Branford and Lenny

It rained all morning as we watched the storm develop on the NOAA website. Seeing a gap develop in the radar scans, we headed out of PJ around 11:30 or so. Winds were not enough for sailing so it was another motoring day. It was uneventful until we neared Branford which is next door to New London. I found six tankers between us and Branford. By clicking on each AIS target displayed on the chartplotter, I found that four were anchored but two were moving across our bow. AIS did the computations and found that we were okay on our present course even though is was not apparent from the radar or visual contact. It was raining then and foggy with very poor visibility. It was hard to tell what the tankers were doing but with AIS it was easy.

We made our usual stop at the fuel dock and bought more fuel than ever before, 40 gallons! On to our dock at Brewers Bruce and Johnson and we were secure for the night and further storms. Of course we made a journey to Lenny's, the premier place on the east coast for fried clams and they didn't disappoint but the place was not filled, even on a Friday night - not like the old days.

We walked back in the rain but at least we saw a rainbow. We may stay for the scheduled fireworks Saturday night and pick up Matthew on Sunday morning. It will be good to have an infusion of youth aboard again!