The cruise to Stamford took a little over 5 hours. As we were cruising, I used the ipad to google the local boat waxers and set up appointments with the two that I found. The route took us fairly close to the Connecticut shore which while not specacular was still quite attractive.
You will recall that the Branford yard wanted to charge us an outrageous $2,300 to wax the hull and topsides to which we said "no thanks." Actually, we said we would get it "done on the road" and that was part of the purpose of going to Stamford. The other reason was two free nights of dockage at a Brewer facility to which we were entitled by virtue of storing our boat with them (value approximatly $300). Brewer's Stamford facility was one of two at the west end of Long Island Sound (the other being Manhasset Bay where we had stayed last year on the trip north). This was our last opportunity to use our free stays as Brewer as their marinas (some 22) are located throughout New England.
The Brewer Yacht Haven facilty was very nice although located quite a distance (well over a mile) from any shopping area or restaurants (and two plus miles from the downtown area), which I might add was true of all of the marinas in Stamford. That said, there were three restaurants that we could reach by water (the Crabby Shack and two yacht clubs).
Shortly after arrival, we met with the waxing guys, got two bids, $800 and $1,800 (where was the $1,800 guy coming from?) to wax hull and topsides, polish the isenglass camper windows and detail the helm and cockpit. I actually liked the young man with the lower bid who also was willing to do it the next day.
Needless to say, the job got done and it clearly met our expectations but due to the incredibly hot weather (90+ degrees) and a few strategically inconvenient rain showers the job actually took three days and was not finished until 10:00 AM on Thursday.
Side story: Around 5:00 PM on July 4, I was dinging around the harbor with the furry kid when I noticed dark clouds to the northwest. Arriving back at the boat I turned on satellite weather and saw an isolated cell with a big red center about 4 miles from the harbor. Five minutes later the storm hit and it was remarkable. We had sustained winds of around 60 miles per hour for 4 minutes at the tail end of storm. Then the sun came out.
During our stay, we dingied the harbor, dingied to and ate at the Crabby Shack, a very nice restaurant on the waterfront, dingied to the Stamford Yacht Club (very very ritzy), walked the high rent district (Ocean Drive West) and walked into town (on July 4) where we had brunch at Capriccio, a restuarant on Bedford Street in a nice part of town (a 4 mile plus round trip).
Another benefit of staying in Stamford was fireworks. Stamford, due to financial reasons, had cancelled theirs and this was just fine with us due to Kodi's fear fireworks, firecrackers, gun shots and thunder. That was the good news. The bad news was the "local yokels" who shoot their own illegal "fireworks." Even here nature intervened with a nasty thunderstorm (although Kodi, as mentioned earlier, doesn't like those either).
Written by Les.
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