To Bermuda AND BACK in 5 days!!!

Norman and Sylvia Hazzard

The folks were married on August 12, 1961, so this month they've been married for 50 years.  We cruised to Bermuda together on an ocean liner and threw a big party. 

None of the 2300 passengers on that enormous ship were more grateful than the two of us to be able to turn off the lights, tuck into bed, and sleep for 8 hours uninterrupted as the ship made 160 miles good for Bermuda through the night!  A 500 mile day at sea; can you imagine??!!??  "Rough seas" made some feel ill as we crossed the Gulf Stream; Elise and I shared knowing smiles in public and giggles in private at the notion that we were experiencing rough seas.  Let's summize there were no lee cloths, no wetted table cloths, no spilled dinner wine, and no crawling on the cabin sole necessary.  We can now attest that 1000 foot long ships steaming at 22 kts shoulder 7 foot seas with aplomb. 

Dock Yard, Bermuda

Hamilton, Bermuda ferry landing

Horseshoe Beach, Bermuda

Looking southwest from Horseshoe Cove Beach

Evening in Victoria Park, Harmilton, Bermuda

New York Roots

New York is not just the Big Apple.  There is another part; upstate, agrarian, and bucolic.  That's the part Norman, my (Jeff's) dad, hails from.  A hidden gem nestled in the very southwest corner where the natives like to say they have 4 seasons  -- June, July, August, and winter! 

Farmland all over the country is reverting to forest and the family dairy farm is mostly a museum exhibit.  But also, the "plain people" (Amish and others) continue family farming and are buying up farmland in sizeable numbers. 

family barn (now sold)

Our family is still there, as is the land.  From my cousin Randy and Aunt Audrey's yard, you can see the family farm; the barn still stands across the road.  The house where my grandparents lived and died is within sight on the crest of the next hill.  On the knoll beyond that house is the house where my grandfather was born.  And over the next crest is the homestead of great great grandparents.  Returning there, to the Town of Busti, gives me a since of belonging, connection with our past.  And on that rare summer day, when the breeze blows clear from Canada across the lake, there is no better place to be. 

Norman and Randy run the tractor

Amish family at the village crossroads

So Long Irene

Earthquakes, Hurricanes...all in the same week? Yikes.
What are we doing here??

Thanks for the texts, calls and emails of concern. All seems essentially well at slip P58. Great. Now we can move on to "the list."  Anyone have experience replacing a mast boot?

Sorry for the quality of the video clip, it was still pretty breezy creating lots of motion on our floating dock Saturday morning.
I will never complain again about slogging to weather again; this poor guy had a tough day too.

Baltimore Renaissance

When Jeff moved away from here in April, 1987, the city was in perilous decline.  Jeff's brother, Frank, described it as being "in the big swirl" and little hope was held out for the city to be anything more than a larger version of Camden, NJ.  But, a miracle has taken hold since then.
 Honest-to-John literate taxpayers with real jobs and aspirations for the future have moved to town.  Canton, the "Harbor East" neighborhood, as it is chic-ly known now, is thriving.  Federal Hill, Locust Point, and the near south neighborhoods are quickly gaining ground, too.  Talk about a Lazarus of a city!  Baltimore still has 40,000 vacant rowhouses, and a serious drug and crime problem, but for the first time in 40 years, it has hope!  Down, but not out, Baltimore is making a comeback.
 Very nice to see from the cockpit of our boat.