Nukes

I picked M up in the morning, "The Farmington, Eagles or Nukes?"
"Eagles or Nukes, I don't know."
"Don't worry, you don't have to decide until we get to the Connecticut River."

Nukes it was.


We put in at a state launch directly under the interstate bridge, about 75 ft under that tall bridge.
The air was near calm, the day cool for July. We set out upriver following the west bank.  This section of the river is post industrial or remnants of industrial with buildings of various states being used or not for things that work in dilapidated structures.   But a short span of that brings us to the United States Coast Guard Academy.  They have a good fleet of sailboats and medium sized industrial work boats and there were cadets in training on many of them.  Across the river at the lower end of the Navy sub base is the USS Nautilus, a nuclear powered submarine famous for passing submerged under the polar icecap about 60 years ago. 

We continue up passing close by the Coast Guard boat s and under one of the docks.  You can not paddle close to shore on the east side as there are active submarines with nuclear weapons and the Navy absolutely will not let you near.  There is one submarine in a drydock and the size is impressive considering how minimal they appear when they are floating.

There is an active boat yard upstream of the Academy and today they are sliding one of the large catamaran Block Island ferries into a dry dock, which is submerged as we pass by.

Beyond that is an area with a couple of rotting and partially submerged shipwrecks - wood hull vessels.  They form interesting sculptural islands.

We paddle up and cross over to the town of Gales Ferry where we sneak through a narrow railroad bridge and take a break at a surprisingly large marina that is quite hidden from the river.

The wind has come up and we make a direct crossing and head downstream against a stiff headwind.

The catamaran has been lifted clear of the water when we pass by.