Newport RI - 41 49.39N 071 23.80W

OOJAH's AWESOME ODYSSEY
Peter & Christene Tanner
Sun 14 Sep 2014 13:19
We have been in Newport most of this week. The boat show is on & although a little smaller than Southampton it was a lot of fun - more motor boats than sail but lots of atmosphere. We also went up to the Herreshoff Museum in Bristol & marvelled at the exhibits. Nat Herreshoff & his brother John produced about 10 consecutive Americas Cup winning yachts early in the 20th century including some of the biggest yachts ever raced as well as delightful day boats. He understood the importance of light weight & pushed the boundaries forward. Awesome stuff! Newport is also the home of some superb historic houses & the Newport Mansions Preservation Society have restored & opened about 10 to the public. These multimillion $ houses were built as summer houses in the late 19th & early 20th century by people such as the Vanderbilts & are unbelievably opulent. The 70 room Breakers is adorned with gold & platinum leaf, rare marble & gilded wood. The Great Gatsby was filmed at nearby Rosecliff. All this effort was for a 10 week season - to 'make it' a hostess would be expected to hold at least 6 dinner parties for at least 60 guests & 2 balls for at least 600. There would have been around 40 'staff' living in. The solid marble baths had to be filled at least 4 times to get them up to temperature. The women changed their attire around 7 times a day. The budget would have been around $7m, an incredible sum of money even for 'The Gilded Age' of the late 1800's and early 1900's. Fortunately our life is rather more simple out in the anchorage - it's time to fix the toilet again!

With love from Peter & Christene

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