ONE DAY AWAY OR COMING TO AMERICA

The last twenty four hours have been good and interesting. In no particular order:

We saw a turtle as big as a Volkswagon on the surface of the water. His or her head was as big as a five gallon bucket. We saw a Sun Fish on the surface waddling his or her fin. Jim thought it was a shark, but he was quickly corrected.

The IP water system bane, crystals, have driven us crazy! We clean. We use water. The water stops. We clean. We use water. The water stops. Finally, we donated a pump and an accumulator to Davy Jones Locker, hoping this sacrifice to Davy Jones brings us good. We installed a variable speed pump, and we reworked the inlet filter to it, giving us running water for a longer period, also giving us a much easier assembly to clean. Addressing this issue once and for all has been discussed and detailed ad infinitum!With all of the water issues, we have learned it is true showers can be had with a half gallon of water, as long as you don't wash long hair.

It has been hot and too rough to open hatches or ports. We didn't bring enough sheets. Buy stock in Lysol! (Male crew wonders why we have had all the parts to fix all the stuff males usually fix and female crew didn't bring the parts to address the need for extra sheets, but male crew is not raising the issue.)

And the comical end, Customs. We cannot figure out how to get back into America. First, we call a CBP office in Maine, who is supposed to handle all entries back into New England. They name Stonington, Groton, Mystic, New London as places we can land. However, they unnamed those places quickly. We have to enter at Newport or New Bedford! Say what? The New York CPB office, who handles all of Long Island including the east end, has such new employees they have no idea what we should do.

So, we are navigating to Newport, for Customs, for a slip, for long hot showers and footing that does not move beneath us. We are going to find a good restaurant where we don't have to hold onto our plates while we eat. We should arrive Sunday early afternoon. All on board are looking forward to landfall. It has been a bit long on the ocean. But, it has calmed down enough that we can almost brush our teeth without hanging on. We expect calm conditions for the rest of the voyage unless we can't outrun the weather that is coming. Sail trimmers won't let that happen.

06/28/2008
22:48:30 GMT
39° 23.32' N70° 26.48' W