Brec was up early around 07:00 hrs, but let Alan sleep on. He woke at 08:00 hrs made tea and then the showered on deck (Brec) or strip washed with a flannel below deck (Alan). Alan then made bacon and eggs with toast for breakfast.
After the leisurely breakfast there were boat jobs to do, they are never ending! By the time these were done it was midday and the warm sun was out. The question now was dinghy ashore with the high wind the chance of getting wet when going up wind or get a water taxi! The humans thought it would be quicker and safer to get the water taxi! In the end it was not as the taxi guys forgot us and we had to wait an hour!
The town was full with tourists and one could see that the town was getting ready for the in-water Boat Show next week. We walked first to the Seaman’s Mission where Brec has some family history! The humans bought a coffee each and shared a French toast muffin, which Alan thought he could bake when he got home as they were very yummy!
Brec now ordered an Uber taxi to take them to the Breakers Mansion. This went array just like the water taxi! The first one was stolen from us! Eventually we stopped one after about 30 minutes! This one was not our Uber, but he was persuaded to take us anyway!
The Breakers Mansion is the grandest of all Newport’s summer “cottages” and was designed by the American architect Richard Morris Hunt for Cornelius II and Alice Vanderbilt. It was modelled on an Italian Renaissance palace with an open air courtyard. The 70 room palace was completed in two years from spring 1893-summer 1895.
We slowly walked around the sumptuous house taking lots of pictures. The opulence was astounding and we hope the gallery of pictures shows this.
The house has a grand view of the sea as it stands on a cliff top overlooking the sea. Alan wished he had a kitchen as large as the one in the house and was surprised at the number of dumbwaiters he found!
Much of the “below stairs” was given over to a gift shop, where our BBF restrained himself and only bought a bottle of water. Brec bought himself a new set of reading glasses, but complained later that they were tinted yellow which he had not noticed in the shop when he tried them on! Not good for an artist studying colours!
We all walked round the mansion and took more photos of ourselves which pleased us bears as we were included in the photos! Back at the entrance we ordered another Uber to take us back into town.
Back in town the men parted ways, Brec to go to a gallery and Alan to go shopping! Sadly he did not find much to buy as they never had his size! He bumped into Brec and Brec mentioned a tourist shop which they went in! Here they found a few little gift items to take back.
We walked back to Bowen’s Wharf where the humans bought themselves a coffee each and shared an almond cake! They looked towards the south and saw a band of dark rain clouds moving slowly towards us! As they had left hatches open we now went quickly to the water taxi landing to wait for the next available one!
There was none there when we arrived and so we sat to wait praying one came before the rain did! Also parked on this jetty was a pleasure boat for taking tourists around the harbour! The Captain of this vessel overheard the men talking and said he could take them, but he might crunch their boat! Apparently he was a happy teddy as he had just purchased a boat for himself and clearly wanted to share his good fortune!
He had bought himself a 38ft motorised catamaran. He had found it in Texas and had flown down to see it and made an offer, but the owner had refused it! Now a week or so later as he had not sold the boat accepted the Captain’s offer! The happiest times of owning a boat is the day you buy it and the day you sell it!!
A water taxi stopped at the jetty and we all jumped in and we were off and happy that we would now beat the rain. It turned out that the taxi we leapt in only did this side of the channel and we were the other side! Fortunately he had one passenger who wanted to get off on a super yacht on the edge this side and we were on the opposite side! He agreed to take us and consequently earned himself a bigger tip!
Alan began to cook the evening meal more or less as soon as we arrived. He still had much of the coffee he had bought earlier and now saved it to warm up for after dinner! The men enjoyed their meal and conversation after which Brec clear away we wrote the Blog and Alan read! As we write it is raining lightly and according to the weather forecast will continue all day tomorrow! So tomorrow promises to be a wet sail in light winds, but we only have approximately 35 nm to go so will cope!
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