The Great New England Social Cruise - Part 2

Noank Waterfront Homes

Leaving Norwalk, we motor sailed against a 25 knot north easterly wind to reach shelter in New Haven, Connecticut. Once again, this was a slightly disappointing harbor destination, however it did allow us to stage our way to the North East along Long Island Sound, in quite poor weather.  Life looked better the next day when we arrived at the village of Noank, at the southern end of the Mystic River channel, this time in beautiful sunny conditions.

Crystal Blues At Ram Island Yacht Club

First some perspective - Ley and I vacationed in Noank some 22 years ago, before we owned a boat.  In those day we just did a lot of boat looking, and there are very few ugly boats in Noank ... these folk have been raised with proper values! Everything is a classic, even the fiberglass versions.

This is a picture perfect New England village, set on a peninsular that sprouts beautiful scenes at every turn. All traffic for the Mystic Seaport Museum goes upriver past Noank, so it is a great place to sit and watch the passing parade of fabulous wooden and classic boats.

We were welcomed and hosted here by Sidney and Sandy Van Zandt, who are the Ocean Cruising Club Port Officers in Noank, having settled here after there own circumnavigation in a boat they built with their own hands - more power to them!

Sidney and Sandy also arranged a mooring for us to use, right across from their yacht club, made available by other club members.

Being social and resourceful folk, they also invited several members of the local Ram Island Yacht Club to welcome us, at their home, the very evening we arrived. The club is a family run organisation, supported by the goodwill of volunteer members and shows great family spirit, with an active junior sailing program.

So our three nights in Noank became a celebration of cruising and sailing, with many local guests visiting on board Crystal Blues.  We had gracious support from the Ram Island Yacht Club and it's members, who invited us to use the club wharf on our last evening in town. We really did not want to leave.

However we had to move on, as our very social cruise had forward bookings. So we sailed from Noank, onwards to the North and East, heading for yet another social event .....

Moonrise Over The Mystic River