By far, the best-known attraction for boaters visiting Connecticut is the Mystic Seaport Museum. But it’s not just the experience of being at the museum that makes the destination so special, says Chris Gasiorek, who is vice president of watercraft preservation and programs. It’s also the experience that cruisers have getting there.
“When you come into Fishers Island Sound, the view is the same as it was 100 years ago,” he says. “You see the lighthouse, the village, the Mystic River Bascule Bridge. What’s neat about this area is that a voyage into Mystic really feels like it did five or ten decades ago.”
Of course, some things have changed—the museum has updated its marina with floating docks and showers, as just one example—“but the feel of the museum, the experience of walking around at night when only boaters have access, that’s as close to time travel as you can get,” he says. “We have grandparents bringing their kids on boats because the grandparents remember being there when they were kids.”
In the village of Mystic, downtown shops and restaurants have a nautical feel, with Abbott’s Outpost serving hot lobster in the same style that makes the original location in Noank a perennial fan favorite.
One of the things boaters love to do at the museum in Mystic, he says, is order “off the menu” for a special tour of the collection of boats inside Mystic Watercraft Hall. It won’t officially open to the public until at least 2025, but he says it has long been an insiders’ secret that tours are available for visitors who ask. “It’s in a warehouse across the street. It’s about 470 boats,” he says. “We have Laser number zero, a couple of Chris-Crafts and Donzis, and President Roosevelt’s boat. Do you remember the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark, where they go into that warehouse and it goes on into infinity?” he adds. “It’s like that, but with boats.”
One of the nice things about Mystic is that it’s close to another good stop: Stonington. This destination also lures boaters back because it seems so familiar.
“Geographically, it doesn’t have any opportunity to change, so it really feels the same,” Gasiorek says. “The whole of Fishers Island Sound, the beaches you can go to on day trips, it’s like a little bit of Maine stuck between Boston and New York. It has that feel, sort of a rocky coastline. It’s a different view geographically with great little places to stop.”
