New Year 2009

Happy New Year!
We had a nice New Year’s Eve with Bill and Linda aboard Sequester. It was a lovely evening and we lounged on the bow nets and then moved to the cockpit and sat at our new table. They wanted to go to the street party, so left about 11pm. We also would have liked to go (as last year’s party was so good), but Ted’s back was so bad he couldn’t even walk 100 yards, and I was so tired I couldn’t be bothered. I was asleep 10 minutes after they left.
It’s a week today since we finished the clinic. I’m still recovering from lack of sleep and we both had a relapse of the flu-like thing that is going around. Ted is resting his back most of the time and is also coughing and coughing. It sure takes us longer to recover now that we are older!
We had the second yacht race yesterday, and Sequester didn’t do as well this time. Once again, weather conditions were unusual for this area, and we had a big squall which changed the wind direction, so that the downwind leg was a beam reach and the upwind leg was a close reach on one tack. Since we start 10 minutes after the monohulls, our conditions for the race were different from theirs, as the squall came through just as we were about to round the second mark and the wind direction changed drastically and we had to tack to get around the mark. That was the race for us. We came in 8th out of 9 boats. We all got pretty wet and cold, but still had fun together.
Our major obligations are all taken care of now. Ted and I both have some small jobs to do. I’m waiting for fabric to arrive in the mail, so can take a few days off. Ted has a couple of boat projects pending, but he needs to be able to stand and walk first. A number of boats are leaving to go out-island to experience some of the more remote atolls. Another boat is sailing west to Micronesia. Two new boats are arriving today. So we say some goodbyes, but have new folks to meet. Karen