Spent the last few days cleaning and now the boat is white again. In the morning we hired a car and set off to collect Max, who arrives at JFK at 13.30 – the west end of Long Island. We drove there via The Hamptons, known for large summer homes of the rich and famous. Slightly disappointing as many of these homes do seem to appreciate privacy and are behind huge privet hedges! Interesting to have seen it though - and we got another chance to look at the Atlantic!

Picked up Max - hooray - he is here until 22^nd. We then went to see Oheka Castle, a huge pseudo French Chateau that Nick wanted to look at as it was featured in the opening scenes of Citizen Cane. It was impressive with lovely grounds, but not quite like the real thing! We did pretend to be rich and famous though and went in for a drink in their bar to welcome Max to this side of the pond!

Next stop, back to Brooklyn as Benj’s aunt and uncle had invited us for supper (Ethan and Eva). They live in an apartment within a real Brooklyn Brownstone - so named because of the brown stone that was quarried in Minnesota and then ground down and applied as a render to the large brick row houses. Constructed as fairly modest homes for the white collar workers who lived in them at the end of the 19^th century, they are much like our large Victorian terraces and now just as desirable. We left much too late, after a wonderful evening in their company getting back to the boat at 03.30. We are hoping to meet up with them again at the weekend when we come back to New York in the boat.