Greetings all! I write to you from the Customs House Dock in New London, Ct. It was here that the Lynx experienced the strong Winter storm which rolled over New England on Saturday. Happily for the ship there was no damage to ship or crew. Our commiserations go out to the Connecticut residents who are still without power several days after the storm.

The trip from Newburgh was largely uneventful-with a quick passage through the City and Hell Gate. We made our way up to Captains Harbor off of Greenwich, Ct where we anchored for the night and started really watching the weather. The fore runner of the weekend winter storm came in the form of the Jet Stream moving very far south of New England. To mariners this is a strong “heads up” that bad weather is on the way. The first pulse of what was to be a very wet weekend arrived on Thursday morning with strong North Easters and heavy rain. We had moved Lynx East to Niantic Bay on Wednesday in anticipation of this and continued the move to a protected dock on the Mystic River.

Friday dawned clear, breezy and much colder and we made our way some 5 miles around the point to enjoy our Grand Arrival at New London with cannon fire and sails at Noon.

From the point of our arrival all indications were that a strong low pressure system was coming our way-fast. Friends on the Cross Sound Ferries (big sea-going ferries) indicated that they would probably have to shut down Saturday afternoon. And so we began fendering up and quadrupling dock lines.  In the end, almost anti-climactic. Wind topped out at 58 kts and the fender boards popped out once but otherwise the wind set us off the dock and we were reasonably comfortable-in a wet-cold way…

Tomorrow we move back to the Mystic River and to our winter berth at the Mystic Seaport.  To our friends here in New London, Barbara Neff, Susan Tamulevich and Dr. David Hayes thank you very much for hosting Lynx and looking forward to being back in New London next year!

Until next time-cheers! Captain John Beebe-Center