Connecticut continued

Stonington, CT via Fischer Island Sound – Tuesday Sep 9 Stonington is Connecticut’s easternmost cruising port, it lays claim to having the most beautiful harbor on the East Coast.  It is home to Connecticut’s only remaining fishing fleet.  It boasts the third largest collection of historic houses in CT, and we saw many of them along the main drag.  It has an upscale feel to it in the restaurants and shops it supports.  At the historically quartered branch of Fleet Bank, there is a unique 16 star and 16 stripe American flag made in 1812 on exhibit.

Mystic, CT on the Mystic River, off Long Island Sound–Wed&Thu, Sep 10&11th. From Stonington, we had a short sail of less than 10 miles to Mystic, CT up the Mystic river.  Our plans were to spend a few days touring the Old Mystic Seaport Museum.  We arrived at Brewers Marina, just a few miles south of the Old Mystic Seaport.  We took on fuel, tucked ourselves into our slip, put the dingy in the water and headed for the museum.

Mystic River - up to Mystic Seaport

The day was a perfect early fall day in New England.  It was all sunshine, with a cool breeze in the air, hinting of cooler weather to come.  We planned two days at the Mystic Seaport museum, which is a 17-acre, internationally recognized maritime museum located right along the Mystic River, just north of the marina at which we stayed.  It is a 19th-century working village with tall ships, homes and the typical industries supporting this period of nautical history.  It hosts a working shipyard and a gallery area of exhibits portraying aspects of America’s maritime heritage.  The working village presents a window on the sights, sounds and activities of another time in American nautical history.  It is an idyllic harbor, with a simulated historical port at work. In our two day tour of the village, we wandered along the quays and cobbled harbor lanes, stopping at ancient shops, houses and churches and boarded classic wooden boats, all restored to pristine condition.  We visited with museum staff, all in period costume, steeped in their characters’ lives, trades and viewpoints. We toured the only remaining wooden whaling boat, the Charles W. Morgan, and the last of the dory-laden Grand Banks fishing schooners, the L.A. Dutton.

L.A.Dutton, fishing schooner

Charles W. Morgan, whaling ship

Mystic Seaport, working village

Other attractions we took in were the extensive nautical library, the planetarium (where we learned about early celestial navigation), a gallery of masthead carvings, classic boat and model builders, chantey singers, (where we learned the words to “What do you do with a Drunken Sailor”), barrel hoop rollers, lectures on nautical topics (including the WWII Danish boats that carried Danish Jews to safety in Switzerland from an occupied Nazi Denmark), and many priceless maritime treasures on display.

We could have spent another few days in Mystic, but needed to press on.  Our photos and memories of Mystic will be fond reminders of the interesting and educational time we enjoyed here.  We wrapped up our time in Mystic and planned for our next port of call, Branford, CT.

Branford, CT via Long Island Sound – Fri & Sat, Sep 12th & 13th On Friday morning we left the marina in Mystic and headed for Branford, CT.  The day started out beautiful, cool and sunny with a 25 knot northeasterly pushing us to our destination.  The forecast was for a storm to roll in late in the afternoon, so we were trying to make time to get in before the storm.  We had the wind and current with us and made excellent time, arriving before the storm.  We arrived at the Branford Yacht Club just after 4:00 p.m. where we refueled and pulled into a slip for the evening. Tony used to keep his boat in Branford and we had visited this yacht club on our wa north.  It is a friendly club and we knew it would be a good spot to weather a storm.  Branford is a charming community with many fine, old, restored homes dating from colonial days.  In colonial times, Branford was an important salt works (meat for Revolutionary troops was preserved in Branford salt), a Yankee trading center and the original home of Yale University.  Today it is more of a bedroom community to New Haven. The storm that threatened began on Friday evening and brought rain through Saturday night.  We stayed in Branford until Sunday morning appreciating the fact we were in a comfortable spot to ride out this storm.   We left Branford early Sunday morning with Oyster Bay, Long Island as our next destination.

Branford, CT lighthouse

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