Today we weren’t going too far- a little under twenty miles. We still have to plan on currents, so we didn’t pull anchor from Watch Hill until 10:45am. It was a nice day for a boat ride! We were following a parade of boats into town and there were bridges that had to be timed for the openings, which was perfectly timed on our part. We were approaching a train bridge and I could see it was open. The charts say it stays open unless there is train traffic. We were just about to pass through it when out of nowhere the horn on the bridge blasted and it started to close! Our bow had just passed the opening and we were in trouble! I got on the radio right away and called to the bridge while simultaneously shifting in to reverse and gunning it to stop our momentum. The bridge tender came on the radio and said he had stopped the closing and we could continue through. At this point I told him I had already stopped and was turning back- it isn’t easy stopping a twenty ton boat! He then asked if we could make it through the opening and he would hold it open if we could? WTF?! I told him we could make it, but I now have to turn back around; it was frustrating and a bit scary, but I turned us around and we squeaked through, only to have to wait at the next bridge which only opens on the quarter hour. Whew! Our friend Mick, who had really pushed us to do this New England side trip, had told us about an anchorage here in Mystic. He told us to anchor just past the Mystic Seaport Museum, “located north of the Mystic River Bascule Bridge from the Village of Mystic, is a re-created 19th-century coastal village that opens a window to America’s maritime history. Some of the popular exhibits include working renovated ships and the preservation shipyard, where vessels are constructed or reconstructed using traditional methods of the 18th century.” As we traveled up the river we passed some cool sights and then went through the downtown area. After that was the museum, which we dropped anchor just past it. Looking over to shore we could see two buildings- one was Twisters Ice Cream shop and the other was Sea View Snack Bar. Nice! Since we were hungry, I took a quick trip with Frank over to shore on the dinghy and walked over to the snack bar. I ordered some food to-go and chatted with some nice people in line. Once I had the food, we retreated back to the boat to eat. After lunch, we loaded the bikes in the dinghy and headed to the museum dinghy dock to unload. We rode around the museum for a bit, checking out the historic village. We had located a grocery store that didn’t look too far away, so off we went in that direction. We found the store and did some shopping. The ride was a bit hilly, but we were able to manage. We brought everything back to the boat, including the bikes, as everything else we were planning on doing was within walking distance. After everything was put away and we relaxed a bit, we took the dinghy to a free dock closer to downtown. We walked around and scoped out the area, but it was quite crowded which made us a bit uncomfortable. Since we were here we had to have a famous Mystic Pizza- you know- there was a movie about it. “The title of the film was inspired by a pizza shop in Mystic, Connecticut. Screenwriter Amy Holden Jones was summering in the area and chose Mystic Pizza as the focus of her story about the lives of three young waitresses”. I still haven’t seen the film, but apparently Julia Roberts is in it. We ordered online a pie to go and picked it up to take back to the boat. We ate our pizza which was quite good, then I dec a run in to the ice cream joint was in order. I took Frank with me for some shore relief and picked up some treats for all of us. Frank was losing his mind trying to eat his ice cream before we got back. I held him off so we all could sit together on the back deck enjoying our treats and enjoying the serenity of the night.
Day 2- We went needed to get gas for the dinghy, so we took a long ride down the river to the closest marina that sold gas. We filled up and headed back to town, as we wanted to check out some of the shops we had seen yesterday. One of the places was a marine consignment shop which I spent time browsing around. They had everything and anything you could think of. I restrained myself but browsed for quite a while, then we continued on to some other shops Lauren wanted to browse in. We eventually headed back to the boat and prepared dinner, with a trip to the ice cream shop for dessert. Our next stop will be up the Connecticut River to Essex.
