Ed. note: Don and JoAnne Perrine took delivery of their Nordhavn 47 #27 in early 2005.

August 2005

Newport, Rhode Island - Home port of both Jade Explorer and Nordhavn’s Northeast office. In late July, we left Charleston, SC, with our friends Mike and Dana Farrell, who graciously crewed on the offshore trip to Newport, RI, via Cape May, NJ. In addition to working as great crew, they added much to our time together as friends and wonderful company. We were sorry to see them return to Knoxville after nearly two weeks. We also expressed our deep sympathy to Dana whose father passed away several hours before her return.

 

We were on a rhumb line from Charleston to Newport, when 65 miles offshore the forecast predicted 30 knot winds and 9 foot seas out of the northeast at 100 miles out, which was where we were headed. On one hand, the boat can tolerate those conditions easily, but on the other hand, they aren’t comfortable. So we opted to make an unscheduled stopover in Cape May, NJ, as you can see from the photo above. In addition to having a great time there, we saw Wayne and Lynn Flatt of Skinwalker fame on our way out of the harbor. They had just arrived from Newport and were headed south! We were hoping to meet them in Newport, but failed to let them know our exact plans. Lesson learned.

Interesting events in Newport included a brief attendance at the Newport Folk Festival; brief because it isn’t our favorite music. Then we had a delightful dinner with Steve Leimberg and his wife Jo-Ann, who

own the Nordhavn “Ocean Bear”. Later in the week, when we were having some more warranty work done north of Newport, we had a wonderful evening with Jim and Marge Fuller and their friends. Jim and Marge own the Nordhavn “Summer Skis”, and we first met Jim during Jade Explorer’s commissioning in Stuart.

On August 14th, we went to the Fall River, MA, festival and fireworks. Dave Balfour from Nordhavn NE brought a customer’s boat to the event, and it was anchored just between our boat and the fireworks barge. The photos below show the Nordhavn sister ship in the glow and inspired paraphrasing our National Anthem….

Oh say can you see, by the fireworks early light, What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?	And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air, Gave proof through the night that our boat was still there.
O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

On August 15th, we went to the Newport Jazz Festival. The musical highlights were the Dave Brubeck Quartet with Winton Marsalis, the Chick Corea Trio, and Roy Haynes, along with assorted other talented jazz artists. They are truly an amazing group of performers. The social highlight was meeting Jim Fuller’s friends there, with whom we’d had dinner two nights before. This was yet another data point supporting the notion that there are only 500 people in the world, and they all know each other.

Today is Tuesday August 16th, and we are off to Boston via the Cape Cod Canal. We plan to stay downtown at the Commercial Wharf Marina, visit with friends from Boston and do “Boston stuff”. Also, our friends Bob and Jan Rodin from Connecticut may join us both in Boston and for a few days cruising north.

Stay tuned.