August 10, 2026 A Week in Old Lyme, Connecticut

 August 4, 2026   Sag Harbor, NY to Old Lyme, Conn.   26 miles and 2.9 hours

Stay with me folks!   Long post and lots of pictures. 

After a stormy day on Monday with strong winds and a number of heavy rain bands, things finally broke towards evening with  a colorful sunset.  Woke up Tuesday to gorgeous blue skies and very light winds.  Flat calm in our cove at daybreak.   Late morning start as we'll head across the sound to Old Lyme, Conn.  Short 2-1/2 cruise so no rush. Takes as much time working our way back out to the sound as it took to cross it.  Anchor held great through the storms but dug deep into a very muddy bottom requiring copious amounts of washdown water to slowly retrieve and clean the chain and anchor.  Back under that 21' bridge.  VHF antenna down, anchor light tilted over, and departing at 1/2 tide gave us a little extra room.  Checked out the megayachts at the docks once more as we leave the harbor. 

Beautiful flat calm conditions in the cove to start the day

Headed for the bridge 

Always looks closer than reality, but would not be fun hitting that concrete

Collection of REAL yachts.  125' to 175' lined up

 Passing into Gardiners Bay and greeted by a large pod of dolphins. Tightly packed together, constantly surfacing but oblivious to us.  Make way for the inbound ferry New London as we prepare to pass Orient Point.  Once again the waters going through Plum Gut Cut are confused due to the mixing of waters and the undulating bottom depths.  Past that and the sound calms down for a nice leisurely crossing. Straight shot and Otto enjoys the simplicity of no turns.  Cross paths with Lady Maryland in full sail rigging.  One of the educational sailing vessels based out of Baltimore. She left Mystic Seaport today heading back home after participating in the Sail 250 event in Boston.  

A pod of a dozen or more dolphins surfaced nearby

Ferry New London rounding Orient Point and the lighthouse

Swirling confused waters through Plum Cut

Sailing ship Lady Maryland on her way back home

Head for Saybrook Breakwater Lighthouse at the entrance jetty into the Connecticut River. Then the  tall Lynde Point Lighthouse greets us after fully coming through the jetty.  Slow cruise in the no wake zone all the way to the Old Lyme Draw.   That's the official name for the Amtrack railroad bridge.  Short wait until a train passes and the bridge quickly opens.  Our base for the next few days awaits just on the starboard shoreline.  Old Lyme Dock.

Saybrook Breakwater Lighthouse

Lynde Point Lighthouse

Not to be outdone - Conn. has some nice megayachts too!!

118 year old Old Lyme Draw.
Construction currently in progress for its replacement  

Old Lyme Dock.  Mostly a fuel dock with room for a few transients.
Serene setting, great dock rate, clean restroom, friendly and helpful staff

Beautiful homestead behind the docks.  Thought those horses were real when
we first pulled in.  Can't hide money - watched the helicopter come in low
on Friday and land for the weekend.

Back in the mid 1970's an unusually large number of local children for such a small community came down with an arthritic type of ailment.  Upon investigation it was traced back to the bite of a specific tick and the disease was eventually called Lyme disease. We'll be sure and do some extra whole body inspections while here.  Despite that minor drawback the location is convenient for visiting with our River Oaks neighbors Rich and Lynn who have a summer place about a half hour drive away.  Picked us up on Wednesday and took us over to the Florence Griswold Museum.  Mansion dates to 1817 but Captain Griswold acquired it in 1847.   Florence was the youngest of 4 children.  Born in the house in 1850 and passed away there in 1937.  At the turn of the 19th century, Florence was running it as a boarding house.  Artist Henry Rogers, having returned from the art colonies of Europe took up summer residence and found scenes of the countryside and waters ideal.   Started inviting other artists to join him at Old Lyme, Ct. and it became an active impressionist art colony.   The museum gallery and upstairs rooms of the mansion contain many of the artists' works but the truly fascinating viewing are the paintings done on the first-floor door panels and wood panels in the dining room.   

Florence Griswold mansion and museum

Lynn and Rich with Martha and John in Miss Florence's flower garden.

"The Fox Hunt" is 9" x 8' depicts the primary artists at the colony chasing a fox

Full wall of dining room paintings

Closer view of paintings above on left

Detailed view of painting above on right 

More dining room paintings

Door panel on right by Henry Roger was first one painted.  He
challenged another artist to complete the picture. 
They painted the panel of the dog howling at his full moon 

While most of the artists were impressionists with their vivid colors..

A small percent were tonalists - working in shades of similar tones

Having worked up an appetite we headed out for some local pizza and followed that up with some local handcrafted ice cream.  Both delicious.  Currently working on a project to replace the wiper arms on the boat. Rich and Lynn let me ship new mounts, wiper arms and blades to them.  Needed to get some supplies and extra tools so they were kind enough to stop at a few places until I had accumulated everything I hoped to need.  

Unpacking my stash of parts hand delivered by Rich and Lynn

Weather here has been hot and humid - heat advisory in effect.   That didn't stop us from getting together on Thursday afternoon.  Got to see their cottage on Lake Hayward.  Had heard numerous stories about the cottage, the lake, the summer residents, and all the activities the community does each summer.  Rich and Lynn picked us up for a provisioning run to the BigY grocery store.   Nice to get some of the big heavy bulky stuff replenished. Afternoon is filled with pickleball and happy hour.  Despite the heat we got to play several matches.  They have some strong players.  Fun to partner with them - not so much against them.  Happy hour, snacks, and fellowship followed at their pavilion on the lake.   On drive back to the boat had to stop at Salem Creamery again for another scoop - or maybe it was two - of ice cream. Great to spend time with friends and certainly appreciate all the driving around they did with us.  Also appreciated they let me ship some parts to their house up here. Time to replace all the windshield wiper parts as the salt air and water have caused them to rust and disintegrate. 

 

Awesome afternoon at the pickleball courts.  And yes, I always sweat like that.

Friday continues another heat wave with feel like temps hitting 100 degrees that will continue through the weekend. This has us extending our stay at Old Lyme Dock. Super glad they can accommodate us and let us stay plugged into shore power for a few more days to keep the A/C running.  Picked up a rental car so we can go exploring. Hit up a local Costco for a few items. Drove through Old Saybrook and stopped at the local hardware store for a couple more parts for my wiper replacement project.  Spent Saturday morning sweating away on that wiper project. Like most things on a 20+ year old boat, a bit of a pain.  Corroded and seized parts require multiple applications of PB Blaster and some firm persuasion to finally break free. Aggravating work but glad to finally have 3 new functioning wiper arms and blades. At some point we'll wind up needing to run from the lower helm in bad weather and want to make sure they work so we have decent visibility.   Balance of the day drove around to a few of the local towns.  Cruised through Essex to check it out. Popular boating destination with several marinas.  Lots of history.  Will return for a museum visit Sunday.  Up to Higganum for a smash burger and sampling of craft beers at Phantom Brewery. Their Bourbon Barrel Aged Stout was a thick dark heavy strong mouthful.  Next stop is Chester on our way back.  Another very quaint town and home to Little House Brewery. Might as well sample a flight. DIPA was a winner.  Backtracked to cross the river to East Haddam via the old swing bridge to see the historic Goodspeed Opera House.  Built in 1876 in the second empire style by local banker and merchant William Henry Goodspeed. It's actually not an opera house but rather a venue for presenting plays. It is the birthplace of numerous famous musicals including Annie, Man of La Mancha, and Shenandoah.  Quite imposing sitting right on the bank of the river. Back to the boat and call it a day.

Downtown Chester. Little grey house on the far left is the brewery.

Crossing the Chester Swing Bridge with the Goodspeed Opera House on shore

  Businesses were on the first floor. Theatre was on the second and third floors. 

Sunday.  Keep wanting to wash the boat but finding it's just too hot - even first thing in the morning.  Line up a day of playing tourist while we still have the rental car.  First stop is the Gillette Castle.  No relation to the razor folks.  William Gillette (1853 - 1937) was a successful stage actor.  He most famously worked with Arthur Conan Doyles to transform his Sherlock Holmes books into plays where he served as playwright, director and actor.  He portrayed Sherlock Holmes in over 1300 productions creating the character we know today wearing a deerstalker cap, bent pipe and uttering those famous line " This is elementary, my dear Watson".   The castle was designed by Gillette and built between 1914 and 1919.  The style has been described as Medieval Gothic or a weird cross between Victorian and Arts and Craft.  Gillette himself described it as a pile of stones. The exterior is local fieldstone with the interior hand carved southern white oak.  Three stories plus a tower, 24 rooms and 14,000 sq ft of space. There are 47 doors all with intricately carved locking mechanisms - all designed and many hand crafted by Gillette.  He always had a fascination with trains and after retiring had a small-scale rail line fabricated for the property including 3 miles of track around his property. Visiting celebrities such as Charlie Chaplin, Albert Einstein, Helen Hayes and Calvin Cullidge were known to have taken rides with William driving the steam powered locomotive.  

Approaching the castle

Gillette never referred to it as a castle - simply his home

Side view of the building

Patio area in rear overlooking the Connecticut River

View of the river looking south from the castle patio

The great hall

Hand carved stairway, timbers and rafters with a Tiffany ceiling light at the top

William Gillette's office. 

Elaborate carved wood opening and locking mechanism on door. 
 Each designed by Gillette and no two mechanisms were the same despite having 47 doors

Below the castle on the banks of the Connecticut river is the historic Hadden Ferry crossing.  For $6 ($5 weekdays) we took it across the river and headed to Essex and the Connecticut River Museum. Lots of old houses in town dating back to late 1700's and early 1800's.  Famous for shipbuilding.  Rough time in April 1814 during the War of 1812.  British came up the river and set fire to a total of 27 ships before departing with thousands of dollars' worth of marine supplies. During the revolutionary war local resident David Bushnell constructed the first submarine here. Designed to attach explosives to the bottom of a ship to maximize damage rather than ramming a ship in the side with explosives.  Two reproductions are on display. The Connecticut river runs north for 410 miles connecting multiple states to the Long Island Sound.  Lots of history, old industrialization and beautiful scenery along the way.

View from Gillette Castle down to the Hadden Ferry

Getting ready to pay our $6 to ride the ferry

Museum was once a warehouse at the shipbuilding wharf. Marker on the edge of the
building shows where the floods of 1936 and 1938 were almost 15' above ground level

. 

Cutaway reproduction of "The Turtle".  Built in 1776 as the first submarine 

 Met up for dinner with some fellow loopers at the historic Griswold Inn.   Built in 1776 it is one of the few continuously operated inns in the US.  Amazing collection of ship pictures on the walls and other memorabilia.  Dinner was very good.  We had met Peter and Kelly back in Solomons on the Chesapeake.   They had met Steve and Annie on the loop and were celebrating their recent wake crossing at the Statue of Liberty.  Congratulations to them.  Worst of the heat looks to be breaking so we figure we'll depart tomorrow.  Been a longer stay than anticipated but well worth the extra time. 

Just one of the dining rooms in the Griswold Inn. 
 Note all the maritime artwork covering the walls

Congratulations to Steve and Annie (center) receiving their gold burgee from Peter and Kelly.
 Crossed their wake at the Statue of Liberty and now heading home to Rhode Island.

Journey for August 4, 2026