September 29, 2013 Day 130
Mystic Seaport Museum
Mystic, Connecticut
We left our mooring ball in the Newport
Harbor and wound our way through the other boats who were staying longer. We saw that a large Princess cruise ship had
arrived and was at anchor in the harbor.
We made our way back into the ocean and found three foot waves on our
beam. This did not make for a perfect ride, but it was tolerable.
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Leaving the Newport Harbor |
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Another lighthouse we passed today |
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The busy Mystic River |
There were several sailboats out today
enjoying their last Sunday in September. It was a warm and very pretty day and
being outside was the place to be. We
spotted The Pride of Baltimore on AIS
and could see it in the distance. We saw
her last spring in the Chesapeake Bay when we first started our trip.
We followed the Rhode Island coast, and passed
Block Island on our port side shortly before we turned into the Mystic River. The Mystic River was literally filled with
boats, mostly on mooring balls, and others, like us who were trying to weave
our way through the narrow channel. We tried
to time the entrance to the river to make a bascule bridge opening at 40
minutes after the hour. But first, we
had to wait ten or fifteen minutes on a RR swing bridge to open. We made both openings and arrived at the
Mystic Seaport Museum at 1:45. We passed the Charles Morgan (1841), the Joseph
Conrad, (1882), and the L.A. Dunton
(1921) on our way to our dock on the north side. The steamboat Sabino, (1908), passed us as it was taking passengers back to its
dock. We had an excellent dock hand
waiting for us and helped us tie up on the fixed dock. He also provided us with fender boards.
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The RR swing bridge is now open! |
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Mystic Seaport Museum |
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The Sabino |
We walked over to the dock master’s office and
came back with a membership in the museum!
It cost just slightly more to join than to pay for the docking so we did
just that. We do hope to come back some
year! We also came back with lots of
brochures and maps to study. We stopped
in a couple of shops but are saving the seafaring village and ships to tour
tomorrow.
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We liked the price on this sign on Schaefer's Spouter Tavern |
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A beautiful bride! |
We are docked next to the plush lawn of the
Latitude 41 degrees restaurant and had the opportunity to watch a wedding on
the lawn (from our flybridge). What a fun thing to do!
We grilled chicken for dinner and relaxed for
the evening. We have three more days
here and will enjoy staying put for a while and seeing some of the nearby area
by car as well.