After a week and a half struggling in Newport, I couldn't stand it any longer and left the place. Everybody in the club has been most helpful, especially the girl in the office and some particular members who brought me all over the place to try to get my things. But after so much time you just need to go.

So I sailed, in the best of weather, up to New Bedford. Marieke, a former colleague of mine, lives somewhere in that area, and she invited me for dinner. Next day I cooked her, and her husband Joe, a large paella. While cooking, Will Sayer joined in! He (another competitor, who had won the whole race on handicap), has engine trouble and a failed rudder bearing on his Sigma 33, and is up in a shipyard a few miles from here. He had borrowed a bycicle and saw my boat!

In the mean time, I have been trying to find out what exactly was wrong with my radio. Ultimately I found out, that the radio supplied to me is a HAM version of the radio, and all marine frequencies are blocked! Now there seems to be a way to get around that, and I hope to find out soon!

Bart