Report Review
The mystic Seaport Museum is an excellent stop for anyone interested in boats. But this is a review of the marina, not the Museum. We did not use any of the shoreside marina facilities (bathrooms, showers), so we can’t comment. We were docked at a fixed pier, and the intertidal range was about 3 ft—not ideal, but not a big problem. There are floating docks, but I think we may have been too long (~50ft) for the floating-dock slips. The marina is more thoughtful than most in providing fender boards to address the challenge of aligning fenders with pilings at its fixed piers. Mystic Seaport lies on the Mystic River above 2 bridges (railroad bridge & highway bridge) with closed clearances of only a few feet. Nothing but a low dinghy can pass under them. The opening times of the highway bridge are once per hour in summer—a major factor in cruise planning. The railroad bridge is more flexible except when a train is approaching, but these two timing constraints may interact inconveniently. Read about them elsewhere. Importantly & positively, the dock staff is superb: capable, informative & friendly. The town of Mystic has good restaurants & fun shops. The town offers a public dinghy dock a couple of blocks upriver from the bridges. The dock staff can tell you where it is. Anyway, less than 5 stars because of bridges & fixed docks.