The Browns' Mantra: Mystic, Connecticut

Yesterday morning, we raised the anchor in Westbrook and sailed a few miles east to the lovely town of Mystic, Connecticut, on the tranquil Mystic River. We entered the harbor and followed the marks weaving around the mooring fields. Heading up the tidal river, we watched the railroad swing bridge pivot and then passed through, after which we waited for the 40-minute-after-the-hour opening of the Main Street bascule bridge, and motored a short distance to dock at the Mystic Seaport Museum. Dockage for two nights included admission to this fabulous living history museums in the country, with exhibits, restored ships, a shipyard, and a seaport village comprised of buildings saved and moved here from various parts of New England. We arrived in the mid-afternoon, so we only had a couple of hours to spend looking around yesterday before the grounds closed (with us inside!) at 6 p.m.

The marina has showers (although the one on Mantra is really quite nice and I chose to use it rather than the marina ones so I didn't have to carry toiletries and a change of clothes to the building). It also has a laundry, which the dockmaster had cautioned us against using because the machines do not always function properly, but with piles of dirty clothes and sheets and towels that hadn't been laundered in a few weeks, we gave it a shot. The washer and dryer worked wonderfully, although Peter had to find a small lever to move in the mechanism for coins on the dryer to get it to work, and I did two loads last night and two loads this evening. Everything is clean! We have shore power and were able to fill up the tanks with water, so we are set to go.

Yesterday evening, we walked the short distance into downtown and had dinner at Anthony J's Bistro, which had a cozy, quiet atmosphere and great food. Peter tried something new: thresher shark! He said it was really good. We finished the meal with scrumptous pumpkin cheesecake, and then walked around the downtown area looking in shop windows of galleries, boutiques, jewelry stores and a large independent bookstore. On the way back to the Seaport, we walked down a different street, passing many large and lovely homes on big lots, all built in the 19th century for ship captains, financiers, shipbuilders and others who became modestly wealthy on businesses associated with commercial fishing, particularly whaling.

The buildings and exhibits of the museum opened at 9 a.m. this morning, and I had to leave Peter alone to finish his breakfast because I didn't want to miss a thing. (Our stroll through the grounds yesterday had shown us that there is a lot to see.) I had a schedule of the weekday activities and had highlighted all the ones I wanted to attend throughout the day. The demonstrations and activities encompassed lobstering, oystering, cod-fishing, fish-splitting, cooperage, women inventors, rope-making, sail-making, working aloft on a square rigger, mast hoop construction and leisure time activities on long voyages. Between demonstrations, we visited many of the buildings, including the cooperage, the blacksmith shop, the Mystic Print Shop, the hoop shop, the nautical instruments shop, the chandlery, the sail loft, the rigging shop, the cordage factory, the small boat exhibit, the lobster house, the oyster house, the salmon house, the clam shack, the life saving station, the store, the chapel and a building housing a scale model of Mystic River in the mid-1800's. There are also many historic ships to board, including the 1908 coal-fired steamship Sabino; the L.A. Dunton, a cod-fishing ship built in 1921; the Charles W. Morgan, built in 1841, the last remaining wooden whaling ship in the world; and the Joseph Conrad, a training ship built in 1882 that was used to train thousands of cadets. The history of each of these ships as well as about a dozen more on the waterfront is rich with the stories of their construction, the people who sailed on them and the voyages they made.

Throughout the day, we were educated and entertained by three staff members who conducted the various activities. They had a depth of knowledge about everything from sail making and rigging to whaling, oystering, clamming, lobstering and fishing. In addition, they demonstrated expertise and skill in various areas including coopering, rope making, engine maintenance and fish preparation. There didn't seem to be any question they couldn't answer.

We stopped briefly for lunch at one of the restaurants on site and continued to absorb as much as we could about the myriad of activities, boats and shops represented here at Mystic Seaport until the buildings closed at 5 p.m.

The laundry is in the shipyard, so I walked around there while waiting to move loads. The shipyard is in the process of restoring the Mayflower II, a 1957 reproduction of the original Mayflower. It is much bigger than I expected, particularly in the depth of the keel. It is all under cover and surrounded by scaffolding, so it is not possible to get a good view of the entire ship, but the size of the timbers being used is impressive.

We have two hours tomorrow morning before we have to leave the dock at 11:30. There is a chowder festival this weekend, so we may get to experience some of that before we depart.

I took lots of photos. Here are some of the best (not in terms of photography but in terms of showing what it is like here).