a journal of family travel, adventure, and everyday life
4th of July Cannonball Contest
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We have had our annual 4th of July pool party last weekend and it was another raucous success, especially the Cannonball Contest. The diving board survived!
First Mate, Sailor, and Dinghy Captain of the fine ship Pelican Pat The cool thing about a sailing vacation is that your hotel doubles as your entertainment, your view changes everyday, and instead of splashing water on your face to wake up, you dive into the warm, blue Caribbean (or whatever sea you happen to be plying). However, there are some drawbacks to this sort of trip: cramped quarters, nautical heads, seasickness ... landlubber concerns, trivial really. So it was with some trepidation back in January that I booked eight nights aboard a Sunsail sailboat in the British Virgin Islands . No captain, no cook, just the four of us and the sea. "It's for your 50th," said Ava, "let's go! I'll figure out something for the seasickness." What a trooper. I only hoped that the ultimate solution for the seasickness that has plagued her since birthing our children wasn't spending her nights ashore. "Have a nice night on board that stuffy,...
It is dawn, Wednesday morning, on the top deck of the Milford Mariner, moored in Hamilton Cove in the Milford Sound. A cloudless sky, slowly brightening, the Southern Cross still shining overhead. Wow. We started our voyage to Milford yesterday morning. After a somewhat hurried breakfast at Joe's Garage (our third in a row; what a great place!) we boarded our bus. Our driver was Carl. He said hello. Then didn't stop talking the rest of the day. Born and raised on the South Island near Queenstown, a former guide, he was a fount of knowledge about everything kiwi. At one point Andie said to me, "he talked about wool for twenty minutes. That's when I stopped listening." He also talked about deer farming, the difference between fencing for deer farming vs. sheep farming, the details on the road on which we were driving, the deterioration of the quality of driving on said road, the reason for said deterioration, and ...