You should never trust a man with facial hair or more specifically a moustache. Take Hitler for example, certainly a man not to be trusted, or Tom Sellick as Magnum PI where a big slug seemed to have taken us residence on his top lip and you certainly wouldn’t let your daughter out with the lead singer of AC DC with his handlebars running down his chin. All in all facial furniture is not good. After all the miles Ruffian has done in the nutrient rich brown water in America she was sporting herself a big old ‘ICW moustache’ and it just had to go.

We’d been given a cheeky top tip that to get rid of the nasty brown moustache on Ruffian all we had to do was simply spray the whole hull with lemon juice and wait. Finally in Bristol the breeze died and the sun came out and so did the lemon juice. Magically after spraying the hull, Ruffian turned from a nasty brown colour to sparking white. We’d removed her moustache but in the process we opened a can of worms. Now the rest of her looked filthy and would need cleaning, but that would have to wait until we were in another port and for Iain’s cleaning mojo, which is limited at the best of times, to return.

The next port on the list was Newport, home for many years to the America’s cup, and it was humming with the AC kicking off in San Francisco and the 4th July holiday upon us. Unfortunately, because we didn’t fancy anchoring on a high voltage cable, there was no room at the inn and so we pushed on to the renowned offshore island of Cuttyhunk. Enroute we had a monumental, AC inspired sail, racing all the boats around us, some more successfully than others and entered Cuttyhunk overlapped with a Swan 44. Newport, we hope to be back for the AC proper in months to come.

Cuttyhunk is mainland America’s answer to the Caribbean and takes this role really seriously as it fully operates on island time, where it differs however, is that it is dry! The island is unbelievably charming and harps back to days gone by. There are no cars and nothing moves any more quickly than a golf cart, the library is a single roomed building, as is the elementary school and the church. Children run free and dogs have no idea about leashes and roam about the inland until their owners, of both the dogs and children, call them back in the evening. We were charmed and even more so because we happened to anchor in front of our friends, Bob & Judy who had rescued Thug in Block Island.

As we sailed through the Elizabeth island chain we started to feel like we were back in Scotland. There was rock dodging to be done and stunning scenery on all sides, grand houses, owned by the Forbes family, as is the whole chain, overlooked bay after bay and when we pulled into the stunning Hadley Harbour we even found that they’d laid free mooring balls to ensure that they always have a view.

Hadley Harbour could have been plucked right out of Scotland’s west coast and reminded us of our early travels in this trip. The dawn dinghy safari found misty water with deer frolicking at its edge and boat houses sporting classic wooden boats waiting to be sailed. Where it differed however is that the water was clear and warm enough to swim in and the sun shone making it, to Iain’s consternation, great deck cleaning weather.

Cleaning of the decks was going to be a serious matter and so we broke out some serious product to help. Lemon juice just wasn’t going to be up to the job and so out came the much more manly sounding, oxalic acid (actually an extract from rhubarb). With acid at the ready, lots of elbow grease, a plentiful supply of warm water and a whole afternoon of sunshine Ruffian’s decks were slowly transformed from a grimy brown to a gleaming white and Iain’s cleaning mojo was reduced to an all time low. He now thinks he’s not going to have the mojo to get clean for the month of July, although Fiona is sure she’ll put paid to that thinking.

Our next navigational gate is the Cape Cod Canal where the tide runs south at 5 knots and then suddenly switches to running at 5 knots north. It’s all rather important that we get things right for this piece of water. The best place to wait for the right tide is Onset at the canal’s entrance and so we are now waiting there and giving Ruffian some more mechanical love for her continuing trip north to the cruising grounds of Maine.

Iain goes swimming (and cleaning) in the yummy brown water of Bristol.


Early morning sailing into Newport. The long standing home of the Americas Cup.


With the AC on his mind Iain does everything he can to hold off a Swan 44.


Back to island time. Cuttyhunk.


Top of the Cuttyhunk hill, although it’s more of a mound.


Protected anchorages, stunning sunsets it’s getting more like Scotland everyday.


The cleaning of Ruffian continues.


More and more like Scotland. Images of Tignabruaich.


More and more like Scotland. Anchoring around rocks and behind reefs.


More and more like Scotland. Thinking of the Borrowdale Islands.


More and more like Scotland. Thinking of Loch Ranza.


Hadleys Harbour was picture perfect and Iain got all excited after spotting some one design classic keelboats.


Spot the difference. 4 hours of scrubbing with oxalic acid has left the decks squeaky clean.