new york stopover

after arriving into new jersey at the same time as my folks, we finished the deep clean and did the rig and safety checks. we were finished by dinnertime and went to the bar. mum, dad and leigh had got to the hotel and were heading to the marina to meet me. I was a bit over excited while waiting for them!

doing the rig check

finally they arrived!!! I got my stuff together, and we headed back to the hotel to check in properly. after some confusion over the rooms (it wouldn't be my family if there wasn't…) we went out for dinner. I was starving by then, and so were they - the jet lag was starting to kick in at that point. I had to work the next day, doing maintenance and a kite shoot. then we moved the boat across from new jersey to north cove marina near battery park. given that they'd flown across the atlantic to see me, I thought they were very understanding :)

family!!!!

hello parents!! what's going on over there, dad?!

me and savvs :)

I had the next day off, and leigh was desperate to do some outlet shopping. we got the bus back to new jersey and went to the big mall there. mum and dad went their own way, me and leigh hit the sports shops. she had a list of stuff she wanted to get and had saved a load of money. we were quite reserved. did a bit of shopping, had some dinner, did some more shopping then got the bus back into town. we had some tea, then went to macy's where I met up with savvs and karl, who had flown in that day for the tony awards. I hadn't seen savvs since I'd left the opera house at the start of june, and it was really cool to see them both! 

after macy's, me and leigh headed up to the apple store near central park so she could get a new ipod. it's one of the original stores, and it's underground. the only bit above ground is a glass cube. it's very cool. we managed to get to bloomingdales as well so she could get dinner bags for some of her friends. we only just made it before closing, the plus side being we got a bit of extra discount and we didn't take very long. the apple store is 24 hours, which I find amazing. I asked the guy who served us how busy it is in the middle of the night and he told us it is always pretty packed. it seemed mental to me! so after a fairly late night, I had to get to the boat in the morning for pre-race prep. 

the three of them had signed up for a package booklet thing which gave them 72 hours of sightseeing bus transport along with vouchers for entry to particular sights. they did liberty and ellis islands - the day we were on the kite shoot, they'd seen us sailing with the photo kite up - and the empire state building, and top of the rock at the rockefeller building. the bus tour took them all over manhattan which they really enjoyed. it made me working on the boat less of a problem as they had stuff to do and places to go, so weren't too bored.

the last time I'd been in new york was when I'd been doing a residency in DC for the RSC with the canterbury tales. at the time I hadn't particularly enjoyed it, and didn't really like the city that much. maybe I'd just had enough of america, as I'd spent a month in DC already. I did get to see wicked on that trip though, which was awesome. I'd hoped to see neil patrick harris in hedwig and the angry inch, and alan cumming in cabaret this time, but just didn't have enough time after we were pretty late arriving. gutted!! depending on what I'm doing work wise after the race, I might try to get back to new york for a few days in early august to see them :)

it was so nice to have them come and visit me in new york. it was the first time any of them had been in america, and leigh managed really well making sure everyone knew where they were going when I was working on the boat. unfortunately for me, the assumption was that I would know where I was going when I was with them…no pressure then! thankfully, I have an american sim card for my mobile so had data, thus google maps ;)

we ate really well the few days we were there. we found a diner along the street from the hotel, which was very close to macy's. when I asked about milk in the french toast mix, the waitress said that it was pre-made, but that they made their pancake batter with water and not milk. I don't think she was really prepared for how happy I looked! I had pancakes two mornings that week. epic!!

mark, now colreg compliant

in NY, one of my mates from PSP had been signed off so was missing the race to derry. he turned up one day sporting crutches. me, jay and greg corrected his lack of colreg compliance with some tape and he was good to go :)


unfortunately we only had a few days before I had to leave again. I think mum was relieved to see I was doing a lot better after all my physio in san francisco, and that I'd put some of the weight I'd lost back on eating burgers! I was really super skinny when I got off the boat in san francisco, but thankfully I didn't put tons back on and am still quite trim :)

it was hard to leave them, but easier knowing I'd be seeing them a few short weeks later in london at homecoming...