England and Malta

Sorry blog-readers, this trip away from the boat is all about catching up with friends and relations and so the photos are of people that are important to me, but maybe not so much to you.

Celebrating Daryl's birthday with his son Ben and wife Karin.

Daughter Janine could not be there, but surprised us with a lovely bottle of champagne to start the evening, well done girl!

Delicious!

In England I love to catch up with Val, a best friend from way back when.

There is always a fair bit of wine involved and a lot of chat. The men usually get tired and slide off, but we sit a talk for hours, trying to cram months of news into an evening or two.

Leaving Daryl in England, I headed off to Malta to spend a week with my family. I like to go on my own, so then I can sit and chat for hours, with only short breaks for a swim, or a bit of sun.

The island is still hot and dry in September, but later this month a little rain is expected, which should help to settle the dust and water the parched trees and plants on the island.

Jane, my sister, won a week's holiday to Lake Garda. So her and her daughter Ashley are off to Italy with the compliments of her favourite supermarket.

Glad to here that someone wins these things, and it it worth filling out those annoying pieces of paper, while juggling bags of shopping and handbags.

17.30 is tea time.

Mum and I sit and chat over a cup of tea and a biscuit.

Each evening anyone who was around would meet for a drink and a chat outside Mum's place. It used to be the stables, and so I christened it 'The Stable Bar'.

Always a good laugh, and always rather loud, with several conversations going on simultaneously.

I thought the Greeks were a loud lot, but I think the Maltese outdo them!

Hurricane Warning!

Better safe than sorry!

We decided to lift the boat out of the water as hurricane 'Irene' approached.

South of us, the winds were very destructive and a decision was needed quickly, as the shipyard filled up.

Front Street Shipyard, in Belfast, Maine,has a wide travel lift, perfect for our beam, the staff are great and extremely helpful. We are now checked into a motel for a while. There we watched the weather channel and became expert meteorologists overnight!!

A great opportunity to catch up on all the laundry and here in Belfast, they have the biggest one that I have ever seen!

There are 52 washing machines and 40 dryers, it's amazing.

It is always busy, full of locals who must not have facilities at home.

Relaxing in the shipyard with our good friends from 'Espirito del Stella', they also lifted their cat out of the water for Irene and good company to explore the local bars and restaurants with!

At the end of the week, we plan to go to England for a break, while we see what happens to the next hurricane, which is moving this way across the Atlantic. It is said to be a bad hurricane season this year, so we are better away from the boat, there is nothing to be done in such gale force winds, except keep safe and watch it on the TV!!

Maine

FOG!

As we approach the coast of Maine in thick fog, the vis is about 50 meters and that is not the only hazard - there are lobster pots EVERYWHERE, and dodging them is serious work.

Daryl said that if I ran over one, I would have to get in the water and free it. That certainly kept my attention on the job!

Camden.

Great to visit this busy town again. Met up with an old friend 'Michael',I used to crew with, 'back in the day'!

Had a wonderful lunch at the yacht club with him and his family and enjoyed talking about old times and watching the beautiful boats sail in and out of the harbour.

In Maine most of the yachts are wooden and in kept in perfect condition, we have just been to Southwest Harbour, where the famous 'Hinckleys' are built and it is just wonderful to see such beautifully maintained boats sailing around here.

There are buoys attached to lobster pots are absolutely everywhere.

Each fisherman's license allows him to lay as many as 800 pots, and they will pick up these pots every other day.

One of the locals at Bar Harbour said that they were harvesting between 1100lbs and 1400lbs of lobsters each day!

This is big money, and apparently there is quite a lot of antagonism between the different fisherman gangs, and they carry shotguns on the boats! Mental note: be nice to the lobstermen.

Maine is beautiful, when you can see the coastline! But so much of the time, it is really foggy and all you can see is the bow of the boat!

But so much of the time it is like this, and motoring along feels almost like floating on air.

We headed for Rockland for the Maine Lobster Festival! What a great event, loads of lobster and good seafood, originally started to get rid of all the excess lobster caught in these waters. Even got interviewed by the local TV station and appeared on the local news that night!!

Cape Cod

After a brief stop in Newport, Rhode Island, we head north again.

We took a short cut through the Cape Cod canal, and here we are following our friends in another cat.

The current can be quite scary in some of these places, running at about 4 knots, it is important to get it right!!

Provincetown, Cape Cod is a favourite spot for the gay crowd.

It is a buzzing place and lots of bars and restaurants to choose from. Lots of live music and plenty of colourful characters to watch!!

After leaving Provincetown we headed north, across a bank where the whales spend the summer. Great to see so many, but very hard to get a good photo of one.

Sunsets at sea are always lovely.

We are doing an overnight sail to Maine now, the spinnaker is flying and the forecast is good!

New York

Approaching New York early morning, you can just see the Statue of Liberty in the background.

Great sights all over the place, too many to post here. But have just selected a few things that appealed to me.

We visited lots of Museums and Art Galleries and did a bit of shopping. The weather was very, very hot and so anywhere that had AC was worth a visit!

Motoring up the Hudson River, we saw this huge cage thing. Then realized that it was a net around a football pitch on the shore!

This is part of the 'High Line Park' in Manhattan's Westside. It was previously a train track, built 30ft above the ground to keep the noise level down. When under a demolition order, someone had the bright idea to make it into a park. It is beautiful and popular walk in amongst very naturalistic planting.

Multi-storey car parking here, space is just so expensive!

Times Square is always busy in the evenings, lots of buzz and lots to see. Our favourite restaurant is on one of the corners and we can sit and watch the people go by there.

The last in New York, sitting on the deck with a cool Gin and Tonic in hand against this fabulous backdrop.

It was 43.9C that last day and we shall be glad to move north to some cooler weather.

Chesapeake Bay, Virginia

And so on to Virginia!

These are Ospreys, often seen nesting on the navigation posts.

They are a protected species here and many locals construct special platforms for them, rather than run the risk of them nesting in the rigging of their boats.

(This red navigation post is on our starboard side coming in to the harbour. In the States it is the reverse of most countries and can be quite confusing!)

We anchored in Mobjack Bay in front of the Elmington Mansion, what a beautiful setting for a country house.

John Lennon also had a pad somewhere along this too, rather secluded, but stunning landscape.

We met Judy and Donnie at the fuel quay at the Deltaville marina.

They suggested a good anchorage was in front of their house and showed us wonderful hospitality.

Donnie showed us his 'man-cave', where he keeps some of his collection of Corvettes. He had three in this cave and one of them only had 4 miles on the clock!! Beautiful cars in perfect condition.

Leaving the anchorage early for the passage to New York, it was a fabulous sunrise.

Daryl has checked all his favourite weather sites and it all looks good.

South Carolina

Whilst we were anchored in the creek of Edisto Island, a boat full of locals pitched up.

They invited over to their house on the river for a sun-downer and persuaded us to stay for a meal and some local food. A delicious meal of fresh fish, including okra and some white corn.

Southern hospitality at it's best.

Charleston.

We visited one of the large plantation houses, this one is called Boone Hall.

The lowlands of this marshy area are perfect for growing rice, and this plantation is one of the few ones still working, although possibly not as profitably as in the slave days.

I should think most of the revenue comes from the tourists these days

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These small brick houses are the quarters of the more important and of course, more valuable slaves! Positioned just off the driveway to the main house, it seemed to us that the plantation owners were showing off the amount of slaves to any visitors.

The Aquarium in Charleston was excellent. The most interesting exhibit to me was this albino alligator, a very r

are animal that would never survive in the wild because of it's unusual colour, or lack of it!

Celebrating the 4th July at the Charleston Yacht Club. The local members were interested in our travels and made us feel very welcome. We enjoyed a b'que and watched the fireworks from the balcony of the club.