Good news, bad news

The good news is that I got the long awaited notice from US Citizenship and Immigration Services asking me to report on January 14th for my interview and citizenship test. The bad news is that I plan on being on a sailboat in the Caribbean at that time. The instructions said that if I couldn't make the interview, I should send them the notice and a letter explaining why I couldn't make it. The other side of the notice said I should call them, so I tried. After multiple levels of menus, I wasn't able to get through to a warm live body, so I thought that I'd go to the office in person and try and plead my case. But to no avail. I didn't get past the security guard at the entrance, who informed me that I had to send them a letter. So I did. But now that I've lost my place in the queue, I might have to wait until 2010 to get my interview. Oh well. I guess we'll see.

In other news, one of the things I forgot to mention in my last posting was that at Megan's suggestion, we all went to see the Nutcracker on Saturday night. I had never been to a ballet before, and neither had my Mom. It was a lot of fun, and no, I didn't fall asleep. I couldn't. I had Megan on one side, and Caroline on the other making sure I didn't.

Hooray for the Roughriders!!!

No, not Teddy Roosevelt's Roughriders, not the Ottawa Roughriders, but the one and only Saskatchewan Roughriders. And yes, for those of you who don't know, I was born and raised in Saskatchewan, so my pride is that of a native son. The Saskatchewan Roughriders won the Grey Cup yesterday, beating the Winnipeg Blue Bombers 23-19. And also for those of you who don't know, the Grey Cup is Canada's version of the Superbowl.

Speaking of Canada, I just got back from there after delivering Mom and Marian to the Abbotsford airport for their flight back home to Edmonton. We had a very enjoyable weekend of eating, drinking, more eating, socializing, more eating, and catching up with the family. On Friday, we had my world-famous ribs at my place, on Saturday we had turkey at Caroline's, and on Sunday, Megan and Chris hosted us for Thanksgiving tacos. Who knows, maybe they've started a new tradition!

Here's Caroline and Chris enjoying their tacos, and Mom relaxing after the meal.

Megan and Marina and then Chris, Megan and Olive(r), their cross between a rabbit and a squirrel, more commonly known as a chinchilla.

Jenn and Ryan came over with Elise who enjoyed a moment with my Mom. Mom is obviously enjoying herself as well.

I don't have any travel plans until January, so I should be spending most of the next couple of months around here. I haven't decided yet where and with whom I'll spend Christmas. I may end up heading up to Canada to be with the family, but then again I may stick around here. I'm open to offers. Please write your ideas on the back of a $20 bill and send them to me. Multiple entries are encouraged. (My apologies to Click and Clack the Tappet Brothers)

Home again, home again, jiggedy-jig

Mr Incredible had a lot of fun at the Baja Ha-Ha kickoff party.

Here's Bob, Phyllis, and me. The intrepid crew of Gaia.



Here are some of the 178 boats that were supposed to have started the race, and some of the boats at Turtle Bay, our first stop.


I did like the ingenuity of the Mexicans, making a speed bump out of some old rope! Speaking of ingenuity, I earned a big attaboy from Bob (which I think just about wiped out all the awshits) for coming up with a fix for the water leak that sprung from out from a pinhole in his exhaust casting. I suggested drilling out the pinhole and installing a screw to seal the leak. It worked perfectly!


Here is some of the surf at Bahia Santa Maria, our second stop. The surf got big, it got dark, and 78 stragglers from the party (including yours truly) ended up spending the night ashore when the pangas (the local water taxis) quit running.




Fortunately, we had lots of food and beer to help us survive the night.


Here we are, approaching Cabo. Whew, we made it!!



In San Diego, I was amazed by the striking likeness to our Noble Leader keeping watch atop a restaurant. It was reassuring to know he was looking out for us.

The J-School was great! We sailed on a J-80, a light and fast 25' boat. We spent a day on basic sailing skills, one day on upwind techniques, one day on downwind, one day on starts, and one day doing whatever we wanted.

Mom and Marian are coming to visit this weekend, but other than that, nothing special is planned for a while. I may even have a chance to finish blogging on the book of Matthew, or have an occasional political rant. We'll see.

Cabo San Lucas

Well, we cheated death once again! I'm sitting in a coffee shop in Cabo, after having a good night's sleep (on land) and a fabulous shower.

This is just a quick update. I'll post more and add a bunch of pictures once I get to San Diego. Here are the facts:

Leg one- San Diego to Turtle Bay. 381 miles, 51 hours, 23 minutes. Consistent winds to 25 knots, 6'-8' seas. This was certainly a baptism by fire for me. It was the first time I'd sailed in open water, at night, by instrument. My first night watch alone, starting at 3AM was interesting, to say the least. Boat speeds were up to 12.4 knots!

Leg two- Turtle Bay to Bahia Santa Maria. 240 miles, 41 hours, 24 minutes. Again we had strong winds, but only up to around 20 knots. We sailed wing-on-wing most of the way. It was less stressful than the first night, but exhilirating nonetheless. We had a huge beach party the second night there, but the pangas quit running due to darkness and dangerous surf. As a result, I and 71 other brave souls spent the night on the beach. We were about to start drawing straws to see who would be eaten first when the sun came up and the surf went down. We all survived.

Leg three- Bahia Santa Maria to Cabo. 184 miles, 28 hours, 36 minutes. This was the least eventful of the legs. The winds died down in the middle of the night, so we ended up motoring for the last six hours.

More to follow from San Diego. My battery is dying!