Today is Saturday, November 23, 2024 
Not only can you expect to have fun and learn about the area when riding the water taxi, it’s also a place to meet new people, make new friends and experience the unexpected. This happened early in the summer to Executive Director Amy Perry. While riding the Groton to Fort Trumbull she struck up a conversation with Jeannie Lambert, wife of Mike Lambert, Bureau Chief for Recreation for the DEEP. Amy was sharing a little bit about the history of the boat when Jeannie realized she had been on the boat in its past life. While working for the Department of Defense in the 1980s, part of Jeannie’s job was to provide events and activities for the sailors when they went on liberty. During that time, she had been aboard the USS Hunley, and rode its liberty boat dozens of times shuttling sailors for off-shore leaves all over the globe. That liberty boat is what we now call the Groton.
Both of our Water Taxis are refurbished from the Navy days of shuttling crew and admirals to and from the large ships of the United States Navy. One of the boats was assigned to the USS LaSalle, which while in the Persian Gulf in1988, assumed the role of Commander of Middle East Forces. The other boat was assigned to the USS Hunley, a submarine tender home ported in Charleston, South Carolina servicing the nuclear powered Polaris submarine fleet.
