Last Hurrah, Mystic Seaport, and end of season

 I realized I never hit "Publish" on the blog post for our one long trip of the summer, to Nantucket and back in July, so now I'll just do a little flurry of posts to cover the season.

JP decided against doing another two week trip - too many encroaching events, including the trip to France that he and Susan took with her sister Jane, her niece Caroline, and Caroline's fiancé Ben in September.  We made it to Port Jefferson to meet our AOTP condo board chair Aaron and his wife Sheryl the first weekend in August, and to Shelter Island (a favorite) 30 August to 2 September that featured the only actual SAIL of the season. 

We had set a haul out date of 9 October, so I lobbied for one more trip, and we decided on Mystic Seaport.  We had been there two years ago and really enjoyed it, and this year was fun too, except for the two bridges in succession that can be quite - interesting - a railroad bridge followed by what is quaintly known as the Mystic Highway Bridge, which is really just the road and sidewalk over the river into the downtown area. It opens only once an hour, at 40 minutes past.

JP and Susan took out a small sailboat from the museum's fleet (the first photo), and we were among a number of boats - full house the first (Saturday) night - at the dock and I snapped the second photo from across the way.

We got back to Bruce and Johnson on Monday very late afternoon, and totally grubby (no option to swim at the Seaport marina) and reluctantly agreed to have supper at Dockside - we kept meaning to and never did - it was quite good and great to go home and crash directly after a shower.

Here we are, back at Branford Landing - I barely beat Raconteur from Bruce and Johnson to here driving the car! 

The dredging has begun at Guilford Yacht Club, at last, so we expect to be back there next season.

JP and Susan put the cover on today, and JP will go to empty the fuel tanks tomorrow.

Then there's the next launch: Third Flight in Lauderdale.  Before Europe? Between Europe and Asia? After Asia?  Stay tuned.