We packed up and drove on down to Mystic, CT on Wednesday. Nice drive is you like heavy traffic and a bumpy road. Ah, the traffic wasn’t so bad and, once we got past New Haven, Ct, it was positively meager. And, the road bumps? Well, if you’ve got shocks, a padded seat and something to hold on to - they shouldn’t bother you at all.
We got in early enough to get both the RV and the Jeep all cleaned up. We’ve been under some trees which dropped heavy seeds on our roof and the rain had splashed lots of sand up o the bottom of the RV. The Jeep, well, when we parked at the train lot some bird picked our shiny clean Jeep out for target practice and it looked like the bird was an excellent shot. Cleaning didn’t take too long with both of us working. Funny thing, the guy in back of us then got out his hose and did the same thing. Sorry, guy.
Today we started out with a local breakfast at Somewhere in Time - pretty good and a good value. And, then down to Mystic Seaport, in southeastern Connecticut. If you haven’t been there, I’d recommend that you put it on your bucket list. It is the largest marine living history museum in the world containing a multitude of different types of ships from small whaling boats to the Charles W. Morgan, the last whaling ship left out of 2700 in the US, more than 60 rare historic buildings actually moved to this site, a shipyard where you can see an actual historic ship being restored and wealth of other stops. Here’s the Morgan.
And, here it is under full sail. I didn’t see this but took the picture from their website.
You can visit a chandlery where you’ll see hundreds of items that a 19th C captain could buy to outfit his ship,
a sail loft where you can actually see a sail being repaired,
a rope walk where they will show you how ropes as thick as my calf are made, a cooperage where you’ll learn how to make a barrel tight enough to hold water, a printing office where broadsides are still printed, a nautical instruments store where you can learn how a sextant works, and on and on.
Hey, you want to stop in a tavern for some soup - they have that too. And oh, yeah, they have several gift shops too and a book store with every book on the sea that you could want to read. You can take a tour of the Mystic River, you can learn how to sail, you can watch a sail being furled high up in the rigging, and descend into the hold of the last whaling ship.
Here’s a cool chart that we saw. Someone looked through all the log books of all the 2700 whalers in the US and spotted on this map where all the whales were caught. The red dots are the right whale and the blue dots are the sperm whales. A ton of work.
We went to the demonstration of being in a tiny whale boat after a whale 4 or 5 times its length. Tim, the demonstrator told about guiding the boat to the whale, using the spears on it and then the Nantucket sleigh ride, when your boat is attached to the whale by the rope attached to the spear and you follow the whale wherever it goes - maybe it turns on you and your boat, maybe it takes off across the ocean on a ‘Nantucket sleigh ride, maybe back to the whaler to ram it, and, worse of all, maybe into the deepest dive it can make down into the depths - with your boat attached. You and your boat are so tiny and the whale is so big. These were brave men.
We especially like the full scale model of the Mystic area about 1870 - shipyards, piers, homes and - an out house behind each one. Cool. There is an art museum with some exquisite art of the sea, a figurehead museum with more than 25 original figureheads with provenance. (That light on the left hand side of the picture is the museum light reflected on the glass of the picture frame.)
But it was the stage where we were entranced. It was the end of the day and we walked by the stage on our way out. We were tired, hungry and wanted to sit for a while in the RV. HOWEVER - we heard that the last dress rehearsal for ’Moby Dick in 30 Minutes’ was starting at 5:00. ‘Let’s watch a few minutes’, I said. ‘But, it would be rude to walk out in the middle’, my sweet hugga bunch countered. It didn’t matter, it was so good that we wanted to stay. It was a minimalist production with 3 actors playing at least 8 or 9 different roles. They only props were 4 chairs and a staff used as a gun, a club and as the peg leg sound of Ahab walking. The actors, 2 women and a guy, were absolutely fantastic and they had the play for only 2 weeks. They changed voices, mannerisms, facial expressions for each character they portrayed. But the toughest thing they had to do was use Melville’s own 19th century language.
Here is how they portrayed a small whale boat going out after the whale.
Here's Ahab with his peg leg calling out to the whale with two of the crewmen off to the side.
They did Moby Dick in 45 minutes - excellent. A few minutes over the promised 30 minutes but we didn’t want it to end - it was so good.
We had visited Mystic before but it was at least 35 years ago and we were with Gary’s parents and probably were enjoying them more than the sights. Today (and Saturday) we remedied that. We got there about 10:00 and began with the shipyard, which is still an active shipyard although these days they are restoring old ships rather than building new ships. None the less, their restoration is fun to see. Here is a ship they are working on now.
When they get their ships some are in great condition but some need major repairs. They strip it down to the base wood and sometimes have to replace that too since water, shipworms and other critters are continually attacking wood - and nothing can stop them.
We were intrigued by the size of this pulley.
We saw Tim giving a lesson to a new volunteer on climbing the rigging. Both had a harness on but it still looked precarious. Note how they go around that small platform - easier to get to the next ‘ladder’ up to the next mast. But, they were almost prone as they climbed around it. Here the student is getting ready to climb the ‘ladder’ at a 90 degree angle from the one she has just climbed.
And, here’s Tim climbing around the platform. He’s a pro. (You could go up through the hole next to the mast but - only the neophytes do that.)
When they both got down to the deck, all of us on the deck clapped. (How would you like a rigging climbing lesson in front of a bunch of gawking tourists?)
Here is a picture of a street in the village with the print shop, the cooperage, the nautical instruments shop, the bank and several others, all with people inside to demonstrate what is in their shop.
But, time ran out at the end of the day and we left, with plans to visit tomorrow.
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