It has been raining quite steadily since Christmas, but every once in awhile the sun comes out and shines for a couple of hours, and like Barry says, you don’t have to shovel it. Last weekend we attended a seminar on provisioning your boat and we learned quite a few tricks of the trade. Most of it was pretty common sense, but there were hints about keeping food in the tropics and how to store stuff that I wouldn’t have figured out. I thought that putting things in baggies was sufficient, for example your flour and nuts and stuff, but this woman said you need to have stuff in plastic containers to keep out the critters (the thought of critters gives me the willies, but I guess they go with the territory)

At our fleet meeting last week we had a doctor come to talk to use about what kind of medical supplies you should have on board. She had some very practical answers for questions that were asked and good advice about how to treat everyday cuts and scrapes. She also talked about giving stitches, but only if there were wide gaping wounds, I told Barry that I would have no qualms about stitching up his wide gaping wounds, but I was not sure if I could handle him doing it to me. WIDE GAPING WOUNDS, WIDE GAPING WOUNDS I can imagine that image haunting my dreams. I have just finished outfitting our sail repair kit, so now I need to go to work on the medical supply kit.

This past weekend the rain let up so off we went for the weekend. It was lovely and warm with the sun beating down on us. We sailed up to Montaque Harbour and stayed over on Saturday night. We were headed back on Sunday and it was so warm I took off my floater jacket and pushed up my sleeves and suntanned for awhile. That is the first Jan. 15 that I have ever been able to suntan, what a treat!! I put up the staysail on the way back and we sailed Cat’s Paw as a cutter. It is a bit of pain to tack because you have to make sure the genoa gets around the second stay.

We are hoping to go to the Vancouver Boat Show. We are planning on busing over with a bunch of other Blue Water Cruisers. We are going to offer to man the Bluewater Cruising booth so that we get free tickets into the show. I feel like we would be posers at the booth, not actually having done any bluewater cruising yet but we do belong to the Association and we are making plans to go so what the hell, it’s worth a free pass. Hope all is well with all of you, keep in touch.

We may have solved our internet access problem. The antenna we bought to boost our wireless access was giving us problems. The wire that attached it to the card that you put in the computer had broken, due to careless use on my part, but we got it replaced yesterday ( for free, I guess a lot of people have been having the same problem) so I am hoping to be able to access the internet from the boat again. Since we were having access problems I didn’t get to put some stuff on the blog that I wanted to over the holidays.

Before Christmas we went on a lighted boat tour. Everyone decorates their boats, power or sail, with lights and then one night they get together and go motoring around the harbour so everyone can see all the boats. The Maple Bay Yacht Club (up near Duncan, on Van. Is,) were having a harbour tour and they had invited our yacht club to join, there was a pot luck dinner as well. We had not decorated our boat but friends that we have met through the Blue Water Cruising asked us if we were going to the dinner. When we arrived they invited us to go on their boat, a Beneteau 361. Our friends, Debbie and Lynn Greentree, had put painted plywood cutouts of the three wise men on camels and the angels on their boat.

The whole experience was quite magical, it was extremely dark and there were over 20 boats all decorated and we motored around the harbour for over an hour. They arrange to have senior citizens come to places along the harbour so they can watch the parade; it is quite a big deal in the boating community. The boat we were on even won first prize for their original decorating. It was a super introduction to Christmas on the West Coast.

We had all the girls here over the holidays. It was great to see them all again, and to have them here together. Jen was here for Christmas and the other two came on Boxing Day. Jen and I played horseshoes on Christmas day up at the complex where Barry’s Mom lives and then posed in front of the flowering rhododendron to show you all what Christmas is like on the West Coast. It was my first green Christmas and it never did feel quite right!!!

Friends of my brother asked if we would like to house sit their house over the holidays, so we had accommodations for everyone at the house. It was a real treat to sleep in a big bed and to be able to get up and have a shower without getting all your stuff together and trooping up to the Yacht Club. I had wanted the girls to sleep one night on the boat, but Barry was enjoying the comforts of a house to much so he nixed the idea. We were going to sail the New Year in but it was raining and storming so it would have been very uncomfortable and perhaps unsafe to be out on the water so we spent it at the house.

Graeme and Barry went tool shopping during Boxing Week and the girls were treated to a shopping trip by their grandmother. It was fun to watch different generations chose shoes and boots. It was the first time we had been shopping on Boxing Day for quite a number of years, we are usually too busy curling in the Boxing Day spiel at the Yellowknife Curling Club, I wonder which family won this year!! Barry’s tool kit is looking much better now and he should be able to fix almost anything with the tools he has on hand. Of course you can never have enough tools, if you’re a guy, I think they are kind of like women and shoes.