Gods Country / There and Back Again

Traverse City

Made a trip back across the pond to good old home town, gods country as we know it. Have not yet been somewhere as beautiful as TC,  but am still looking. 

All the cousins

Lockwoods from all over the world descended on TC to give Dad his farewell sail. We did it in style and with lots of events. Starting with a BBQ at Heathers to organize the week, thank you to Linda and Heather for putting all the logistics together. 

EVMT Regatta Racers on the Lockwood Dock

 
Then there was the EVMT Regatta. Enjoy the View of My Transom Regatta. All the cousins, aunts, uncles and siblings got out on the water in 420's and we played by Lockwood rules, if you did not like them you ignored them. Had on the water judging most did not listen to. Had 7 races and the guy with the least infractions lost and guy with the most infractions won. Now that has to be a life lesson. I will let you guess who the winner was. 

Had a lovely dinner at Cordia, Moms new digs over 23 relatives from all over. 

Dinner with all the family.

The memorial service started with a day on the water and taking Dad sailing.

Taking Dad out for his last sail.

We sailed north to R8 and popped the kite, the wind was from the north with merely cat paws filling the sail.  A few ashes were sprinkled and then the wind died.  No time like the present for a swim when there is no wind, so there were a few man over board drills. The bay was delightful. The brezze slowly filled in from the south west, we put the genoa up and headed for the yacht club.

As we approached GTYC the breeze built and the Coal Pile Express came in right on schedule. It lifted us up as Dad always did and gave us the perfect ending to Dads last race to the finish.

Had a beautiful service at GTYC .

The grandkids, kids and fellow racers told wonderful Ned stories. 

The cannon went off and the flag was raised.

The day finished with another beautiful sunset over the bay.

Ned was laid to rest, but the Ned stories will continue just as his memory will come to mind every time you pick up a tiller. 

The remainder of the ashes will be buried at the family site on Long Island and there will be another EVMT Regatta, Lockwood style no rules!

Amsterdam

Amsterdam, find Gale on far side of bridge.

Gus and Gale in the "S".

The adventures never end. Kirk took off for a conference in Amsterdam and Gus and I followed a few days later. Gus and I figured out the train and buses from the airport and found Kirk near the apartment. After a few phone calls and scratching our head about the address we ended up at a great flat.

The Adventurers

Now Amsterdam is a city with few rules,  you can do anything you like as long as you do not infringe on others. Drinking, sex, smoking just lets say the place smelled a little funny. We went into a basement cafe to get some of our museum tickets printed out and I never saw so many kinds of that wacky weed in my life, the attendant was a little wacky himself. It took awhile but we finally got our tickets, all of our tickets printed. 

This is a city of bikes, they even have a 4 story parking garage at the train station for  bikes, amazing.  The tricky thing about this city is the streets, you are never sure if you are on one or on a bike path or side walk, verrrrry dangerous, more likely to get hit by a bike than a car.  So word to the wise, stay on the river cruises to get around the city, safest way to do it, and no chances of having an altercation with a bike. 

Jump Gus!

Safest way to travel, canal boats

We got a 2 day ticket for the river cruise. There are many boats that tour the canals of the city and you get to all the main attractions, it is like the hop on hop off buses but on the canals. And some of the boats had the sticky sweet smell to them, just cannot get away from it in this city.  

7 bridges

The most amusing sight were the houses that are leaning in strange directions and some houses are so thin that a queen bed would not even fit in one, but then it is 3-4 stories tall. Strange architecture.  This is pretty much due to the rising waters and falling foundations, if they have not been corrected they tend to be a bit askew. 

On the docks by Nemo

We went by some unique buildings, the Symphony Hall and children's museum, Nemo which is along the waterfront in the harbor.

Symphony Hall

Nemo

The museums are wonderful, my favorite was the Van Gough, only thing missing was Starry Night but I saw that at the MOMA is NY so I am ok with that. We had 5 stories of Van Gough, very enjoyable. We also went to the National Museum. Saw Van Meers Milkmaid but will have to go further afar to find The Pearl Earring. It is currently at Mauritshuis in The Hague, Netherlands along with "The Goldfinch by Carel Fabritius        ( sounds like I will need to make another road trip!)   My favorite painting  was the Night Watch. Later we ended up in the Rembrandt Park and to my astonishment they had the whole scene from the Night Watch in bronze. 

Night Watch

Night Watch in Bronze at the park

Gale with the Wife in Night Watch

We had dinner with a family of a friend of a friend. That was really entertaining. These people are want to be sailors so the discussions were interesting and riotous at times. Gus got an invitation to sail on their 50 foot sailing yacht the next day. He had a blast. He did a few rescues (dove down to clear prop of dock line,  everyone does this once.)and  suggested than entering and leaving dock you should not be going 4 knots, they will learn that with time. Love those bow and stern thrusters... Like Dad always said if you are going to hit it, hit it slow. We never had an engine that worked so we always came in under sail and you have no reverse in that situation. 

Going sailing out in the Ijmeer, body of water east of Amsterdam.

Gus having a hoot on a 50 footer, yahoo!

They are a lovely couple and have some great dreams of circumnavigating and are on there way to learning what needs to be learned to do that. 
Our air B&B was great, we were in the Islamic section of town with a beautiful mosques being built at the end of the street. We found a delicious restaurant that had an all you can eat buffet, Kirk was in haven. It has gold trim all around and many crystal chandeliers, palm trees pretty fancy but reasonable prices and lots of food we had no idea what it was.

All you can eat buffet, Kirks in haven.

We made a quick trip through the park before we headed back to England.
 

Gus trying to fly!

The Bus
The latest fun I have had with the bus driver is that I did not have the right change again, only had bills. He made me cross the street , keep the whole bus waiting and get change. Gotta love this guy. Kirks bus adventures are a little different, he rides different buses going different direction depending on what time, needless to say he has been caught many a time on the wrong side of the street while his bus merrily passes him and he can not even wave it down. We are learning but the curve is steep and we are American!

Cruising in Scotland

We got to Largs, Scottland in the early afternoon to a double gale blowing from the west. So we went and checked out the boat.

We had thought to get to the first cove that night but decided it was not worth the misery of banging into to weather just to leave port. Think this comes under don't prove your seaman ship if you do not have to. So we snuggled up down below to wait it out.

Blowin' Scotties off chains!

Gus, Charles and Kirk waiting out the storm. 

Spent the evening at the port pub, went grocery shopping and set up to leave early next morning. 

The weather had lightened a bit so we decided to go with the wind  on a nice beam reach to the Isle of Arran. Had a bit of swell but a beautiful sail. Our guest on board was not too happy but he survived his first day at sea. He did not like being so far from land. Can't imagine what he thought when we said we were going cruising? 

Charles getting his sea legs, or not!

Anchored at the Isle of Arran, Lochranza in about 15 feet of water and went to shore. Found a pub, served beer and lattes, could not be happier and the dogs were in haven rolling in all the stinky seaweed on shore. 

Gale enjoying her latte.

Gus on the cliffs at Locharanza

This should of given us a heads up on how big the tides might be. But oh know I was just concerned about the stinky dogs.

Had dinner aboard and very peaceful night at anchor. Next morning i dropped the hatch boards overboard so Gus had to go diving. Good news was the tide was going out so you could easily see the bottom. This is good news in this scenario. Gus suited up, water pretty cold and a lot of jelly fishes and rescued the hatch boards. Kirk decided to make breakfast as the tide continued to recede. As I was looking out as the tide went out I saw the anchor starting to appear on the sand bar ahead. This was going to be fun. Kirk decided to have breakfast first then deal with it, maybe the tide would change. This had to be low tide, lucky as we are it was and had no problem and a nice breakfast with a close real close view of the beach. 

Shore approaching pretty fast and we are at anchor! Opps!
Soon we will be able to walk a shore and pick up the anchor.

Off to Goats Fell. This is the mother of all death marches and Kirk was lagging. I decided to skip this trip and enjoy a little peace and quite on the boat. We anchored at low tide so no problems there. The boys headed up the Fell and it was a major hike. Kirk was past by a 4 year old near the top which gave him the incentive to make it to the top. 

The weather was incredible  the whole trip, sunny and we sailed every where, no powering. Made it to Tarbert Loch Fine and it did not look anything like the one Gus and Kirk raced at a few weeks ago. It was windy and overcast the whole race series, really beat them up. When we pulled in it was sunny and calm. 

Enjoyed the shoppes and had breakfast with Isobel at The Cullins B&B loads of food and delicious dogs welcomed. And hiked up to the castle ruins and had a spectacular view.

Could not pass up a dinner at the Starfish, best seafood ever. Gus learned how not to drink a Scottish Whiskey.  The waitress brought Gus a Scottish Whiskey and Gus proceeded to stir it. This is the first time I have ever seen a waitress give a customer the what firth in not so many words. Could not believe Gus stirred it. Now we know that you are suppose to drink the whiskey through the cream not  stirred, as she spent a lot of time making it just right, not an easy thing to do. Gus asked why she gave him a spoon? She responded with a humph "for drinking the last dregs of the drink . She was to say a bit miffed. Now we all know how to drink a Scottish and probably Irish whiskey . 

Made a quick sail up to Otter Ferry. Gus took a swinging jump off a halyard after carefully spotting for jellyfish. 

We had dinner at  Oyster Catcher Inn, we meet Basil, yes the Fawlty Towers Basiil. Very entertaining and lovely place to anchor.  Scotland have blue buoys  (pronounced boys) which are free to anchor at and we found these all along the way. Was a bit tricky getting there as at low tide more than 3/4 of the channel is out of water. We were for warned and had no problem.

Tighnabruaich - this is the long spit that is mostly under water except at low tide. Easy hit if not careful.

Sun setting over Otter Ferry, boats anchored out.

We headed next to the Kyle of Bute and sailed around the island and anchored it a cozy cove up the inlet called Glen Caladh The boys took the dinghy to town and we walked the dogs when they returned.

Went to a few more ports then headed home, beautiful week of sailing. It only rained the day we arrived and the day we left. Could not of asked for more out of Scotland. 

On our drive home we went looking for Hadrians Wall. Took a little doing, most of it that is easy to access has been reused and not there any more. So we hiked up a large escarpment and found some remains on top of the hill. The view at the time was the edge of the civilized world. Incredible that something so old still survives.

Charles and Gus on Hadrians Wall