We’ve been working our way slowly down Long Island Sound toward New York. And to paraphrase Nixon: This really is a long island! Our first big post-non-hurricane stop was New Haven, Connecticut — mostly for the pizza. But as an added bonus we walked through the Yale campus, which, wow. The kids and I were agog. It’s Hogwarts! Also Pepe’s Pizza (especially the white clam pie) was as great as we’d hoped it would be.

Yale Campus

Pepe’s Pizza (white clam pie not pictured)

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Lyman-Morse, Knox St., Thomaston, ME

It wouldn’t be proper to depart New England without a big thank you to Lyman-Morse. While the hail port on EXIT’s transom was Seattle, WA and is now Mountain View, CA, this is pro forma. Strictly to satisfy Coast Guard documentation requirements.

EXIT’s real home for the past 15 years has been the Lyman-Morse boatyard in Thomaston, Maine, around the corner from Penobscot Bay at the head of the St. George River, where shipwrights have been building and launching sailing vessels since the 18th century. We asked Gene Carlson, Drew’s uncle and EXIT’s previous owner, to contribute a few words on how this came to be.

Happenstance. Pure luck. Mimi and I made our first cruise to Maine in 2001. We loved sailing Down East, the Bay of Fundy, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia. We were anxious to do more. At the time, we lived in Washington, D.C. Rather than spend considerable time sailing back to Annapolis, where EXIT had been moored, and returning north next summer, we decided to look for a place in Maine where the boat could winter over. (Full disclosure: Credit for this common sense idea goes to long-time friend and occasional EXIT crew Darcy Bacon.)

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Appears Hurricane Joaquin is moving out to sea, thank goodness, and the rain here is finally easing after pouring down the last day and a half. The winds are still pretty gusty but we’re tucked up tightly in Hadley Marina so things are looking pretty good. Even better, the Dockmaster, Les Black, has been incredibly kind to us. Last night he took our kids out for ice cream (in a rainstorm), and today he brought them donuts. He also set up the clubhouse before we came over this morning: a fire was going in the fireplace, a heater had been brought in and turned on, and Looney Tunes was showing on the TV. It was like a modern version of A Little Princess. Soren and Elsa aren’t going to want to leave.

But getting to the point of this post: We have a photo gallery now! With captions and everything! Just click the Photos link at the top of the page to view them. Some of the photos have already appeared in our posts but others are brand new. You’ll see pics of Jan’s fabulous kitchen store in Providence, Stock Culinary Goods; birds on heads; sailboats in the fog; lighthouses in the fog; fog; fairy food; images from Plimoth Plantation and Boston; and much, much more.

One other housekeeping note, for those who have asked: Drew did not, in the end, cut his hair or beard. Still looking pretty salty. Internet FTW!

(Image courtesy of Sailfeed)

After a truly fantastic weekend visting our friends Jan and Abe Dane (and their three kids, dog, and parakeet) and being shown a very cool side of Providence, RI — hip German restaurants, delicious farmer’s market, home-smoked brisket, WaterFire, 1920s-era wooden duckpin bowling in an old textile mill, great view of the blood super-moon, and Jan’s own Stock Culinary Goods shop — we set off for Block Island. Our only previous visit there was also with Jan and Abe, back in the ’90s (before kids). It was Valentine’s Day weekend and snow was blowing horizontally down the beaches.

This time, at the tail end of September, there wasn’t any snow, but much of New Shoreham, the main town on the island, had already shuttered for the winter. Wednesday afternoon there was a break in the torrential rains, and we were able to make it ashore for a nice walk into town. We found an ice cream/pastry/coffee shop and a very good bookstore (we’re all reading at a furious pace these days, so new books are very welcome). We had a great time in Rhode Island — and all of southern New England: Seeing my college roommate Jeff in Boston, Plymouth Plantation and The Mayflower, transiting the Cape Cod Canal, Hadley Harbor and Cuttyhunk Pond in the Elizabeth Islands. We would love to come back during the “on” season to return to all of these and to visit Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket.

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