Friday. Final jobs. A nice day???
30 October 2009
• Newport, RI
by Mike
Today dawned, dare I say it?, sunny!?? It has been a great day for getting stuff done in readiness for putting to sea.
We got the immigration certificates for the dog and cat - the only thing about it is that it expires on the 6th so if we don't leave on Sunday we will have to get it renewed; we straightened the mizzen with Ron's help, and also with both Ron, Barb and the folks from the next door, we got the dink up on the roof of the cabin and ready for sea. Now, let's see, what else do I need to do? Well, I must change the oil and fuel filter changed, and I need to mess around with the NMEA bus to see if I can get everything to talk to each other. I suppose I could have done it today, but I got lazy and made the excuse that I needed something to do tomorrow.
The town is much more active today as the Queen Mary is in port and has dicgourged about 2000 consumers into the community. We were walking down the street wondering where all the Germans and Dutch and Japanese had come from, only to look ot at Goat Island and see the Queen dwarf the condos and hotels over there.
Hank Schmidt, the organize of this event arrived and went about handing out packages which included a very good ring bound pamphlet on offshore cruising, customs forms for Bermuda, a rally flag, and numerous other bits of reading material that we'll plough through during the passage. Most of the boats are here now and we are up to 30 with a last minute entry. They range from 37 to 67 feet and run the gamut from cutters to catamarans, from wooden gaff rigged schooner to sleek 65' Swan cutters. Pretty heady company! We are starting to get quite excited. Tonight there will be an unofficial meet and greet at the RHINO Bar and Grill with we will attend for form's sake and force ourselves to consume a beer or two. Tomorrow in the skipper's meeting and the following day will be the weather brief and, hopefully, the send off.
Last night the Canadian contingent went out to a place called Billie Goode's for dinner and had prime rib with the fixin's for $6.95! Everyone was saying "Too much meat", while scarfing it all down. The place was clearly a neighbourhood bar, and Billie was a fellow who had made his initial fortune during prohibition by being an open speakeasy. Tonight we are treating ourselves to a lobster dinner after the social at the Rhino. Ymmmmmm.
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