Have I been dropped from the blog?
UHURU
Steve Powell
Tue 13 Oct 2009 10:22
I have had a number of pleas via email and nervous enquires through mutual friends all wanting to know.....
“HAVE I BEEN DROPPED FROM THE BLOG?”
NO, YOU DON’T GET OFF THAT EASILY. It’s all down to my tawdry behaviour, here we are having been back on the water for nearly a month and no blog. What excuses can I offer, too busy? NO. Having too much fun, possibly. Because we certainly have been having fun. No, the real reason is that I tend to save the blogs for those long lonely nights when we are sailing along under the stars. Well I haven’t had any “long lonely nights recently”, up until tonight, because Beans has been with me for the past three weeks and only flew home yesterday. And we have had a “loda loda fun”.
We came over together at the beginning of the month and spent the first couple of days cleaning up the boat getting it ready for the Morgan’s and the Hagan’s who were joining us for the first couple of weeks. Now I did promise when I started this blog that I wouldn’t write endless travel logs, “first we went here, then we went there”, etc, etc,. But I must highlight the some elements of our first couple of weeks just to give you a feel for where we’ve been.
Our first port of call was Martha’s Vineyard home of the rich and famous, and playground of many, many Kennedy’s and US Presidents. Obama just holidayed there. Also, probably more memorable, the film location for ‘Jaws’. We went into Edgartown, which was Amityville in ‘Jaws’, and we tied up right on the same jetty that the film was shot on. But could we buy a copy of the video anywhere?? NO. I think the locals are trying to deny the movie was filmed here. But it was very picturesque.
After much debate about whether we would get on a “Tour Bus” full of rather large grey haired people, I found Wayne, whose family has been running a taxi/carriage service since 1870’s on Martha’s Vineyard. His business card had a picture of his Great Gran Dad with the original family horse & cart! And I just want everyone to know, ‘for the record’, I did NOT throw a wobbly about getting on a tour bus, I just like ‘private tours’.
One of the highlights of the ‘private’ tour with Wayne was a visit to Oak Bluffs, which fascinating. A small harbour village it started as a summer retreat for a religious revivalist group back in the 1850’s. They started of camping near the beach and meeting in the tented chapel in the middle of the campsite. Then over the years they started building cottages instead of tents. So now there are about 300 little ‘Ginger Bread’ Cottages built all in a circle on tinny plots of land that have passed down through generations based on the original tent plot.
L-R: “I ain’t getting on no Ficking Tour Bus!!!”. “Ginger Bread” Houses, and Larsen’s Fish Market. Wayne’s family fish monger, all fish, lobster, shrimp, etc, caught by Wayne’s family.
*****LIVE UPDATE: The gambling capital of the East Coast, Atlantic City, is just now slipping by our starboard side and we are not stopping, despite, or perhaps because of Tony’s gambling problem! We are now on our way south to Cape May before heading up the Delaware River. Onboard are Tony Cadman, David ‘Bottie” Botterill and Ollie Pettifer, of Bermuda leg fame, who joined me as full time 1st Mate a couple of days ago.
Food, Food, Food...... And a little drinkies was the main feature of this leg as we left Martha’s Vineyard and and made various stops at Block Island, Sag Harbour, in the Hamptons, Long Island, and Port Jefferson, Long Island, all on our way to Stamford, Connecticut, to visit some friends of the Hagan’s.
We set a fine table most nights onboard as we dined our way across New England. L-R: Morgies, Beans, Hagan’s and a lot of Lobster, shrimp, tuna, etc, etc,.
We had a champagne sail into Stamford, a perfect fetch in 20+kts of wind and slights seas. Wonderful, and a testament to the quality of sailing here in Long Island Sound.
I am going to stick to my “blog rules” and not set a precedent by turning the blog into a vehicle for thanking people for their hospitality otherwise it will get boring for everyone else, I will do that privately. But we were entertained royally in Stamford, more food, more wine and a great evening in the Stamford Yacht Club.
The next day we were due to sail up the East River into Manhattan, NY.
*****LIVE UPDATE: Well as you are aware I’m a little behind with my blogs and trying to play catch up. On Sunday night (25th) we left NY and sailed south passing Atlantic City and reaching a little fishing harbour in Cape May, Which is in the mouth of the Delaware River. We had a great sail, goose winged all the way, weather perfect. Had a quite evening onboard, trying to watch a movie. We all fell asleep 20 minutes after dinner. Party animals us!!
We are now motoring up the Delaware River in the most appalling conditions, wet, cold and horrible. Our plan is to go up the Delaware River and cross across to the northern part of Chesapeake Bay via the Delaware-Chesapeake Canal.
Next blog: UHURU sails up the East River.
Trust your all well,
And happy sailing from a smug bastard whose happy to be back onboard.
27th October 2009
PS. Tracker is STILL not working so please go to my blog site for latest positions. http://blog.mailasail.com/uhuru
Steve Powell (Owner/Skipper)
UHURU of Lymington
steve {CHANGE TO AT} uhuru {DOT} mailasail {DOT} com
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