Prepare to Come About — It’s All About Sailing

Just a typical day of sailing camp at Mystic Seaport.

Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and texting are words most likely part of  the vocabulary of any pre-teen, teen or computer-literate adult these days.  But how about these words: Dyer Dhow, main sheet, halyard, jibe, tack, fore, aft, starboard, port, head?

If those examples of a sailor’s vernacular aren’t familiar to you, a simple phone call or email could change all that. Enrolling in one of Mystic Seaport’s sailing programs not only expands your vocabulary, it opens up a wonderful opportunity to learn to sail and enjoy an unequaled experience out on the water.

Never sailed before? Doesn’t matter!  Don’t own a sailboat? Doesn’t matter! You are grandparent vintage? Doesn’t matter! Only 8 years old? Doesn’t matter! Certified instructors are experienced in teaching all age groups through personal, hands-on instruction. There’s a class designed for every age and every skill level.

Fun and unique among Mystic Seaport offerings is Family Community Sailing. Children ages 8 and older, along with their parents and/or grandparents, learn the basics of sailing together in beginner classes. Intermediate classes are designed for adults who have their sea legs but want to improve their boat handling skills sailing the JY15s. The 3-hour classes run Monday-Friday beginning in late June.

The homeschool community gets off to an even earlier start in mid-April with a Friday class for homeschooled students.

Wait. Don’t log off yet! I’ve saved one of Mystic Seaport’s coolest sailing programs for last. It’s the Overnight Summer Sailing Camp aboard the Joseph Conrad.  For 50 years, the six-day camp has been teaching skills of the sea to boys and girls ages 10 to 15 years old.  Sleeping on a tall ship each night, the comradeship that develops amongst the campers, the self-confidence climbing the Conrad’s rigging can bring – it’s a super package of learning by doing wrapped in fun. For many “graduates,” the camp was such a fantastic social and learning experience that they return to perfect skills, reunite with camp friends or even return as adults to become camp instructors.

I strongly recommend you watch the videos on Community Sailing and the Conrad Camp that are mentioned on the web pages describing the various sailing programs. All the information about dates, times, costs and registration methods are listed there as well. Here’s a tip, act ASAP so you or your child aren’t disappointed due to an already filled to capacity class. It may seem early, but you know the saying – the early bird gets the worm!

Learn more about Community Sailing programs here – including the video you can watch.

Learn more about sailing camp aboard the Joseph Conrad — including a video — here.

Post written by Trudi Busey.

Meet Mystic Seaport Horticulturist Steve Sisk

Mystic Seaport’s greenhouse takes on a totally different look during the winter months. Just a few trays of seedlings dot the benches. However, according to the Museum’s Assistant Horticulturist, Stephen Sisk, all that changes by the second week in May when the greenhouse incubator transforms into a nursery full of plants waiting to welcome spring outdoors.

1. How long have you been employed at Mystic Seaport?
SS:  June 2010 will be my 40th anniversary of working here. I actually began working part-time during the summers when I was a junior in high school. I continued my schooling at Mohegan Community College in Norwich, (now Three Rivers College) and at Boston’s Arnold Arboretum. I also took classes to achieve the title of Master Gardener.

 

2. What’s the best part of your job?
SS:  I love being outdoors, and a side-perk of that is meeting and talking with visitors on grounds. I get asked all kinds of questions regarding their own home gardening and gardening problems. Sometimes it’s a little hard to diagnose the problem without seeing the patient, so to speak, but I try to help if I can.

3. What’s the most challenging aspect of your job?
SS:  We’re dealing with living plants and want them to look their best when planted in our Museum gardens. It’s very gratifying to see the fruits of our labor thrive during the growing season. Kara, our terrific volunteers and myself all strive for the same goal; we want our Mystic Seaport gardens to look beautiful. We try to visualize the Museum gardens through visitors’ eyes and work towards giving them a fresh look each year. We’re already looking at seed catalogues to choose what we might plant this season.

4. What’s the funniest or most notable on-the-job experience you’ve had?
SS:  I’ve got one of each. It was some years ago; I was laying down sod when a school group came by. The kids were fascinated; they had never seen grass in a roll before. I decided to let them lay down a section of sod themselves. Boy, did they love doing that! Who knows, maybe that little experience whetted their interest in gardening.

On a more poignant note, some 20 years ago, when I was working at the Buckingham House garden, an elderly German visitor approached. He saw the gooseberries growing there and tears came to his eyes. They reminded him of home in Germany.

5. What’s your favorite thing to do outside of work?
SS: Photography!  When you see Mystic Seaport’s 2010 calendar, one of my photographs is on the cover. The Museum store and area stores carry a book of my photographs called Mystic Memories. Aside from photography, I enjoy watching old black and white movies and reading history books that teach you something. Basically, my two cats run my life. There’s “red-headed” Lucy and sidekick Ethel. You can guess where their names originated!

Steve was interviewed by Trudi Busey and photographed by Museum photographer Andy Price.

Low Bridge, Everybody Down

At Mystic Seaport, it wouldn’t be unusual for a sea chantey to stick in your mind. But ever since I found out that a new exhibit, Building America’s Canals, is opening at the Museum January 30th, I can’t get a certain folk song out of my head.

You may know it as “Erie Canal.” Burl Ives, Pete Seeger, Bruce Springsteen and others have recorded versions of the original 1905 song, written by Thomas S. Allen, who titled it “Low Bridge, Everybody Down.” I can practically guarantee that once you hear this song, you too will be quietly humming, whistling or singing it. (Google: <Bruce Springsteen Erie Canal song> for a listen.)

More than a century ago, thousands of miles of canals were built to bring goods from the hinterland to coastal ports. During this rather short-lived era, canal locks and masonry arches, pulleys, cranes and acqueducts, as well as the humble mule, played an integral role in what was then deemed a maritime transportation revolution. The men, women and children who lived and worked along a canal route were called “canalers.”

Here comes the fun part. The Museum’s Building America’s Canals exhibit is a hands-on opportunity for visitors of all ages to role-play as a “canaler.”  Want to be  a canal engineer, a  lock tender, a canalboat captain or maybe a crane operator? You can do it! The 1,600-foot exhibit has a bench for each activity you choose. For computer  buffs, there’s also a computer game in which you build and operate a lock, virtual dynamite included to blast the route your canal will take!

Although railroads gradually replaced the necessity and importance of most of these waterways, the nostalgia for the canal era lingers on in folk songs like “Erie Canal.” I’ll leave you with the first verse:

I’ve got a mule and her name is Sal
Fifteen miles on the Erie Canal
She’s a good old worker and a good old pal
Fifteen miles on the Erie Canal

 I can hear you singing it now!                                              

Blog written by Trudi Busey.                                               

Building America’s Canals, an exhibit organized by the National Canal Museum, will be open in the Mallory Building at Mystic Seaport January 30 – October 11, 2010.