Reunited in New England

So here we are, all together again in our summer cruising ground. Mum and Dad flew in from the UK, via Amsterdam, and I met them at Boston's Logan airport on Monday. Gesa and the kids arrived on Tuesday, their flight was early so they were sitting at the terminal bus stop when I arrived - the kids were very excited to see me, which was lovely. I think Gesa was too but she doesn't run up to me and throw herself around my legs then jump up and down screaming. I guess those days are gone...

We were quietly anchored in a small corner of East Boston, and took advantage of the nearby supermarket to stock up with a couple of hundred dollars worth of supplies - it is so nice to be in the land of plentiful and inexpensive food after six months of very variable Caribbean food stores. There were some very large steaks on the barbecue that night.

On Wednesday, we moved over to a mooring just off downtown Boston, a prime sport right in the heart of this beautiful, favourite city of ours. Boston holds a lot of happy memories for us both, as I used to come here for work a lot, and Gesa joined me a couple of times. We'll be stopping again on our way south and hope to hook up with some old friends then. The family visited the aquarium then we went to Boston Common, found the ducklings (google 'Make Way for Ducklings' if you don't know) and just enjoyed being in a big city for a couple of days.

Once we'd had our fill of skyscrapers and crowds, we motored just forty minutes out to the Harbor Islands, a group of islands on the way into Boston. Suddenly we are in calm, peaceful waters and, for almost the first time since leaving England, we have an anchorage all to ourselves overnight. Beautiful.

In the morning, we take the dinghy to George's Island where the civil war fort, Ft Warren, stnads preserved as a national monument. Free to visit, nicely explained and maintained, we had a lot of fun walking around the walls and rooms of this huge complex. America does it's National Parks very, very well - all those tax dollars put to very good use.

Now we are up in Salem, after a near perfect three hour sail in flat water and gentle breezes, we are anchored in the infamous town where, in 1692, a brief outbreak of hysterical accusations of witchcraft put the town on the map forever. Salem deserves to be remembered as one of the main ports of the USA, building Americas trade links with the rest of the world to circumvent the British embargo on US trade after independence, but in fact it is the persecution and deaths of some twenty innocent men and women that lives on in the memory and tourist attractions of the town. We visit the Salem Witch Museum, which is actually a nicely done exposition of the hyseria, witch trials and ramifications, and also draws parallels with the Macarthy 'witchhunts' and other scapegoating examples.

Tomorrow we move on up the coast, hopefully around Cape Anne and onto the Isles of Shoals, if the weather stays fair. We're heading up to Maine at a fairly brisk pace, so we can cruise south again at our leisure, so we'll cruise for a day, stop for a day and so on until we are up north.

Oh, and it's my birthday today, so whilst Gesa and I went to get the morning loaf of bread, the kids and grandparents decorated the boat so we had a nice breakfast with gifts from all over. And we had home baked brownies (with candles) with our picnic on Salem Common - all a very nice way to celebrate turning thirty seven, which is about as innocuous a birthday as one can have.

Wifi one day soon, so lots of photos to post then.

----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see:

http://www.sailmail.com