Our next destination was Mystic Seaport, an absolute must for every boat fan. Unfortunately we could not sail there directly because of our draft, but chose Stonington as the next port. After a really relaxing day at sea, where we could even go sailing from time to time, erreichten wir die schöne Bucht von Stonington und entschieden uns für eine der ersten Moorings hinter dem Wellenbrecher. Für heute Nacht war mal wieder recht viel Südwestwind angesagt und dort sollten wir gut geschützt sein. Und genauso war es dann auch 🙂

Erst am nächsten Morgen ließen wir uns vom Marina-Boot an Land bringen. Many marinas in this region offer this service, but so far we had never used it. Dietmar also feared scratches in the beautiful, new paintwork of the CESARINA, when the young lady with the motorboat set course for our boat. But skilfully she brought her vehicle at a distance of 10 cm alongside to stand and we could climb comfortably :-). The way was quite far and there were still quite a lot of waves in the bay from the day before. That would certainly have been a wet affair with the dinghy. In the marina office, we were assigned a mooring at the depth that suited us almost directly in front of the marina, so we first moved. Now we could use our dinghy again and were flexible and independent of time.

We took a taxi to Mystic. The "Seaport Museum" is a large area, which includes almost the entire old port and former village. There was a lot to discover in the bright sunshine.

After the museum we made a short detour to the village of Mystik, that very pretty, but also very touristy. We had another appointment with Elias for dinner, who couldn't take it, to drive all the way from Boston to us, just to spend the evening with us. With excellent food and delicious cocktails we spent a fun last evening. Schade, that it would be the last for now. We will really miss his company, aber das ist ja der übliche Langfahrtsegler-Alltag 🙁

Am nächsten Morgen waren wir mit Ted und Karen verabredet. The two are friends of our English friend Tom and had taken the time for us today.

After a tour of the CESARINA, which was very well received by the two sailors, they showed us some very nice corners in and around New London. The grand finale was a visit to the nuclear submarine Nautilus and a very special tour by Ted, who himself had served as a navigator on submarines for many years. Today he is active as an artist and that is why we were able to enjoy it, to spend the Saturday evening in a very interesting group at a party. Great conversations and tons of delicious food made the evening unforgettable for us.

We lazed around in Mystic on Sunday and made the final preparations for our onward journey to New York. As is so often the case, the weather agreed, that we had better sail back north again :-(. But since there was only little headwind announced for the next few days, should we continue tomorrow despite unfavorable sailing winds.