Mystic. 10-11 Sept 2014

Leaving Newport on Wednesday morning we waited until around 0800 to time the flood ride into "the Race" on our way to Mystic, CT. The wind had kicked up to around 20 kts out of the north which made a nice ride down the Narraganset. It was a little bumpy with the waves building on our stern until we turned the corner west at Pt Judith. Now being in the lee of the land it was relatively smooth sailing all the way to Mystic. The wind died about an hour after passing Watch Hill.

i contacted Andy Stackpole, a colleague of mine when I was stationed in Groton 20 years ago. Andy told us what we needed to do to get through the two bridges in Mystic. While waiting for the Mystic "highway" bridge, Andy hopped on our boat (from his dink) to show us where we could anchor. Past the Mystic Seaport there is a deep channel just past the last green buoy. Due to weather issues we decided to stay two nights. Dropped the dink and followed Andy back to his house... 3 houses down from the Seaport, with his boat moored in front of his house. We were able to use Andy's neighbors dock to tie up our dink. Sweet deal.

Mystic Amtrak Bridge

Mystic Hwy Bridge. Opens at :40 past.

Stackpole house on far right. Their blue sailboat moored out front. Sweet.

Andy guiding us to the upper Mystic River anchorage.

Jo and I walked around town for a couple of hours visiting old familiar sites like the Mystic Bridge Ice Cream, and Mystic Pizza. Andy later drove us to Defender Marine supply so we could replace the water accumulator tank which crapped out about a week before. Andy and Jen joined us for dinner on Daruma. It was a very nice quiet anchorage.

Mystic Bridge is up. Time to get out of your car and get an ice cream while you wait.

Mystic Seaport

The Charles W. Morgan. Last of the whaling ships.

The next day while waiting for Anne and Bill Wernau to arrive (Ann was Joelle's colleague while we were in Groton) Jo and I visited a marine salvage store. We picked up a 48" US flag for the boat and an ice bucket, both of which we were looking for a while now.

 After Anne and Bill arrived, we dinked back to the boat, pulled the anchor and went for a tour of Mystic harbor and for a sail. Maneuvering through the two bridges really isn't that hard once you get used to it.

Bill and Anne Wernau

Anchor down again, we had lunch inboard; Jo prepared the curry chicken salad. Yes she does cook, she just doesn't like to. ;-0

Anne and Bill took us back to Defender as l had realized there were a few more things we needed.
Two things I love about the North East/New England; all the non-chain pizza places and the mom and pop ice cream stores. We ended our day with Anne and Bill sitting down at an ice cream parlor in Niantic. Eating ice cream in a sugar cone is always good.

Anneandjoelle and Anneandjoelle, former team-teachers in Groton, CT.

Back at our dink, we checked in to say goodbye and thank you to Andy. Andy invited us to join him and Jen for dinner. We walked into town. Did I say they live in a great location?

Friday we will sail to Branford via the Thimble Is. The wind gods are being nice to us. The wind is forecasted to be out of the north which will make the run to Branford a nice beam reach.