Sarah's Blog

Discovery Magic's Blog
John & Caroline Charnley
Thu 8 Jul 2010 14:35

Sarah Patten, who runs the Discovery Office, joined us for 4 days and writes:

After 20 hours travelling I finally arrived in Newport at 7pm and was met by
John at the bus station.  With a cloudless sky and brilliant sunshine we
strolled down to the harbour to meet Caroline and went for a delicious meal
on the waterfront.

 
This was my first real experience of America and the first thing I noticed
was how wonderfully polite and welcoming the Americans are.  I love it
when you say thank you to someone, their immediate response is "You're
welcome" and a genuine smile - how refreshing!

We took the dinghy back to the boat and I have to say that at this point I was a
little nervous about the forthcoming four days aboard the Cat.  Not nervous
about the company or the surroundings but about being on a boat for so long.
You see, I'm not a sailor and have spent a very minimal amount of time on a
boat - the longest being about 3 hours sailing on a small boat in the Solent
- so I was a little apprehensive to say the least.

Having seen the Catamaran being built from the very start to the minute she
left the factory I had an idea of what to expect but I wasn't prepared for
how luxurious and stunning she actually was.  With this and John and
Caroline being incredibly welcoming,  I immediately felt relaxed, safe and
excited about the coming few days.

After a good nights sleep, we had a look around Newport, did a bit of
shopping and saw the actual Americas Cup that was visiting for the day! This was followed by a quick fun American lesson from John (Buoy = Boo ee, Rubbish = Trash, Pavement = Sidewalk, Aluminium = Aluminum etc.) before setting sail for Martha's Vineyard!  We spent the journey enjoying the sun and studying the pilot book (homework given to me by John!) to choose where we wanted to stop for the night. 

We decided on Vineyard Haven which was very pretty.  We explored the town that evening, and then the next morning we went ashore and hopped on a bus to visit Oak Bluffs and Edgartown.


Oak Bluffs was quite stunning and we spent a while wondering through the
famous Gingerbread Cottages.  In the area known now as the Martha's Vineyard
Campground Meeting Association (MVCMA) or "The Campground", up to 12,000 members of the Methodist church would come each summer to pitch tents and have open air meetings. As these meetings became more and more popular, returning visitors began replacing the tents with small wooden buildings generally now known as Gingerbread Cottages. This name originated from the ornate moulding and
bright colours that these summer homes were painted and because of their
quaint, almost storybook look.  We could have stayed for much longer but our
schedule was quite tight so we hopped back on the bus with the next stop
Edgartown.
One of New England's most elegant communities, Edgartown was Martha's
Vineyard's first colonial settlement. The stately white Greek Revival houses
built by the whaling captains have been carefully maintained.  Main Street
is a picture book setting with its harbour and waterfront. We spent a couple of hours in the fascinating museum, but could easily have spent all day there.

To sum up, Martha's Vineyard was stunning and we could quite happily have
stayed for a lot longer.  Definitely somewhere I would go back to and
certainly somewhere I would recommend.

We reluctantly left Martha's Vineyard on Friday afternoon and began our sail
toward Marion just outside of the Cape Cod Canal.  This was to be our
destination for the night before travelling up the canal and on to
ProvincetownMarion was small and quiet and extremely picturesque.  We
diligently studied the Pilot Guide on the way to find out things to see and
do and places to eat.  We quickly came to the conclusion that there wasn't
much there and that the only places to eat were Bob's pizza place or a Steak
House just out of town.  We decided on the Steak House and set off on our 2
mile (ish) walk along Route 6 (that's Rowt 6 in American!) to what we hoped
was going to be a feast.  Well, the food was average and the wine was awful
but we still had a great time and the atmosphere and experience of eating in
a typical American diner was brilliant and a first for me.

Early Saturday morning we started our trip up the Cape Cod Canal and arrived
in Provincetown late afternoon. 

Provincetown is colourful, vibrant, and buzzing and is proud of its rich
heritage, history and natural resources.  It is where the Pilgrim Fathers first landed on the Mayflower.  It is also America's oldest art colony, the birthplace of American playwriting, and named "best gay resort town" It is a bike ride from two of America's best beaches.  As the guidebook quite rightly says, P-Town is like nowhere else!
We toured round the town on a 40 minute bus ride and then had a wander
around the streets and the shops taking in the wonderful atmosphere.  Then a
fantastic dinner in Napi's restaurant (not a very appetizing name for a
restaurant!).

Sunday was sadly the last day of my trip but what a day it was!  We set off from Provincetown at about 05:00am.  John and Caroline got up at 04:45 to make sure we got a good start - It was a bit early for me and I slept right through until about 08:00am - a much more civilised hour!  I couldn't
believe it when we arrived into Boston just as the first celebrations for Independence Day started.  The timing was perfect! The oldest commissioned warship in the world that's still afloat had just sailed from its berth at the Charlestown Navy Yard in Boston.  Launched in 1797, the USS Constitution won lasting fame with a series of victories over British warships in the War of
1812. It was retired from active service in 1855 and remains one of Boston's biggest tourist attractions, with more than a half million visitors each year. The crew performed a 17-gun salute near the Coast Guard Station in Boston, whilst the fire boats did their spray salute. The Queen Mary 2 was also in town.  All this happened at exactly the same time as we arrived - it was pretty amazing!!
A quick tour round Boston in the afternoon and then onto the grand finale - the Independence Day fireworks display which I can only describe as "awesome".  From 10:30pm until 11:00pm the sky was alight with one of the most spectacular fireworks displays I have ever seen - what a way to finish my trip.
An early start on Monday morning to the airport when I reluctantly left John and Caroline and Discovery Magic which had become "home" over the past few days. I had a wonderful trip and I forgot to mention that John makes a wicked rum punch!

 

Pictures show our arrival in Boston with the USS Constitution saluting us.  (It may also have something to do with Independence Day.). Difficult to capture the fireworks, but the sunset picture taken from the dinghy on the way across the harbour to the fireworks, shows how hard it is to beat nature!




 

 

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