You Saw it First in Rhode Island

On Monday, Tillerwoman and I took the High Speed Ferry from Fall River to Block Island to visit my son and his family, and play with our granddaughters on the beach.

On the way there and back on the ferry we saw a couple of sights which I suspect will become more common across the country in the coming years. 

1. America's First Offshore Wind Farm

The builders are just in the process of completing the construction of America's first offshore wind farm at Block Island. It is due to start generating power in October.

2. VX Evos 
Coming back into Newport in the evening we saw some VX Evos racing off Goat Island, along with at least one VX One and some other boat (a Melges 20?) The VX Evo is a new single-hander from Bennett Yachting designed for larger sailors. I think there are only six VX Evos in the country so far but I suspect many more are on the way. It's good to seem them already racing in Newport.

Remember.

You saw it first in Rhode Island.

New England Beach Trash

Sailing in Newport

The weather is starting to feel a lot cooler.

We have had strong winds all week.

Summer has gone.

I wonder when we will see the first snow?



It's time to start looking forward to sailing Lasers in Newport in the winter.

Only 4 more weeks until the start of the season.

Can't wait!



I Love Winter

US Youth Sailing Championships 2015 - Drone's Eye View

All last week the US Youth Sailing Championships were being held on Mount Hope Bay - right in front of the Tillercottage. There were Lasers and Radials and 420s and F16s and 29ers. Must have been over 100 boats. What a magnificent sight!

Check out this video which has some excellent drone footage of the youth champs. One of those little white dots on the hillside is my house!




On Thursday I drove to Bristol to go for a run on the East Bay Bike Path. As I crossed over the Sakonnet Bridge I saw boats sailing down towards Stone Bridge, probably from the Tiverton YC youth program. Over in Portsmouth I saw more sailing dinghies on Island Park Cove, probably also from TYC. Crossing Mount Hope Bridge I had a good view of the US Youth Champs again with a Laser start in progress just off Common Fence Point not far from Roger Williams University the host of the event. In Bristol Harbor there were more dinghies - from the Bristol YC junior program I assumed.

As I slogged up the bike path I saw a huge fleet of Optimists on Upper Narragansett Bay - a regatta I guess. Then as the path went up the side of the Warren River I saw more Optimists and some two-man dinghies - almost certainly Barrington YC's junior program.

They say sailing is in decline but it didn't look like it on Thursday.

Back to Little Compton

On Monday this erstwhile RS Aero sailor drove down to Little Compton for what turned out to be a superb afternoon of solitary Laser sailing. The trailer parking lot only had one other trailer in it and there was nary another boat in sight on the river when I launched.

The wind was around 5-10 knots but I think it must have been stronger earlier because the waves seemed better than that. It's hard to describe but they are different from Bristol waves. I did some long upwinds and downwinds like I did last year with various sailing friends. The wind seemed to be getting lighter as I sailed but I managed to get some good rides on waves while sailing by the lee.

The lighthouse looked spectacular when I sailed up close to it. I had forgotten what a beautiful spot this is. I think Little Compton may be the best place on the planet for Laser sailing. There are at least 14 reasons why.

Sakonnet Lighthouse

And that's not even counting the fact that JP Morgan used to fish here.

And did you know that the inventor of the three-ring-binder lived in Little Compton?

A three-ring-binder

Where was I? Where am I? Oh yes, Laser sailing in the best place on the planet for Laser sailing.



There is a group of Really Serious Laser Masters Worlds Sailors who have a Training Group that sails out of Third Beach Newport (not in Newport) on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  I saw a couple of Lasers (actually a Radial and a Laser I think) come out from Third Beach on the other side of the Sakonnet River just as I was about ready to come in on Monday. They were probably some of those Really Serious Laser Masters Worlds Sailors getting some extra training time in on Monday because of the forecast of thunderstorms and tornadoes and giant hail stones for Tuesday. They probably sailed in the thunderstorm too. They are really serious.

A really serious man

I guess I used to be a Really Serious Laser Masters Worlds Sailor myself. I used to join in with those guys when they had RSLMWSTGs at Third Beach or Bristol in other years. These years I'm only a semi-serious Laser sailor. I'm not going to the Masters Worlds this year like all those guys in the  RSLMWSTG. Been there. Done that. Actually done that six times. Got it out of my system. Ticked it off my bucket list.

My bucket list

Actually I suppose I am a semi-serious semi-Laser semi-Aero sailor these days.

Evelyn's Drive-In looked to be doing a roaring trade as I drove home. Next time I must come earlier with some friends so we can get back to Evelyn's by around 4:30 and snag a table for a leisurely dinner by the side of Nanaquaket Pond.

The outside dining area at Evelyn's
with some tables you could snag.

The lobster roll and fries at Evelyn's

Two of the Tiller family at Evelyn's

Labor Day Weekend 2010

Life is good.

I love my Laser.

I love Little Compton.

I love sailing on my own.

I love Evelyn's

Roll on Columbia

I live in Tiverton, Rhode Island on the east coast of the United States.

At the end of July I plan to do a spot of yachting on the Columbia River, at Cascade Locks in Oregon, way over on the other side of the continent.

The Columbia is the fourth largest river in the United States, the largest river in the Pacific Northwest, and the river with the greatest flow of any North America river draining into the Pacific.



But I will not be the first sailor from Tiverton to sail on the Columbia River.

Far from it.



If you had asked me who were the first Americans of European origin to travel on the Columbia River, I would have guessed Lewis and Clark.

But I would have been wrong.



In fact the first American of European origin to sail a boat on the Columbia River was a native of Tiverton, Rhode Island - Captain Robert Gray.

Robert Gray was a merchant sea captain who undertook two trading voyages to the northern Pacific coast of North America, between 1787 and 1793, and pioneered the American maritime fur trade in that region.

He also completed the first American circumnavigation of the world in 1790.

Not many people know that.



During his 1792 journey, Gray noticed muddy waters flowing into the Pacific from the shore and decided to investigate whether he might have encountered the "Great River of the West."

On May 11 1792, he ordered a small sailboat launched to attempt to find a safe passage across the sand bars at the mouth of the river. On the evening of that day, his men found a safe channel, so he sailed his ship into the estuary of the Columbia River. Once there, they sailed upriver and Gray named this large river Columbia after his ship.

So that's why the Columbia River is called the Columbia River.

It's also why British Columbia is called British Columbia.

All down to some sailor from Tiverton.



Many years later, Woody Guthrie wrote a song about the Columbia River





And that's all I have to say about that.


Related posts
Down Down Down
Blowout of the Blowout
The Graveyard of the Pacific

What is this?

What is this?

Or rather, what was it?

Dead sea creature found on the beach of Mount Hope Bay when taking my three biggest grandkids for a walk this morning. These kids love finding dead stuff!

It isn't a quiz. I don't know the right answer.

Surely one of my readers does.

Rhode Island From Above

Some people retire to Florida.

We retired to Rhode Island.

No regrets.

Travel

When I started sailing in England I belonged to a sailing club on a lake only a few miles from my home. I sailed there pretty much every weekend. It was fun. It was what hooked me on sailing.

Yes, I know those aren't Lasers. But that is the right lake.

Then some friends at the club invited me to go and race with them at some other clubs nearby. We called these events "open meetings" in the UK. Once I even drove about 50 miles to an open meeting and raced a sailor who had just won the European Laser Championship. But most of my sailing was at the local lake.



When I moved to America there was a sailing club on the lake just across the road from my house. My sons and I sailed there pretty much every weekend in the summer. They sailed Sunfish at the club so we sailed Sunfish too.

I still had a Laser so occasionally I would travel to the Jersey shore, or Lake Hopatcong, or Marsh Creek in Pennsylvania to compete in Lasers. They call these events "regattas" in the US. I went to the Laser Masters US Nationals in New Jersey in 1990. But I never drove more than two or three hours to a regatta.



Them I got the travel bug. I had heard about events like the midwinter regattas in Florida (for Sunfish and Lasers) and the Sunfish North Americans and the Sunfish Worlds. So some winters I drove to Florida. And then I started flying overseas to regattas and went to the Sunfish Worlds in the Dominican Republic and in Colombia. It was exciting going to new countries and experiencing their culture and their food and meeting other sailors from other countries.

And then I realized I could go to Laser Masters Worlds and went to England and Mexico and Spain (twice) and Australia. Tillerwoman always came with me on these trips, and after I had retired we took the opportunity to tack on some extra weeks and explore the countries hosting these regattas.

Random photo to illustrate foreign culture

Not Australia

When we moved to Rhode Island I discovered there were so many regattas locally that I didn't need to drive very far to sail in them. I didn't even have a regular club to sail at in the summer. It was all regattas. And lots of practice days on the bays locally, sometimes on my own and sometimes with friends. There was frostbiting in the winter too when I felt like it.

In the last few years, I haven't felt much like driving hundreds of miles or flying thousands of mile to sail when I can have just as much fun sailing locally.

Recently I have occasionally sailed with a couple of Laser fleets that are each about an hour's drive away from my home. It reminds me of the days when I started sailing. Small fleets. Short courses. Minimal waiting around between races. Everybody knows everybody. Not too serious. Just half a dozen or so Laser dudes having fun sailing round a sausage.

A sausage

On Sunday I sailed with the Duxbury Laser fleet. We had about 10 or 12 knots of breeze from the north. We did 7 or 8 windward-leeward races and had some good close races and all came off the water thinking we had just had about as much fun in two hours as it is possible to have in a Laser.

Some of my friends drove 8 hours to Rochester to sail in the Laser Masters US Nationals. They had fun too. But there was no wind in Rochester on Sunday so there were no races that day.

Some sailors will drive 3,000 miles to a regatta. Sometimes they have more of an adventure on the the drive than they do at the regatta. Check out Carol Cronin's Deer in the Headlight:Better Lucky than Good for example.

Interesting map of the likelihood of hitting a deer 

with your car in the next year in the US by state.

I seem to have lost much of my passion for travel to sailing events these day. I feel like I'm returning to my roots.

Am I getting old?

Or getting young?



Maybe one day I'll get the travel bug again and jet off to New Zealand or Argentina for a Laser Masters Worlds? Or maybe not.



Wait. I forgot. I just booked a trip to go sailing in the Mediterranean in a few weeks.

Just ignore everything I just said.

Like you usually do.

Me sailing in the Mediterranean in a few weeks

If I get young again

Enough about me?

Do you have the travel bug?

Please Come to Newport

Please come to Newport

To live forever.

A Rhode Island life alone

Is just too hard to live.

I live in a house that

Looks out over the ocean.

And there's some stars

That fell from the sky

Living up on the hill.

It's THE Newport Regatta this weekend…

Please come.

Sailing Where JP Morgan Fished

When I was Laser sailing with my friend near the mouth of the Sakonnet earlier in the week, at one point we were quite close to West Island near the Sakonnet Point Lighthouse.

On the island there are three tall stone columns but no other obvious signs of any kinds of buildings. My friend wondered what they were. I had seen them before but had never bothered to investigate the story of why they were there.

So after our sail (and a few beers at Evelyn's) I did a bit of digging around on the Google and discovered that they are all that remains of an exclusive sport fishing club that operated on the island from 1864 to 1906.

The West Island Club in the late 1800s
Photo courtesy of Little Compton Historical Society

This is where the likes of JP Morgan and Cornelius Vanderbilt and Grover Cleveland and many other of the rich and powerful from that era came to socialize and to fish, and no doubt do a little business and lobbying on the side.

But eventually the fishing declined, the club membership dwindled, and the club closed in 1906. The club buildings fell into disrepair, a fire destroyed them in 1929, and the Great Hurricane of 1938 stripped the island clean except for those three columns.

There's much more information at The West Island Club on the Earth Sky Ocean Redux blog, and at In Search of the West Island Club on the New England Boating website.

And from that latter source also, check out this video that will give you a very good feel for what West Island and the waters around it are like today.

14 Reasons Why Little Compton is the Best Place on the Planet for Laser Sailing

On both Monday and Tuesday afternoons, a friend and I sailed Lasers at the mouth of the Sakonnet River launching from Little Compton. I can't remember enjoying two training sessions quite so much. It was as if the fates had conspired to deliver two perfect afternoons of sailing. I'm sure the aforementioned fates will make me pay for it later.

Fates conspiring against Tillerman

Here are the 14 reasons why Little Compton is the best place on the planet for Laser sailing...


1. The drive to the launch site in Sakonnet Harbor in Little Compton is delightful. Farms, road stands, stone walls, beautiful houses, distant views of the river. Perfect for forgetting about the outstanding chores and maintenance tasks at home and getting in the mood for sailing.

2. Ample parking for cars and trailers just across the road from the boat ramp.

3. Short walk to beach in a harbor protected from the winds and waves.

4. If Sakonnet Harbor is not the most picturesque harbor in Rhode Island then I don't know what is.

Possibly the most picturesque harbor in Rhode Island

or I don't know what is

5. Short sail until you are out on the Sakonnet River in the real wind and waves.

6. Did I mention waves? They were just what we were looking for on Monday and Tuesday. Perfect for practicing our downwind wave skills but not so crazy that we spent all our energy desperately trying to keep the long pointy thing pointing at the sky instead of the bottom of the river.

Laser sailor having some problems

with his long pointy thing

7. Ditto for the winds. Enough wind to have us hiking hard upwind and having fun downwind without putting us in survival mode.

8. Warm sunny days. Probably the best days of summer so far. Call me a wimp but, I prefer warm to cold.

9. Quiet. We hardly saw another boat on the river all the time we were sailing. Miles and miles of open water all to ourselves.

Miles and miles and miles of open water

Actually not the same miles and miles that we sailed on Monday and Tuesday

10. Learning. I wrote a post Training Partners a couple of weeks ago asking whether you learn more from training with someone a lot better than you or someone of a similar standard. I still don't know the answer. I think both have their merits. But my companion this week was of a similar ability to me so it made us both push hard on all points of sail to see who would be fastest. And then, when it was clear who had the temporary advantage, we would stop and debrief and discuss what we were doing differently and why one of us had the edge. I think we both learned a lot.

11. Scenery. On Tuesday when we came off the water we were met by a fine looking young lady wearing a bikini who wanted to talk about Laser sailing with us. At my age, that doesn't happen to me every day.

12. Shopping opportunity. As we were derigging on Tuesday a man in a truck stopped and asked if we were interested in buying an awesome surround sound system and a 72-inch flat-screen TV at a very good price. As it happens we weren't in the market for such fripperies but how kind of him to stop and make us the offer.

72 inch flat screen TV available from random man in truck

13. Did I mention the drive down to Little Compton was gorgeous? Ditto for the way back. Perfect for chilling out and relaxing after sailing.

14. Evelyn's. We stopped for dinner both nights at Evelyn's Drive-In in Tiverton. If sitting on Evelyn's patio with a beer and some stuffies, watching the sun set over Nanaquaket Pond, is not the perfect way to end a perfect day, then I don't know what is.

A beer and some stuffies at Evelyn's

Desire

That clever fellow Nick Hayes, author of Saving Sailing, has an article in the June 2014 issue of SpinSheet magazine titled Don't Sell Your Boat, Mister. In it he challenges a man who is trying to sell his Laser because he thinks has no time to get out on the water even though "the desire is there." Nick goes a bit deeper than the usual "live in the moment" memes with some insights from a Harvard social psychologist and some excellent advice on how to organize your life to be happy now, not at some vaguely imagined future idyllic time. He outlines a way to live such that "hours magically appear for things that bring happiness - like Laser sailing on a Tuesday night."

One of his arguments for creating time to follow your desire now, not postponing it for a couple of decades, is that perceptions of the source of happiness change as one ages. And he uses Laser sailing as an example of this saying that when you are in your fifth or sixth decades Laser sailing doesn't make the list as sufficiently restorative or rewarding or even fun. The implication being, presumably, is that you should go Laser sailing NOW while you still have the desire.

Of course Nick knows that not everyone feels like that about Laser sailing in later years because he adds as a sly afterthought, "Don't tell that to the Laser sailing grandfather of six, Tillerman."



Hmmm.

Does desire for Laser sailing decline as one ages?

I guess I look at it from a position that could give me a distorted view. I have been racing my Laser in the UK and the US and several other countries for over 30 years so I see plenty of people in their 40s and 50s and 60s (not to mention a few in their 70s and 80s) sailing Lasers. I see the ones who kept their desire.

Sure everyone gives up Laser sailing eventually. But I see the ones who stop Laser sailing because their knees or backs or hips give out - or they die. And, sure, I also see ones like the man in Nick's article who give up Laser sailing because they say they are too busy with family and career to sail.  I guess I just don't see the ones who once had the desire but lost it before they really got round to taking up Laser sailing. I'm not saying they don't exist; just that I don't mix in those circles.



To be honest, I do find my own desire for some aspects of Laser sailing waxing and waning as I get older.

Some winters I am enthusiastic about frostbiting. Other winters I'm not.

Some years I get all excited about doing major regattas like a Laser Masters Worlds or North Americans. Other years I can't be bothered with all the faffing around that is involved in sailing major events.

Some years I like to travel a lot to sail. Other years I just want to enjoy sailing in my own (metaphorical) back yard.

But I have never yet totally lost the desire to sail my Laser.



Yesterday evening three of us went Laser sailing on the Sakonnet River launching from Third Beach. Two of us are in our seventh decades, the other is in his eighth decade. One of us drove ninety minutes to be there. It was a glorious sunny evening (if a little chilly for late May.) The wind was in the south and was stirring up some waves on which you could occasionally catch some rides downwind. We did some rabbit starts and chased each other round and round a short windward leeward course for about ninety minutes. Afterwards we all agreed we had had a marvelous time and that this spot was one of the best imaginable places in the world for some Thursday evening Laser sailing fun. And that we would damn well do it again next week.

We still have the desire.

Sshhh! Don't tell Nick Hayes. (But do go and read his SpinSheet article and buy his book.)

Where am I?

Where am I?

You had better be quick if you want to beat the Lion of Lawrenceville and the Sage of Sacramento who will probably get this in one, and know exactly what Tillerwoman had for lunch too.

Rhode Island 1947 - Throwback Thursday

Sakonnet Point Paddle

I have written before about the joys of Laser sailing at the mouth of the Sakonnet River, whether launching from the west side at Third Beach or from the east side at Little Compton.

On Saturday the winds were very light but there were still some good swells coming in from the south. It looked like perfect conditions for the kayakers from the Rhode Island Canoe and Kayak Association to have a paddle to Sakonnet Point.



There's some rock play and surfing towards the end of the video after the 5 minute mark.

Hmmm. I could have gone sailing on Saturday if there had been any wind.

Maybe I should take up kayaking?

Zen and the art of coming full circle

I feel like I'm coming full circle.



When I first started sailing in England, I raced my Laser at my local club on Taplow Lake, near Slough.

Then some of my fellow Laser fleet members persuaded me to go to some local "open meetings" (which is real English for what are called "regattas" in American.) But we only sailed one day events and never more than an hour's drive from our home base.

Then I moved to Rutland which is as near to heaven as you will find on this earth. I sailed in the Laser fleet at Rutland Sailing Club. My two sons learned to sail in Optimists there. I never felt the need to travel anywhere else to sail, except in my last year in England when I did travel to the UK Laser Masters, a two day event on the south coast, at Swanage.

In 1989 we moved to New Jersey. I shipped a Laser and two Optimists to NJ with our furniture. The problem we discovered was that there was hardly any Optimist or Laser sailing near where we lived in North Jersey. At first we sailed our Laser and Optimists every week in the summer in the local club in Mountain Lakes in the "open" fleet. But handicap racing wasn't as much fun as one design racing so I also started racing Sunfish, which is what everyone else in our club and in that area of the state raced.

But I was itching for some real competition in Lasers so I started to travel to Laser regattas on the Jersey Shore and in Pennsylvania. And then further afield to Maryland and Virginia and New York and even to Canada. I did some longer regattas lasting several days. Usually my wife and kids came with me on the longer trips and we did a bit of exploring in combination with the regattas.

I was racing Sunfish a lot too on the local circuit in North Jersey. Then one day I read an article by Brian Weeks in the Sunfish class newsletter that basically said, "Even you, yes even a duffer like you Tillerman, can qualify for the Sunfish Worlds." That was intriguing so I thought I would give it a shot. Apparently the way to qualify for the Sunfish Worlds was to sail Sunfish Regionals and/or the Sunfish North Americans and if you did well enough you would get selected for the Sunfish Worlds.

By this time the family owned three Lasers and three Sunfish. In the summer of 1995 my sons and I traveled to Ithaca, NY with three Lasers for a one week clinic with Gary Bodie. And the next week we traveled to Lewes, DE with three Sunfish to sail in the Sunfish North Americans.

I think I finished just inside the top 40 at the Sunfish NAs, so imagine my surprise when, a few months later, I received a letter from the Sunfish Class Office inviting me to sail in the 1996 Sunfish Worlds in the Dominican Republic. So my wife and I went off to the DR for a week so I could sail in the Sunfish Worlds and we had a wonderful time. And the next year I was invited to go to the Sunfish Worlds again (based on that top 40 finish at the NAs in 1995 again as far as I could tell) and we went to Cartagena in Colombia for the 1997 Sunfish Worlds, which was an eye-opening experience.

You see where this story is going? As time goes on I was traveling more and more, and further and further, to go to longer and longer regattas. It was all a lot of fun.

I was also sailing various Laser Masters regattas around North America, so I thought why not go to the Laser Masters Worlds? The Sunfish Worlds had been fun; Lasers could only be more fun. Tillerwoman and I went to Mexico in 2000 for the Laser Masters Worlds where I was humbled by the high standard of competition but still enjoyed myself. I had got the bug. We traveled to Australia for the Laser Masters Worlds one year and to Spain for Masters Worlds a couple of times too. I started going to Laser clinics in places like Florida and the Dominican Republic. I was one of the globe-trotting old Laser geezers and was starting to make friends with Laser sailors all over the world. I was also driving 3 or 4 hours every Sunday in the winter to sail in the Laser frostbite fleet at Cedar Point YC in Connecticut.



Then I moved to Rhode Island, which is even more like heaven than Rutland.

I didn't realize at first how lucky I was.

From May to October there is usually some Laser regatta every weekend somewhere in New England, often less than an hour's drive from my house. From November to April there is Laser frostbiting every Sunday in Newport, only about 40 minutes drive from my house. And for many months of the year I can go somewhere during the week any day I feel like it and just sail my Laser on the sea by myself.

It's starting to feel like I am back where I started in England. There is more than enough opportunity to sail and race my Laser close to home. It's not like when I was in New Jersey and I had to travel some distance to find any real Laser competition.

As a result I am finding that I am losing my urge to travel very far to Laser regattas. Driving and flying are definitely not my favorite occupations. Why spend a whole day driving to Canada or Virginia (and another whole day driving back) when I could race somewhere much closer to home? Why stay in some crummy motel when I could do a three day regatta down the road and sleep in my own bed every night? And why bother with the expense and hassle to travel to some international regatta on the other side of the world? I am beginning to forget why I ever did.



It feels a little unadventurous.

It feels a little lazy.

But it feels right.



It feels like I've come full circle.

If you are a racing dinghy sailor, did you ever get the travel bug as bad as I did?

If you had the travel bug, did you ever lose it?

Do you like sleeping in your own bed?

Restaurants and Bridges - Logic Test

I live on the mainland.

Nearby is an island with three towns on it.

There is a wide range of restaurants on both the mainland and the island.

The island is connected to the mainland with a bridge.

There is a proposal to introduce a toll for cars crossing the bridge. It is assumed (based on a nearby similar bridge) that the toll might be $4 each way, but less than $1 for local residents using the EZ-pass automatic toll system.

Owners of restaurants on the island say the tolls will destroy their businesses.

Owners of restaurants on the mainland say the tolls will destroy their businesses.

My question is: Is it logical to believe that both the previous statements could be correct?

Here is the way I see it....

If I live on the mainland and I want to go out to dinner, I might drive to restaurants on the island less frequently. Instead I will visit restaurants on the mainland.

If I lived on the island and I wanted to go out to dinner, I might drive to restaurants on the mainland less frequently. Instead I would dine more at restaurants on the island.

I am not going to eat out less because of a toll on a bridge. At most I am going to choose to eat at different restaurants. So the total amount of money spent at all the restaurants on the island and the mainland is likely to remain about the same.

But if more people currently choose to drive from the mainland to the island to dine than vice versa, and the tolls inhibit people from crossing the bridge, then business at the island restaurants will go down and business at the mainland restaurants will go up.

Conversely, if more people currently choose to drive from the island to the mainland to dine than vice versa, and the tolls inhibit people from crossing the bridge, then business at the mainland restaurants will go down and business at the island restaurants will go up.

Assuming that people eat out as much as they currently do, how can the proposed tolls kill businesses on both sides of the bridge?

(The real life situation is a little more complicated than I have described it because the island is actually connected to the mainland by three bridges, one of which already has a toll. But I think the same basic logic applies.)

Am I missing something?


Could the solution be to do what these clever people in Moscow have done which is to hang a restaurant from a bridge?

It's OK to Stay at Home

"Travel is not compulsory. 

Great minds have been fostered entirely by staying close to home. 

Moses never got further than the Promised Land. 

Da Vinci and Beethoven never left Europe. 

Shakespeare hardly went anywhere at all - 

certainly not to Elsinore or the coast of Bohemia."

 - Jan Morris

Discuss. 

Do not on any account attempt to write on both sides of the paper at once. 

Protractors may not be used.

Moon over Newport