Meandering Mystic

Maybe 1,000 boats on moorings in the Marion, Massachusetts cove.

From a stay on a mooring in Marion Massachusetts at Burr Brothers Boats to get a repair, or at least a diagnosis, on our port engine tachometer, we only got a diagnosis. The engine synchronizer cable, called a glendinning, leading from our port engine is broken and will take too long and be too involved to repair. That means that we will be using our ear to match the rpm of our engines. We will be deferring fixing it until there is a better timeframe. In 2017, just after purchasing Aquavit, we had this same issue repaired by replacing the tachometer sending unit on both engines.

Burr Brothers Boats was very nice and helpful, even though we were leaving without a repair. (The invoice for diagnosis was a little pricey, but worth the knowledge that we could continue our trip.)

From a blustery day for the trip from Provincetown to Marion, the next morning was calm and still at the mooring and across Buzzards Bay. Eventually we reached Point Judith where Long Island Sound kind of begins. Block Island is 9 miles offshore creating a funnel where the sea swells were being squeezed. The wind picked up and the seas did too. Fortunately, we were again going in the same direction, so it was OK for the remaining 30 miles to Mystic. Oh, it was downright cold.

We winded our way through the rocky opening between Fishers Island and Watch Hill Point. As we were heading towards Mystic Harbor we passed a large house with a nearby chapel sitting up on a high point of land called Enders Island. What could that be? It turns out that it is a Catholic retreat for recovery and an art school. The house and land were gifted to the Catholic Society of Saint Edmund.

We passed Noank on Morgan Point on our way up the Mystic Harbor and Mystic River to Mystic Shipyard. When we arrived, two dockhands were ready to assist us with tying up the boat and connecting our umbilical cords to shore paper and water. We walked to get lunch and begin exploring Mystic. A short walk to the town center winded thorough neighborhoods of cute cottages. Everything is so green and flowers are everywhere. These folks take full advantage of summer to brighten their communities with flowers, probably to offset the drab and white of winter.

We visited Mystic Pizza and watched the bascule bridge at the center of town, open for a few boats waiting to travel up the Mystic River. The bascule bridge has 2 huge stone blocks that act as a counter balance when the bridge opens. It is an engineering marvel to watch this draw bridge lift.

The weather the next day looked cloudy in the morning with a prediction of rain in the afternoon. We decided to spend another day in Mystic. We walked into town and headed up river to Mystic Seaport Museum. The Museum is a very interesting campus consisting of many buildings replicating old Mystic in the time of its boat building heyday. And, there are boats, many boats, all wood. From dories to race sailing boats, to tugs, to fishing boats and whaling boats. In dry dock undergoing extensive refurbishment is the Mayflower II, a replica of the Mayflower that brought the Pilgrims to Plymouth.

Historic Whale ship Charles Morgan at  Mystic Seaport Museum

The Mayflower 2 under major repair.

As a gesture of goodwill between England and the US after WWII, the Mayflower II was constructed in Devon England and sailed to Plymouth, MA in 1957 for permanent display at Plimouth Plantation.  For the past 6 years, it has been undergoing rehab in Mystic during the winter and spending the summer in Plimouth Plantation on display. Craftsmen (and women) are putting the final touches on the ship. Launching will occur in a couple of weeks, on September 7.



CHECK OUT: https://www.mysticseaport.org/event/launch-of-mayflower-ii/


We walked around the campus, had lunch in the tavern, looked in on a chandlery, watch and clock store, rope making building, a couple of recreated homes, and toured through the preservation shipyard to look at the Mayflower II. Then, it started to rain. We visited the gift shop and gallery. As the rain let up a little, we decided to walk back to AQUAVIT. When it rained a little harder, we stop in a shop and look around or buy ice cream. The heavy rain was coming, so we bought a pizza at Mystic Pizza to go and headed back to the boat. Later that evening we enjoyed the pizza warmed in our microwave.

Hurricane Watch! 

The tropical system we’ve been watching off the Lesser Antilles has turned into a tropical storm that looks like it will hit Puerto Rico then head to Florida and perhaps exit the state on the west coast in just about 5 days. After a lot of discussion and numerous scenarios on what we should do about changing our plans to accommodate Hurricane Dorian, we made reservations to fly back to Tallahassee from LaGuardia and leave the boat in Jersey City. We would have to then return after the hurricane passes to resume our trip to Lockwood Boatworks to haul the boat.

Waking to a revised forecast showing that the storm would be slower, we changed our plans accordingly. Forecasters have no idea what the storm is going to do but it looks like we have time to get to Lockwoods in Aquavit, pick up our truck (we left it there when we started this leg of our trip north) and drive home in 2 days. We canceled the flights and made plans to head back to Lockwoods in Amboy NJ to have the boat hauled and stored as we had originally planned.

We plotted a course for 105 nm to Liberty Landing and set out to travel the length of Long Island Sound. It was a nice day with calm seas and, at 22 knots, we made it in 5.5 hours, hampered by a 2 knot head current at places.

We pulled into Liberty Landing and rushed to catch a ferry over to Manhattan to get to the 8:00 performance of Moulin Rouge. What a spectacular show production with awesome sets and lightning and a talented cadre of 30 actors performing snippets of popular tunes arranged to fit the show. Some new songs were added to update the show from the original movie score. It was very enjoyable and we would even see it again. It was a good distraction from the past few days of angst over the storm and our travel plans.



When we disembarked the Liberty Landing Ferry we took a few minutes to visit he Brookfield Place Marina to check out the high-tech sailboat of young climate activist, Greta Thunberg.  She opted to sail to NYC to speak at the UN on a zero emission boat rather than take a airplane. Youth speaking truth to power, and setting an example.

 

Getting close to the huge Staten Island  Ferry

The next morning we moved another 20 miles to South Amboy, NJ and Lockwood Boatworks. After meeting with the boatyard to arrange our haul-out and bottom paint job, we loaded our truck with essentials from AQUAVIT for the drive home.

NYC Skyline in our wake.

We should arrive a day ahead of the storm force winds, and hope for the best. It will be good to see our kitties and take a month long break from cruising. We still have not decided whether we will ship AQUAVIT home or resume cruising down the ICW after the peak of hurricane season.

It's been a lovely cruise with no real regrets - only missing the Who at Madison Square Gardens, but we are pleased we have an old high s school friend that lives in Staten Island to enjoy the concert in our place.

Looking forward to seeing folks and the cats.

8.30.19

UPDATE:

As we were driving south, we were trying to keep an eye on the progress of Hurricane Dorian. As we all know now, the path of the hurricane changed significantly from coming ashore between West Palm Beach and Cocoa Beach and exiting Florida around Tampa to running up the spine of Florida and exiting at the Georgia coast. By the time we reached home, Dorian was well on its current path through the Bahamas and skirting the coastlines of Florida, Georgia, the Carolinas, and eventually making its way up to Maine!

We are very concerned about our friends in the Abacos and Grand Bahama Island and will be trying to help them in any way we can.