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Maria Ines Rios, the housekeeper at the Harbor House Inn, sweeps the dining room floor after breakfast.
We kayaked past an osprey nest in Greenwich Cove, ran the bases at a $17 million private island, made a pit stop at a B&B and were offered first aid by a celebrity.

The 18th leg of our Breaking the Sound Barrier series, the first full day in Greenwich, turned out to be a six-hour odyssey, taking myself, photographer Kathleen O'Rourke and Greenwich Time intern and sherpa Jay Polansky from the Old Greenwich Yacht Club to the banks of the Mianus River.

Part Outward Bound, part episode of "MTV Cribs," the day was filled with obstacles, from muddy tidal flats and thorny bushes to elaborate security fences and a

summer squall reminiscent of "Cape Fear" -- as if we haven't had a lot of those lately -- that we just avoided.

"I

think you're going to hit some marshland for sure," Kathie Lee Gifford, the "Today" show co-host said to us when we entered the gates of her Riverside estate, which is located on a majestic promontory looking out at Greenwich Point.

No, we didn't come across Regis in our travels.

But we were handsomely rewarded for our efforts, with mesmerizing panoramas of this nautical playground, gestures of goodwill from those who are lucky enough to call the area home and the kind of the tales that make you say -- only in Greenwich.

Kathie Lee politely offered some Bacitracin ointment to my colleague Kathleen for a scratch on her leg courtesy of some thorns and a testimonial on life on Long Island Sound.

"It's a wonderful neighborhood," Gifford said. "It's awesome."

Our day started at 7:15 a.m. at home of Joseph and Suzanne Wilcox on Willowmere Point, where we borrowed a two-person sea kayak to get from Old Greenwich back to Riverside later in the morning.

We should have heeded the advice of their son, Jonathan, who suggested we start off later since it was still low tide. Jay and I found ourselves knee deep in mud, struggling to get the kayak afloat.

If only we were members of the Old Greenwich Yacht Club, which was founded in 1943 and is reserved for town residents to become members.

Located at Greenwich Point since 1945, the club offers members a "low-tide tour" at the beginning of each sailing season, which starts the first Saturday in May.



-Video by Kathleen O'Rourke

"It really does give you a good sense of where you can go at low tide," said Mary Rappa, who is going on her second year as the club's commodore.

The difference between the median high and low tide averages seven feet, according to Rappa.

The tides are at their strongest when it's a full moon, which just happened to be on Tuesday.

Membership in the OGYC is $600 per year, with a one-time initiation fee of $1,200. The club has about 1,000 members, but no waiting list unlike past years.

"It's a little gem," Rappa said. "I think due to the economic downturn people have pulled back from spending money on recreational items."

From Greenwich Point, Kathleen and I hoofed it out of the park's entrance and along Shore Road to the

Harbor House Inn.

The 23-room bed and breakfast is owned by the Stuttig family, a name that rings familiar with anyone who has ever needed a locksmith in Greenwich.

"We put up business-type executive people who are relocating to Greenwich. We put up celebrities," said Dolly Stuttig, 81, who has owned the inn since the 1970s.

Among the B&B's notable guests, according to the owners, are "Today" show co-host Ann Curry and television personality Rita Cosby, who grew up in Greenwich.

Rooms go for $139-$189 per night or $300 for a suite. Beach cards are not included. Those guests must pay $5 daily, the going rate charged by the town.

Sitting on the front porch of the Victorian inn, which has a suit of armor in the lobby, drinking coffee was the Reid family, former Stamford residents who were visiting from England and found the place on the Internet.

"It looked so lovely," said Joanna Reid, who is from Warwickshire, England.

During our adventure, we also ran into Christine Connal, who grew up on Edgewater Drive in Old Greenwich and showed Kathleen the hurricane water marks in the old oysterman's house owned by her family.

"It was a wonderful place to grow up," Connal said.