PictureHarry and the Essex Steam Train
We spent 4 wonderful days in Essex, CT, where the sun finally shone and the temperatures warmed.  The main reason we were there was for the first ever SSCA Essex Gam, organized mainly by Bob Osborn, and we had a great time meeting other cruisers, sharing our stories, and eating lots of good food.  Bob received 3 packages for us, took us to West Marine and the grocery, and shared information from his 15 trips to Maine.  To top off the whole Essex experience, Harry even found a steam train to ride.

After the gam we spent one night in Hamburg Cove on a CCA mooring.  Here in New England it seems to be the practice to just pick up a vacant mooring and hope the owner does not come back just as the sun goes down.  We are learning, but it was nice here to have a mooring officially available to members of CCA (Cruising Club of America).  As we were listening to NPR that Monday morning, we heard that the Wooden Boat Show was going to be at Mystic Seaport beginning Friday.  So Bob showed us where to find the one anchoring spot deep enough for our boat, and off we went on Tuesday.

When we arrived, there was only one other boat and we touched the bottom lightly as we motored around to find the deep spot.  It was certainly small, and we had to shorten scope so we wouldn't swing out of it, but the bottom is mud-glue so we were happy.  By the evening, 3 more boats arrived and by the boat show there were more.  By joining the Mystic Seaport, which cost less than 2 days of admission, we can enter as many times as we wish for an entire year, and we took advantage of it going every day for 6 days.  Just by luck, on our first trip ashore, we discovered that the Charles W Morgan, the oldest merchant vessel in the United States, was going to be moved to the lift dock and wetted after a 5 year major repair-replace-restore.  At cocktail time we were in our dinghy to watch as all the employees and volunteers who worked on her so long celebrated with a party.  Then there were 3 days of the wooden boat show too, with all the beautiful boats, restorers and builders there to talk about their projects, and booths and displays of all sorts.  Below are lots of photos.




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