Mystic 41:20.49N 71:58.21W
Lotus
Mon 26 Jul 2010 13:50
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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.
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