Long Island Sound runs about 100 miles in an east – west orientation with Connecticut on the north side, Long Island to the south and the East River at the western edge. The eastern end of the sound opens into the Atlantic Ocean, touching Rhode Island and Massachusetts. After exiting the east river, we selected Bridgeport, CT to wait out the next storm. The anchorage wasn’t much to speak of, a deserted beach good for Topaz to run and a secure anchorage. Next we needed to think about our weekly grocery shopping, right around the corner is Housatonic River and the town of Stratford. Our chart guide gave it good reviews for shopping and boy were they right.
We found a little path along the bank to nudge the dinghy up to for drop offs. Across the street from the path is a large West Marine, BJs whole sale club (which we’re not members of), and Petco. The a short walk away is two grocery stores, Walmart (Yippee!!!!) and Home Depot. We could just live here. At West Marine we found essential parts Eric had on his list and non essentials like this wake board Genny has been waiting for, and a large fishing net so we can scoop up the sea monsters Roy catches.
The Housatonic River is 139 miles long with five dams producing hydro electricity. With all the rain and flooding, the river had a constant stream of debris floating out to the sound. One morning we got clobbered by this fence post drifting down river at 1.5kts.
The post got tangled between the hulls and anchor chain. We were lucky to only be hit by a post once, we saw branches, tree segments, very little trash but mostly wood floating by.
Originally this was supposed to be a quick stop for groceries but we met all kinds of nice people. Exit Strategy with Tom and Doris came by to say hello. This is their home town and where they visit family, and their kids’ sports when they aren’t cruising warmer waters in the winter. Then Roy spotted people fishing on a nearby dock, so he went over to ask the usual fishing questions. Are you getting any bites? What type of bait are you using? What are you fishing for? Where is the bait shop? That’s where he met Norm and Lynn in the picture below. Stratford is their hometown but now they live in The Villages in Florida and come back here to visit family. Norm and Lynn were so nice to us, they showed us around town, gave us a Stratford history book, offered rides, and took us out for a fabulous Italian dinner. We hope to meet up with them in Florida in the fall.
Check out this pizza burger Roy ordered at dinner.
Next we made friends with the Pimentel’s. Yes, another Pimentel family. They both trace their ancestors back to Flores Island in the Azores which is part of Portugal. Here’s a link to Rodey’s blog about his trip on Azure II, which is now our Makai, in the Azores. We met them because as we were entering the river Eric spotted a Leopard 40, tucked into a marina, out of the corner of his eye. He checked around on the Leopard Catamaran Owners Group message board and found one listed from here and fired off an email. The girls made an instant friendship with Jeanette, Ken and Beth’s 9 year old.
They are wrapping up the details this summer and will be heading down to the Chesapeake, Florida and the Bahamas this season. The girls exchanged email addresses and promised to find each other again along the way.
The weather is starting to warm up. We still wear a jacket occasionally and sleep with a blanket, but finally we can sit out in the cockpit without being bundled up. Today Topaz is getting her first haircut since the Virgin Islands. This is a good job while we’re underway to New London.
The New London Ledge Lighthouse shines at the entrance to the Thames River. This 1909 brick lighthouse was one of the last built in New England. In honor of all the New England Lighthouses around us, we watched Pete’s Dragon last night. It’s a Helen Reddy and Mickey Rooney Disney musical set in Maine.
On the way to the anchorage we passed General Dynamics Electric Boat. It was pretty cool seeing a brand new submarine sticking out of the hangar door.
Bridges cross the Thames to connect New London with Groton, CT. While the auto bridge is fixed, the Amtrak bridge lifts on request. The photo below shows the Amtrak bridge closed.
After requesting them to lift it, they slid it up above our mast for us to pass under.
The real reason we came up the Thames was to visit the SSN Nautilus and Submarine Museum.
When Eric and I first met, we were defense contractors with the submarine business. Eric used his Electrical Engineering Degree with a concentration in acoustics to research undersea sounds. I got into it because of my experience in the Navy with SOSUS and IUSS, which is an undersea listening system designed to track Soviet Subs during the Cold War. This was all very secret when I was in the Navy, but apparently it’s been declassified because you can find information about it all over the internet as well as descriptions of the system at the museum.
Back around 1990 Eric did several acoustic experiments on submarines and came here to the sub base in Groton to test them on subs. So, this has long been a destination of his to sail up the Thames to the sub base.
After a long day of hair cuts for Topaz she got a scrubby bath.
The new hard top makes it convenient for her to get up on top and dry herself by rubbing on the main sail cover. She also has a new ‘crazy dog’ path. When she gets worked up she runs from the top to the trampoline, that’s probably 40 feet of slippery fiberglass on three levels.
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Friday’s adventure was the Sub Museum. We tied the dinghy up on the fuel dock at Groton Oil Co. and Marina and began our walk. The first stop is this WWII Submarine Memorial. There are 3,617 names on this wall as a tribute to the men on eternal patrol.
The walkway is lined with statistics for the 52 submarines lost between 1942 and 1945. The term Loose Lips Sink Ships was used on WWII posters to remind people to be mindful secrecy concerning military matters. We heard one story about Congressmen May who had been to several military briefings and in a press conference publicized the fact that the Japanese depth charges were missing our subs because they were set to 150 feet while our subs evaded them by staying at depths of 300 feet. The very next month, we lost 10 submarines because the Japanese reset their depth charges for deeper depths.
A scenic 1.8 mile walk later we arrived at the Nautilus Submarine Museum. This is the sail of an Ohio Class Ballistic Missile submarine. If you ask how I got my family to pose for so many pictures, I have to say it’s a miracle. These kids are masters at uncooperative behavior, only now are the oldest starting to find the ‘uncooperative’ game a little less exciting. For some reason, when I ask them to turn around for a picture they do it. Maybe they know their shining face will be on the blog, maybe they don’t know how much I appreciate it, but I’m grateful for their cooperation in photos.
The Nautilus’ original props. SOSUS showed how noisy the propeller cavitation would give away the location of the new quiet nuclear submarines. The Nautilus is the first nuclear submarine and since then much work has been done to tame the screw.
WWII diesel submarines were fitted with artillery to protect themselves on the surface. The engines require air from the surface to run and this left the submarine vulnerable to attacks while they were charging their batteries.
The front walk also displays a Type A Japanese two man mini sub
The dock on the Thames is the home of the SSN Nautilus. She was the first submarine to use nuclear energy to run her engines and systems. This eliminated the submarine’s need to surface. She quickly broke all kinds of records like being the first submarine to transit the North Pole in 1958. The Nautilus was decommissioned in 1980 five years before I started studying submarines.
The museum offered a great tour complete with hand held audio phones.
We wandered through the home of the Nautilus’ 11 officers and 92 enlisted men.
It was hard to imagine over 100 men weaving in and out of these spaces under the water.
The museum had several movies and displays with fascinating facts about US submarine history.
Unfortunately, we didn’t give ourselves enough time and rushed through in less than two hours.
The next morning we gave the guy who let us tie the dinghy up a little business at his fuel dock and headed toward the Mystic River.
This whole area is an interesting maze of sailboats, private islands and shoal areas. The cat-rigged boat is very popular around here. The main mast is at the bow, it’s often shorter than a usual mast with a very long boom. This results in a single, short but very large sail.
We’re currently anchored off of Ram Island (not the island pictured above) at the entrance of the Mystic River. It’s a private residence so we can’t go ashore but there is a small rocky island off to the west that has plenty of exposed sand for Topaz to traipse around on at low tide. We met some nice people over there last night and got a recommendation for Block Island on the 4th of July.