36 hours in PG

I flew home this weekend for a very very quick, 36 hour visit to good ole' Prince George. It was my sister's, best friend's, and best friend's mother's grad weekend.

I was horrible let down however, when I arrived in the Prince George airport, why do you ask? well after all the defending I do of Prince George, maintaining that it is not the "hick town" that everyone says it is, I arrived at the airport and was greeted by a group of at least 8 and all the males in that group were wearing too tight jeans, boots and cowboy hats, with cut off t-shirts of course... Remind me not to defend my hometown anymore, I will now mock it along with the rest of the province, hee hee.

The rest of my weekend was not a let down however. I managed to spend some time with family and friends, the home, the school, and the pub, and still upload some pics!

Congratulations to my sister Diana, who graduated from highschool, Ronelle, with her bachelor of arts from UNBC, and Helen, masters of teaching!

In which the She-WO goes in.

This past trip was another gloriously sunny three day trip with Langley Christian School, a great bunch of grade eights. We made our first stop of the season at Portland Island. In the past this has been a frequented stop by SALTS, but we havent made it there yet this year. It was marked by the occasion of my very first dory sailing ever. Well not really my very first dory sail, it was my second, but the first with a watch. We had a beautiful soft breeze that blew us right up on the shore of Portland Island, we had to row back, but seeing as we didn't have to row there, my watch was grateful. This is an unusual occurance as the sailing dory is the first mates dory, but I heard if you ask nicely then...
Next day was almost if not more so memorable, but for all the wrong reasons. One of the trainees decided it would be a good idea to throw a deck mat (rope mat to protect the deck from wooden blocks) at another trainee, however they missed and it went in the water. Oops. Anyways, We were still at anchor so therefore limited in our ability to maneouver, but Skipper managed to put us within pike-pole reach and I got it, and almost had in onboard, but then it slipped of the pike I was ever so carefully balancing it on. next I tried to lean over, but found I couldn't quite reach it, so I grabbed a line (the port side reefing penant) and holding onto this lean away from the boat, managed to grab the deck mat, but as I am doing so I needed to be upside down and then I had to let go of one arm and this culminated with me ending up swimming in Cadboro Bay in my jeans and hoody. I guess this speaks to how much we love the boat...when we go in for a simple rope map.
I love my job.

Hmmm....

You Belong in 1959

You're fun loving, romantic, and more than a little innocent. See you at the drive in!

What Year Do You Belong In?

Chairboarding and Anton-kwon-do

The past few weeks have a been a bit of blur and now I find myself looking at the rest of the spring season and wondering where the first few months went? This next week marks big changes in for the Pacific Swift, as my first mate, Antony, and bosun, Chris, are replaced by the two not so new faces of Drew Hayes, and Matt Lamay (respectively).
This past week marked the last five day trip of the spring season. I will now be doing a series of three and four day trips, which means no teaching of our regular curriculum, so more time for fun and games and sailing; but it also means that the trainee's don't learn quite as much and I have to clean up the boat twice a week instead of once...
This last five day trip was fantastic. It was the "warm wind" trip. There is always a trip in the spring when the wind changes from its fridgid winter temperatures and starts blowing a warmer summer breeze accross our sails, and this trip was it. The change in temperature meant a lot of brightwork (painting/varnishing/etc) was done last week. I even had my she-wo (female watch officer) hands on a few brushes re-finishing the names boards with metallic gold and green paint. The warmer winds also made the water look more inviting and one sunny and not so windy afternoon when we were not able to sail, but looking for something fun to do, we decided to bring back out the chair-board. That is to say, we rigged up the bosun's chair (a plank with lines on either side, kinda of like those old fashioned swings) and swung it out off the end of the yard (big horizontal piece of wood) and then proceeded to swing out over the water and the mercy of whomever was in control of the other end. I volunteered to be first out to spike curiosity and interest and though I had not planned to get more than my legs wet, by the time I got back onboard I was soaked from head to toe!
As far as the Anton-kwon-do goes... every since my crew found out that I have a black-belt, they have been challening me with their own martial arts, such as the aforementioned Anton-Kwon-do, as well as Kick-but-te and Drew-Jitsu...