon arriving back at the boat after our meal, I tried to start the outboard on the dinghy. I couldn’t. All I managed to do was to work up a sweat which I had to wash off using the shower on the boat.

Distance traveled day 6 was 34.3nm which took us 7 hours and 50 minutes.

Our goal for today was to reach Mystic Seaport to meet up with Helen. This was a straight hop across the sound with a turn around Fisher Island to Mystic River. Not forgetting my errors with the currents of the previous day I double checked the plan for today. In the end we had terrific wind conditions which meant the current across our path of travel mattered little. We left our slip at 6:05am. On leaving the harbor we raised the sails and shot over the sound. We rounded Fisher Island nearly 2 hours before prediction which meant we could sail around the body of water between Connecticut and Fisher Island for a bit.

We eventually pulled down the sails and motored up the Mystic River. A week earlier, we had managed to arrange a slip in the Mystic Seaport itself, the old waterfront museum. This meant we had to get past a couple of draw bridges. The railway bridge was kept normally open which was passed pretty easily. The road bridge only opened at 40 minute past each hour. We had arrived over half an hour early so we took a temporary slip just in front of the bridge and stretched our legs.

When the bridge opened it was just a short trip to the seaport where we docked with the help of shore side staff. Bob and I had 30 minutes to clean up before Helen arrived where we did the best we could. Earlier I had showered down the toilet and had already given Bob instructions that if he used the head he had to clean it all again.

Neither Bob or I had shaved until this point. I told Bob that Helen would make me shave as almost the first thing she said.

I was quite pleased to see Helen. She remarked on my tan and then told me to shave.

That afternoon we explored the museum. I was fascinated by the old wooden ships. The museum itself tells the story of the Mystic of old which was a major center for shipbuilding and commerce. This has all gone now. The museum is a collection of old ships and buildings which have been moved to the one location.

The benefits of berthing in the museum is that you get automatic tickets to the museum both for when it is open and at night. It’s quite cool to have the old seaport to yourself in the evening.

We walked into Mystic town for dinner that evening. On the way back we went to a supermarket where we bought water, soft drinks and ice for the boat. We had to walk nearly a mile with all this stuff which was a pain.Stats for today : distance traveled, 25nm in 6 hours.

We had a big trip ahead of us this day. It was now Saturday. Helen was due in Connecticut midday Sunday so we had to make progress. Our goal for this day was Montauk which was round the end of Long Island and on the north side. We also had to plan around the 2 to 3 knot currents which swoosh each way along the stretch of water between the end of Long Island and Connecticut. I had an ‘Eldridge’ which is a book which predicts when the currents are in your favour and when they are not.To meet our window for the right currents we had to again set off early. Waking up at 3:30 we had no infernos and were able to set off by 4:15. Winds were good so soon after leaving the inlet we had the sails up and the engine off.

We followed a parallel course to Long Island just over 1.5nms from the shore. This continued until about 9:20am when the winds began to shift. We had to head further out to get better winds.
By 2:10pm we had reached our furthest point east of our whole trip. We were rounding the tip of Long Island about 2.5nm from the shore. This was due to my caution as the GPS chart had lots of dangerous rocks further inland. In hindsight we could have rounded a lot further in.As we entered the sound I began to realize I had misinterpreted the current charts. We now had a 2.5 knot current against us which made things interesting. When we passed the buoy, 2.6nm from Montauk which indicated where we could turn in avoiding a reef, we found that under the engine, we could make very little progress. The wind was picking up and coming right from Montauk. The current wanted to push us onto the reef. We had no choice but to put the sails up again and sail out of the danger we were in.We had some fun sailing but the combination of wind and currents meant the last 2.5nm meant we had to sail 7nm. The wind did shift as we got nearer to shore so we made better progress.

 

Entering Lake Montauk, all the wind and current disappeared. We motored over to where we had booked a slip. This time I made a better effort at bringing us in. We had a bit of help from our neighbours for the evening.

That evening, we ate at a seafood bar, the only one we could walk to, which was full of professional charter fisherman talking fish tales. We had good food but it was a bit crowded and noisy.

Distance covered day 4 was 54nm which took us 14 hours and 40 minutes.