Life of Riley...

Rollin, rollin, rollin......get this sailboat rollin....Rawhide! We are directly downwind now and Artemo is rocking back and forth. You can hear everything in the cupboards crash to one side and then to the other. Anything left out is rocketed across the boat. So far no major injuries just a few bruises. I had another bath today and as I am leaned over with my head in the bucket we had a huge rock and I ploughed my head into the bottom. Lovely! Regardless, I am clean again and feel so much better.

The day was beautiful. The air is warmer now. It feels like we moved from Spring to Summer in a few days. The swell is back to normal height and the winds are only 8 to 12 knots. I feel so happy. I stood for quite awhile today in the cockpit with my head up over the bimini watching us sail across the ocean. I love it when Mother (being the ocean) is happy. We blasted the tunes and soaked in the day. I came to the realization that I am actually enjoying sailing. Can you believe it? Not only am I actually sailing the boat now but I am also liking it!!! Somebody slap me! Millie was laughing at me as I was yelling with tears in my eyes and my arms spread wide open......"I love you Mother ocean".

Graham realized today that I am actually getting about 10 hours of sleep a day. The kids have been staying up til 11 pm with me and I snooze in the cockpit and then they go to bed and Graham gets up at about 12:30 and I go back to bed til 8! Ha. I even manage to sneak in an afternoon nap most days. Life of Riley I tell ya. Graham has a bit more trouble sleeping than I do. I never go wake him up but he still seems not to sleep for long stretches. He goes to his berth from about 8 pm to 12:30 and then from 9am til 1pm. Not enough sleep in my books but he seems ok.....aside for the grumpy behavior.....but it's hard to decipher normal grumpy from over tired grumpy. ha

I think the kids have thought of just about everything and anything you can play over the vhf radio. They have done battleship, X&O's, 20 Questions, "if you had a super power what would it be", made up personalities, worked through recipes together making cookies and cakes, read school assignments, talked giberish, reviewed books......and I think that is about it. If you can think of anything else they can do I am sure they would love to hear it. At the end of every conversation they say, "Standing by on 6". The other night Amelia came up to the cockpit to say good night to me and then she says, "Standing by on 6"! LOL. Total habit. I laughed.

We are still eating really well. Tonight we had open faced hot pork sandwiches with gravy, mash potatoes and peas. Total Alberta meal. YUMMY. I thought Alex needed a bit of Alberta in his life. He just finished reading Anne Frank in about 4 days. It has made him sad and left him feeling a bit homesick. We had a few good discussions about the book. I am shocked by how much he picked up from the novel. He talked about how Anne's moods were reflected in how she addressed her diary and how creative her mind was. He spoke about what an amazing and unique person Anne was and how she would never have settled for an ordinary life. I feel really lucky to have this time out here to be able to work through and discuss all of these things with him. I have to wonder if I would of even realized he was reading the book if we were back home in our regular routine.

Amelia completed her first knitting project today and I am wearing it proudly around my head. It is a beautiful yellow and white headband. Nanny Judith gave Amelia a knitting book, yarn and needles for xmas. It took us a few goes but finally we got the hang of it. Amelia is now teaching her Dad and Alex the techniques......I am sure you can just imagine how this is going.

Well we have about 490 nms to go. I am thinking we will arrive on June 30th or maybe even Canada Day. The kids are on target for finishing school! Well it is time for my evening snooze.

Miss you
Julie