It was wonderful to get home and spend time with my family and friends. I hosted Thanksgiving and Christmas at my house. We had seventeen people for a lovely Christmas dinner. Having a family of people who both like to cook and eat makes for a delicious experience.

I also used this time at home to get medical checkups and arrange for travel vaccinations to be prepared for being away for months. After all of the diagnostic work was done, the diagnosis was clear, at least to all the medicos. They uniformly agreed that I had all of the symptoms associated with getting older. I demanded a second opinion and they, of course, repeated the assertion. Oh well. On the other hand, I used some of this time at home to run, use the old Nordictrak machine in my basement and reacquaint myself with the Friday spin class at the Y. So I am still moving pretty well (for a medically certified old guy).

On December 2, my niece Jane, my friend Andrew, and I raced Capriccio in the Winter Vashon Race. We were in the Cruising / No Flying Sails class. This race is always a question of weather. One year it really blew and destroyed my already ancient mainsail. Another it was sunny until we rounded the north end of the island and then it snowed until visibility was down to almost zero. This year the wind was light and it rained all day. And I do mean all day. At one point, when we were a bit south of Ollala in West Pass, I offered to quit and took a poll of the crew. No one said they wanted to quit. (Later, both told me that they did not want to be the first one to say it.) And then we got teased by just a little bit of breeze. Each time I was ready to quit, just a little bit of wind came up and I deferred the decision a bit longer. And at this point we were in front of everyone in our class making it even harder to drop out.

A common feature of races in Puget Sound is when everyone starts all over again. The wind dies and then fills in from behind, as it did in this situation. So all the boats that were behind caught up and the new wind from the south and east had us moving smartly north up the west side of Vashon. We traded the lead several times with a well sailed Catalina 30 eventually finishing just seconds ahead of them at the north end of the island. Because we owed them time in the handicapping system, we came in second overall beating many other larger boats.

I also got to reconnect with Spanish class at La Unica. I had tried to do homework for the class while in California, but it was too difficult to get feedback. Rosetta Stone, Duolingo, and other web / computer based systems can help a little when learning a language, but my experience is that one needs a class like this that teaches the structure and rules of the language as a base. And as an added bonus I have been able to hang around with interesting and amiable life-long learners. And of course, I want to get prepared for México.
I was lucky enough to connect with many friends while home. Unfortunately, my one regret is that I was unable to see everyone I wanted to during the holidays. The adventure continues……