June 11 – June 30, 2024; 14671 nm and 1928 days after departure from La Rochelle

It took us about two weeks coming up the roughly 260nm to Boston. We had a few overnight stops along the Long Island Sound until we reached Newport. A pretty seaside city on Aquidneck Island in the small state of Rhode Island which btw. also belonged to New England. It was famous for its historic huge mansions and its rich sailing history.  When we arrived there was already a huge regatta. A local mentioned that an even bigger regatta, the Newport Bermuda Race, would start the following weekend. Enough reason for us to stay and spectate the start of that biennial race. That decision gave us almost a week to explore and enjoy the old town of Newport. On our first day strolling around, we literally run into the “Tennis Hall of Fame”. Not knowing that Newport had hosted the first U.S. Open tournaments in tennis (starting in 1881), we were just surprised to see a beautiful and extremely well maintained tennis club in the city. As it was open to public we did not hesitate a second to go and see the historic facilities, after all we used to play tennis! A beautiful area with old buildings and well maintained grass courts. It was kind of funny to see that all players were traditionally still dressed in white. I would have thought that those dress codes had belonged to the past a long time ago.

Luckily the weather was great the whole week which encouraged us to walk and explore even more. One of the highlights and must do’s in Newport was the so called “Cliff Walk”. A scenic 3.5-mile walkway nestling the edge of Newport’s shoreline and snaking by the backyards of many of the town’s most glamorous mansions. Kind of a double tick in the box for sights but more important, one of the best trails we had done for a while. It got a little challenging at the end without proper shoes but as we were rewarded with gorgeous views we didn’t mind the effort at all. And anyway, isn’t it great coming home being exhausted after a long exciting walk? I know 3,5 m weren’t that much but we had already walked 3m to the starting point plus 2m walking back to the dinghy dock. Come on…that was quite far!
On our last day we watched the start of the Newport Bermuda Race. Again fascinating how skippers managed their boats and crew to be in perfect position at starting signal while avoiding a crash with their competing fellows. Indeed cool to watch but for sure nothing for us! Too stressful, not suitable for live-aboard sailors like us.

The following day we were happy to leave and start our next trip with the destination Boston. We were looking forward to go there as we were hoping to meet friends from Germany. They happened to be in Boston to visit friends as they used to work there years ago. A great chance for us to catch up!!!
The route going further up north led us through the Cape-Cod Canal. Therefore our first stop was close to the entrance of the canal at Onset Bay. Here we had to manage again the “going-through-time” according to the right tide to leverage the strong current in the canal. That happened to be quite early but fortunately just in time with the starting dawn. And using the current was anyhow always fun! So no issue for us to get up and jump on the flying carpet. About 10 nm and only 1,5 h later at 6:30 am the canal spit us out on the other side at Cape Cod Bay. Four hours later we were already anchored at Cape Cod opposite of Province Town and behind beautiful Long Point beach. Altimate was hooked between a floating house and a floating something. In front there were moorings and surprisingly quite a few black buoys. We were wondering what they were used for. Apart from all the floating parts we were alone. As the wind was already quite strong and forecasted even higher we didn’t dare to go ashore. Even though the beach did look very inviting. We let out more chain to have a carefree and relaxing night and were up early again to take our last leg to Boston. While getting the chain in, hoisting the anchor I wondered why the black buoys were suddenly very close to us until I realised those buoys were cute curious seals. Omg I was once again totally beside myself. Screaming for joy I made poor El Capitano almost jump of the boat. They were so cute with their big ball-like eyes, checking on us what we were doing. What else could I have done than being completely excited? So so so so cute nosy creatures!!! I did not manage to take close up pics then but I got a shot on the way out of the bay.

The seals were the highlight of that day. The promised forecasted wind had dropped already completely after a couple of hours. So once again we were forced to use the engine. Unfortunately that happened a lot lately. Either the wind was not strong enough to get us going at all or it changed direction coming right on our nose. Trying to tack plus countercurrent was like spinning a bike without the chain around the pinions. In other words we did not make any progress – very frustrating! Altimate had turned into a motor yacht to get going at all. A long boring motoring day. We arrived late and spend the night anchored at a small island in sight of Boston. The next morning we lifted the hook and finally arrived at Boston Harbour only an hour later. There we had luckily managed to get a mooring right in front of the aquarium at Boston Harbour Sailing Club. That was a great spot! Indeed expensive but conveniently close to downtown and including a launch service. Boston was such a cool town and even one of the oldest and most historic cities in the US (according to Google). It reminded me a little of NY but its pace of life was not too rush and hustle. It felt more like walking around a larger town than a big city but it still seemed to have all things of a great metropolitan. However, we loved it! And right from the dinghy dock we could jump into Bostons vibe. All the interesting sights and neighbourhoods were in walking distance. Just perfect for exploring. On our first day we ended up, via Boston Common park and downtown, in Little Italy in a nice sports bar watching one of the European championship soccer games. Originally we only wanted to take a break but we were happy to combine a delicious cappuccino and cake with a fun game. Oh and in Boston, Little Italy earned to be called so. The houses, the street cafés, the people, the language and of course the food looked and sounded a fair bit like the real country of Italy. Molto bene!!!

The next morning we met our German friends Birgit and Michael. They were knowing the city quite well and were happy to play guides and showed us around. Yet the main focus was of course catching up and trying to get as much info/gossip as possible in our limited time frame. We enjoyed a simple but super nice lunch at chinatown and later, in a fancy bar at Newbury Street a few incredibly delicious oysters with a glass of luxury white wine. That was an unbelievable treat to our taste bulbs! Those oysters – I can’t recall their names- were sensational!! Nothing in comparison to the ones we had in Annapolis. Ok the price was probably quadruple but so worth it!!! So damn mouthwatering! Omg writing about it makes me drooling again. I have to stop writing about food! The day went by much too fast but at least Birgit and I would meet up once again. Yess!

We kept on exploring more of Boston. It was fairly hot so we visited the aquarium to cool down and bridge the heat with watching some sea dweller. That was nice but made us realize how much we missed snorkelling and being in the water. Well, I guess we have to wait a bit until we will jump in the water again. Without any planned destination we spent the afternoon wandering around the town until we heard some music playing. Curious about where the music came from we decided to find the source. We followed the sound and ended up at a place called City Hall Plaza. There we found a Donna Summer Disco Party on roller skates. A fun event for young and old. Some people were dressed up in colourful 70ies outfits and trying to dance/ roll to the disco songs. As most of them were hardly able to control their skaters it did look hilarious. Sorry, but it was funny! I probably wouldn’t have been any better but for sure I wouldn’t have used rolling granny bars for help!!! Honestly some people used those, I have not seen that before. Ok, some of the dancers were quite good on their little wheels but they also showed off quite a bit. Anyway it was fun to watch!!! The foto I took did not show the funny vibe of that event but at least showed how crowded it was and if you look hard you might find some granny bars.

The last two days in Boston were also fun. I had the pleasure of meeting Birgit again and enjoy another nice girly day (second time in one month!!!), while El Capitano did some minor repairs on Altimate. Almost a win-win situation😁. The second day was European Championship Germany against Denmark. We were looking forward to watch it in the bar in Little Italy where we had been before. As the game was in the afternoon we were more than happy to get all our tasks done to leave the next day. Busy like that the time went by in a blink and then it was time to support our team!!! The bar was full with mostly danish fans but that didn’t help their team in the end. We won that game!!! Yesss!!! Happy, satisfied and curious about our next destination and game we left the next day heading further north.