On July 12th, we sailed into John's Bay through the Thread of Life, a narrow passage between rocky islands, with our spinnaker flying. We were all feeling very excited about arriving at our final destination and also quite sad that our time together with Open Gates was ending. It has been an amazing adventure and none of us has been able to face making our final blog post, despite the fact that we have spent a few days camping out in our NYC apartment and all four of us are looking forward to our city year. The kids love our apartment and say it is much bigger than they expected. We found a couple of very close dog parks and Basha seems to think that city life is fine with him. Today was Dave's first day of his fellowship and he scrubbed on a shoulder scope case. He is enthusiastic about getting back to orthopaedics and excited about the learning opportunities that NYU will offer. The kids and I are in Maine. Our furniture and belongings should arrive in the next few days and we plan to store what we will not use in NY in Maine. I am getting Open Gates ready to be hauled and stored for the winter in East Boothbay. It is definitely a time of major transition.

July 8th and 9th We left Sandwich Marina at 0630 and had a very pleasant sail to Boston. We arrived in the early afternoon with plenty of time to help Chad get ready for his trip to Poulsbo to see his friend Taylor. I even managed to send him with a duffle of clean clothes. Chad was incredibly excited about going to visit with Taylor.

In Boston we stayed at a marina very near Quincy Market. It was a hot couple of days. Basha and Ben enjoyed cooling off in the fountains that are a park that has replaced Route 93 after the Big Dig to create a tunnel for 93. We found the waterfront area so nice that we wished that residents of Seattle had a chance to visit before voting on how to replace their waterfront viaduct. Ben and Dave spent a day together getting haircuts, going to an IMAX movie about sharks and visiting the Aquarium. We had a chance to visit with Uncle Bear, and The Guy family. Unfortunately, Mallory fell at the swimming pool and her recovery thwarted our plans to see Beth, Caroline, Mallory and meet David.

Basha loved meeting other dogs at the waterfront park. He enjoys every bit of attention, both canine and human, that he gets.

Heather had a fun visit with her friend Nancy Klein and Nancy came down to Open Gates for a late night visit. Turns out that Nancy's husband grew up in Stuyvesant Town and her inlaws still live in the building right next to ours. Peter attended PS 40, Chad's school, when he was a kid!

Boston at Boston Yachthaven 042 21 .29 071 02.01 W

The fog lifted in Buzzards Bay and we had a fantastic sail the Cape Cod Canal. We arrived in the canal on a flooding tide and sailed through with 3+ knots of favorable current. We arrived at the Sandwich Marina in time for Dave to participate in a phone deposition for his moonlighting work.

In the evening Ty and Bob Forbush came to meet Basha, see Open Gates and share Nancy's Quahog's with us. Basha enjoyed easy access to shore and became brave enough to travel up and down the metal ramps on the docks.