Mamaroneck, New York 40°56.5’N, 073°43.9’W

Simply because it's a great photo (taken by Greg, naturally)

Today we finished the hull (looks good hey!) and it's smooth and fast, and, well, finally, finished. To celebrate I decided to replace the shaft-seal (the shaft is that thing the propeller is attached to, the seal is that bit where it passes from outside the hull to inside) before we are launched tomorrow. Now that I have 'adjusted' it, if the boat were launched, it would sink. Not ideal.

So we'll have to see how it goes. I have new ratchet wrenches from Home Depot (so I can't blame my tools). My friends at UBS have invited me for a drink. Henry, at whose apartment I am staying, and who came in last night at 5am (5am!) and woke me for a couple of beers - HA! - which we had - despite it being a school night for him - is still generously letting me crash on his couch. (Hang in there Henry - he's now out at dinner with his McKinsey & Co partners - and I dare say he's having a ball, or at least feeling like curling up into one). So there's lots of reasons to stay...

...but we're determined to get cracking and head up north. Current plans are to sail up Long Island Sound, and back to Shelter Island, chill for 4 July (and I have an undisclosed urge to catch up with the Saga 43 Rendezvous at Coecles Harbor) and probably the rest of the week, before setting off proper for Maine.

For those of you not in New York (is there anybody out there anyway?) it's been very, very hot: today it was 95F and very humid ahead of this thunderstorm (that's 35C), although the 'real feel' was 103F (41C) according to the radio. Wearing a spacesuit and respirator it's like painting on the Sahara...and this explains (at least partly I hope) all the whinging about the last 11 days working on the boat.

But for me, while I'm keen to go, it's also a bit sad. New York may well be the best city on earth. I have wonderful friends here, know how to get the xfer from bus to subway ($2 saved - yes! - a new post work phenomena) and feel like I'm tapped right into the heart of the place: it's been my home for the last nearly 8 years and I genuinely love it, despite it all. The throbbing humidity, sirens, cars, tantrums, smells and madness. Oh man. I don't really want to go. And I wouldn't if it wasn't on a beautiful sailboat with my best friends...