We didn't want to have anything more to do with the Harvard boat house, so we went back down the river. I talked with the Coast Guard on the VHF and found out the City of New London has a public dock near the ferry dock, so we tied up there. We couldn't find the dockmaster, and when I phoned the number on the sign, all I got was an answering machine. Other sailors said they didn't think there'd be any problem if we stayed there a few hours. The docks certainly weren't anything to brag about. In fact, some of them looked ready to fall apart.
I phoned the marina in Shaw's Cove to find out their monthly rates. For our boat, it would be $390 a month plus tax, about $413 altogether. Then I tried to phone the local bus company to find out how to get to the Nautilus by bus. There was no directory at the public phone, so I called Directory Assistance and got the world's dumbest information operator. She didn't seem to understand what I meant by "city buses" or "local buses" and kept trying to give me the number for Greyhound or other long-distance bus companies. Finally, she gave me a number that she assured me would give me information for the local buses, but when I tried to phone it, it wasn't even in that area code!
I gave up with the phone and walked towards town, hoping to find a bus stop sign that had a phone number on it. Fortunately, at that moment a bus pulled up nearby, so I asked the driver which bus to take. He told me to take #2, and he showed me where the bus stop was. He also said the bus was due at 12 o'clock. It was five to twelve then, so I zoomed back to the boat to get Roy, and we made a mad dash for the bus. The bus was a few minutes late, so we had no problem catching it.
The bus crossed the bridge to Groton and took us right to the Nautilus museum and memorial. Believe it or not, admission was free!
Both the museum and the Nautilus itself were very interesting, and we were glad we'd taken the time to go there.
When we got back to the marina, the assistant dockmaster was there. He was very friendly and pleasant. He didn't charge us anything for that afternoon, and he said if we wanted to stay overnight, he'd only charge us $20, even though the posted rate was $1.50 a foot (about $60 for our boat). He said they were very flexible. Roy asked about monthly rates (I wanted to hit him over the head). The assistant dockmaster said we'd have to discuss that with the dockmaster, but he was sure something could be worked out. Just then, the dockmaster drove up. I went back to the boat, while Roy discussed monthly rates with the dockmaster. There's no denying the price was right--$200 from the middle of September to the end of November, including electricity. But as I later told Roy, I wouldn't stay there even if it were free. There are no restrooms or showers, no laundromat, and the nearest grocery store is a mile away. Furthermore, there's no protection whatsoever from hurricanes, so we'd be defeating our own purpose.
We still had a couple of hours of daylight, so we motored to Fisher's Island, six miles away, and dropped anchor in a quiet, peaceful, attractive harbor.
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