Norm and Vicki Getting Ready for Dessert

For those of you playing along at home, you know that the boats in the Newport to Bermuda race are about 2/3 of the way to their destination. Speedboat (Norm's pick) and Rambler (Vicki's pick) are each 1st in their respective class and running 1st and 3rd in the whole darn field. How's that for lucky picks?! Donnybrook (Robin's pick) is 7th in class and 19th overall. That's gotta hurt since she's the only one of us who knows anything about sailing. Jim had the good sense to stay out of the betting. The bet is that whoever is highest in class gets the dessert of their choice. Looks like Robin will be getting her baking dishes out soon. Having already sampled her Ghiardhelli triple chocolate brownies and homemade garlic, herb, and cheese bread, we know she's got the talent to rise to the challenge.

Aside from her baking talent, Robin has enriched our lives with some interesting nautical terms...

"Rail meat" describes the sailors whose job at the moment is to run from one side of the boat to the other whenever it heels over and lean as far as possible over the ocean to balance the boat.

"Harbor head" is the overwhelmed brain state when piloting in a busy harbor where there are way too many sensory inputs.

"Frisky seas" describe those that would warrant the magic pill to head off sea sickness.

"Virtual clink" is what you do at cocktail hour when anchored or moored near one another, but don't feel like taking the dinghy down to travel between boats to do a real clink.

"Potatoes" (this one came from a local, not from Robin, but is very descriptive) describe submerged rocks, sometimes marked and sometimes not!

We just passed through the Cape Cod Canal and are on our way to Plymouth, Massachusetts - home of the Mayflower.

We withstood NOAA's weather mis-forecast cruising today. We expected 5-10 mph winds and 1 ft seas. We got 10-15 mph winds with gusts to 25 and 2-4 ft seas. Typical!! Fortunately, we waited for the right tide conditions before we left Onset and cruised East in the Cape Cod Canal at about 10 knots. When we arrived Plymouth we discovered there was no "room at the inn", meaning the moorings inside the breakwater were full and there were no slips at the marina for boats our size. Adventures got a lead on a Yacht Club mooring and we decided to settle on the town mooring outside the breakwater. Catching the ball with strong gusts was fun!! We just tied up to the mooring and Adventures showed up to take the next town mooring ball because there was not enough "swing" room at the yacht club.

We called the "lightning launch" as it's called here, to take us to Plymouth Rock. They want $25 round trip. No thanks, we'll take the dinghy down.