Essex to New London, city dock wall

We spent a few days anchored and around Essex. The Safe Harbor Marina new the anchor had free water and pumpouts (noted for fellow boaters), something we all took advantage of before heading to New London.

Our last day on the Connecticut River we traveled up to Haddam and anchored. We all piled into a dinghy and went to Gillette Castle. We got there around 2:30, knowing they closed at 4 pm. However, there only did tours (you couldn't walk through on your own) and those all sold out by 1 pm. Bummer! It looked like a nifty place. It wasn't until we were leaving that we read why folks go there -- it's the Connecticut home of William Gillette, a playwright and actor, most known for playing and developing the character of Sherlock Holmes. All the iconic images of Holmes (deerstalker cap, cape, pipe, and "It's elementary, my dear fellow") were due to him. Maybe we'll be back someday. I added a note to "RESERVE TICKETS!"

Gillette Castle, of which we did NOT visit.

How we got to Gillette Castle, landing a dinghy on a nearby beach.

But that all became a distant memory when, around 7:30 pm, we piled into the dinghy again and headed up river to the Goodspeed Opera House where we saw a production of South Pacific. For a small, local theater it was a great show. Excellent actors, great singer, impressive dancing, and all to live music.

The white building is the Goodspeed Opera House. Darling venue, great show.
The had a dock at the opera but it was reserved for members. A small town dock
was right next to it. It all worked perfectly.

Saturday we charged down the Connecticut River and headed just east to the Thames River. Here, in the USA they say THames, not "Temz". Our destination was, of course, London. New London, that is.

Highwind and inQuest on the CT river.

Very large, and very fast ferries come and go from New London, creating massive wakes as they do. When we came into the area we didn't like the look of the closest mooring field with all the boats there bobbing from the water. We continued beyond to another anchorage only to spy another, smaller buoy field... totally lacking in any boats. Russ called the numbers listed to reserve, we hailed on the radio, but no one responded. The buoys looked good so we grabbed one then dropped the dingy to make for the nearby dock in hopes to find someone who knew if we could stay a while.

I happened to see a couple of women go into an office nearby so I asked if they knew anything about the buoys. They didn't, but offered, "You can just dock here." They gestured to all the space around the pier restaurant. "It's free!" Magic words. So we went back to the boat, texted Highwind the plan, and sidled next to City Dock Restaurant and Oyster Bar.

Inside Fort Trumbull. Completed in 1852, it has 
a lot of aesthetics taken from Egyptian archeology.

From here we all went out to eat and then enjoyed Fort Trumbull.

Been a busy couple of days.