Only 5 made it for breakfast this morning, all those early nights and afternoon naps are exhausting don't you know!
Anyhow, we set off for Norman Island, the kids and the big kids slept quite well on the way over, the seas were flat today, but we managed to sail once past Soapers hole, it is summer - yeah!!!!!

We went straight to Angel fish reef, look how flat it is



The dive was great, no pictures I am afraid, Richy was other wise engaged, there was a bit of a current, but we managed to duck in and out of it, so no picture of my shark! A 5 foot reef shark!

Emily went kayaking



The seagulls used the power lounger



The guys went snorkeling after a nap after lunch, then we went for an afternoon dive on Angel fish reef, these guys love this reef!! another amazing dive on there, 3 rays, eels, conch, no sharks this time!

Then we all went and did some wake boarding and skiing



Heres David, wake boarding, Rich did too, I had a water ski and B got up on a mono ski!



The sunset was fabulous



This evening was a transitional night dive, it was Davids first, it looked fabulous from Richies pictures













Dinner was my favorite, steak! they are watching a movie as I type and I am off to bed!

It was a fabulous meal last night, the lobster was a ridiculous size as always, I had lamb, which was a real treat, here we are



Mr B looks like he is asleep!

The weather was great again today, the seas virtually flat, we had a relaxing sail away from Anegada, there was a cats cradle frenzy, I am no good apparently, it makes no sense!



On out sail we were passing the Chikuzen wreck, so it would have been rude to not stop and have a quick dive! I was so excited and I was not disappointed! Of course now Rich has his posh new camera, you never have the right lense for anything, so he didn't get pictures of the sharks, eagle ray, cobia, barracuda or horse eye jacks, but he did get some good ones





This could be the cobia, not very clear though!















It has been a while since we did that dive! Our plan was to head to Muskmelon, to our horror as we came around the corner, this is what we saw



10 kids club boats anchored, I hope none of them are on the reef! So we by passed that and headed on to Jost, we had a banana boat along the way to Sandy Cay, there is a guy on Sandy cay who is paid to keep the little trails clear around the island, what a job!

Then on to Great harbor, where I saw the funniest thing a man on a hydro scooter, you stand on it, push the handle bars up and down and the thing moves along the water, i would be embarrased to be seen on one!

A brief entry tonight, we are just waiting to go out to dinner at Anegada Reef Hotel, lobster here we come! The weather has been fabulous, nice and calm, we had a great sail over, the guys headed ashore just after lunch and made it back in time for cocktails! They had a great afternoon swimming, snorkeling and sun bathing!

The crew spent a while removing several cauliflower jelly fish from various places they weren't supposed to be! There are a few around at the moment, I cant say I have ever seen them before, but they are supposed to give a bit of a sting, so we will make sure we stay clear!

Kerry and Bazza look like they are having a fabulous time, very beautiful where they are and I would trade 10 minutes in that fog and cold, it is getting seriously hot here!

Well I write this as we sit on the ferry that goes between Prince Rupert, up by Alaska down to Port Hardy on the Northern End of Vancouver Island. We had to get up at some awful hour this morning for the all day sightseeing trip down the Interior Passage. Only problem, as luck as the draw has it , the first 6 hours have been very cold, very wet and very foggy. Not seeing much at all, although I suppose that is probably the way it is most of the time.
We had the most spectacular 83 miles of scenery that Bazza thinks he has ever seen going up to Prince Rupert yesterday though! So I have some pictures from there, although, the camera does not do the scenery justice!

Who is that? Ah well, my father again, leading the life of leisure in the back seat! I think he has gotten used to this not driving thing on this trip! Pay back for all the chauffering he does of us around Victoria. Especiallly my husband to Home Depot!

There was a mommy and baby ducks in the pond here.

We did drive into Diana Lake, as Bazza was intrigued as there was swimming signs there. He could not imagine anyone swimming in this cold water, so he had to see. What do you think? Does it look like swimming water to you?

Some Hills

And a lake. I really like the reflections in the lake...

Ah, we are back at Prince George here! With my Aunt and Uncle just before leaving. My aunt fed us more then I feed the guests on the boat, if you can believe that!! I did not think it was possible.

Back on the road again, a little pond

We were amused feeding the Ravens. We were surprised that they are not as sleek and clean looking as what i imagined.

Some more reflections and rivers.



Now this is a very unusual picture, as every time I ask bazza if he wants me to drive some, he firmly declines. Does not care for my driving! So I am fine with that, but he actually asked me to drive this time...an entire three feet up to reach the water hose!

Here is our little lion in the mountains

The Skeena River. There were tons of fishing camps all the way along with people standing in that (chilly) water fishing.

I saw this slug which I thought was very large until my father told me that when we lived on Northern Vancouver Island they would grow to about 7 inches. This one was maybe 3 or 4.

And how bout these raccons, didn't they pose perfectly??

Na, kidding, did not see them, someone sent me the pic!
I am sure there is too much more that signifies Canada then the trains being reflected in the water! My husband tells me that we are supposed to have two moose saying "Welcome to Canada, Eh!" and has been quite disgusted that we have not managed to find him one, although we have found lots of bear that he seems to think are attack animals as well. We saw a little one yesterday with a diamond spot of white on his chest (yes, he was right on the side of the road)

We also saw Eagles, but my zoom lens broke, so I could not get any pictures!



Our trip across Alberta and BC is almost done, and I think we are all looking forward to getting back to Victoria and settling down. So we will talk to you in a few days! Nice the see the BVi is getting some weather that looks like summer there finally!

The weather was great this morning, more how it is supposed to look in summer. In fact it was so flat we headed around Ginger Island and had a cheeky dive on Ginger steps, one of my favorites. The viz was outrageous, not a bit of current, it was fabulous!



Here we are down in the depths! Saw a little turtle while we were down there, cute picture Richie



This enormous barracuda swam underneath Janet and she had no idea, probably a good idea







My favorite



After that we headed to the Baths, the guys had a great time exploring there.

We fished our way to the next dive site and we were successful



A big old horse eye jack - good job!



We then dived the Chimney, great as ever, no pictures I am afraid! and a great sunset tonight

Every one was up bright and early this morning, we had breakfast at 8! They were all cunning in our planning and we came up with a good one today! It all began with a trip over to the Rhone, which was our first dive of the day, no pictures though I am afraid, but there was some pretty big lobsters having hole wars by the sounds of it!

We then headed around to the bay on Salt Island, the 2 boys went mountaineering, first they had to cross the water to get to land, they apparently didn't want to get any wetter than they had too



They then scaled the cliffs



Then disappeared for an hour or so, they came back with some great glass and pottery and tales of wild goats and cats! The rest of the group headed to the beach in search of sea glass and were very successful too!

It was then a fabulous snorkel after lunch on man head point, they all loved it there. The weather was great today, it seemed a bit more like summer is supposed too, quite flat, enough wind to sail and flat seas, I liked it!

We decided for the next dive to head on to wreck alley and were not disappointed. We visited the Beata first and that was quite murky, but good



Rich got some great pictures of this one and the other 2 wrecks too, on the way over we saw a pretty little sting ray













We also saw a tiny Nurse shark, hiding on the bottom and some big barracuda, it was a great dive.

We acquired new crew and went for a sail



They did a good job too! The rest had cocktails and nibbles!

It was early to bed for us and guests alike last night, we were all ready I think! So refreshed this morning, it was off to the spa for the guests and finishing everything off for us!

We are back out for our second week with 1 family from last week and the new family has arrived today to join them, here they are arriving by land



and by sea



We headed out and had a great sail over to Little Harbor, ate lunch and then it was off to explore the Chubb house, when these guys were here last year they saw snakes up there at the house, not many people ever have, I certainly haven't but lo and behold they saw them again this time!

It was then in for our first dive, which was beautiful, saw quite a few tarpon circling and all the usual characters.

A cocktail while watching the sunset, the boys fishing off the back of the boat, happily took us in to dinner, here they are fishing



and first night dinner

We are in the middle of our charter and we had to say a sad farewell to one family, our other family is staying on next week and we are getting a new family tomorrow! Our family who left, wrote some great comments in the guest book, so thought i would share:

"Skipper Richard, First (& most faithful) mate Lisa & ever entertaining B, you are truly in your "sweet" spots (living and doing) what suits you best! Your cunning planning, lavish food & overall good natured knowledge are just the start of your endearing hospitality! I thought after last years trip nothing could ever top that vacation, but you did this year. You made an even longer stay seem shorter (compliment here!)"

Thank you guys you are too sweet!

So a busy, hot day cleaning and re supplying and we are just about ready for tomorrow, I think an early night and a movie is well in order!

Well rolling right along here on entires, lets make it three today between us! Richards underwater pictures are getting spectacular! They will blow mine out of the water! I love the turtle with the divers in the background. Yep, definitely sounds like they have been doing a lot of diving this week! We have cute animals of our own!
Here is a deer...

AND we also saw Bears and Elks but I could not get a picture! So we had to settle for cows on the road. I thought I was back in Tortola for a moment, but these cows were looking much healthier then our island cows!

We were out there with just the right light in the evening and I was really wishing that I had my big camera with me for this picture. BUT, my mom had her camera so she took one!

Oh, I am not sure if this counts, but it is the puppy...really thinking that I should be going in the RV to get him cookies!

And then we have fish! But, this fish is on my plate! And very good it was too at Joeys Seafood in Prince george with my parents, and, yes, more relatives, my uncle and aunt, Donnie and Margaret. Donnie is moms younger brother.

Some more country buildings going to ruin up in Peace Country

and a very pretty lake just as we were leaving my aunts place.

My father, cousin and husband in front of my Aunts farm here..

And when we left the farm we all had our picture taken, including the dog, looking for food!

A chance for some one else besides me to have their picture taken at Bijou Falls, I have plenty of myself thank you!

My mom took this great sunset picture where we are south of Prince George.

And I know the crew on the boat will appreciate this and probably think it is Karma. As people know, for someone who never drank coffee I turned out to love ICED COFFEES. Poor Brent would go through withdrawal every time I left the boat as I would make them for everyone daily. Also, a bit of my obsessive/addictive personality coming out, I would always be so scared that I would run out of all these fancy ingredients for our blender coffees that I tended to stock up. As you can tell from this picture. This is what i had in the RV!

A few months ago I quit and it took me two or three days to get over the headache, and i decided that I needed to go through that again, as it makes me jittery, I don't need the calories and I cannot sleep either!! I picked a day about a month ago, and thought, well 3 days and I will be fine. No, not this time! An entire FULL week of withdrawal, headache, grumpiness and just really trying to stay in bed! It was horrible. Really horrible. I still crave it once a day, or when I pass the billion coffee stores out there. Hey, that is probably why Starbucks had to close 600 stores because I stopped drinking this stuff! Anyways, take my advice. Don't get into the super charged espresso iced coffees like I did, It is not worth it!

Therefore, kind me, took all this "stuff" to fob off on my relatives to feed their caffeine addiction!

From: The British Virgin Islands SCUBA Organization
For: Immediate Release


July 15th, 2008: It has been a busy month for the "Sink The Flying Cloud Project"....

1) A website has been created so our Flying Cloud project has a permanent "home" all its own! It looks good! Check it out at Windjammer Flying Cloud

2) We have been down to Trinidad to go over the Flying Cloud, made sure she can withstand the tow up to the BVI. It looks like an arrival date in the BVI for the Flying Cloud will be in late October. No word on the actual sinking date of the wreck yet.

3) We have received the support of the National Parks Trust for our project and its sinking!

4) Conservation and Fisheries have supported our choice location to sink in between Cooper and Ginger Island and we are busy doing addtional studies that they have asked for. These are called Bathymetric surveys. One will be a large scale chart of the area it is to be sunk in, with GPS and Depth scales. We must also make fish counts, and plot how far out from the reef the barrel sponges go so they can decide exactly where she will lay.

5) We are now up and running with Ocean River Institute acting as our non -profit 501(c) 3 partner. Additionally, we can accept small donations online through Paypal on Sink the Flying Cloud DONATIONS page.

6) We have started collecting stories, and pictures and making "Memory" Pages on the Flying Cloud by the year. We have several up on the Windjammer website already, check them out with plenty more to come!

7) Our very own Brian Olson, from Sunchaser SCUBA on Virgin Gorda has written an article "The Caribbean's Newest Artifical Reef?" You can read it on the Sink the Flying Cloud site.

So, I guess the point of this post, is you can read everything on the Sink the Flying Cloud site

Photo courtesy of Ed Hibsman

No blog entry yesterday, I was busy doing 4 dives!!!! I think this group is trying to kill us! But it was a fabulous day! Yesterday we started off with a dive on the chimney on Great Dog, it was beautiful, Rich saw a shark but I missed it!















Rich is starting to get quite artistic with the camera and he is definetly sorting his strobes out!! We had a sail down towards Salt Island after that, had a quick call into Cooper while a squall went past and it was conveniently lunch time too! We had a dance off with the kids club boat next door, which we definatly won!



The challenge and the response!







It was then on to the Rhone, not many other boats there, so what we decided to do was do a deep dive on the bow and then a shallow dive on the aft, before our night dive!!!! I haven't seen the visibility this good for a long time, it was at least 100 feet, which for the Rhone is pretty spectacular!



















Pretty good I think! so the dives were spectacular, the night dive was fabulous with no current, good visibility and warm water!!!! It was a late dinner and we hit our bed, I slept well last night.

They look like they are having some great diving times on the boat! I am ALMOST jealous, but we will be back soon enough! Over the last few days we have seen, bears, foxes, elk, deer, and all those other kind of Canadian things besides a MOOSE which my husband really thinks we should see! I have to share some of the great old pictures of some of the old pioneer homesteads up around Hythe. Hythe is in Northwestern Alberta, west of Grande Prairie almost on the BC border and my mother father homesteaded up here back in the thirties. To the everlasting thrill of my husband, we have managed to find another 30-40 close relatives up here that he never knew I had!
I used to spend quite a bit of time up here when I was a kid on the farm, and it has always been a magical place. My aunt still is on the farm, and our RV was parked looking downhill over the pastures watching the cows! It was as peaceful as I remember! these are all down dirt and gravel roads for miles...
This is an old church, a German Mennonite one, where Bazza found a 1917 penny! That was quite exciting...

An old water pump...

Some assorted old homesteads back in the trees

I am sure that we have a chronological picture of all these buildings for the last 50 years that my father has been coming up here, many of these were courtesy of him!

And, definitely the old cars are from him. They are neat, but he can tell me exactly what year and type each one is!

There is always a lot of old vehicles and machinery rusting and being covered over in the back of farms.

How bout this snow sled...It has seen 60,000 miles, had twins delivered in it and it was the only thing that could get into and out of car accidents way back in the thirties a lot of time. This is in the museum at Beaverlodge.

There is a cute dog on the farm. His name is Buddy and he is actually very good, but I am kind of a suck for animals too and I gave him a cookie the first day I was there! Well, Buddy was now my friend! After a day or so of feeding him cookies I thought they probably were not good for him so I bought some dog jerky treats instead! Well, he turned up his nose, left them on the ground and whined and sulked for hours till I gave him cookies! Now this is a farm dog, he lives outside and eats meat or dog food. I tried to tell my aunt he liked chocolate chip cookies best when I left but I don't think she was listening!

My mother kept on telling us that she was taking us over to our cousins to see the Grizzly Bear that had been shot in the back yard. I was thinking "yeah, I have seen bear rugs before mom" but humoring her, as you are supposed to do with parents! Well, it was a bit more then a bear rug! Pretty impressive!!



An old cart left in the trees..

My dad patiently took my husband around with his metal detector to the old homesteads and stood watch. They seemed to find a lot of belt buckles!! BUT not too many pull tabs which is a good thing. A couple old brooches, an old necklaces and a few coins....

This is my cousin Mabel, the "egg girl!" She looks like Girl of the Limberlost and has 150 or so chickens to collect the eggs from every day.

And this is her daughter Sherry and her grandson (see I have more relatives!)

One day we made a special trip out to one of my grandfathers old homesteads. The house was built by my grandmother and her brother in law, with a few add ons over the years!

Still there!

My grandmother planted this break of trees back in 1947. ! Pretty impressive, somehow I don't see me planting trees.

My mom and dad in front of the old garage where she grew up on the property...

And these are just some great pictures of the old barns that were there, well from the 1930's sometime!

I was trying to go for more "mood" photo's here...





I had to specially get my camera to take this picture, it was an old International Truck in the trees that said EDMONTON on the side!

This is my mothers older sister and my cousin Darleen at lunch one day..

Then we went to a good old fashioned jamboree. I got the door prize for being the furthest visitor away! Go figure!! I told Bazza that this was a first to him a country jamboree and he said they had them in Australia, they were just usually around sheep barns!



The band stage

I managed to get mom and dad being more ambitious then us and doing a fancy two step of some king...

Now, this group, "Yesterdays Country" I have a cousin who plays the guitar and sings in there, a cousin who plays the fiddle and the guy in the white hat played at my mother wedding up here 50 years ago!

good thing I am writing all this trivia down somewhere so I remember it!

After we left the jamboree that night I went out to the RV in the Hay field and the light with the bales and the sunset was absolutely spectacular, so I spent some time taking pictures. These are some of them. Different then the BVI, but just as beautiful!









Then a couple younger cousins came over and figured out how to use some special effects on my iphoto booth really quick, so we killed ourselves laughing taking these!
This is my dad...

My parents and I...

And my mom! Strange things happen when you go up to the country!

This morning it was time to Leave Hythe and make our way over to Prince George in BC, where, yes, you guessed it, more relatives! So, that is what we have been up to for the last few days!

Heres Richies pictures from the night dive last night, there were lots of his favorites, basket stars, love this one!



Heres Frank



Lots of spider crabs too



It was a great dive, still one of my favorites! Every one was up early today, so after breakfast we headed off to dive, a different place for a change, we headed to shark fin reef, only the adults were diving, team lazer fox were busy, with their ring leader





and it was fabulous, a little murky but we were expecting that, I saw a million mackrel and silver sides (pictures courtesy of Frank and his rather swanky new camera!)



Spotted drum



2 cute French angel fish who followed us for a while



There are 4 flamingo tongues here



I like this brain coral it is so round



and a weird jelly fish, I thought it was an odd moon jelly, but I don't think it is



After a fabulous dive, we headed on over to the Baths, where they spent ages playing and rock jumping. We still fit in another dive after that lot on Mountain Point, whole group participation this time!





I think Rich is starting to get used to his stobes now!

We saw the biggest sting ray ever with a missing tail, Richie found this one, when he got up close it was covered in cleaner shrimp!



They went and saw the small wreck there



and then headed back through the canyon



Nice silhouette picture

We were starting to get concerned this morning, it got to 7:30 and no sign of Janet she is normally up well before 7, by 8 still not a sole, by 8:15 the crew were twiddling their thumbs, by 8:30 we had out first person emerge, still not Janet but Terri, it wasn't long after that the rest started to emerge! A very sluggish morning, not a cunning plan in sight, I did try!

We got the boat moving and slowly every one sprang into life, by the time we got to Brewers Bay for a dive, they were all rearing to go! It was a pretty good dive too, very murky down deep, but I saw 2 Spanish lobster, I have never actually seen them in the water before! No picture I am afraid, due to broken camera!! Rich had his camera though and got some good shots, we explored the swim throughs





There was a school of fish so big I couldn't see anything for them



cute picture of Terri



You can see the divers in the back ground but I like the light on this shot



a cute couple picture!



Rich showing off with his wide lense here, nice shot!



It was then on to Guana Island, for a hectic afternoon, heres Terri with her Harry Potter book, having a few minutes to relax!



An exciting dive, we dived the Iguana Head Point, we have never dived here before but we know a few boats who do, so we went exploring! What a truley fabulous dive and not a picture to show! It was murky, but I had a 6 foot sting ray swim straight in front of me and an eagle ray, there were too many tarpon to count, a river of silver sides on the surface, horse eyed jacks, mackrel, shall I go on??

It was then on to the wake board





Water skis





and kayaking



We awaited sunset in anticipation of our night dive, which was rather good, you will have to wait for tomorrow to see the pictures though!