15 Sep 16

We hit the ground running at 07:00, slipped the mooring line by 07:05, had breakfast aboard, passed back under the Old Lyme Draw bridge and got to the mouth of the Connecticut River by 08:00 to catch the second half of the flood tide further up the Long Island Sound. The bridge operator has a very laconic sense of humor. We got through the bridge with hardly a slow-down. Another sail-boat was about a mile behind us and called up to ask for the bridge to be left open for them. When they hailed the bridge, they stated “we are south bound toward the bridge and request the bridge be left open for us.” After a long silence, the bridge operator said “with that lack of precision as to location, it was hard to know whether the bridge would be up or not.” The boat replied “we just passed under the road bridge, I don’t know the name of it.” Bridge operator: “that would be the Baldwin Bridge…. Governor of Connecticut. That puts you about half a mile north of the (railroad) bridge, and I have a train in New Haven, so if you make it, you make it. Otherwise, you will have to wait to the next opening.” The boat replied meekly “Thanks.” I was in hysterics by then. Once in the sound, it was engine off and main and spinnaker up for 2.5 hours of a nice broad reach to the west. By 11:30, the wind had dropped to E5, so we doused the spinnaker and motored the rest of the way to Cedar Creek, immediately to the west of the industrial port of Bridgeport. We got into a slip at 14:40 at Captain’s Cove Seaport, which is a fine marina, although it is situated next to a rather cheesy holiday resort-type facility, purportedly partially financed by The Donald back in 1994. A good 50 mile run. John and I tackled a problem that arose during the day with the jib; the upper swivel seemed to be hanging up and not swiveling freely. We were unable to drop the jib at all, so I got a ride up to the top of the mast, where I discovered that the furling foil upper section had separated from the middle section and the swivel was hung up on it. After I got the swivel lined back up with the foil, it dropped easily, but I had to make a second trip up to tighten up the set screws that keep the two adjacent foil sections from separating. Then, it was time for happy hour and dinner aboard; lamb chops we bought in Block Island - excellent.

41-09.422’N, 073-12.820’W

The alarm went off at 08:00 and we got going for our foray to NYC. After a taxi to the train station and the train into Grand Central Station, which is glorious, it was still 12:30 by the time we got to town. We grabbed a quick lunch and then headed down to find the New York Nautical store. The metro station closest happened to drop us out adjacent to 9/11 Ground Zero, so we detoured to check out the memorial, which is dominated by two huge pools at the footprints of the two original World Trade Towers. Very nicely done and very touching. They (Al Quaeda or ISIS) may knock us down, but we have bounced back bigger than ever; so we win. The Nautical Store had lots of charts and books, but none of the other yachting stuff we were hoping to encounter, so we headed north to check out the New York Yacht Club. Unfortunately, John’s membership at the Royal Victoria Yacht Club did not include reciprocal privileges at the NYYC, so we moved on to the New York Public Library; beautiful architecture inside and out and an excellent exhibition on Hamilton (no doubt to capitalize on the popularity of the current Broadway hit musical of the same name). There is a beautiful park behind the library, so we dropped around for a visit, had cocktails at the excellent outside bar, and decided to walk next door to the Bryant Park restaurant for dinner. There was free Shakespeare in the park afterward, so we listened to about half of the first act of “Measure for Measure”, before we had to sprint for the 20:36 train back to Bridgeport/Fairfield. The taxi met us at the station at 22:00 and we were back aboard by 22:30, tired but happy.