Happy 4th July!

We now have our full supply of food on board. Many thanks to Jim for taking me shopping and following behind me with a cart while I located tricky items like pitta bread and peanuts! Yesterday we also went to West Marine in Manhattan to buy the last few items for the boat (spare shackles etc...) and crew (knives and torches). And critically, Andy, our third crew member for the trip home arrived in the afternoon - so we're all set! We have almost everything on board (other than our water corral) but as you can see things aren't exactly ship shape yet - that's a task for tomorrow morning.

The fantastic news yesterday was that Barry has been awarded the Irish Sailor of the Month award for June! We celebrated with a couple of bottles of champagne when we met Lynd and Alan for dinner.

This aftternoon we went to visit the New York Yacht Club premises on W 44th Street ... quite amazing!!! They have models of all the America's Cup yachts in their appropriately named "model room" and it was fascinating to see the major design changes that have happened from event to event.

Tonight we will take Dinah out into the Hudson to see the 4th July fireworks. Apparently they're going to be bigger and better than ever before, including a new pyrotechnic called the "ghost" so we're looking forward to another unique experience. Security on the river is quite high, with several coast guard boats guarding the Statue of Liberty and fireworks barges.

Tomorrow morning we will stow and stack everything on the boat, and get going on our trip... I hope to write another blog entry before we leave. Meanwhile - Happy 4th July!