Monday, Oct. 5, 2026 Essex to Eaton Neck Anchorage 68 miles and 6.4 hours
Musings by Martha: Did you ever go to bed thinking the entire next day had a set plan/schedule, only to wake up and everything suddenly changed? That was my Monday morning. We had reservations and paid for three nights at the Essex Dauntless anchorage. The plans (in my mind) were to meander around town most of the day, maybe stopping at a bakery and getting a fancy coffee, checking out some of the shops, then have dinner at the Griswold Inn and stay for their Monday night singing of shanty songs. We had been told about these Monday night gatherings when we drove up to Essex by car back in early August, so we've been looking forward to stopping on the south-bound trip and making sure we were there on a Monday night. The usual 7am alarm goes off and it looks like it's going to be a beautiful day out, with the sun streaming in the portholes of the stateroom. At some point close to 8:00, John poses the question of "if you had to choose between the shanty song night here or stopping at Lewes, Del, which would you choose?" I actually want to do both...but apparently the weather forecast is really REALLY good for traveling down the coast of NJ on Wednesday and if we stay another night, we'll miss that nice weather window and for a 12-hour trip, it's certainly nice to have ideal weather. John knows how much I want to stop at Lewes, so I tell him that one is non-negotiable...I'm willing to head out now and we will come back and visit Connecticut next year, by car, instead of traveling all the way up here by boat and we'll coerce our friends, Rich and Lynn, into experiencing shanty night with us. I suppose the point of my rambling about this is that well, this is boating. Things can change on a dime, plans can change on a dime, the weather basically controls your decisions and how many times have I heard John say "there's a reason it's called pleasure boating". I appreciate all the diligence he takes in making sure all the traveling is as comfortable as it can be, but changes to plans can come with repercussions.
All of today's weather forecasts say 2' waves and 10mph westerly winds, so we scramble to get ready to leave and drive from the flybridge. As we head out the Connecticut River, the Old Lyme RR bridge is open, but as we are about 10 minutes from arriving at the bridge, the bridge tender hails us that he's sorry, but he has to close the bridge and will reopen as soon as he can. Not a big problem, we maybe waited about 10 more minutes and then it re-opened. We get through the bridge and out into the Long Island Sound and it becomes very obvious that the winds are more than 10mph and waves pretty consistent 3 footers. The winds carry the spray over the bow and even up to the flybridge, so we make the decision to run from inside the pilothouse instead to stay dry.
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| Essex disappearing in our wake as we leave the mooring field on a beautiful morning |
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| Biggest concern going down river is the glare off the calm water |
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| Got to the I-95 hiway bridge when the bridge tender called that he needed to lower the bridge. We crept up expecting to see an Amtrack train pass. All we saw was one of those pickups with the drop-down railroad wheel attachments cross over before he lifted it back up. |
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| Passing by the lighthouses that guard the breakwater at the river entrance. Still looking pretty idealic! |
Back to the usual blogger - John: We're out on the Long Island Sound and I'm wondering "what happened to all those beautiful cruising conditions we had on the sound when we were headed north?" By the time we're 2 hours into our trip conditions are nasty. Waves are on the bow, wind is on the bow, and we have a 2 mph current on the bow slowing us down. Our usual 1400 rpm's and 10.5 mph is only making 8.5 mph. This will make for a LONG day. Bump rpm's up to 1700 hoping for better speed and a more comfortable ride. Works for a while but as the winds continue to build so do the seas. Coast Guard Special Marine Weather broadcast comes on saying small craft advisory is out due to possible gusts to 35mph. That was not on ANY of my weather info this AM!. About every 3rd wave sends spray onto the windshield. We're headed to the anchorage at Eaton's Neck. Used it before so know we'll have good protection from waves but will feel the wind which is now forecast to continue overnight. Decide we just want to get there quick as possible so push the throttles to cruising speed at 2300 rpm. Gets us to 15 mph and a bit smoother ride but kicks up more spray which the wind is now catching and tossing all over the boat. At times the spray from 2-3 waves in succession tosses water so furiously on the windshield the wipers on high can't even clear it. We see two boats all day. A charter head fishing boat that is smartly headed back for shore and the ferry from Bridgeport to Port Jefferson. A couple other boats show up on AIS but are never visible to us. We beat our way through at cruising speed for three hours and eventually make it to the anchorage. Wind still blowing but just a ripple of a wave as we get the anchor set and give it an extra tug to make sure it's set. Looking only to the clear blue skies it would appear to be a wonderful cool crisp sunny fall day. It makes for a wonderful sunset. But the wind continues to howl after dark. We can feel the boat swinging and tugging on the anchor while the bimini framework rattles with each gust. At 9pm winds are still steady 15+ and gusting over 25. Set three different anchor alarms just in case we drag in this narrow anchorage. Despite it being a very physically and mentally draining day there's no good sleep to be had. I'm nervous all night and get up every 2 hours to check our position. Wake up tired but glad to find everything is fine. Except that the boat is covered top to bottom in salt. That's going to require a serious washing at some point.
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| No pictures taken during the balance of our trip. Three points of contact required at all times. Did get a nice sunset picture once we were anchored. |
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| Journey for Oct. 5, 2026 |
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