Long Island Sound Summer Anchorages

During my inagural summer sail on Long Island Sound last weekend the topic of favorite LIS destination anchorages came up. Shelter Island is always top of the list in conversations with Sound sailors...I'm relatively new to the scene and aside from crewing a few Stamford/Vineyard offshore races and doing the NOODS out of Larchmont in 2005, my LIS cruising experience is limited to the types of excursions I took this past Saturday - four or five hour jaunts under sunny skies, no anchoring required. But I've long been interested in the Thimble Islands which are - as wikipedia will tell you - an archipelago of small islands in Long Island Sound, in and near the harbor of Stony Creek, Connecticut in the southeast corner of Branford, Connecticut, 41°15′52″N, 72°45′11″W. For some reason I've had many a LIS weekend warrior either profess to have never hear of the Thimbles (I'm sure a welcome trend if you enjoy them) or otherwise flat out slander the destination. Regardless, I know they offer sheltered deep water anchorage and their history is fascinating. What am I missing?