sailing

Mark and I have actually managed to go racing every Friday night for the past few weeks - without children! Babysitter comes at 4:00 and we are on a boat by 4:30 and ready to race.

There is a competitive little fleet of these modified J-24s - IC (inter-club) 24s. In fact, Peter Holmberg of America's Cup sailing fame is a regular as well as a few other sailing professionals.

One of the IC-24 owners, Neil will be leaving the island with his family for year in France. What has turned out to be a great opportunity is that he has asked us to look after the boat while he is gone. This past Friday we were out again racing with about eight other boats. It was actually a little windier than previous Fridays and we had some very quick races back and forth across the bay. It's actually a pretty tight fleet which means a few marks roundings were a little too close for comfort. We did actually have a run in with one boat - fortunately - he admitted fault and will be repairing the bent stantion.

Mark has been out a few more times than I have since we've been here and has been doing really well. In fact, I do have to report that he finished across the line in front of Holmberg in one race last Friday and was giving him a run for his money in a couple of others.

Last week, Alex was racing with us which was probably the first time the three of us have raced together in about 12 years. Again, it felt a little surreal doing this together in a completely different location. Deja vu - Cow Bay Regatta and Whidbey Island. It was a fun evening with few bruises.

One of the other nice aspects of this yacht club and its racing is the focus on youth. It is perfectly usual to see small children as young as three years old racing with their parents. Most nights we have had at least one child about eight or nine years old with us. And while we'll get Julian sailing with us soon, I think we'll wait for Max to fit into some sailing gloves first.

alex and nicholas visit st. thomas

I am overdue on the blog front due to some very worthwhile distractions. My sister Alex and her 7-year old son Nicholas decided they had quite enough of disappointing spring weather in Victoria. So - they called and said - "could we come this Sunday for 10 days?"

Our first house guests!!! And I just found new motivation to finally set up the guest room!

So after hauling our bikes out of the guest bathroom, and dusting off the red carpet - we were ready for our visitors. Alex and Nicholas flew in on Sunday June 22. We were all very excited - and Julian after doing "how many more sleeps?" countdown was beside himself with excitement to see his cousin...and his aunt.

We had a really fun visit which included:



- swimming at the house day and night.
- Nicholas joined Julian for a week of sailing camp.
- Alex, Mark and I raced at the St. Thomas Yacht club on an IC 24 (modified J-24)
- the six of us went sailing to nearby Christmas Cove on nearby Great St. James Island where we anchored then swam and snorkeled off the boat.
- dinners out as well as creations by guest chef Alex for Mark's birthday.






Alex and Nicholas did their best to visit many of St. Thomas' beaches. They also escaped to St. John for a night to check out the Westin Resort.

It was so nice to have the visit. Alex commented on several occasions how surreal it was that we lived here. To visit us several thousand miles away - and to be sitting on the couch that used to look out on West 14th Avenue - that now faces a harbour and some islands in the Caribbean. The big fir tree in the front yard of our old home has been replaced by a large coconut palm.

Now Alex and Nicholas are back in Victoria - sailing on their boat for the weekend. The house feels a little emptier -- and the bikes have returned to their home in guest washroom.