COMPUTER CRASH

Well, I am back online, but barely ... I had a major crash, and I'm having to re-install ALL my software. WHAT A PAIN, I wouldn't wish this on anyone!

So I'm all discombobulated, and 'way behind on lots of things ... paid work, for starters. :-) And blog contest entries, and daily event posts, etc. Aaarrgggghhhhh..... not fun.

However, thank goodness I didn't lose any of my personal files/documents, so I *will* be making the draw today at Knit'n'Cafe for my 'Blogiversary' contest winner. I'll be happy just to go there .... it's been a stressful week.

I got to see David Foster's yacht leaving the harbour the other day, though... note the transportation on the stern deck!


And the main highlight of the week was this ... if I love to cruise on my boat, and I love hanging out with knitters, what could be more fun than a knitting cruise? On Wednesday, that's exactly what 10 of us did ... and Wendy even brought her spinning wheel! Here we are getting ready to leave the dock (and thanks, John, for the great pictures!) ...

We followed the MV Coho (Port Angeles ferry) out under beautiful blue skies and sunshine ...

And encountered lots of other traffic...

Including this dude...

But we had a great time cruising out to Albert Head, where we knit, ate our faces off, and enjoyed the scenery...

Then, on the way home, we cruised in to Esquimalt Harbour just for a little scenic tour, and when we came out, it was a whole different picture. The wind had come up to about 25-30 knots, and it was a WILD ride home. Normally, when we see that the wind is picking up, we literally 'batten down the hatch' -- put dishes away, put our plants down on the floor, that sort of thing -- but this time it completely caught us off-guard. So my bookshelf emptied on to the floor, and some dishes that had been on the counter went flying. And to make matters worse, the fog that had been hanging about on the Strait all afternoon got blown in by the wind, and followed us home -- another few minutes and we would have been completely engulfed in it.


Michael and I know what this boat is capable of (MUCH worse than this was!), and we weren't worried, but I think a few of the knitters were. It IS un-nerving to have stuff 'crashing around' when we're cruising, but we were never in any danger. Funny thing was that our guests all assured us they weren't scared, and that they'd had a great time, and that the big wind and waves were just all part of the adventure ... but the mass exodus once we tied back up to the dock took about 3.4 seconds. I wonder if any of them will ever leave the dock with us again? lol

RIVER THE ROCK STAR

Yesterday I had a date with my middle grandson, River. We had to celebrate his passing into Grade 4, among other things.

What River loves is rocks. Lotsa rocks. So I knew he'd be delighted with a surprise visit to this place.

We made a day of it, starting at 8 a.m. with breakfast at his favorite restaurant, accompanied by his Auntie Hailey. Then we drove straight to Sidney to Mineral World/Scratch Patch -- and his reaction was *better* than watching the proverbial "kid in a candy store." We spent almost 3 hours gold panning (and yes, we got a few flecks!) and rock-hunting. What fun!

Then it was off to lunch, where he sorted and catalogued his treasures ...

... which included a piece of petrified dinosaur bone, his birthstone, some magnetite, and lots of other cool stuff!

Then we paid a visit to the Marine Ecology Centre on the Port Sidney dock, where River got to see tidal pools under a microscope, a real live water snake and a sea cucumber, and he got to touch some starfish, sea urchins and sea anenomes.

He had to be home at 4 pm for a family BBQ, but we still made two more pit-stops. First to a lovely playground in a park near the Anacortes Ferry, and then to Island View Beach...

... and it was pretty much the most fun I could have in a day without knitting a single stitch. :-)

SATURDAY IS FOR SOCKS

Well, that was fun!

I left home at about 7 a.m. and headed, of course, for Clover Point, where I cast on for my first-ever pair of socks. They were toddler-sized, and I used the pattern/tutorial here... - scroll down to 'Six Steps to Socks Success', which is a two-page .pdf, complete with diagrams of the process. It worked perfectly!

It was misty out toward the Trial Island light ...


And these dudes were already bird-watching into the mist as I cast on...

... and this dude was fishing from his kayak ...

I got the cuffs done, and by that time there was quite a bit of traffic at the Point, so I moved on to Trafalgar Square, where I took the picture of my first-ever turned heel, below. I finished sock #1 there, and then treated myself to lunch at the Oak Bay Marina. (If you're a local, and you've never been there, it was fabulous! I had a lovely piping hot chicken stew, a cheese scone and a coffee-of-the-Starbucks-variety ... and got change back from $10!)

Then I drove about two blocks away to a little look-out over Cadboro Bay where I cast on for the second sock and watched a beginner kayaking class ...

In the background in that picture (you can click on it to see the bigger version) you can see about 50 laser sailboats -- there must have been a big regatta going on at the Yacht Club, just around the bend.

Finished sock #2, and was home by 3 pm.

I'll be casting on a me-size pair before the day is done today. :-)

IT WAS A REAL HEEL-TURNER

SOCK KNITTING

Even writing that title sounds good. I personally don't know anything about sock knitting. But I'm about to.

I had signed up for a sock-knitting workshop up-Island today, but for a variety of reasons, can't go.

SO ... I've decided to spend the day (and save $40!) teaching myself how to make socks. I've got yarn, I've got tutorials, I've got an open day, and I've got my family's blessings to disappear to wherever I need to, for quiet concentration.

Meanwhile, I did a little more research on Big Eagle and found this...
San Diego Times article. Very cool!

And since I haven't managed to get my Tall Ships pics up yet, here is our local newspaper's slide show of the parade.

And don't forget to enter my blogoversary contest.

Later!

OF PIGEONS AND MEGA-YACHTS

Don't forget to enter my blogoversarycontest!

Last night down at Clover Point, I was watching, with great amusement, boats 'pulling out' to pass one another. It always amazes me to see this ... there's miles of ocean all around, but they just have to pass within a few feet!



While I was being entertained by these boats, this dude landed on the hood of my van, and would not leave!

But the most interesting thing that happened was that we (Michael was with me, for a change!) saw the pilot boat returning from 'way out in the Strait, and finally we could see a huge yacht emerging from the mist behind it. (As an aside, a friend who worked for Customs for 30 years once told me that when famous people are coming in to the harbour, and especially if they have an entourage, the Customs folks are 'ferried' out to their boats to clear everyone so they don't have to go through that once they tie up. (I guess a little thing like clearing Customs is an inconvenience that only us 'little people' have to deal with!)

So we left Clover Point and drove along the Dallas Road waterfront to follow this yacht in to the harbour. We lost sight of it just inside the Ogden Point breakwater momentarily, and this emerged instead...

This 'tender' to the yacht must have been lowered into the water in the few moments we lost sight of it -- it's about a quarter-million dollar boat itself!

Then the 'Big Eagle' came into view...

The Big Eagle is best known for being part of the fleet of Bernie Little, owner of the Miss Budweiser Unlimited Hydroplane Racing Team. (In 1995, Bernie Little became the first owner to win five straight World Championships. Along the way, Little also pushed through the 100-victory barrier, and was the first person to pilot a race boat to break the 170-mph barrier. On the last day of the 2002 season, Little clinched his 22nd title to claim the World Championship trophy that is now named after him.)

If this interests you, you can watch a video of these boats here…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6kvInEAtiA

The Big Eagle was launched in 1980, is 172’ long, and one of America’s 100 biggest private yachts. Big Eagle was featured in the movie Striptease as ‘Big Sugar’.

The yacht has two main suites and four cabins, all with their own marble baths, and sleeps twelve comfortably while overseen by a captain and crew (including a chef) of ten. Celebrities know it, especially from Cannes where its been tied up during the Film Festival. Over the years Sharon Stone has been on board, as well as Alicia Keys, Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgewick, Kevin Spacey, Sean Penn and Robin Wright, Roberto Cavalli, Cuba Gooding Jr., Sofia Coppola, Zoey Cassavetes, Benjamin Bratt, Harvey Weinstein, David Carradine,and Quentin Tarrantino.Joan Rivers, among others, loves this boat and has chartered it for her own use (and a host of friends) both in the US and in the Mediterranean and the Caribbean at Christmastime.

Long based in Fort Lauderdale, the Big Eagle was sold after Little’s death (for about $8 million) to two businessmen from Texas.

So I have no idea who's aboard here in Victoria, but I'd sure love to know! lol

AAAAAHHHHHhhhhhh .... I needed that

(WARNING: Picture-heavy post...)

We are back from our little jaunt out to Albert Head. It was quite an adventure, I might add! A fitting way to celebrate the ten-year anniversary since we bought the Wind Walker.

Don't forget to enter my CONTEST, by the way...

So we had two glorious days at Albert Head (have I mentioned how much I love it there? It's only half an hour from our harbour, and here's the view of the city from there...)


I said I'd get much knitting done, and I did .... I started my second 'Interlude' Wrap (that's a .pdf of the free pattern, if you click on it)and I'm about a third done already. I donated a blue one I knit to Afghans for Afghans, so I'm keeping this one for myself.

Here's a close-up of the pattern ... I love it, and it's a relatively easy knit. I'm doing this one double-stranded -- one strand of merino laceweight, and one of a merino-nylon fingering weight blend.It'll be perfect for September evenings!


I also started a test knit for a Whistler designer who hand-dyes all her own wool, and it's beautiful. This scarf is called 'Shifting Hues'...


Here are some of the sights from the anchorage:


And I took these from our dinghy:



Oh, and we had company for one night, too ... Mischa and River went off camping for the long weekend but Jeff had to work Monday, so he brought Gibson out to us Sunday night for a 'sleepover.' Jeff drove, and we dinghied, to the beach at the Albert Head Lagoon parking lot...

It was lots of fun to have Gibson aboard overnight!


Jeff drove back out to get Gibson when he got off work yesterday, and it's a good thing we didn't have a two-year-old to contend with, because ...

... at about 7:30 pm, the wind came up to about 30 knots, and for some reason, our anchor slipped and we found ourselves only about 30' from the rocks. (The first night at anchor there were some 'rollers' curling around the point, so Michael put out a stern anchor as well, to hold the bow into the waves. We've safely anchored at Albert Head many times in more serious winds than that, so we're not sure if that stern anchor somehow fouled the bow anchor, but we also ended up with rope wrapped around the prop, and had to cut the stern anchor free). It was about 7 pm., so we simply pulled up the bow anchor to move back to our original spot to re-anchor.

Twenty minutes or so later we realized that we had dragged again, and we were now only 15' from the beach shore -- it would have been a softer landing than the rocks, but still not our idea of fun! So we up-anchored again, and decided (foolishly, in hindsight) to head back into the harbour and come home.

Well. We were hitting 8 to 10' rollers coming out of the Head and then severely 'confused seas' with about a 4' chop and whitecaps the whole way home -- a 45-minute passage of serious anxiety! Luckily there didn't seem to be any damage to the prop, and the port engine worked great the whole way. But - I had dishes on the floor, books fallen out of the bookcase, and salt spray over my front window by the time we got in. Not a pleasant ride at all, but at the time we thought it was a better idea than not getting any sleep at all because of not trusting our anchor!

I was smart enough to insist that we not try to come under the bridge and get in to our marina with that wind blowing, though, so we spent the night on the main docks at the Empress Hotel, which I always enjoy - especially when I'm relieved to be tied to a dock! This morning at 7 a.m. we woke up to the sounds of LIVE MUSIC coming from the legislature lawn a few hundred yards away -- Canada Day celebrations were underway, of course! A little too loud for our liking, especially at that hour, so we were back on our own little quiet dock by 9 am.

I still have pictures of the Tall Ships Festival AND the FibreFest to share -- more tomorrow. :-)