Mystic 41:20.49N 71:58.21W

Lotus
Mon 26 Jul 2010 13:50
Long Island sound which is 100 miles long from New York to Block Island (and where you really hear the real New York twang), is home to a host of inlets, estuaries and bays, one of which, Port Jefferson, we called into and went out for a meal in our gladrags to celebrate my birthday.   Many of the small towns have names reminiscent of England, the pilgrim fathers where obviously homesick when they named Portsmouth, Falmouth and Gloucester and were a bit bemused when they named our next port of call 'Mystic'.  This is the location of Americas biggest maritime museum, which is on a large site housing many original buildings, Cooperage, Blacksmith, Printers etc in which you can find a variety of retired/student volunteers demonstrating 18th century trades.  They have quite a few tall ships and the last remaining wooden whaling ship which is constantly being restored by a team of ship rights using traditional skills and at a huge cost of $6000 a day.   Of particular interest was the original footage from a whaling boat which showed the crew launch small rowing boats with which they chased down sperm whales before hand harpooning them.  The film showed these flimsy boats dragged through the water at around 20 knots before being capsized by the death throws of the whale.  The crews, having recovered their boats then towed the whale back to the mother ship where all the blubber was removed and melted down to be stored in casks. The profit from one trip (sometimes lasting tree years) was enough to pay for the construction of a 100ft boat.
 
It was at Mystic that the Americans yet again demonstrated their kindness.  Whilst John was taking me ashore to go for a run (well more of a granny jog) we happened to ask some people sat out on their waterside veranda for some directions to the nearest public jetty, without hesitation they suggested that we land in their garden and invited John ashore for a glass of wine whilst he waited for my return.  When I did so, bright red and sweating, John had not only downed their wine but was gobbling down all their home made cakes and blueberry pie.