Sailing Back in Time: A River Journey Through Essex, Connecticut

In Essex, Americana is on full display. A collection of finely maintained 18th and 19th century houses and commercial buildings line the narrow lanes. Bunting graces white-washed fences, American flags blow easily from front porches, and red, white and blue stripes run down the center of Main Street.

The tiny, quintessential New England village, just a few miles up the Connecticut River from the Long Island Sound, makes a great destination for an overnight boat trip, especially for those seeking a look at a place from an earlier time. It is a town built for sailors and there are a number of shipyards available for full service, marinas and yacht clubs for dockage, as well as a village full of charming shops and inviting restaurants and watering holes.

We visited late last summer aboard Jim Larocca’s newly-acquired 45’ Grand Banks trawler, Bojangles VI. For those of you who have read these columns over the past several years, Bojangles VI is 10 feet longer, about 2 feet beamier, and light years more spacious compared to Bojangles V, a 35-ft Grand Banks.

And it is significantly better powered, with twin 375 HP American Caterpillar diesel engines, enabling us to make much better time.

We, including Jim’s friend Paul McIsaac, left Sag Harbor at 10 a.m., and passed through an unusually calm Plum Gut about 11:30, and made the crossing to the mouth of the Connecticut River in less than an hour, averaging about 10 knots, just in time for lunch.

Approaching from the east, look for two white lighthouses. The farthest, which appears most to the west, marks the mouth of the channel leading up the river. You can spot the house where the actress Katharine Hepburn lived, perched up on the western shore of the river overlooking the sound.A mile or so up the river you’ll encounter the railroad bridge that services the local Amtrak line. The drawbridge is mostly open, except when it is anticipating a train. If closed, the bridge operator monitors channel 13, which is where we found him when we were passing through last year. Be aware, the clearance is a maximum of 19 feet when the bridge is closed. Opening the bridge is a slow go, and after you pass beneath, the channel is to the right heading up river, skirting a collection of islands.
The Essex Yacht Club — not to be confused with the Essex Corinthian Yacht Club, but more on that later — is located on the west side of the river. It was our destination for a night on a mooring, and easy access to downtown Essex. The club monitors channel 68.

Spending a day on the hook will cost $75, with a vessel limit of 60 feet in the mooring field. Launch service is available through October 26 this year, although we took advantage of Bojangles’ dinghy. If you prefer a slip, the club will charge you $4.50 per foot, which includes one 50-amp, or two 30-amp electrical connections.

The club has a very nice restaurant on the ground floor overlooking the marina and the harbor, which is open to members and guests. The menu includes a host of salads and burgers, as well as other offerings, such as an Ahi tuna BLT, for $16, a barbecued cheese-steak on brioche for $16, and fish and chips for $18. When we visited, I had the swordfish tacos, $17, that was moist and flavorful and came with a small fresh salad.

It is just a short walk from the club to Main Street, and we were visiting shops and, importantly, an ice cream parlor, in about ten minutes. Sweet P’s is known for its homemade, small batch ice cream in an array of surprising flavors. On the menu when we were there were flavors like cherry amaretto and pumpkin ginger.

For takeout there is Olive Oyl’s, an eatery that serves breakfast and lunch in an old Mobil Oil gas station, and features everything from a BLT to chicken Milanese.

We poked into an antiques shop, appropriately called Old Beautiful, which was filled with mostly early American pieces of art and furniture, tables, chairs, china and a large selection of sailboat models — this is a sailing town after all. And the village is not without its clothing boutiques, including high end shops like J McLaughlin and Talbots. There’s a toy store — Toys Ahoy — that’s open 362 days a year and is absolutely jammed full of stuff for the kids.

For drinks, there are, unsurprisingly, a number of watering holes. One place we will make a point of visiting on a future trip to Essex is Siren Kitchen & Bar, located on Essex Island, a tiny piece of land just off the village proper. There is a shuttle that takes guests back and forth from the mainland to the island, which is just about spitting distance from the downtown. The bar is associated with Safe Harbor Essex Island, one of a collection of marinas now owned by Safe Harbor, a company that has purchased dozens of facilities up and down the coast over the past few years. In fact, the company owns two or three facilities in Essex. The one located on the island, in addition to the restaurant and bar, also offers its guests a pool, games like volleyball, and is touted as a destination for rendezvous and catered affairs.

Worth visiting is the Connecticut River Museum, a small collection of early 19th century buildings and waterfront property that help to tell the story of the river and its people through exhibits and archives.

We had returned to Bojangles, and were rousing ourselves in preparation for going back to town for dinner as the sun was setting over the village, with streaks of purple and gold in the western sky. Coming through the mooring field from the river was a slow but steady stream of small boats — Ideal 18s — finishing up their Tuesday night race and heading in for the night to the Essex Corinthian Yacht Club. There was barely a light breeze at this point and some of the vessels were being nudged along to their destination by committee members in Zodiacs as the wind fell out.

We clambered aboard the dinghy and headed to the launch dock adjacent to the yacht club. The night we arrived there was a partial eclipse of a full harvest moon. It was also, apparently, a super moon, so our way on the dark Main Street, with its antique street lights and homes and businesses with windows aglow, was well lit.
We were heading for The Griswold Inn to eat, but before we got there we decided on a beverage at the Black Seal. A local pub, the Black Seal is a neighborhood joint with a friendly bar and customers from down the street and around the country. We chatted with the amiable bartender and a couple of people at the bar who were visiting for the first time.

The kitchen was quiet when we arrived, but the menu was interesting and heavy on seafood, and included fish and chips, pan seared red snapper, and little neck clams. Plus, burgers, of course, and other traditional pub food.

Despite the Black Seal’s logo’s similarity to the Gosling’s rum of the same name, there is no connection between the two.

I hadn’t been to the Griswold Inn in about 40 years, but I’d have to say it hadn’t changed much in that time. The “Gris” is reason enough to come to Essex, and will be celebrating its 250th anniversary next year. (It claims to be one of the oldest dining establishments in the country). The owners have done a remarkable job in maintaining the historic building, and stopping in for a drink in the tap room, or a meal in one of its dining rooms is like visiting a very comfortable and welcoming museum — with food and wine. Essex was started as a trading port with the West Indies in the mid 1600s and by the early 1700s became one of New England’s most important shipyards. The décor of the Griswold echoes that maritime history with its ship models, memorabilia and vast collection of nautical prints, many by Currier and Ives.

We sat in the dark paneled “Library,” a dining room whose walls are lined with shelves of books. It’s a cozy space which the inn apparently uses at times when the reservations for the night don’t warrant using the much larger main dining room.

The menu at the Griswold leans heavily on traditional American classics: appetizers like potato cakes served with apple sauce ($13) and sausage in puff pastry ($17), and entrees liked baked haddock ($30) and short ribs ($42). And on Friday and Saturday nights a prime rib special, at market price. But there are also a variety of other offerings like a Korean fried chicken appetizer, and seared Ahi tuna to balance the menu out.

The night we were there I had the baby back ribs special, served with a tangy chipotle barbecue sauce, mac & cheese, and corn on the cob, for $28.
The village of Essex is fiercely defensive about its preservation, said Larocca, and places like the Griswold and its Main Street with beautifully restored homes are testament to that preservation effort. But the maritime life of the community has continued to evolve, and Larocca notes that the services available to boaters have increased in recent years.

“In electronics, for example,” he said. “They offer a very broad range of services there. There are a lot of big boats that come in for serious service.”

At the same time, the river itself is beautiful, in particular the stretch from the sound to Essex and just beyond.“There is little development; no high-rise condominiums,” said Larocca.
He acknowledged that as you move farther up the river, the landscape becomes more industrial.

But before you head too far north, there is a section of the river that is striking in its evocation of an earlier time.

“Hamburg Cove is a tricky little place,” said Larocca, speaking of the spot just about a half mile north of Essex. “There are moorings, and a small village, it’s absolutely gorgeous.”
But it is, indeed, a tricky place to get into, with a narrow winding channel to reach the cove.

“There’s a quarter mile as you approach where nothing you see is contemporary,” said Larocca. “The few houses that are there are largely early 19th or 18th century. It’s a magical moment where you see the river as it had been before the Civil War.”