July 24, Niantic, CT

This morning we left the Burr Marina in New London and motored up the Thames River, under the I-95 bridges, to the Coast Guard Academy above New London and the US submarine base across the river in Groton, Ct. We saw several large ferry's which go to Fischer and Block Islands and across the Sound to Long Island.




The Coast Guard academy visitor center was closed for renovation so we did not go for the tour.





The submarine base was active and we saw six submarines in the base, one of which was in "dry dock". Only one was outside the protective barrier having just come home or getting ready to sail. Two patrol boats were keeping us at a distance.

We motored west today about 5 miles in the Long Island Sound (seas were 1-2 feet today) to the Niantic River. We are unable to get a slip, so we are anchored out and have the dingy down for our trip to the town of Niantic and dinner. Beautiful river and pretty homes. We wanted to try the dingy and this seemed like a good opportunity.



Took the dingy to Harbor Hill Marina and found it to be a really nice spot. Harbor Hill is on a bluff overlooking hundreds of boats. Harbor Hill Inn is also a seven room B&B with lawn chairs, BBQ grills, picnic tables and light jazz being played on outside speakers. We walked into Niantic and found it ok but not very charming.

The bookstore had a fat lazy cat that seemed to own the place

Local book store was a real find. It had a large selection of good books and one of the largest selection of adventure/explorer books I have ever seen. The store claimed to be the largest used bookstore in New England, if you include the main store about a mile away. Irv and Betty and Owen walked the mile to see and found the main store to be larger but the better selection was at the store in Niantic. Linda stayed behind and guarded our purchases from the first store. We bought a dozen books in all and had a very good prime rib dinner and took the dingy back to KOKOMO II about dusk. Very pretty here.