The mooring field, in which we had actually been lying quite well for the last few days, showed today through the other wind direction, which prevailed, that it was actually designed for shorter ships. Although we had already kept our mooring line as short as possible, The next mooring with its huge ball and the rusty hook on top was already knocking on our stern. It really didn't work that way and everything was hectically prepared for sailing. Wir wollten ja keine ernsthaften Kratzer im frischen Hochglanzlack riskieren 🙁

Wir segelten aus dem Gewirr kleiner Insel hinaus und freuten uns über einen angenehmen Segelwind, der uns auf einem „am Wind- Kurs“ genau Richtung Boston bringen würde. Die Zahl der Lobsterbojen nahm auch im Laufe des Tages deutlich ab und es war ein entspannter Segeltag. Nach Sonnenuntergang hatten wir das Gefühl, durch ein Lichtermeer zu segeln 🙂 Überall Fischerboote mit grellen Halogenscheinwerfern und alle natürlich ohne AIS. Unser Radarschirm sah aus als hätte er Masern 🙂 Da wurde heute Nacht aber wirklich viel Aufmerksamkeit gefordert und man konnte kein Nickerchen machen. Gegen zwei Uhr schlief der Wind ein und unsere Maschine musste wieder ran. Mit gut sechs Knoten Fahrt im Schiff kamen wir unserem Ziel schnell näher und würden im Laufe des Vormittags in Boston sein. Um halb vier übernahm Dietmar die letzte Wache und ich durfte auch noch eine Mütze Schlaf nehmen.

In der aufgehenden Sonne lag Bostons Skyline schon deutlich sichtbar vor uns. Aber so einfach sollten wir unser Ziel nicht erreichen. „Hier brennt was, gibt mir mal mein Handy“, tönte Dietmars Stimme aus der Pantry. Totally perplexed, I did not question his instructions and brought the desired iPhone. Wouldn't a fire extinguisher have been more appropriate here?. "Machine off!!!! Right away!!!“At your command, captain, will be done immediately. Thick smoke billowed from the bilge, But thank God there was no fire to be seen. And now???? First of all, fresh air had to enter the ship and we quickly opened all the hatches. Dietmar identified the alternator as a troublemaker. It had been making strange noises for the past few hours, although we only had it installed as a new part at Hinckleys'. After a thorough check, Dietmar removed the alternator and when we were sure, that nothing really burned or simmered, starteten wir die Maschine wieder und setzten unseren Weg in Richtung Boston fort.

Was für ein Tag 🙁 Nachdem sich die erste Aufregung etwas gelegt hatte, schrieb Dietmar eine E-Mail an Hinckley und telefonierte mit unserer Versicherung. They were happy to provide detailed advice on how to proceed. The Hinckley shipyard also responded, although quite late, but with good service. A technician would arrive here in Boston tomorrow morning with all the necessary equipment and get to the bottom of the matter. So you want it.

After everything was settled, we were able to turn back to our goal with full concentration. Due to the many offshore islands, it took us almost two hours to reach the mooring in front of the waterboat marina that was reserved for us. What a great setting. Less than two hundred meters from the boat was downtown Boston. Our mooring maneuver was carried out by a friend, who is on a tour of the USA, in Fotos und einem Video festgehalten 🙂 Sie startete grade nebenan zu einer Whale Watching Tour.

Now it was time for breakfast and then a short nap. The night hadn't been particularly relaxing. Despite the many ferries, Despite water taxis and excursion boats, our berth turned out to be surprisingly quiet. We've had a much worse time anchoring in the last few months. In the afternoon we cleared the dinghy and checked into the marina. The price for the mooring was 55 € per night and was really unbeatable value for the central location. We would have had to pay five times as much for a night in the marina. That would certainly have been an expensive pleasure.

We drifted aimlessly through the city center all afternoon. What a great city. Voll mit Wolkenkratzern und alten Gebäuden, Parks, Cafes, Restaurants und vielen Straßenkünstlern. Im Gegensatz zu vielen amerikanischen Städten kann man alles bequem zu Fuß erreichen 🙂 Das gefiel uns besonders gut!

Der erste Abend in Boston war auch schon verplant. Ich wollte meine Freundin Anja zum Essen treffen und Dietmar war mit Elias verabredet, den wir über einen Freund aus Deutschland kennengelernt hatten. So we both spent very nice hours separately from each other, until we arrived back on the CESARINA shortly before midnight, rather exhausted.

After a short, but restful night we crawled out of bed the next day. The Hinckley technician had already called us at a quarter to seven and he was on board less than an hour later. All cables were checked together again and it was probably safe, that the alternator had really gone up in smoke yesterday. A short time later the new one was installed and a one-hour test run began. Shortly before noon everything was ready and Dietmar brought the Hinckley technician back to the marina. Now we really hope, dass alles gut funktioniert und wir keine weitere Hilfe des Hinckley-Teams mehr brauchen werden 🙂

Den Nachmittag verbrachten wir im New England Aquarium, das direkt an der Waterfront liegt. Ein tolles Erlebnis mit einem riesigen Meerwasserbecken, das sich über komplette drei Etagen erstreckt. Here we saw many “old” friends from our dives in the Caribbean. The penguins were also fed in the afternoon. This was done by hand by the employees with precise list keeping, so that no one misses out or gets too many fish.

Since the forecast rain still wasn't making an appearance, we strolled through the city near the harbor and enjoyed the performances of various street artists, before we retreated to the boat.