July 25-27, Mystic, CT

Pretty morning as we pull up our anchor and motor out of the Niantic River. Flat calm. As we enter the Long Island Sound we start getting some patchy fog and as we proceed east to the Mystic River the fog becomes pretty heavy. We turn on the radar and overlay the GPS chart plotter and everything works. We slow down to 5 mph and with our radar we can "see" other boat traffic and the navigation markers. The fog becomes very heavy, our first encounter with fog so heavy we really cannot see more than 50 feet or so. We motor very slowly about 5 miles in the fog and then it clears completely as we want to head up the winding Mystic River to our destination, the Mystic Seaport Museum.




Perfect timing. The fog disappears as we enter the harbor. Our trip up the winding Mystic River is pretty and we see hundreds of boats and lots of nautical looking buildings and homes.


Mystic Seaport

Irv and Betty Skeoch from Danville, California, in front of the Charles Morgan, an origional whaling ship from the 1860's

Story tellers in costume

Storytellers play to an audience of mostly children and their parents

Ship model made from beef bone; constructed by an unknown French seaman who was a British prisoner of war. Spectacular!

Mystic Seaport Museum is a treat. It is a large complex of buildings and exhibits including several large square rigged sailing ships. Most buildings are manned with staff members dressed in period costumes giving explanations of what is being shown in the exhibit. We heard a presentation on the operation of a whale boat that leaves the mother ship and the assignments and duties of each seaman. Another costumed seaman serenaded us with a small accordion and sea songs. This may be the mother of all maritime museums.



The boat is the Charles Morgan, a wooden whaling ship from the 1860s and is the only whaling ship still preserved. Here some instructors and students are in the cross trees furling the sail of this square rigger.

We visit the pizza parlor where Julia Roberts played the part of a waitress in "MYSTIC PIZZA" and wore a t-shirt that said "a slice of heaven". Pizza was good but the "hot pastrami sandwich" was the best.

We rate Mystic as one of the highlights of our trip so far. The Mystic River is full of pretty boats on moorings, the Mystic Seaport is a real treasure with lots to see and a very nice staff of people in the exhibits. The Seaport had dockage for us right inside the seaport property and we walked the grounds at night without any of the day visitors around. We like the town which is within walking distance of the Seaport.