Washington DC

We were so lucky that a friend of Beryls – Ann called and invited us to join her for a day of custom Site-Seeing.

Ann picked us up in her car at Arlington Cemetary… where we began.

Arlington is a military cemetery, now the resting place for over 400,000 people, 
one of these being Ann’s late husband

Whilst there, we saw a horse-drawn caisson, carrying an American flag-draped casket.  We stopped to pay respect as the lone bugler played the 24 lingering notes of Taps, and the 21 gun salute

We went to the final resting place of John F Kennedy and Jacqui Onassis Kennedy

A lot of the places we went were quite surreal, having seen them in movies

The view from Arlington House, The Robert E Lee Memorial was beautiful

We then went to the Kennedy Arts Centre Building...

They had flags of the states and flags of the world
- we were amazed that the NZ flag was so prominent!..

The DC Cathedral, which took 83 years to build was amazing

with beautiful stained glass throughout

We are extremely grateful to Ann for a wonderful day.

Mythical Cousin...

Knowing we were going to be in Annapolis for a month, we contacted Richards Cousin Peter - the Mythical Cousin!  Hearing of him over the years from family, however never meeting.

What a treat we were in for!

We spent last weekend with Peter and his lovely wife Carla.  

We had the most fantastic time.

We chatted together as if we had known each other all our lives

We wined and dined, eating Maryland Oysters and Crab

They took us touring around their town - Baltimore, 

showing us the family home from when Peter was a lad…

They even taught us the game of "American Football"

It was sad to say goodbye, however we have no doubt we will meet again somewhere

They showed us the art of eating "Crab" - yes the table is loaded with whole Crab

(using your hands and a hammer is the trick to it)

While showing us around, we came across this little town with the most interesting name!...

The scenery was gorgoues...

Two guesses what time of the year it is???

Richard with his (not mythical) cousin Peter...

Thank you Carla and Peter for a lovely weekend!

Colours...

We received an email from David & Diana letting us know they would be visiting their son in USA.

It had been 10 years since we had seem them when we visited them at their home in the UK.

(David and Richard had been at Primary and Secondary school together.)

They invited us to join them for the weekend…
We had a really lovely time with them, enjoying the beautiful colours of Shenandoah National Park, and catching up on the 10 years gone by with lovely food, wine and fantastic company…

Thank you so much to Diana and David for inviting us.

Time Flies...

It has been a month and a half since my last entry - where has the time gone???

From Gloucester Harbour we headed back to Boston, collecting parcels that had been sent - 

The most amazing being a parcel from home… 

Lynnette and Dean had sent a box of goodies - thank you, thank you, thank you…

We motor-sailed down the coast and through the Cape Cod Canal.

Vineyard Haven there were hundreds of "Gingerbread Houses"…

 We stopped at many anchorages, with names such as Great Salt Pont, Lake Montauk, New Haven.

Leaving Port Washington, we headed back through Hells Gate, and passed the Statue of Liberty for the second time, arriving at Great Kills.

Here we went ashore and had a fabulous long lunch, followed by a bottle of Champagne on Our Rose to acknowledge having left home two years ago (16 September 2012).

We had a wonderful 20 knot easterly, averaging 7 knots, 

sailing from Cape May to the East Side of C & D Canal, where we anchored for the night beside a "Nuclear Power Station" - something you certainly don't see in New Zealand!

The next morning we came through the C & D Canal and into Chesapeake Bay.

We went to an anchorage called Dollar Ninety Eight and had our good mates Brett and Teresa on Seismic Wave come join us for the night - always great fun catching up.

We spent the next few weeks at various anchorages in the Chesapeake,  having to get our "vacuum packed" winter clothes out of storage (which haven't had to come out since we left South Africa).

We have seen some beautiful sunsets in the last month…

The Annapolis Sailboat Boat is one of the largest in the USA.  

Teresa and Brett left Seismic Wave for a couple of nights and driving up to join us to go to the show.

Rudi (and his partner Robert) from Maverick came to see us on Our Rose, joining us for dinner.

Musical Tribute in Rockport and Schooner Festival in Gloucester...

After anchoring in Rockport we immediately went ashore …

What a gorgous place, with boutique stores.

We came across a “large” building which we found was their theatre. 

(The Shalin Liu Performance Centre)

We thought we would see if they had anything on while we were in Rockport.

They had a musical tribute that was being held the next evening.

The view from the theatre was magnificent!

I don’t think Our Rose will have a photo like this anywhere else in the World!

After the concert, we were invited to join people for refreshments,

It was while we were enjoying a glass of wine that we were extremely lucky to be introduced 

to Warren and Martha.

This gorgeous couple live 6 months of the year in Rockport, 6 months in Arizona – this is when they are not on Holland America Cruise ships,

where Warren lectures on “Globilisation” (Warren is in his 80’s!)

Warren and Martha invited us to their home on the following Sunday for dinner,

As we were moving onto Glochester for the Schooner Festival, they also offered to drive over to collect us.

We had the most wonderful evening with them,

and also Brian and Linda friends they had invited to meet us.

Behind the photo of Warren and Martha is a Maori Carving

that they bought on their trip to NZ

When we arrived in Gloucester we had to go and see "The Castle".

John Hays Hammon Jr built his medieval style castle to serve both as his home

And as a backdrop for his collection of medieval and Renaissance artifacts.

The castle housed the Hammond Research Corporation,

From which came over 400 patents and the ideas for over 800 inventions!

2^nd only to Thomas Edison in number of patents, John Hammond was one of Americas premier inventors.

This garden within the Castle walls was designed to with a number gadgets

To have weather patterns occur – fog knee deep, thunder and rain all at the fingertips of John Hammond to amuse and startle his guests

He also had the guest rooms designed, so that when the door closed

You were unable to see where it was – another trick on his guests.

The Barque "Eagle" is  the United States Coastguard tall sailing ship

used for training purposes.

We were lucky enough to have a tour over it

We arrived in Gloucester in time for the 30^th Annual Schooner Festival

What a wonderful sight!