Saturday, August 3. day 30

We woke up to a gray and rainy skies with winds that are predicted to be in the mid-teens with gusts in the 20’s. This is nothing that the boat and crew can’t handle, but not something we would choose to sail in unless we had a good reason, and that reason for us, is seeing cruising friends we met in Annapolis,MD and saw again in the Bahamas. We raised the anchor at 724am and Lorraine stayed at the helm while Phil rolled out the head sail 15 min later and turned off the engine at 743am. Once we were out of Port Jeff Harbor and Channel, we set a course for New Haven, CT which turned out to be a broad reach with quartering seas. We kept at more than 5.3kts B and even saw 6.6kts with a gust, but thankfully we didn’t have the boat heeled over for too long which would have means we had to,turn off the valves for,the toilet and sink to prevent back flow of water. Lorraine was at the helm until almost 10am to steer as the autopilot doesn’t do well with these kind or seas and so that she wouldn’t get sea sick, which was a success.

Then Phil took over while Lorraine slept. By 1130am the engine was on for entering New Haven Harbor and Lorraine called Patty for directions where to meet them. Turns out we had passed the mooring field for New Haven Yacht Club, so we quickly turned around and hailed the yacht club to checkout getting a guest mooring. They had one available and the boat launch would meet us there. The price was right, FREE for a 3-day stay, so we picked one up. It was terrible in the harbor! The wind from the west had a long fetch so it was wavy and I’d they didn’t had a small buy with a long fiberglass stick which was attached to the end of the mooring ball line, I don’t think we could have gotten it. The launch stood by as we attached 2 lines to the mooring ball, gathered together our laundry and extra clothes, and items to take ashore for our visit. It was wonderful not to have to put the engine on the dinghy to come ashore in the 2-3ft waves! Christina, the launch operator, was very nice and accommodating once we were in shore offering to come after 9pm closing time to get us if we wanted to return back to the boat late. As Lorraine got seasick from the bow going up and down at least 6′ with each wave, we quickly accepted our guest’s (Patty and Gary Root) offer to stay at their house for the night as we knew Changes would be safe. For those that have not slept in the V-berth, it at the bow of the boat and we would be going up and down inside unless the wind direction changed; not exactly conducive to a good night sleep.

First order was lunch at Lenny’s and Joe’s Fishtails Restaurant as we were very hungry. I had fried clams and Phil had fried scallops, which were delicious! Then we stopped at Delmonico’s Hatters to get Phil an Tilley Hat and drove to Cheshire, CT. After hot showers and starting 3 loads of laundry, we played Canadian Upside down Fruit Basket card game. Supper was freshly steamed lobster, corn on the cob and baked potatoes.

We had a great visit and nothing like the warm oatmeal blueberry scones Patty made for breakfast.

We think their house is lovely and can understand why Patty just had to live there.

After a trip to her vegetable garden and getting a bag full of produce, Gary drove us back to New Haven Yacht Club, this time to blue skies and calm winds. Thank you Patty and Gary for a wonderful visit and getting the opportunity to see your beautiful home! We hope to see you again!

Now on our way to Westbrook, CT to visit Chet and Carol!