Not another boat show!
Catacaos
Graham Shaw
Sun 17 Oct 2010 02:07
In Port Jefferson we woke to the anchor alarm going off, the wind was at 40
knots, we were at
the full extent of our chain, and fired the engine up to give a little help
to
our anchor. Another catamaran anchored near us ended practically on a pier,
luckily
they managed to get themselves off. All fun and games of being at sea,
thankfully no boats really close to us so there was plenty of space to
swing.
The following day, we headed to 79th Street Boat Basin in New York. This was
the first time
for my Mummy to see New York, so she was in awe of it all. A bit of treat
with a sea plane lading next to us. Of course a
visit to Times Square, and all the hot spots of Manhattan were in order. We
also managed a ride on the ferry to Statten Island, so mum could get a
closer look at Lady Liberty.
We also managed to catch up with Nicola and Mikey, who now are back in New
York, it was nice to see how they were settling back into life on land.
Last time we met up with them was back in Antigua in April. Mikey is just
releasing his first album called 'Subject to Contract'. We also had a
glance of their book of Panadora and their travels. It was lovely to catch
up with them.
Mum caught a flight back from JFK, Lucas will very much miss his play mate
for the last two weeks, he is convinced that Grandma lives in a plane. We
headed out of New York, as usual the forcast was wrong in wind direction
and speed so we had a lively one coming out until we turned the corner, then
it calmed down. We decided to do one hit straight down to Annapolis, as if
we
did not we would have been stuck for a number of days. It was a good sail
in the end, wind just right for Catacaos, so we were over taking lots of
boats, my favourite occupation (just a little competitive hey?).
Annapolis Boat Show seems to be the meeting point for everyone going south,
so yet again catching up with lots of friends we have met on the way. We
anchored just of Charade, who we first met in Mustique. Arnaud, Carole and
their little ones Hugo, Ambre and
Romain, so Lucas had lots of friends to play with. Every morning he would
get up and say can we go to Romain's boat to play with his toys - bless him.
We also bumped into Howard and Priscilla who we met up in Shelbourne,
Canada,
so that was lovely to catch up with them. We had a good look at all the
lovely catamarans, hearing that there was good feedback on John and
Caroline's boat Discovery Magic. Gray
and I managed a look at Gazelle the South African built Gunboat, very nice,
made
competely out of carbon fibre, very light, 66ft long and it flys. Gray
hoping
for a lottery win for this boat. Very dispointed on the way all the
Fountaine
Pajots (this is what we have) are going. All the new models are very much
the charter cat.
We were very restrained at this boat show, only bought the essential stuff,
until we approached the Sailrite stand. Sailrite sell industrial strength
sewing
machines, and our friends Andy and Sue on Spruce had bought one recently and
were raving about how
wonderful and useful it is. Well, how could we resist, with
boat show discount? So we purchased one, which has proven its
worth already. The only trouble the list of jobs to do with it are
growing by the day.
At the end of the boat show we met up with Sandy and Bill from Dragonfly who
had
invited us over for Canadian Thanksgiving, which was
lovely. Clearly American turkey tastes much nicer than English turkey, or
was
it that special cooking touch by Sandy? Also Bo and Molly joined us - a
labrador and a bernese mountain dog, so Lucas was the perfect height for
kisses.
Off south, we only managed Solomon's Island, not to be confused with City of
Gold and Congo etc. It's a lovely place- this is now the third time we have
been here, so we know our
way around. We found a dive shop that do quarry diving, but it is
apparently
warm at 70F (that's 22 celcius), still not warm enough for me!
Sandy and Bill turned up last night, so managed to put the world to rights
yet again.
Off again tomorrow.
