5.31.2009

Funnest Bowling Team Ever

Last week marked the end of our bowling league. My team and I came in second over 12 teams! We never thought that was possible. Two of my teammates had barely bowled a day in their lives but that's not why we were playing anyway. I wanted them to be on my team for fun, not high scores. I was not dissapointed. Ours was the funnest team I've ever been on.

I must admit, our handicap was pretty high which helped us immensely but every time we played, we improved; all of us. I even won woman's high score with a 169! Fun!

One of the teammates has a picture of our group I'll post as soon as I get it from her.

5.28.2009

Busy, Busy, Busy

This island has been keeping me hopping.

Between sailing, bowling, yoga, Memorial weekend activities, snorkeling, biking, the gym and hanging out with some new friends I've made, I haven't had time to sit down and upload any of the pictures I've taken. (Oh yeah, and work!) In the near future, I intend to try diving as well.

I promise I will have some down time soon to get caught up on my posting and pictures.

As fun as it sounds (because I only post about non-work activities) you must know there are some jobs here that require much more time and less fun so make sure you know before you come to Kwaj what you are getting yourself into.

5.18.2009

Doing My Best To Have a Good Time

And doing a pretty good job of it I would say....

Saturday after work, I had another sailing lesson. I have yet to have a bad time. Even when it's not the smoothest experience, it's great. I like it. I'm learning, I don't expect it to be super smooth yet. It won't be long though.

Sunday, I had a really great time at the Sunfish Regatta that the Kwajalein Yacht Club puts on. I was lucky enough that the wife of the gentleman I've been taking lessons from offered to show me how to sail a Sunfish this weekend and then I got the opportunity to try it myself. What fun!
Sunfish ready to sail
On their way
Crab by the boat

Monday (which is our Sunday) I got together with a couple of friends and went kayaking. I enjoyed that a lot as well. Up to this point I've only ever kayaked on lakes. The lagoon is a bit bigger and wilder and more fun! It was a good time. After that, another sailing lesson. It was fun as usual.

I got lots of tacking and jibing practice through the mooring field. Kinda scary cause if you hit something, you have a lot of money to pay and would have to face the guy who's boat you hit if you didn't do it right.

We didn't hit anything, that's good. :)

I also met some new people on island and had a good time hanging out with them. We laughed so hard....I love that. I hope it continues.

5.12.2009

Newest Adventure

As you all know from my posts, I've been out on several of the Beer Can sailboat races and one evening I got to go out for a short evening cruise with some friends on a smaller sailboat. I enjoy it very much. I haven't said no to a sailing offer yet!

Back home, I was introduced to wake boarding and boating and was lucky enough that someone taught me the whole process of trailering, untrailering, getting the boat ready, maintenance, towing the skier/boarder. I like being useful and when necessary, I want to be able to do it myself. I can trailer a boat and be out of the way in about 5 minutes.

So it seems natural to me to now be taking sailing lessons. If I'm going to be out there, I want to know what I'm doing. As captain or crew I want to be fully functional.

I've taken two sailing lessons so far and I love it. The first time I was shaking like a leaf for the first 45 minutes. We went through all the points of sail and did some tacks and jibes; I ran the tiller. Today we did some docking practice and managed to catch the mooring when we were done but barely.

The boat we are using is called a CAL 20. It's 20 feet long and very responsive. A great boat to learn on for sure. In some of the races I've been in the boats are much larger and there isn't as much "action". (My word, not an official term) It seems there is less adjusting and maneuvering and definitely less bobbing around. I am so excited to get good at this. It is so much fun.

I'll keep you posted and try to get a picture posted of me as captain!

5.10.2009

Wedding By The Sea

Last night I attended an absolutely gorgeous wedding ceremony. One of my coworkers married his love under an arch on the rocks in front of the lagoon. The backdrop was the mooring field, full of boats and the weather turned out perfect. It was truly the most picturesque wedding I've ever attended.

The Yacht Club was decked out to the hilt and everyone had great time. I wish the newlyweds all the happiness in the world.

5.04.2009

Another Full Weekend

This weekend was reminiscent of one of my first weekends here. Sunday was spent on a sailboat in the monthly Beer Can race. And today I went fishing. Again, not catching, fishing; just like last time.

I got this great picture of the Worthy coming into harbor while we were racing.
Worthy and racers


Unfortunately I didn't get a picture but when we were fishing today, we scared up several hundred tiny little flying fish. It was really cool to see. They looked like they were all about 3 inches long. Other than that, we didn't see one fish, no bird-piles, nothing.

A bird-pile is when there are multitudes of birds catching lots of little fish that are getting stirred up by bigger fish. When you see one, you want to drive the boat through it or close and you have a great chance of catching something. That's what we keep our eyes open for when were out tooling around in the ocean.

It was fun to be out on the water, even if we didn't catch anything. That would have been fun too though!