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.