Six Days and Counting

Welcome

Hi. This is Dale and I’d like to welcome you to our new blog for the big trip to the BVI’s (British Virgin Islands) with my kids and me.  The purpose of the trip is to spend some time together, relax a bit and get in some great scuba diving and sailing.  If you haven’t already, check out the About option at the top of the page for some more background information.  But now let’s get to our cast of characters:

Geoff with his slightly bearded and medium hair length look.

Geoff is living on his beautiful 37′ Tayana sailboat (more on this later on) in Northern California.  He graduated from college last year (no proof yet but he’s working on it).  He is a professional sailing instructor, photographer and budding entrepreneur and he’s getting his boat ready to to sail around the world.  He will be our captain since he’s an ASA (American Sailing Association) certified instructor for just about everything as well as having his license for very large boats.  Like his younger brother he also has extensive experience in championship youth match racing.  Geoff is also a PADI certified scuba diver.

Jenny with her “I know how to cook anything…no problem” look.

Jenny is living in a beautiful old Craftsman house in a delightful part of Berkeley after graduating from UCLA last year.  Like my wife, she loves to cook and is a great chef.  She is currently working at Chez Pannise, one of the greatest restaurants in the world.  That’s her boyfriend Erik looking on.

Wes with his “why do you need this fancy camera Dad?” look.

Wes lives in Southern California while he attends a community college.  He is in charge of youth sailing at a major SoCal yacht club, has a sailing photography business and also does web development in his spare time.  He just got back from New Zealand where the King Harbor Yacht Club youth match racing team (where he is the “middle man”) came in 8th in the world!

The boys and me this past Christmas.

I live with my wife, dog and cat in the Sierra Nevada mountains.  I’m going to turn 56 this year (wow, that’s starting to sound old!).  I’m not doing much of anything other than traveling, exercising, photography and eating my wife’s great cooking!  I am an experienced sailor having raced my J120 and J105 in SoCal with both Wes and Geoff and am also ASA bareboat certified and a PADI certified diver.

But, what getting there early will do is: 1. Allow Jenny and Wes to start the water-based portion of their scuba training on Friday and hopefully finish on Saturday. They are taking the PADI on-line course before their arrival. 2. Allow Geoff and me to make a couple dives on Friday and all four of us can go on a boat dive on Saturday…Geoff and I will just have our own guide. 3. Get us all settled at a beach-front hotel so we can relax a bit before getting on our bareboat Sunsail 38′ catamaran charter on Sunday at 6 pm. 4. Allow us to have five full days and one half day on the sailboat without interrupting it for scuba training. Since the time the kids can dedicate to this break is limited it sounds like good justification to me for flying all night.  Since I have over 5 million miles flying all over the place for the past 30 years, I’ve had my share of red eyes, including with minor league hockey teams (no showers before flying!) and it will bring back fond memories.  And, as lifetime Platinum on American Airlines I will get an aisle exit row.  The rest of the kids are spread out all over the plane. Stick with us.  This blog promises to be interesting assuming we can get internet access somewhere in our travels.  Each of the kids have promised to write entries and be honest about how the trip is going.

Related Posts via Categories

• The Old Man and the Sea Blog
• Vivid Virgin Island Visions
• How ‘Bout One More Week?
• Homeward Bound
• Debarkation Day
• A Day for a Deep Dive, Depleted Desirables and a Delightful Dinner
• Not So Stormin’ Norman and More Sharks Not Named Colgate!
• BVI Catchup Pictures
• Going to the “Dogs” and Points South
• Squalls, Sandy Roads and Barry’s “Sex Ed” In Anegada