Laura is now a Betty.

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Good surf this weekend. On a whim Laura decided she would come out with us and give it a go, I couldn’t believe it. I thought she must have been still half asleep when she said she’d go with us that morning. But she did great! She caught her first wave on her first attempt, and was showing no fear out there. We all sat outside the break waiting to see her board come flying back over the wave but it never did. She rode it all the way in and had this huge ear to ear grin on her face the whole way as she paddled back out! She was hooked! After that she was going after the biggest waves she could find. We had a wonderful time. To complete the weekend the very next day she tried windsurfing (she was hurting too bad from some nasty board rash to go back out surfing the next morning, that soft top ate her up pretty bad) while Miguel and I worked on his Cape Dory. To think just a short while ago she hated even getting wet and was scared to death of being anywhere near sharks. It didn’t seem to bother her this weekend. We had a grey reef shark hanging out with us the whole time we where surfing. By the way, we where surfing in a spot called the shark pit; so to even have gotten her to swim out into a place called the shark pit was an accomplishment in itself.

The last photo is of the aftermath of Laura's attempt at her last wave of the day. I wish I could have snapped this a few seconds earlier so you could have seen the look on her face as she started to perl (perl = nose of the board goes under). Her eyes were as big around as saucers.

Waiting for the Mail

Hi Mom Happy Birthday!

I’m starting to get excited about going to Pohnpei. It’s only a couple of days away!

I’m hoping that my underwater camera housing arrives before we leave, so I can get some good shots of the manta rays, the submerged ruins at Nan Mandol, and of the giant eels in the pools under the waterfalls. Maybe that is just wishful thinking though. The mail planes have been few and far between lately. The ATI plane that brings our mail keeps breaking down and our mail has been backed up for little while now. I imagine most of my packages have been sitting along the runway at Hickam AFB in Hawaii for a while now. It would be nice to get some fresh produce in too, that and my new skateboards.

I took up surfing recently and have really been enjoying it. I’ve been out three times now. My first time I did a lot of paddling, caught no waves and managed to get really tired and sore. The second time I caught a few waves and had a blast just riding in lying on my belly. This last time I managed to get bounced off the reef. Nothing big, I walked away with only a few minor scrapes. It actually kind of makes me feel more like a real surfer. Next time I try and stand up. Previously I haven’t been in any real hurry to do that as we are surfing some pretty shallow reef breaks.

I’ll let you know how it goes.