The Daily Five: Best Beaches, Good Blood, Cool Firefighters, and Russell Crowe Gets a Lift from the Coast Guard!

1. We were blessed with a gorgeous weekend for summer's last hurrah but today rain and thunderstorms are rolling in. According to Weather.com, there's a 60 percent chance of rain today, starting with showers this morning followed by thunderstorms this afternoon. Today's high temperature tops out at 77 degrees with an overnight low of 71 degrees. The chance of rain increases to 70 percent tonight with more showers and thunderstorms.  

2. Golocalprov.com just came out with its rankings of the top 33 beach towns in New England, from Maine to Connecticut, and East Lyme came in at number 32, just ahead of Madison (which, by the way, Yankee Magazine ranked in its top 10). 

Golocal editors based the rankings on criteria that included water and air quality, sunny days, walkability, the number of hotel rooms, restaurants, bars, and ice cream parlors, and beach amenities. When the boardwalk is back next year, East Lyme might rank even higher! 

3. After the success of the last the American Red Cross is returning to town again today with another emergency appeal. The blood drive will be held at First Congregational Church, 2 Ferry Road, in Old Lyme, from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. 

That's not the only thing going on in Old Lyme today. The Old Lyme Board of Selectmen will meet at Old Lyme Memorial Town Hall at 7:30 p.m. Items on tonight's agenda include a discussion of wastewater treatment, acceptance of Woodcrest Estates as a town road, new financial policies for the town, and an update of the Millstone Emergency Drill.

4. Members of on September 1. The 20-member crew left Connecticut on August 16 to assist the U.S. Forest Service in fighting wild fires in Montana. The crew, made up of 12 Department of Energy and Environmental Protection staff and eight private-sector firefighters, included one specially-trained firefighter from Lyme.  

5. Aside from the very loose New London Coast Guard and Long Island Sound connection, this story isn't overly local but I couldn't resist filing it under the "you can't make this stuff up," category. 

In case you missed it: The U.S. Coast Guard lent actor Russell Crowe a helping hand over the holiday weekend. According to the Associated Press, the actor and a pal were out kayaking on Long Island Sound when they got a bit carried away and ended up in Huntington Bay, 10 miles away from where they started out at Cold Harbour Spring in Long Island.

The Coast Guard were on patrol in the area when they heard Crowe calling for help from the beach at about 10 p.m. on Saturday night. Ironically, Crowe is on Long Island shooting his latest movie "Noah"—yes, that would be the man with the Ark!    

"not lost,we knew where exactly where we were, paddling around from csh into wind, we ran out of day. Grand adventure eh," Crowe tweeted. 

"It wasn't really a rescue," U.S. Coast Guard Petty Officer Robert Swieciki told the Associated Press. "Really, more of just giving someone a lift."

Crowe was grateful for the ride nevertheless. "Kayak;Cold Spring/Huntington Harbour, thanks to Seth and the boys from the US Coast Guard for guiding the way...4 hrs 30 mins, 7m(11.2km)" he tweeted after his adventure on Saturday.

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