North of NYC up to Buzzards Bay includes several sounds, Long Island sound being the largest. We had a lovely few months cruising around the protected waters and anchoring in scenic coves. A little late on the update here so here’s a tale of the sounds mostly by pictures:
In Pages Cove, CT we found a great little empty anchorage that didn’t seem to commonly have boats anchored at. It wasn’t listed on Waterway Guide (our usual anchorage resource) but the locals seemed happy to have us and there was a retired tug boat captain that sells fresh baked sourdough bread and fresh roasted coffee beans in front of his house. Of course we bought some of each!
The Thimble islands were highly recommended to us so we decided to anchor there on our way up. Still in Connecticut, they are a picturesque archipelago of little islands formed out of pink granite, some of which have beautiful (and very large) historic houses on them. We anchored inbetween a few of them and then decided to dinghy into the mainland for some dinner. Finding a spot to park our dinghy was a bit of an endeavour. There weren’t any clearly listed dinghy landings so we tied up somewhere that we were maybe not supposed to and hoped for the best. There was only one place to eat and they didn’t take card but let us venmo them for pizza! When I asked if we could buy a glass of wine they said they were BYOB and told us where to buy wine. This was nowhere near walking distance so I bought some lemonades instead. A little while later the owner came out with a bottle of wine that she kept as a backup for poor folk like us who showed up without their own bottle. This one place to eat that we thought we wouldn’t be able to eat at ended up being quite a win with very friendly people and the pizza was great to top it off!
Avion was due for some fresh antifouling bottom paint. It slows down the growth of aquatic life on the hull, ie. prevents those giant oysters we found on the bottom of our keel in the Chesapeake! We knew we were about due a new coat or two already but our worsening fuel efficiency sealed the deal…it was time! On the way to get a haul out we anchored by Duck Island, which made me think of the delicious ice cream we used to get when we lived in Hamilton, NZ. No tasty ice cream here though, just blue waters and skies with a cute little island that we could appreciate from a distance. The island is a habitat for Snowy and Great Egret and much to Kata’s disappointment we could not take her ashore.
The marina we went to for haul out let us go in the night before and stay at the fuel dock. The next day they towed us into the well from our slip. We had never seen this service before and were quite happy it existed. Sharp turns and narrow wells are always a little stressful! Once in the well Avion went for a fly! We spent about a week on the hard going to quite painstaking measures to oversee the jobs and make sure the bottom job was done correctly. The marina side of things was excellent but the boatyard side, not so much. I have seen multiple boaters haul out their boat and then just leave while the bottom job is being done. They must know and really trust the facility doing the work because if we had done that, we would’ve ended up with a very sloppy job! We have learnt our lesson now and will only go to boatyards that come highly recommended.
Autumn arrived while Avion was getting her spa treatments and we were staying at an Air bnb in the nearby town. It was fun to see the leaves change colors and do a little exploring in the small snippets of free time we carved out for ourselves. We found a place to buy fresh local produce that was owned by a Kiwi transplant so we went there to provision just before we splashed back into the water and had a good yarn with the owner, Dan, who came from a farming background in central Otago.
Since the job took longer than expected, we were a little overexcited to get going and get the sails out again. On the way up, a stripper ring had broken in the winch for our mizzen sheet and the replacement arrived the day we left. Rather than stick around and replace it at the marina like normal people, we were in a hurry to get going and Kevin decided he was going to attempt it underway. Well, he got it done…but seeing him struggle to keep everything together while we were bobbing about was certainly entertaining.
Our next major goal was Block Island, RI. We were so late in the season that we were almost too late to go there. I called the harbour master and they were going to be pulling up all the mooring balls after Columbus day and didn’t recommend anchoring there after that. 1. Because almost everything would be closed and 2. Because that was when Nor’Easters were expected to start rolling through and protection just wasn’t enough. Block Island is really out there and exposed. We were on a time crunch! Sadly this meant we had to miss a few stops that we had planned. We anchored in a lovely calm anchorage in Stonington but didn’t have time to go ashore. It was a single night stay with an early morning to watch a beautiful sunrise and then off to Block Island.
On Block Island we went to shore and wandered into town. We stayed in the New Harbor anchorage, which in summer is apparently a hive of activity and tons of fun but quite stressful to get a spot on a mooring ball or in the anchorage. When we arrived there were two other boats in the anchorage and the New Harbor restaurant/bar strip had closed for the season! Kata needed a good walk and we needed to stretch our legs so no problem…we walked over toward Old Harbor. After our very expensive bottom job/haul out session we were feeling rather poor, thankfully the town of New Shoreham had a place just for us: the “Poor People’s Pub”, perfect stop for some pub snacks and a drink! This area was still pretty busy and we were getting some beautiful late season weather to explore. It was a lovely little summer tourist town that seems like it almost completely closes in the winter.
Block Island was the first place we got to where it cooled down enough to be able to start to do work in the cockpit. My favourite place to work from! One morning I was sitting out there doing work and there was a knock on the hull that came with an invite to one of the other two boats in the anchorage that evening for snack and drinks. We had been admiring their Aluminium hull boat so we were excited to go see it. Brian and Helen on SV Helacious built the boat in their back yard (with Brian’s welding background coming in handy) and ended up doing the Viking route (crossing the Atlantic by way of Iceland and Greenland to Canada)! This was definitely a high latitudes type of boat.
Our stay was cut a little short as we saw the first Nor’Easter was indeed on it’s way so we headed out and saw a first for us as we left: a seal popped up to say goodbye!
For some reason I took a lot more photos in Cuttyhunk. I actually liked it more than Block Island so that might be why! There isn’t a lot in terms of shops and restaurants and it is a dry island so no pubs or bars, but we had a very specific goal when we went there. Kevin had dreamed, when we started our trip north, of dinghying up to little red lobster shacks in Maine. We left a little too late in the season to get to Maine but we had seen photos of one of the few spots selling food on Cuttyhunk: “The Cuttyhunk Lobster Shack”. Avion is a bit long to go in the inner mooring field so we stayed in the anchorage just outside the entrance and dinghied in almost as soon as the anchor was set. It was a lovely dinghy ride in and the lobster shack was everything it promised to be. Kevin Approved!
The next day we dinghied in to explore during sunlight hours and walked to the top of the island, where we had 360 degree views and could see Avion in the distance. All houses in the area had the same grey shingle outer construction. We had seen it quite a bit in the north east coastal areas. As we were walking up the hill we saw a new build that was the same type of shingle but unstained brown wood. That got me wondering if there was some sort of HOA that dictated a grey stained shingle. We spoke to a local about it and found out they are cedar rectangles that are popular in the coastal areas for their weather and salt resistance. The grey colour is a natural aging that apparently only takes a year to happen.
We had a little bird join us on the way to Cuttyhunk. It would come into the cockpit and hang out by the plant and nibble up bugs and then go away. It didn’t seem particularly scared of us. After we rode the Nor’Easter out in New Bedford we decided that was our sign to start heading south. Off we headed out to sea for the first time in a while and when offshore we discovered we still had our stowaway on board. The little guy kept us company all the way to the Delaware.
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