Stratford, Connecticut

We sailed during the early part of today, from 5:30am until 2:00pm, from Fishers Island, NY to Stratford, CT. It was overcast most of the way, with the wind at our backs helping us along. During the morning, the current also was in our favor. At one point, Brian clocked over 9 knots of speed. We were flying!

Along the way, we passed New London, CT, where we purchased our boat in 2005. We remember that the Wilson's from Indianapolis joined us for our first weekend on board, with baby Isaac, in a busy channel with lots of wake from a passing ferry. You were our first guests! We have learned so much about sailing and living on boats since then...

We chose to dock instead of anchor this time. Our first task was to wash the boat, which had accumulated lots of salt and grime this summer. This took hours. The girls "helped" in their swimsuits and lifejackets, then napped. Afterwards we went ashore for dinner at a nearby restaurant. We laughed to ourselves when a nearby well-dressed gentleman leaned casually back in his chair with his glass of wine, telling his friends he just took a 3-hour train ride here from Boston. Hmmmm.... how many days have we been gone?

Sailing makes us more involved with nature and the elements. We feel refreshed in the salty air breezes, and physically fatigued from the challenges involved. We are much more conscious of our relationship with weather (we added more docklines for the wind and rain tonight to help stabilize our boat), and with energy usage (since most of the time we need our own internal energy sources). Tonight at the dock, we are attached to shore power, and it may be tempting to not care at all about how much energy we use. But it is now on my mind more often. We also are limited by the water we have onboard for cleaning and showering; although our huge tanks currently last us about 2 weeks.

Most importantly, we also are more aware of our dependence on each other, within our marriage and family, but also in the boating community. It seems as if on land there is a strong belief that each person is completely independent, and simply chooses when and how he or she will allow others into their lives. This kind of "independence" is an illusion that is revealed in times of disaster or tragedy (ie. Hurricane Katrina, diagnosis of cancer, etc...). Here we know for sure that we need each other. We don't have to wonder.

We plan to stay here until our engine work is finished.... probably leaving on Friday to move further west.