Day 2 -- July 24 -- To Stratford CT -- 27.5 nm

I have never before sailed into the Housatonic River, in which Stratford is located about two miles from its mouth. We often visit Fran in Kent, CT and Lianne in Great Barrington, MA, both on the Housatonic, but far above the head of navigation. Last fall, see blog, I sailed from Essex, CT to Hampton, VA on Bob's "Pandora" with Gregg as the third member of the team. Gregg keeps his boat at the Housatonic Boat Club, in Stratford and praised his Club. I decided to visit and had put Stratford on the proposed 16 day and 9 day Harlem cruises, and decided to go alone.
We left Greenwich at 11 and used motor and full sails, more of the motor as the tide turned foul. I had always been fearful of sailing up a river with a strong current, but the same current holding us back as it rushed into the Sound, rushed upstream, pushing us along. We arrived at 3:30.
A young lady via VHF directed us to an inappropriate mooring, basically only a light line that held the pickup stick could be cleated to the boat, with no real pennant nor a hole through which to try to thead our own line to be used as a pennant. The launch operator (they call them "Stewards") saw the problem and offered us a berth at the dock, for the mooring price, only $20. We were greeted and helped with our lines by a gentleman who gave me a HCB burgee and asked me to send him one from the Harlem, to which I agreed. HBC is the oldest YC in Connecticut and is a nice down to earth place with good facilities including Lene's favorite: outdoor showers. Gregg came ashore from a day of sailing with his wife by launch and I had the pleasure of introducing them to both Ilenes. HBC has a kitchen but no restaurant, which holds down expenses. I will definitely visit again. A very friendly vibe.
After our home cooked dinner I went for a walk, looking for a postcard for my grand daughter. The HBC is right next to the theater of the Stratford Shakespeare Festival. But it is closed, semi permanently, and on Sunday evening the town was pretty well locked up too. We were right at the foot of the ramp leading from the clubhouse to the dock,  and a photo of ILENE illuminated at night from above will be inserted here if and when I ever get my laptop working again. I bought an app to insert photos for the blog from the IPad, from which this is being written, but I have not been able to make that app work.