Travelling to and staying at overseas boat shows can be a pretty souless and exhausting experience, living out of suitcases and retiring to anonymous hotels after 10 hours on the hoof. In Annapolis, for the US’s biggest in-water sailboat only show, it’s a very different experience.

For several years now, instead of running up huge hotel bills Yachting World has rented various houses for the week. But the best of them all for the last few years has been this lovely traditional clapboard house in the historic part of Annapolis, the home of Steve and Janet Hall, who thoughtfully take a break in the sun in Florida for the week.

Not that they needed to this year as the temperature here has been in the high 20s. But after a hard day at the show nothing could be better than coming back to our home from home, having a cooling shower before sitting down on the verandah with a cold drink for a while before heading out for a meal at one of the city’s excellent restaurants.