An Interesting Visit to a Storm-2

These rules are for anyone who has never been on a power boat (or cat) that doesn't have a roof, or any living area.
Rule #1-Always wear sunglasses or glasses of some sort (if you wanted to get really funky you could wear those science goggle things)

Example-Picture yourself going down the highway, in a convertible at 60 MPH, with no wind shield. You would want glasses so that you eyes can stay open. Due to the wind, your eyes are either fully open or closed tight without glasses.
Rule #2-Hold on for dear life

Example-When we were going 60 MPH, if you didn't hold on, you would fly away! Especially when you are on the side of a huge storm, with 40 kts. of wind, and waves too. Oh, and less important, when Cole is driving (which did happen).

Rule #3-Go at full throttle the whole time

Example-When you need to go somewhere, it makes more sense to go fast. Such as when you are tyring to get back to land without getting hit by a really big storm.

Rule #4-Never be scared

Example-If you become scared, you will probably let go, and think of other things you could be doing. Oh yeah, and then you would break rule #2.

 

 

Okay, so now I will tell you the story of the ride in the power cat. So, when we got on the cat, Jorge told Cole and I to get on the bow and pull out the line that is around the cleat, and attached to the mooring in front of us. Once outside the dock area, Daddy looked at Cole and I, and said "wow, it's really calm today, it will be nice to test this ride out". So as we accelerated through the harbour, a storm was working it's was to PLC. Well, we got up to 60 MPH and zoomed past Jorges' friends on their boat. It was really funny to be on a really fast power boat, going really fast by a sailboat. After circling the sailboat we saw the huge storm coming at us. Since the storm was kind of far away, Jorge decided to take us to a really cool island. He pulled the boat inches away from jagged rock, and told us to get off and look in the cave. So I hopped off, then Cole, the Daddy. Jorge stayed on the boat and went back and forth as we checked out this really cool cave. It was a really deep pool of water that was surrounded by really tall rocks. The water must have been 50 feet deep, but you couldn't see the bottom. So after we saw the cave, we came around the little island and saw that the storm was very close now, and we had to run from the rain. So we decided to go to the outside of the storm, away from the land. We then saw that one storm, had turned into two. So we ended up getting half way to Margarita, an island about 50 miles away from Venezuela. When we went around to the far side of the storm, we all wished that we had gone closer to land. It looked like a 30 minute ride would turn out to be a 2 hour storm dodger. After arriving around the storm, we started to feel the 40 knts. of wind turn cold. Daddy said that the bigger the temperature difference in the wind, the bigger the storm. Well, to explain the difference, I got cold. Even with the spray in my face, rain, 35 kts. of wind, and waves, I never once regretted going. Finally, we could see land again, and the wind died. Jorge then took us to a really cool spot with over 20 power boats inside it. After a quick tour of that, he asked me if I wanted to drive the boat. "No" I said. Well he really wanted me to drive, so he kept asking and asking. Thankfully Daddy jumped in and said "that's okay you don't have to drive if you don't want to". Then he asked if he could drive, and so Daddy drove us back to the PLC dock. After we got back, we waited for Mommy to arrive, and had a really good dinner. 

Well Daddy is working in the engine room, Cole is reading his book for school, and Mommy is eating cereal on our back table. That's all for today, bye!  

An Interesting Visit to a Storm-1

Today was very eventful. It started at 8:00 a.m. with Cole telling me that I had to "stop reading that wierd book", and get out of bed to get ready (getting ready includes brushing my teeth, washing my face, making my bed, getting dressed, and cleaning my room). So I crawled out of my bed, taking as much time as needed and got ready. After an amazing breakfast of..................guess what............cereal, I was informed that we would be picked up soon by these really nice people: Jorge and Maralena, who would take us on their power cat, for a test run. Now let me tell you that this catamaran is a third of the size of Zen. Well, one thng led to another, and Jorge cut his hand, and had to go to the hospital. Ouch, right? Well even though he cut his hand, he insisted that he take us out. So while Mommy when with Maralena to go shopping for the third time this week (I guess we are stocking up for our one month period with no big provisioning places), Daddy, Cole and I went with Jorge on his power cat. To be continued (it's to long of a story to put in one blog), I'll put the rest of the story in the next blog.

Three Really Good Books

So, we are still in PLC, and it is "Africa hot" as Daddy says. Luckily, there is a nice pool that me, Cole, and Caroline go to together every day after school at the Zen academy. Yes, Caroline is doing school with us, at Zen, every morning!! It is really fun, and we get to do awesome projects now that there is more than one person in my grade. Anyways, to the book topic. Caroline brought me two books that are really cool. They are part of a series so, here is a quick summery of each book.

Book 1-The City of Ember

The city of Ember is a city that is underground. It was built because the human race was in danger, and so we had to find another place to live. The book is about how Ember was starting to run out of supplies, electricity, and food. The two main characters, Lina and Doon, are really good friends and both love adventure. One day, after a "black-out" (when all the electricity goes away for a couple minutes), Lina finds directions on how to get out of Ember. So, she and Doon set out to decode the directions and try to get out of Ember. When they successfully escape, Lina wrote legible instructions, and dropped it into Ember. 

Book 2-The People of Sparks

After the people of Ember arrive in the real world, they come up to find out that there is nothing in sight. No people, villages, or cars, although they did see a road. The road leads to a small town called Sparks. Sparks is an old fashioned village, in the future. This means that they had no electricity, running water, or sewage. The Emberities soon found out from the Sparks that there had been something called "the disaster". This was when there was three plagues and four wars, and it almost wiped out human race. The only things left from how we live now are toys. When the 417 Emberities enter the village, the Sparks are terrified. They haven't seen so many people their whole lives, and don't know what to do with them. They are forced to all live together, and this doesn't go over well. The Sparks treat the Emberities horribly, and so the Emberities decide to fight back. Since there is nothing around the village, the Emberities decide that they can't go and must make peace with the Sparks so that they can stay in the small village. After a huge explosion, Lina and Doon, help to save the Sparks town from being burnt down. The Sparks realize that without Lina and Doon, their city would be destroyed, and so they decided that the Emberities were allowed to stay.

Book 3-The Prophet of Yonwood

This is the book I am reading so I can't explain it yet, but it is about the "disaster" I told you about in book 2. Once I finish it, I'll give you a quick summery of it.

 

 

Well that's all for now. We're off with one of Daddy's friends who is going to take us out to dinner. I'm really excited. The people are really nice, and are designing an amazing boat. Gotta go, Bye!

 

ps. Darlene-I think Kak might need these books before Christmas.

Twin water spouts...yikes!

So today we left Tortuga at around 6:00 a.m. and plan to get to PLC at about 2:00 p.m. The trip started off wonderfully. It was flat calm, and we were motoring. The first two and a half hours of the trip were very boring. Breakfast, play DS, sit around and wait for something interesting to happen. Well finally something did happen. Something I have never experienced before. First off, Daddy spotted a 810 foot long ship that would come much to close to our liking if we didn't change course. So from 9:30 to 10:00 we all stood on the deck looking for the ship. "I see it! Over here!" Daddy yelled at the first sight of the monster ship. Let me tell you that not only was it super long, it was extremely wide and tall too. As it got closer and closer everyone stopped what they were doing and looked at it in awe. Then, Mommy decided to go to the stern (the back) of the boat. When she got outside, she looked over our fishing lines to see if we had a fish. "FISH ON!" she yelled. So Daddy went outside to pull the fish in, while Cole and I looked out the hatches (windows) to see  the fish. The fish happened to be dead already. It was half eaten by a baracuda or something. All of a sudden the blue sky turned black and it started to rain. After yelling "batten down the hatches" about a million times while we closed all the hatches, everyone came back outside with bathing suits on. Then I looked at Cole's face. He looked absolutely petrified. "Mommy," he said in a shaky voice "what's that?". We all followed his gaze and saw two twin water spouts in the storm miles behind us. A water spout is just like a tornado, made of water. The water from a cloud forms a funnel and goes down to meet the ocean. If you are ever near a water spout, prepare for 180 knots (knots is kind of like MPH) of wind. Since we were so far away we didn't get this crazy wind. Just really loud thunder and lots of awesome lightning. The rain lasted for about 20 minutes, I think (I'm not sure because I was so sucked into the sight of the water spout). Soon the twins vanished, and another one appeared. This one we got to watch it form, and disappear. At first I was absolutely petrified, but when Daddy told me that we were going away from them, I felt much more comfortable. This was probably the most amazing thing I have ever seen. Just picture a black sky, pouring rain, the chaos of getting a fish on onboard, two water spouts behind you, and a huge ship passing across our bow. Yes, it was crazy. Well, the sky turned blue, with some wight fluff, and everything went back to normal. Daddy then taught Cole and I how we are going to tie the boat to the dock, piling, or moring and had us to multiple drills. Basically what we do every time we come to a dock. Now it is 12:25 and I'm going to go have lunch. bye!

Our trip from Blanquilla to Tortuga

Finally, we have left Blanquilla! I was starting to get bored there. Now we are in a little island called Tortuga. It took us about 12 hours to get here. This (on a good day) would normally be very slow for us, but due to weather, waves and wind direction, this all changed. 

When I woke up on the 8th, I thought we were underway, so I went up to the main salon to look at where we are. It turned out to be a squall, with lots of wind and waves, LOTS OF WAVES. Daddy, Mommy, and Cole were already up and were looking at the charts and wondering if we should leave to Tortuga. After hearing Chris Parker, a guy who does the weather on our SSB (Single Side Band radio), we decided that this would be the perfect time to leave this rocking and rolling place. 

If you have ever been on the little kid rides (sometimes called the pirate ship) that go up and down, and back and forth, you know how I felt that whole trip. Chris and Daddy's weather charts both said that the wind should change throughout our trip (a good thing). This never happened. The waves were huge, the wind never changed, but luckily, no one got even close to sea sick. "Yes" I thought, when I looked at the chart and saw that we should be in our anchorage at Tortuga at 7:00 p.m. Well, 7:00 came, and I couldn't even see Tortuga. 8, 9, 10:00, still nothing. Then, at 10:30, land came up on the radar. Cole and I were so excited and ran outside to see it. Since it was dark though, we couldn't see a thing. 11:00 came, and we were finally in the anchorage, just about to drop the anchor, when suddenly we got attacked by mosquitos. Everyone ran inside to close up the boat and put on bug spray. Cole and I decided to stay inside and spray the whole inside of the boat with Baygon (our trusty bug killer). When we thought that all the bugs were dead, and the anchor was down, everyone came inside and said goodnight. Mommy and Daddy were really tired and went to bed right away, but they said that I could finish the anklet I was working on (the anklet is pink, yellow, and of course, purple), and then go to bed. Finally, I went to bed. When I woke up that morning I went to the salon and looked around. When I went to step onto the salon floor I was totally grossed out at the number of dead mosquitos lying on the floor. I quickly went and got Mommy and Daddy, who cleaned the salon. When I finally got a chance to look around, I found out that we were in an anchorage with more that 20 boats, and there was a beach that surrounded us, a little, one house fishing village, and a couple fishing boats. It was a very nice anchorage, but we decided to go around the island to get away from the mosquitos. After breakfast, as we lifted the anchor we spotted a boat from PORTSMOUTH, RI! So we went over to them and talked with the guy who lives on it. He gave us really good information on PLC (our next stop, on the coast of Venezuela). Then, Mommy said that she was going to make bread in the pressure cooker when we were underway (not something she has done before). We were all very excited to have home made bread for  lunch, and thought this was a great idea. The bread was done ten minutes before we go to the other anchorage, but Cole and I had lunch anyways because we wanted fresh, hot bread. I can't even start to explain how good chicken salad/ currie is with homemade bread. When we arrived at the entrance to the anchorage, we discovered how shallow it really is. We went from 100 ft to 8 ft in about 10 seconds (don't worry, we draw 3 ft). When we got into the actual anchorage, we saw two boats rafted and another boat that had left the other anchorage an hour before us. The water wasn't beautiful there, but it didn't make us stop from swimming. But, before we jumped in the water, we came up with a wonderful idea. The idea was to make cake in the pressure cooker. It turned out wonderfully. It was a somewhat healthy chocolate cake with Mommy-made icing on top. It was amazing!!! It was more like chocolate fudge because of the texture, but it was still really good anyways. Mommy is now talking to a person in PLC to make sure that we have a slip at the dock (we do), in what Cole and I call Spantaliano (a mixture of Spanish and Italian). Tomorrow we will be leaving for PLC, and on the twelfth I'm going to meet the girl on the boat Someday Came. I am so excited. Her name is Caroline, we do the exact same homeschooling, and will sail with each other all the way to Australia and New Zealand! I am really excited to meet her. I'll write about our trip, and meeting Caroline in a couple days, but for now that's all. Bye!

I am writing in Tortuga right now, but since I don't have internet connection, it will be sent in PLC. 

The Past Two or Three Days

Yesterday I went to my first beach fire! It was so much fun. After
snorkeling with Indi, we went to another boat with kids we know called Free
Will, to ask if they wanted to come help us find fire wood on the beach. The
kids said they would, so we all went ashore. Collecting the wood lasted only
about 20 minutes before we all decided to go swimming. After we went back to
our boats, we had dinner and then went to light the fire. We brought candy
necklaces for all the kids, paper plates, and a torch to light the fire.
Indi brought marshmallows!! The marshmallows were so good! We all ran
around the beach and looked for sticks as we waited for the fire to cool
down a bit. Once we all had a stick, we feasted on marshmallows and candy
necklaces. We had hoped that more boats would come, but it ended up to be
only the boats that helped look for fire wood: us, Indi and Free Will. After
we finished the marshmallows, we went on a hunt for huge hermit crabs (not
to catch them). They were really cool. We found about three on the beach.
The fire ended when the rain came, and everyone had to run to their boats to
shut hatches, but it was really fun.

We met two other boats! We met them in Blanquilla, since that's still where
we are. They are both French and have one kid aboard. A 4 year-old girl,
named Dune lives on Igloo, and an 11 year-old boy named Remy, lives on
another boat (I don't know how to spell or pronounce the name). Neither kid
speaks much English and Cole and I only speak a tiny bit of French, but we
can understand each other. Another catamaran with kids on it came in a
couple days ago, and we are probably going to invite them to go tubing with
us today. We haven't met them yet.

The weather has been kind of yucky the past two days, but it looks as if it
is clearing up today. Daddy and Otis from Indi, caught a lobster two days
ago! It was small, but really yummy. We made lobster salad, and split it in
half between the two boats. Daddy and Otis tried to catch another one
yesterday, but had no luck. The idea was that it could be a snack before the
beach fire, but that never happened. Mommy's making pancakes this morning.
Yummy! I've got to go eat breakfast. Bye!

Blanquilla

Pinch and a punch (for anyone who has no clue what that means, it is just
something funny my grade did last year on the first day of every month).
Wow, I can't believe that it is already October. The weather here hasn't
changed much, but I know that in RI, you guys are probably wearing pants and
sweaters. Anyways, so now we are in an island called Blanquilla. The only
inhabitants are donkeys (that remind us we have to go to bed every night at
8:00), and lots of plants (cactus' come into the story later). If
Independence was not with us, I would probably be very bored. As
entertainment yesterday, we all went to a bay called Americano Bay, named
after and American man, who lived here years ago. The bay is known for its'
amazing caves and snorkeling, and boy is that true. When we first came in on
the dinghy, we saw tons of really cool caves that we could take the dinghy
into. After seeing multiple caves we came around a little point. Around the
point were two small, but beautiful beaches. So we beached the dinghy and
swam for a while. When we got bored of that, we all put on snorkel gear
and snorkeled underneath a really cool bridge made of rock. At first it was
scary. Swimming in the shade, where it was kind of hard to see, and rocks
came out of nowhere. Finally, I got used to it and had a great time. When we
got back to the beach we all climbed over the rocks to the second beach. It
was really cool until I stepped on a broken piece of a cactus and Mommy had
to pull it out of my foot. Next, we all swam around to the other beach
again. After playing for a while and watching Sammy, the little two
year-old, laugh his head off as he was thrown into the waves by his dad, we
decided it was time to go back to the boat. Yesterday was so much fun and I
can't wait to go to Americano Bay again today, but before I go I must tell
you a couple more things. After catching two huge tuna on our way here, I am
totally fished out! I think that Mommy and Jenny on Indi, has made every
type of tuna possible. Of course, we had dinner on Indi two nights ago, so I
have tasted all of them. I don't think I will be eating fish for another
week or so, unless it is the only thing we have (very unlikely)! Tonight or
Saturday we might leave for Venezuela. I'm very excited. Lunch is on! Gotta
go, bye!

Our Beach/Sand dune Adventure

Now we are officially in Los Testigos. There is a cute little town right off
our bow with about two or three houses. Independence successfully made it
into the harbor, last night around dinner time. So now that both boats are
together again, we decided to go on a little adventure to the sand dune.
Indi (Independence) were in an area that was really rolly, so they went to
re-set their anchor, while we started looking for a path near the village.
We came across a man who spoke only Spanish. So we spoke Spanish/English and
he spoke Spanish, and he finally figured out that we wanted to know if there
was a trail to the sand dune. He said kind of and showed us how to get
there. After pointing us in the right direction, he went back to his little
town and we started on the trail. For a while it was just a little path with
a couple plants sticking up here and there. About half way it started to get
a little rougher. ¾ of the way it got pretty bad with lots of rocks,
cactuses, and plants we weren't supposed to touch because they made you
itch. Finally, we could see the sand dune, which made us know that we were
still on the path. At last, we made it. The sand was about a zillion
degrees, and it was on a pretty good slope, that was hard to climb up. At
first I started to think that the hike was totally not worth it and this was
going to be super boring. But then I saw a path and decided to go down it.
When I got to the other side, my thoughts of the sand dune totally changed.
Before me was a huge beach/sand dune. For a while I climbed on the roots of
a tree with Cole and waited for Mommy and Daddy. Once they got there we all
went full blast into the perfectly clear water. The bottom was just sand,
and there were awesome waves, but no undertow. Soon Mommy and Daddy said
that we had to start heading back to the boat. Of course no one wanted to go
back on the trail, so we hoped that we might be able to get to the ocean and
swim back. Luckily, there was a path leading strait towards the ocean. There
were a bunch of rocks at first, but then it turned to sand. About half way
there, we saw the Indi crew walking on the path! We were so excited to see
them that after talking for a while (more like yelling) we decided to go
back and hang out for a while with them on the dune. After playing and
swimming some more, we had to go back. So we went down the trail and jumped
in the water. After swim/walking for a while it started to get deep and more
like a reef. So we found a floating piece of Styrofoam and put Sammy (the
two year- old on Indi) and Indi's back pack. Soon we got to a place where we
could go ashore from rocks sticking out of the water. Then we found a little
goat trail to get back to the little village where we had both beached the
dinghies. Now we are back on the boat and Mommy is cooking a fish that Indi
gave us since they caught so many. Gotta go. Bye!

9/25/08

Today started with waking up at 4:30 am. I woke up to the sound of the
engines, and Daddy closing my hatch. First I freaked out, but then I
remembered that today is the day we sail to Los Testigos. (Los Testigos is a
bunch of small islands off of Venezuela. They are totally deserted except
for one, that has a coast guard station.) Our plan was to sail along side
Independence, one of our friends, all the way there. This all changed when
at about 4:45 am, they informed us over the radio that they were having
difficulty lifting their anchor (this is called a fowled anchor). Since our
goal was to get there before night came, we had to leave them in the harbor.
Since we had no success calling them over the SSB, or long distance radio,
we don't know when they left, and how far behind us they are. Daddy guessed
about 4 hours. Any ways, when the sun finally rose, I could see that the
trip was going to be really calm with enough wind. Perfect weather for
sailing fast. The weather lasted for about half the trip. Then the wind
died, and we had to put up our light wind sail, the code zero. This sail is
absolutely huge, and is perfect in light winds (and blocking the sun, so you
get some shade). Cole and I soon got bored, and so we went to watch a movie.
On my way down, Daddy told me to run and get a water pump, bucket, and
sponge, because he overflowed the starboard water tank. So for the next half
an hour Cole and I mopped, pumped and sponged all the overflowed water.
Finally, I get to watch the movie. About fifteen minutes into the movie we
had to take the DVD out because Mommy's computer (what we were watching the
movie on) had 9 minutes of battery power left. As soon as we went upstairs,
we were given sandwiches and yogurts for lunch. When I went outside to eat
on the trampoline, I was so happy to see Los Testigos, even though it was
really far away. Now, at 4:40 pm we are in between all the islands and 25
minutes away from the anchorage. Daddy has to use the chart on the computer
now, so I have to go. Bye!

Video Chat

One of our favorite forms of entertainment is video chatting with our
really close friends. After we come back from a day full of
watersports, we check on Skype to see who's online. Next, we connect
with them online. If they are able, we do a video chat. This is when
your screen is kind of like a television and you can see the people
you are talking to. Sometimes it's really confusing when everyone
talks at once or if you move really fast and then the screen gets
fuzzy. But, it's really fun because it's the closest thing to talking
face-to-face. I have been hoping to set up the computer and put it
near the dinner table so we can eat dinner with our friends. But
momma and daddy don't like that idea because it uses up all the
laptop's battery. Daddy just said, "How much do you guys think I
weigh?" Cole said, "Six hundred and ninety nine pounds." Of course,
we all know it was a mistake, but it was really funny. He actually
weighs 188 lbs. That was kind of strange, totally off subject, but
that's OK. For the next 2 weeks, we are going to be doing lots of
sailing. But, we are going to new places and out of Grenada, we have
been for the past month. Much longer than I ever thought we'd be
here. Today we started school really early so we could have a full
day of playing with our friends on Beach Magic and Panache, since it's
our last day with them. I ended up doing extra school work since Cole
was still going, but I still got to play for a long time. I'll
probably send another blog in a couple days after we get to Los
Testigos. Bye to Laurianne, Max, Marshall and Parker!!! We'll miss
you!!!

9/16/08

Today was a really fun day. I got up at around 7:30, and played my DS for a little while before Daddy came down to tell us to start school. Math and history each took about half an hour to 20 minutes. Reading took a long time because I did two lesons, and finished my book. It was really good. In art history I read a chapter and drew a picture of a helmet. Finally for composition I finished my news article and put it on the blog. After school we had a great lunch of tuna casserole and lots of fruits. I was about to start a bracelet, when the kids from the boat Beach Magic drove up in their dinghy. They said that they wanted us to come over to their boat, but when Daddy said that Max was allowed to wind surf, that plan was canceled. So for a while we swam around and jumped off the back of the boat. All of a sudden we saw Panache drive into the anchorage. After a lot more swimming Cole went to Panache to ask the kids if they wanted to come over and swim. Of course, Cole came back with both boys in the dinghy. When Max was done wind surfing, we all jumped in the dinghy to go tubing. It was so much fun. Everyone decided to just laugh at the people in the tube while they were in the dinghy, but Marshal and I decided to laughed at. After I went, Parker, the driver of the dinghy, said that he was going to pull Marshal at full speed. He deffinitly did. We were all laughing so hard when he wiped out (more like flipped out). When we went back to Zen, Marshal and Parkers' parents were there too. As soon as we got aboard, Mommy brought out a bunch of homemade pretzels. They were amazing! Before we knew it, it was 6:30, and everyone had to leave. Today was a great day.

Another School Project

Here is another school project that I had to do. It is a newspaper article on the chocolate factory I wrote a blog about a while ago.

 

 

     Belmont Plantation Chocolate Factory

If you have ever wondered how or where chocolate is made, here are some of the answers. At the Belmont Plantation, in Grenada, chocolate is all anyone thinks about.

 

Starting 360 years ago, by the Swiss, sugar cane was grown. When the Swiss left, the French took over with coffee, then the British with nutmeg, and finally the Indian, who still own the plantation now, started chocolate.

 

A while after the Indian took over, they started growing all different fruits and vegetables. All the new products were then distributed around the island.

 

Most visitors of the plantation agreed that it was a very educational event. Monique Burgess says "It was very educational, and I loved how everything is done by hand."

 

When you come to plantation you can first be given a tour, and watch a quick movie on how the chocolate is made. After the film is done you are given a free sample of the chocolate, and an opportunity to get your own bar.

 

"The chocolate is awesome," says Cole Burgess "and I have never seen so many different fruits and vegetables."

Weather in the Tobago Cays

If you looked at our main blog, you would have seen the weather chart of the
hurricanes. If you read the actual blog, you would know that we are NOT
going to get hit by one. Even though we are not in a hurricane, we are in
twenty five knots of wind with thirty knot gusts, pouring rain for the whole
day, and a huge current. Weather down here sounds great doesn't it (ha ha)!
Despite the weather Cole, me and the kids on the boat Cataway (Nick and
Tim), went to the beach to go exploring. In the pelting rain the four of us
went on all the trails and little paths possible. Finally, we decided that
we were absolutely freezing, and that we should go jump in the water, which
was surprisingly warm. We swam for a while, until Nick and Tim's dad came to
pick us up. When we got to Cataway we decided that we were way to cold to
get out of the water, so we swam for about an hour. Tim came up with the
idea to try and swim through the two hulls and to get to the bow of the
boat. It was really hard with a good current, rain, and waves smashing on
us, but we finally got through. We went back and forth about three times
until the current go too strong, and we gave up and got out of the water to
dry off. Since the weather was not getting any better we settled on playing
their PS3 (a game you play that is connected to a TV). When we got bored of
that we played the electronic game of Life. It was really fun. We didn't
play until the end, but Nick won with the most money. After that we played
the PS3 again for only a couple minutes until we had to go back to Zen. As
it is getting darker, the white caps on the waves aren't as clear, but I
know they won't be gone until late tonight when the squall has passed. Daddy
says that we have great weather coming our way in the next couple of days.
Now I just half to wait. Bye!

Puppies and Dogs

I've been meaning to write this blog ever since we went ashore in Greneda. There are now two puppies and two mothers. Both puppies belong to one mother. The other mother had two little girl puppies until yesterday. We were all on the boat and Cole and I were playing with the puppies, when a car drove up and parked in front of the boat. A woman got out and said, "You two kids look like you have been playing with the puppies here so I was wondering if you could help me. I was looking for a little girl puppy". Then Mommy and Daddy came down off the boat with us and the three adults started talking. In the mean time Cole and I kept playing with the puppies until Mommy told us to come say hi. The woman's name is Jenny and she is the owner of a foundation for saving stray dogs. Both Cole and I knew the person must be nice, so we went and got the little girl puppy like she had asked. Once we got the puppy, we told Jenny that we had named her Amanda. She said that the woman that would be buying the puppy wasn't American, so she probably wouldn't keep Amanda's name, but that she would let her know. By that time Amanda's little sister, Jelly Bean, had come up and was walking around our feet with her momma. Jenny looked down and noticed the little puppy. She picked her up and looked at her gums. Jenny said that Jelly Bean was sick and that she would love it if we could give her some medicine while we were here. We automatically said yes. In return she offered Momma some vegetables from her garden. Mommy said that she would love that, so Jenny said she would stop by later to drop off the vegetables and medicine for Jelly Bean. After Jenny left Momma, Cole, and I went back to the house while Daddy stayed on the boat a little while longer. When he got back he said that Jenny still hadn't come back. After dinner and desert we all went to bed. The next morning (today) we woke up, started school, and Daddy left for the boat. About twenty minutes after Daddy left, he radioed us. He said that there was a "special package". The package we soon found out was from Jenny. There was a note inside that he read to us, it said something on the lines of: Here is a ton of vegetables I thought you would like. You will not find the puppy medicine because I have taken the puppy to my house and will care for it there. Have a great time, Jenny. We were all very happy that she had taken Jelly Bean to her house because she would get better sooner there.  We all hope that Jelly Bean will get better soon. As for the other two puppies, we named one very lively girl puppy Betty, and her crazy brother, Rody. Betty and Rody come to Zen every day and hang out in the shade, under the two hulls. Cole and I both wish that we could take Betty or Rody with us, but we know the answer of Mommy and Daddy: no. Oh if you are wondering, the dog in the picture is Amanda.  I'm going to go read now, bye!

Homeschooling

Today was a big review day. I reviewed all of my subjects for a test that we will have tomorrow. We already had our math test two days ago since we are ahead in math. When we finished the test, Mommy gave Cole and I chocolate cake since ti was our first big test. The cake was originally for celebrating a full month on the boat, but since we had extra, we were allowed to have some. For our next test Mommy is going to do something different since the cake is gone. Anyway, I am really prepared for my science part of the test because I studied for two hours on it today. I am most scared for history because I have to remember a lot of people and I am not very good at that. Oh well, I will find out how I did in a couple of weeks (or months), whenever Calvert sends us our grades. 

Here is what I am doing in the rest of my subjects on a regular day.

 

Spelling:  On Thursday Cole and I did our chapter three post-test and today we did chapter four. Spelling is not all that interesting for me and I just fly through it. Not much is going on in spelling.

Science: I really like science. I get to do really cool experiments (when we have all the stuff we need). Also, when Cole has an experiment to do, we wait untill recess and do the experiment together. One time that we had to improvise for materials was when we tried to use gum instead of clay to hold up a penny in vinagar. It didn't work very well, so we abandoned that experiment.

History: In history I am just kind of reviewing all of the stuff I did last year. Most of it is easy because I allready learned all of it, but some of the discussion questions are a challenge.

Geography: I was really excited when I first found out that I had geography because I have never done it before. I like some parts but other parts I don't. The parts I don't like is the vocabulary words. There is so many and I have to memorize all of them for the test! The parts I do like is that I am learning a lot about things we have or are getting on the boat. Some of the things are maps, wind generators, and solar panels. 

Reading: I love to read. Right now I am reading The Swiss Family Robinson. It is a really great book. Some of the words in it I have never heard before in my whole life, but I look them up in  the dictionary (luckily we got a dictionary from Calvert Homeschoolings' program). I am also reading Selected Poems by Emily Dickinson. Poetry questions are kind of boring, but I like reading the poems.

Math: Math is different every day. One day I might be multiplying decimals, and the next I am doing mental math (mental math is when you there is word problems in the book and you can't use paper to figure it out, not my favorite thing to do in Math).

Composition: In composition I wrote the story called A Surprise Audition which I posted on the blog already. Also, I just finished a poem that will also be sent in with my test. Oh and if you want me to post me poem you have to tell me, because I don't know if it is very good.

Well, that is everything I am doing in homeschooling. I'm going to go to the pool now, bye!

The City Of Ember

       The City Or Ember by Jeanne DuPrau was a really exciting book. It was about a town that is underground. Two kids, Lina and Doon, set off to find a brighter world than their own (our world).

       One day in the city of Ember, while Lina was doing her messaging job, she found out that her best friend had supplies that hadn't existed for years. Lina became supiscous and told her friend Doon about what she saw. A couple days later she found something that said "instructions". She could not read all of the instructions because it had been torn and weathered, so she went to her friend who could. After deciphering most of the instructions, Lina and Doon set off to find the "bright world". They found out the journey was to long to do in one day, so they had to wait for the next day to complete their search. Since it illegal to venture out of Ember, Doon and Lina were being searched for when they started off the next day. Luckily they both got away and found the knew world.

       The book ends when Lina and Doon throw legible instructions down to Ember on how to get to the "bright world", from the "bright world". It was a really amazing book. 

A Surprise Audition

This is a school project that I am doing and will be sent in with my test. Please tell me if you like it!

 

 

      "Bye Tory!" I yelled as I jumped in my Mom's car at school pick up. It was a Monday and I was getting ready for my dance class. It had been a regular day, and I had no idea what a surprise there would be for me that evening.

       As my Mom dropped me off at the corner of the street, she told me to have a great class. I ran into the hot and sticky dressing-room to get changed into my leotard and tights. After chatting for a while with my friends we tip-toed into the studio to stretch. My teacher, Miss Karla, wasn't there yet, so I knew something different was going to happen that class.

       Finally, Miss Karla came in and took attendance. By then I had warmed up and was ready to dance. As usual someone was absent. Miss Karla looked worried that not everyone was there. This was very strange. Next she told us to line up from shortest to tallest. I was very excited because I thought we were going to start our dance. Miss Karla then proceeded to walk us into the Grand Studio. Once there the Director told us to do all types of different combinations.

       After two hours of dancing we were dismissed to our conditioning class. I heard whispers all around me wondering what we had just done. Before we left Miss Karla told the class to go to the Grand Studio. "Class" she said "you just auditioned for Swan Lake"

       Two weeks later I got a letter in the mail, that said I had been excepted into the performance. I was shocked.

Tobago Cays

Today we arrived in the Tobago Cays. Yesterday we had to leave after dinner
so that when we got to the Cays the sun wouldn't be in our face and we would
be able to see the reefs. The wind was really light so we put up our new
sail. It was huge! It looked like a spinaker, but a lot lighter. Cole and I
set up beds for ourselves in the salon so that we could sleep there as we
were sailing. I fell asleep at around nine and woke up at about seven-thirty
and saw the island. We anchored at around eight. As soon as I saw where we
were going to anchor I was amazed at how many catamarans there were. I
counted 13 cats. Once we were settled Daddy jumped in the glass clear water
to check the anchor. Then he told Cole and me to come in and look at all the
fish he saw. There is also a little reef really close to the boat that we
swam to and saw a turtle! It basically took us on a tour of the reef. When
it started to swim away Daddy, Cole and I went back to the boat to get Mommy
so she could see all the fish. Before we even got to the boat a huge
stingray swam underneath us. It was awesome! After a little while I didn't
see anything else interesting so I got out of the water and played with my
piano for a while. Then Daddy saw a catamaran with a wind generator, and
since he is on a hunt for one he and Cole dinghy'd over to the boat to check
it out. It ended up to be the exact one that Daddy wanted, so the owner of
the boat said that Daddy could come over tomorrow and get on board to
measure it. I don't really care, but Daddy is very excited. For lunch Mama
told us that she wasn't going to make anything so we she gave us chips and
salsa instead. I'm going to go eat lunch. Bye!

8/6/08

The most exciting thing today was meeting another cruising catamaran! Onboard was two boys, both older than Cole and I. While we were there Cole and Nick, the younger boy, did Garage Band, the exact thing Cole is doing right now. Other than that here is my day. This morning I woke up and finished my book, So You Want To Be A Wizard. Then at around seven I started math. It took me a while to finish it, but I got it done. At around eleven Mommy and Daddy went ashore to pick up the doctor. He was coming to look at Mommy's elbo. A couple minutes later Mom and Dad took the doctor back ashore while Cole and I stayed on the boat and finished school. Once I was done I helped Cole finish. It had seemed like a really long time since Mommy and Daddy left the boat, but as soon as I said it a dingy that looked just like ours started to come into view. As the dingy got closer we realized that it was two boys in the dingy and it wasn't our dingy. They came up to the boat and said that they were suposed to pick us up, and that our parents were on thier boat. I freaked for a second, but then I realized that I had seen their dingy next to a boat on the dock. After they picked us up and took us to their boat we hung out their for a while so that the parents could talk. When we left their boat we went to lunch and they went to a beach. After lunch wwe went back to the boat. Then Daddy went windsurfing for a while. I jumped in the water with him to swim for a couple minutes, but I got stung by something so I jumped out. When Daddy finished windsurfing we went in to the dock to meet Cataway so that we could dingy over to the place that we were going to have dinner. When we got there the people that tell you where to sit said that they didn't have enough room for eight, so we headed back to the marina and had dinner at the same place we had lunch. After I finished I went to hang out with Cole and Nick. After talking for a little while I fell asleep. When we had to go Cole woke me up by screeming in my ear. As soon as I laid down in my bed on the boat I fell right asleep.  

7/31/08

Today was very eventful. The day started in Mamora Bay at a resort. At about four that morning there was a really loud thunder and lightning storm. Cole and I both woke up and hung out for a while until the storm quieted down a bit and we were able to fall back asleep. After doing a math lesson at around 9 am, we started for English harbor to get a couple things we forgot back at home. It was such a short ride (30 min.) that we didn't even put the sails up. As soon as we got out of the little bay we were in, we saw three different dolphins. They were really big! They did a show of flips and jumps out of the waves for us. Also they liked to swim under the two hulls and jump under the boat. I really liked watching them. Once at English Harbor we docked. Mommy, Cole and I had to dingy in to the dock on the other side of the harbour to check out of customs. When we got back to the boat, Daddy had been talking to this guy with really good food, so we bought lunch from him. It was great. Mommy even let us get ice cream! After Daddy got the packages we needed we started for Falmouth Harbour ( where we are now). I read my book underneath the boom on the deck above the salon for the whole ride. It was also really short, so we motored the whole way. When we got to Falmouth we had to go grocery shopping. It took us under an hour to get all of the stuff we needed! After putting all of the groceries on board Daddy had to go return the car that we had borrowed. When he got back me, Cole and Mommy had finished putting away and cleaning all groceries so we all went for a quick swim. I can't believe my day started with a thunder storm and ended with an awesome dinner that Mommy just finished making, and is serving right now. I am starving, so I'm going to go eat dinner. Bye!