Goodbye Mystic — Cupcake Afloat

Today we did not cover a lot of sea miles, however, the day was well spent.

After breakfast, we toured Mystic Seaport Museum a little more. Learned about the Vinland Map, discovered in 1957, purporting to have been drawn in 1440. The map showed the Vikings arrived in the New World hundreds of years before Columbus. The story was one of mystery, forensic scholarship, carbon dating, etc. You know, the usual.

In the end, it appears the map was a forgery from the 1920s, although subsequent archaeological excavations in Newfoundland show the Vikings did spend time in North America in the 700s or so. Pretty neat stuff. Sucks to be Yale University, paying who knows how much for the map.

In any event, the uproar in the 1960s when the map was revealed to the public was impressive. Lots of Italian-Americans felt that Columbus’ honor had been besmirched. The Viking-Americans were not as vocal, probably because they are not so numerous.

Then we checked out an exhibit about the Vikings on loan from Uppsala University, Sweden. Short story: the Vikings were a violent, brutal people. I would not have enjoyed living as a Viking, living near Vikings, living in the time of Vikings. (Ellen says this position is because I do not like cold-weather or salted fish. She also says I would look dashing in chain mail.) And those people got around. One Viking woman sailed far enough in her lifetime that she met both Native Americans and the Pope on their home turf.

This is Moss. She is not a whale. If she was a whale, she would have been chopped up into bits and boiled down in the try pots behind her.

Speaking of brutal, we also checked out the Charles W. Morgan, the last wooden whale ship extant. It is a big, tough boat with limited headroom below. The business of killing and rendering whales is thoroughly documented elsewhere (see Moby Dick by Herman Melville). The try pots on deck were a pretty graphic reminder of the whaling business.

Also saw a home from the 1800s, complete with a docent who was cooking cornbread over the open hearth. That’s where your Dutch oven cast iron cookery came in handy. She had already baked a delicious-looking blueberry pie.

Two-way traffic, current, wind, and rain.

We had to get off the dock in time to make the 11:40am bridge opening, so we cast off in the rain and joined the queue of boats waiting for the bridge. Ellen said it was like a driver-ed simulation, the only thing missing was a little kid chasing a ball into the street.

Then we putted down the river and waited for the train bridge to swing open in turn. After that, we had just a 6 mile ride to Fishers Island, off the coast of Connecticut. Because Fishers is part of New York, we are now in our sixth state since leaving Maine. And we are out of New England. Looking forward to a whole new set of accents. Bring it on, New Jersey.

As Matt says nearly every time he gets aboard Cupcake, "there sure are a lot of ropes on a sailboat." (To be clear, this is not Cupcake's mast.)