Back To New York and Back

Welcome back to the latest edition of The Boatblog ® 

Since we left you last month in Newport, Rhode Island, we have travelled over 7,000 nautical miles. Which would be impressive, but 6,800 of them were with Virgin Airlines – but more of that later.

We were persuaded by our friends from the Ocean Cruising Club, Bill & Laurie Balme on Toodleoo to join them in Nantucket, which they promised us was like Martha’s Vineyard on steroids. it was quite a long sail, but having had our bottom scraped in Newport (ooh missus), and with the tide in our favour, we averaged nearly 9 knots over ground. Which for a cruiser is olympic standard. A Nantucket sleigh ride, as they say over here. 

And well worth the trip it was too. This is Nantucket harbour from the roof of the whaling museum.

…and this is with Bill and Laurie.

We spent a day cycling round the island which was fun.

Alas, all too soon, it was time to leave. But where to next?

So many places, so little time. We decided on Block Island, just the other side of Martha’s Vineyard.

Climbing down The Bluffs on Block Island. The pictures of us climbing back up The Bluffs aren’t so smiley.

In fact we were so knackered we needed to go to the world famous Oars Bar to recover.

World famous for it’s “Mudslides,” which are cocktails with an almost lethal alcohol content. Much fun was had trying to get back into the dinghy.

They like to celebrate strange numbers of years of living on Block Island. This stone was to commemorate 250 years since the first settlers arrived. Latin scholars will know this as the tercentennial. 

And a hundred years later, it was time to celebrate the semiseptenial, which I’m guessing means half of a septennial (which I presume is 700 years). So there you go. Three hundred and fifty years since the first settlers arrived.

Can’t wait till the seminoncentenial.

Then from Block Island it was just a short hop to Montauk, where we spent a couple of days before heading across Long Island sound to Uncasville, where we had heard there was a Mohegan Powwow. 

The regalia was fantastic. As was the music and drumming.

We used our base in New London to explore Mystic Seaport, which is a sort of Disneyland with old boats.

The Good Ol’Days

It makes putting our sail up seem like a doddle.

That’s a lot of rope.

Soon we had to get back to New York, because Joe and Alice were coming out to see us. On the way down the river a submarine surfaced right next to us.

The guys in the little boats had huge machine guns aimed at us, and they suggested that we didn’t come any closer. We took their kind advice.

We met Joe and Alice in Port Washington, and sailed back down the East River to meet Rory in New York.

Joe bought us a telescope for the boat.

Alice only had a weekend with us, so Rory and Zoe took charge and showed us the sights of Brooklyn, and Manhattan, including Chelsea market and The Schmorgasburg.. Shmorguz… Shoegas…The Gourmet Food Market. We went ten pin bowling, where Ju and Lyn put the youngsters to shame, Ju winning and Lyn coming a close second. Ju always said that sailing is one of the few sports you can take up at fifty and still be the youngest one in the group. Other than bowls. And here was the proof.

Rory and Zoe then took us for the best Sunday Brunch in Manhattan, with their famous all-you-can-drink-in-two-hours cocktails. Now there’s a challenge.

This photo of the brunch is a result of Lyn experimenting with the panorama feature on her phone. 

Either that or the two hours of cocktails have had a bigger effect than we thought. 

A Night At The Museum

All too soon, Alice had to go back to England. While we went to San Fransisco (actually to Los Gatos, but you won’t have heard of that) with Joe to visit Lyn’s niece Vanessa, her husband Jez and their four fantastic kids, Olly, Max, Toby and Scarlett. So technically we are Great Uncle Julian and Great Aunt Lyn which makes us sound very old.

We left Domini in New York, and six hours later we were on the West Coast. Faster than sailing, but not so much fun. And you get jet lag. 

We were the typical West Coast tourists. We went to see the giant redwood trees.

Rode the trolley buses.

Went to the beach.

Left to right:- Jez, Vanessa, Olly, Ju, Scarlett, Lyn & Joe. We think that’s Toby in the distance about to jump in the sea.

Photography: Max Crowe

 That’s The Pacific. We’ve not sailed that one.

Yet!

We went in a submarine..

..saw Alcatraz…

And went to an antique amusement arcade which was brilliant.

Pinball Wizard

Helpful advice

Interesting that in the good ol’ days, ‘nudist’ was considered a career choice. And we’ve no idea what a taxi dancer does, but as jobs go….

Jez, who is very high up at Apple, took us for lunch at his work. This is the entrance to the inner sanctum…

…or as you might say, the Apple core.

Boom! Tisch!

It’s the way I tell ’em.

Overlooking the Lone Cypress.

Is Joe getting taller, or is Lyn shrinking?

Joe & Toby

We’d never realised that California was so dangerous. If the lions or the oak trees don’t get you…

..the spiders will.

And this blog’s prize for Arty Farty photo goes (for the first time) to Ju, for his picture of the World Trade Centre called “Can you get vertigo from below?”

…and a close second is “Tall Trees.”

That’s it for now. We’re just getting the boat ready now to begin the journey south.

Keep on boatblogging.

 

Ju & Lyn

 

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