Branford with a Flood Tide

With a prediction of very little wind, we decided to go for Branford instead of the Connecticut River. It’s roughly 45 miles from Stonington but the flood tide was with us all the way and we averaged over 8 kts most of the way and at one stretch hit 9.8 kts. The seas were absolutely flat but the sun was out and it was warm in the cockpit with the sun flooding in. As we passed the entrance to the Connecticut River we heard the railroad bridge operator announce that the bridge was suddenly out of order. The last train had evidently done something to the bridge so it couldn’t be raised. The bridge operator said that help was on the way but he didn’t know when it would arrive nor when the bridge would be fixed! There must have been some unlucky people north of the bridge on the river, glad we weren’t one of them.

We got a dock at Brewer’s Bruce and Johnson Marina and they now have a Brewer Cruising Club Card. You get 25% off all future stays at any Brewer marina and a nickel off per gallon on fuel. It appears they had to take action to attract customers. They are even offering winter storage at ½ price if you have a card (which is free upon your first stay). I’m glad to see someone responding to the economy. Most of the marinas were just suffering through the recession without doing anything to lower their prices. It appears none had taken economics 101 (higher prices = less business, duh.) A 25% price increase does not bring in 25% more revenue – people go elsewhere. Unless, of course, if you own a house – you’re less mobile but eventually people move away – a fact lost on most school boards.

There’s lots of boats out of the water already, perhaps taking advantage of the 50% discount. A strange looking tug is among the land fleet. Passing by all this, we walked to Lenny’s for their specialty, fried clams. We had fried clams all up and down the seacoast and thought some of the places had pretty good clams and might compare to Lenny’s. Boy were we wrong! One bite into a plate of fried clams (whole, not strips!!) proved we were wrong to even consider the possibility of anyone being in their league. Their clams are juicy but most of all, sweet and fried to perfection. No other restaurant had clams that came close. Tuesday we head for Port Jefferson and hope for a little breeze.