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Can't believe I'm doing another blog.
Not sure if I'm just bored witless(that was the original expression before the 60's)or I'm chuffed about finally mastering the computer...until some geek comes up with a new "user friendly"change of format,or have I at last realised that old musicians never die...they just bore everyone else to death with the same old songs.Can't be that.I've learned at least 3 and a half new ones this year.

Mind you only one of them was written this millenium.

And I wrote that.
I'm reminded of a real oldie 'Camp Granada'..Finishes with:-

Wait a minute,it's stopped raining
Kids are swimming blah blah blah blah
Playing baseball,gee that's bedda
Mudda Fadda kindly disregard this letter
Trouble is.....it ain't stopped raining

Ho hum

Hum ho

Can't leave....Still waiting for the cheque.....Can't cash it anywhere south of here..

No photos...unless you like looking at water and trees...through the rain.


Maybe the odd duck.

Guests

Here's a nice little thing that happened en route to Mexico from Cuba.
We were about half wayish between the west end of Cuba,Cabo San Antonio, and Isla Mujeres on the Yucatan Peninsula.The sun had set and the dusk was getting duskier when 3 little birds spotted us and decided to stop for the night.Birds quite often stop for a rest on boats.Anyway these little guys flew round the boat a couple of times and one set him (or her)self up on a hatch cover and another settled on the bimini.Number 3 decided to sit on my pillow .We had made our beds up in the cockpit as it was a lovely balmy evening.

I had to get a photo,even though I'd freak him out.Flash went off and he didn't blink.A couple of hours later I said to Gail"I've got to lie down.He'll just have to move"So I laid myself down.Our little guest just nestled into my hair and carried on resting.

Eventually i had to stand up and sure enough he just sat on my head as I checked position etc....Had to get a photo of that too.

Now he'd had enough.A birds gotta sleep.So he flapped off my head onto Gails pillow.Likes his comfort.He was disturbing Gails sleep,wriggling around in her hair,so she turned around and left him the pillow.As the sky got light we woke up and saw that the other two had already checked out and as we pulled the heavier cockpit cushion back there was the poor little guy,apparently lifeless,jammed behind it.As I went to pick his little body up he wke up and fluttered up (a few inches )to the cockpit coaming.There he spent a few minutes stretching his wings and shaking his head and as the sun popped over the horizon and his friends swung by ....off he went.
FOOTNOTE. When we were relating the story to Steve and Eva of Music,thats them on the left

they said they'd had the same experience themselves except they'd had five guests.Unfortunately two of them were dead in the morning.....................they have got a cat though.

??Cruising??

It's a good thing that I'm such a patient person (AARRGGHH%$%@#*?!#$%@!$)Oooh....that's better.
Well Irene was windy and wet but hardly bothered us.North Carolina took the worst of her but she did drop a lot of water on nearly everywhere except the Big Apple.Domino skidaddled ,with a flottila of boats,100 miles or so up the Hudson and had a far worse time of it(check thier blog) because of the flooding.We left a day or so later and dodged logs and all sorts of stuff on the way to Sandy Hook,the gateway to NY harbour.We were too busy winding our way through it all to think of photos but just imagine lines of garbage and whole trees and ex trees,as in telegraph poles , in long drift lines stretching for 10 to 2 or 300 yards at a time.Dodgy.

Anyway we had a calm anchorage at Atlantic Highlands and a beautiful sunset lighting up the Manhattan skyline and it was good night and goodbye to NY.
Next morning we started the overnight trip to Cape May and arrived to a beautiful morning and dropped the anchor off the Coast Guard station right next to.....DOMINO.So we popped over for drinkies on thier expansive 'back porch' as the sun went down behind Jabiru and the Coast Guard and Jean-Pierre and I took turns in being photographed with a 'chick' under each arm !

Thats where the fun stopped.A day later the sails arrived.The genoa was fine but the main just didn't fit.Richard took it back and was going to meet us in the Sassafrass River in a few days when he was going to doing a sailing regatta and all was looking good.Meanwhile.... Hurricane Lee (or was it Leigh) had swept over Alabama and on up the Appalachians causing massive floods all the way up the east coast.The entire Chesapeake Bay was full,the worst since 1972,of mud , trees and everything that gets swept along by floods.Roads were blocked,bridges down etc so the regatta was cancelled and Richard couldn't make it.There was nothing up the Sassafrass,except charming scenery,so we picked our way through log barrages down to Annapolis so we could get the sail sent to somewhere there.

We remembered that Steve from Music was staying at a marina just south of there so after checking that it would be OK we moved (cautiously)down to Rhode River to await the sail.Couple of days and it arrived still didn't fit so back it goes to Richard.Meanwhile(ya still with me?)Richard calls and says he cant be bothered with all this ,he'll give us our money back.We just want to get going so that's OK.One week later we're still here,cheque(that's English)is in the mail.Looks like our visit to DC is out .That's 3 days up the Potomac and 2to 3 back and the Potomac is still 100 miles from here.
Charlie Watts,when asked how it was playing with the Rolling Stones for 30 years said "5 years playing and 25 years hanging about."Hey Charlie ...try cruising!
Is this cruising?

Or is it this

Actually...I can't think of anything else I wanna do.
Yes dear...I'll stop complaining.