What I did on my summer vaca: Part 2.

After loading the boat on my wagon,  Sandy and his wife Suzanne treated us to lunch (Thanks!).  We then took a look at the Viking exhibition.  The artifacts are on loan from Sweden until this September.  After that they move to another museum in Washington state.  The exhibit hall was dimly lighted and these pix although not the best, provide a taste of the exhibits.

Afterwards. Sandy and Suzanne heading back to Massachusetts and we sought out our motel for the night.  The next day dawned bright and sunny with temps in the agreeable mid-70 range.  We returned to Mystic Seaport for the first day of the Wooden Boat show.  The following pix provide a small look at the various boats on display.  One of the nice perks of visiting the Viking exhibit late in the day was that our admission tickets were validated for the following day, which was the first day of the wooden boat show.

Big boats.

Smaller boats

We finally got to meet Lynn and Dale Cottrell.  Dale built a pair of Moths based on the MINT design which can be seen here and here and here

Details of one of Cottrell's rowing dinghies.

Beautiful work.  Love the copper rivets.

Who couldn't use a 10 gauge starting canon from time to time?

This guy had a variety of models to choose from.

The Landing School had one of their boats on display.

A nice Lyman.  These were quite popular along the Jersey shore when I was growing up.

Nothing better than being able to dock your whale ship out the back door...  The Charles W. Morgan is the only surviving whale ship out of around 2700 which were built and sailed during the mid-half of the 19th century.  She is designated as a National Historic Landmark.  Maybe that ought to be "Seamark".

Bow shot of the Morgan.

Mystic Seaport has a lot of period correct buildings.  Here we have the Ye olde banque building.  Even back in the whaling days banks were substantial. 

The Spouter Tavern--now we're getting somewhere.

Sadly they weren't open at 9 am.

You could get religion before boarding your whale ship.

Back at the vendor's tents Lou Sauzedde (left, white t-shirt) was touching on the finer points of the sports dory he was building under the auspicious of Jamestown Distributors.

This dory although planked in a traditional manner features high density plastic frames.  The youtube videos for this Total Boat project are up to episode 27 or so but you can start off with episode 1 here.  Lou also did a couple wood boat show videos that are here and here.

Williams College, in collaboration with Mystic Seaport had this paper mache whale to advertise the Williams-Mystic Maritime Studies program.

These guys were selling drill bits and cut off tools that could go through stainless steel plate, rocks, you name just like butter.  Every boat show has a display like this!

Speaking of Wooden Boat--here's the magazine's tent.  Yeah, I broke down and bought a t-shirt.

This little Beetle Cat caught my eye.

And of course there were vendors selling old marine hardware and other bits and bobs.

Need a slick or a broad axe?  This guy had 'em.

More nice junque.

Maybe you're in the market for mast hoops.  Here they are, finest kind.  Well, maybe not since these are marked as "seconds".

But then, maybe your supply of wooden cleats is running low.  Fix ya right up, shipmate.  I was proud of myself--my wallet stayed firmly in my pocket as I passed all these tempting tents.

Every direction one turned there was another interesting boat.

Silent Maid was up from Bay Head, New Jersey.

The women in the dory, the bow of which can be seen, were singing a work chantey.  The three people in the dory which is broad side to our view were hauling a net in time to the singing.

"Heave away, mateys".  Don't know if they caught enough for supper or not.

Some of the Beetle Cat fleet in the mooring field.

An electric launch.

Looking back at Mystic Seaport from the docks.  The mixture of permanent displays in the various buildings would be too much to take in during a single day even without the extra hub-bub of the wood boat show.

We barely scratched the surface.

We walked on to see a few of the other exhibits which were not part of the show but rather part of the museum itself.

This engine makes a lofty 135 horse power, weighs 10 tonnes and displaces 67 liters!

A large ship's saw.

Storage racks for air drying timber.

The Mayflower II is down from Plymouth Plantation for a restoration by the Museum's staff.

I think part of the cost of restoration of the Mayflower II is being underwritten by the H. B. du Pont foundation.

Mayflower II planking.

Can you say massive?

An old dory used on the Grand Banks.

The Jerky Hut--truly something for everyone.

This geodesic version of a Wee Lassie canoe was interesting

She's skinned with dacron cloth

No doubt quite light.

I just liked this view. I stopped and looked for a while.  It's restful.  You're welcome.  The day grew late and we still needed to stop in New London and pick up our two new Moth sails from Kevin Farrar.

Here is one of the sails on the loft floor.  Hopefully they will prove competitive.  Rain was in the forecast for later that night so we didn't hang around.  I wanted to keep that old boat dry and the plastic sheeting was already starting to rip here and there.

We did make it to Brigantine just as the first drops were falling.  I was able to get good tarps out of the garage and get the boat covered before the heavens opened up.

After we returned home to Maryland I got the Cates into my boat house above Blondie and Mint.  I'll update my progress as the restoration moves along.

We did other stuff with our remaining vacation time.

But I'll not bore you with that.