Hello again.

We have just spent a lovely week in the Chatham area with Betsy, Chris, Sally and family.  We moored the boat at Stage Harbor and they came to visit us for a trip down the bay and a bit of swimming (well, Sally and Chris swam anyway).  We also joined them for meals out with Betsy's dad John and Carole, Betsy's brother Chris with Jen and their twins, plus Betsy's mom Pat joined later in the week.  Chris has a 150hp speed boat that he keeps dry docked in Cape Cod when they are not there.  It was launched for their three week holiday and we had fun blatting around the Chatham waterways generally pub-crawling and visiting the local seal colony.  The fishermen hate the seals because they eat the fish and the locals aren't too enamoured either as they attract sharks to the swimming area, but we thought they were cute.

A real treat was joining the Betsy and Chris at the house they have rented on Fox Hill with views over Pleasant Bay.  The bedrooms are at either end of the house and they have various guests joining them throughout their hols which makes it all very social and jolly.  Tony and I were in raptures about the power shower and it's unvarying temperature.  We tend to shower the French way on the boat by turning the water flow off when not rinsing so as to conserve water.  We felt so guilty letting the shower stay on for the duration.  it was very nice to be invited to participate in the family holiday and we really appreciated it.

After leaving Stage Habour we headed back to Hadley Harbor to await the morning tide for the Cape Cod Canal which traverses the Cape west to east.  The canal is just over 7 miles long and goes under one rail and two road bridges, with water flowing at up to 6 knots.  You don't want to get your tide tables wrong here!  Out the other side we had a good sail to Provincetown, pretty much the gay capital of the northeast.  Life here is laid back and focused on fun fun fun.  Some of the tshirt slogans are a bit risque so I wont print them here.

Tomorrow we head over the Salem to visit the famous witch trials centre.