I will always be indebted to Anna’s parents Denny and Kathy, who transported me to the boat on numerous occasions from their home and to many and varied places to buy equipment and food. I called to see them on my first visit to view the boat prior to buying it and was immediately immersed in a wealth of kindness and hospitality, which extended for many weeks later after I had bought the boat and come to work on it prior to starting my trip. What a stroke of good luck, when I learned that the boat was situated 30 minutes drive from the home of Anna who had completed her international exchange teaching practice in a Nottingham school with me as her tutor.

Most of you know that I found the yacht “FriendShip” through the I hope that it might be possible to meet you now that you are also back in England.

That information clinched the idea of this trip for me. Whilst I was running a teachers summer school in Vermont last year, one of the teachers (a keen yachts man) told me that it was possible to pass from the Great Lakes to Lake Champlain and then into to the Hudson River. The owner took us out into the Delaware River for half a day (and managed to get us stuck on a sandbank !) The seed that germinated the idea of sailing in North America was the time spent with my friends Clark and Lori, two summers ago in Delaware, when we hired a small boat. I enclose photographs for those of you whom we had the presence of mind to photograph whilst we were with you. At the end of the last long day’s trip I think the boat might have been in better shape than I was ! The boat and I arrived in Delaware in relatively good shape.

Well it’s gone on and on ! I defy anybody to read to the end ! I decided to write a collective letter to you all, which I hoped would not be too long and boring to read. I have been putting off the moment when I sit down to write, knowing it is potentially a long saga. Many people whom Brenda and I met along our journey through the States and Canada asked to hear how we fared.

Rising tide beer autohelm