The Country Mice

The academic year is closing in on our little household but not before a massive tidal wave of activity threatens to consume us all.

Homeboy recently returned from a week aboard the Pacific Grace, a 107-foot fishing schooner, similar to the famous Bluenose on our Canadian dime.

Every year, the Grade 7 and 8 students of Homeboy’s school raise funds to spend a week on this boat, plying the seas between Vancouver Island and the mainland, an area known as the Georgia Strait. This strait is dotted with small islands home to wealthy Alberta retirees and hippie types who want nothing to do with wealth and oil. Somehow the two parties manage to co-exist.

I digress.

The strait is calm and therefore an easy journey for landlubbers first finding their way to the sea.

The sailing week is run by a group called SALTS — sail and life training society — is one of those great leadership training opportunities, building relational and physical confidence in young people through sail training, shipboard life and other enviable activities.

“You’re a good cook, Mum, but this food was amazing.”

Note to self: Exhaust child with physical labour, cold temperatures and night watches  prior to feeding.

Homeboy returned to us with a mouthful of nautical terms, a commitment to earn money so he can return for a summer program (Have I got some chores for you!) and as a taller and tanned young man with a perma-grin on his sleepy face.

These pictures are the few images he brought back with him. I suspect he was too busy eating all that amazing food to bother with photography!

That’s our boy in the green sweater, just about in the middle. Don’t they look nautical?

This pic was snapped by one of the parents from our school, someone who just happened to take his boat out for a spin in a certain area on a certain day.

You can run, kids, but you can’t hide!