Wednesday morning at school was PE. I remember being irritated by other members of the class who took ages getting changed, thus shortening the length of the lesson. Some of us, aka ME, thought PE or Games were the best lessons of the week. Stop fussing and get changed.

This Wednesday morning off Provincetown, Cape Cod was PE for the aquatic and bird life. The ocean was thrashing. We saw loads of dolphins leaping, birds diving and blows from whales. Certainly more active than the majority of the girls in the Wednesday morning PE class at Haydon Bridge. Motivated by a substantial breakfast, there must have been a feast of food down there to create all the activity.

We’d seen a Right Whale about 100 feet off the boat coming in in the rain and fog the previous evening. Don’t know how big it was, but we thought what we saw above the water line was about 10m so maybe it was 13m to 14m in total. As long as the boat. Don’t want to hit one of these babies. Not good for us or the whale.

It was a great welcome to the USA, after our long wait to escape Shelburne, Canada now behind us across the Gulf of Maine. It had been quite a wait. A blow of 50 knots had came through. The sea were ugly. We hid in the commercial harbour tied to a fishing boat then the following day, four boats nudged out to turn right for the two day passage to the US. The nights were long, dark and chilly.

A warm welcome from a super friendly Borders Officer in Onset, Massachusetts helped us quickly forget the passage and the rollercoaster ride down the Cape Cod Canal with standing waves and cross currents.

We had an amusing conversation with the border official comparing similarities of ‘The Donald’, Doctor Seuss and Monty Python. Spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, baked beans and spam, Sam-I-am, Sam-I-am, Sam-I-am Green eggs and ham, and Bad, Bad, Bad, Mad, Mad, Mad people. Doctor Seuss and Monty Python delivering more credibility and sensibleness than the US president….some would say! 😀

So to today. Newcastle have just beaten Bournemouth. Well done Rafa’s boys. Little run of two victories. It’s blowing a steady force 6 to 7 here in Port Washington, near New York. Hope the anchor holds firm. We’re not quite on constant anchor watch but we are pretty vigilant as to what’s going on. The forecast suggests another 4 hours of strong winds before they ease. Our friends on Muktuk, another cruising boat, have dragged so they’ve headed off to find somewhere more sheltered to anchor. It’s never straightforward being boat based.

In the meantime as we can’t get off the boat, my socks will have to be recycled as a laundrette trip is out of the question. Sure Dave won’t be too offended. Baking is tricky as we are out of eggs and it seems everything I wish to cook requires eggs. Dave is spannering.

I did suggest going into a marina then we could get off the boat and crack on with the chores….laundry, gas refill, food shopping, phone card, revisiting civilisation etc. It wasn’t the money that seemed to bother Dave. It was loosing credibility amongst others who liveaboard. Marinas are places to be avoided. We’re still here at anchor.