SSCA GAM & beyond!

As everyone knows we accomplished our goal of making the Seven Seas Cruising Association GAM in Essex, Ct.  From our prospective we thought the rendezvous was a rousing success and we picked up quite a lot of information and met many new friends along the way.  The three and 1/2 day event had a little of everything and we even got a chance to participate.  All in all......a good time!

But first!  BS&T know how to do a "care package"

SSCA sponsors

SV Totem just finished a circumnavigation 

A life raft demo

Ruth & Herb just in from Annapolis

Guess who!?

Tom Whidden

Great attendance!

We had a number of sessions on weather by Chris Parker and now we have a face to the voice we listen to almost every morning while in the Bahamas.  He is on SSB and although we only have a receiver (we can't call him on the side band) we will still be able to email him and receive concise weather information in the future.  Also we watched a life raft opening demo (first time to see one open), had a presentation by Tom Widden, president of North Sails, a talk on Bob & Brenda's trip to Cuba and many other worthwhile subjects.  Bob & George did a great job with the whole meeting!

Sv Pandora

Right after the meetings we finally got a chance to take in the town of Essex.  It is a quaint little town with a couple of restaurants and a number of marinas.  We actually remembered being here over 20 years ago when we started our first wanderings to look at boats!  Talk about going full circle....

There are a number of swans in the area

Nearby the yacht club

The Griswold Inn

Local decor

some more

Very hard sand!

Train line near Deep River

"She'll be coming around the mountain....."

In Deep River, CT

The last day of the GAM was held in the Essex River Museum and at lunch we had a chance to see what was inside.  They have done a nice job with the museum.  Who would have known the river was actually over 410 miles long?  The biggest navy defeat prior to Pearl Harbor occurred right at Essex, Ct when the British burned 26 vessels, there by wiping out the vast portion of the Navy fleet.

The waterfront

Looking out at the moorings...can you see Nati?

Captain Anne at the helm of a sub!

The boardwalk

Afterward it was time for a little down-time.....We've been pushing hard so a few days off was in order.  For that we motored up the Connecticut River to Hamburg Cove.  They have moorings there ($25/night) but no anchoring.  The setting is great, a number of ospreys and eagles and on the weekend the place fills up.  Even though it is mostly powerboats it still was a good spot to have Nati. We had other things to do.........

Cove Landing Marine

Hamburg Cove

 Cove Landing Marina

Look who shows up.........Chris & Barb, on the Parker!

Here they come!

Chris's family lives nearby and they come down quite a bit so we hung out with them for a couple of days.  Dinner in a town nearby and yesterday we went out on Long Island sound and fished for blue fish.  The water was cool but calm and we nailed them.  My guess is that we caught perhaps 20 of those fish.  They are not for eating but they put up a great fight!  Afterward we had a late lunch at "The Dock" (which doesn't allow docking!!) and decided to rename it "The Curb".

A "lunker"!!!!

Cheers......

Relaxing after a hard day of fishing

Very excitable dogs....Stella & Kramer

Another lunker blue fish

We are having some new cushions done for Nati while we are here in Essex.  With that in mind we will most likely hang out here for a few more days.......then????