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The Flanagan Family update for 2010 |
Hello family, friends and shipmates, It is January 2010, so once again it must be time for the "family update". The begining of 2009 was a tough time for us all. Leslie's mother, Juanita, was ill and eventually died in the middle of February. That left Sugar at home "keeping the home fires burning", with the help of the girls, while Leslie was down in California helping her mom and dad. Some of you might remember having dealings with Juanita. She took care of all of the office work when we first started chartering Alcyone, and she would "keep the home fires burning" while we were off sailing around the world. She made so much possible for all of us; we will all miss Grandma. This year also saw Alyce graduate from high school. She started at the Univesity of Washington this fall Another big change for us all. We thank her for staying close enough that visiting and logistics are easy, but she let us know that Seattle is her city. We are welcome to visit. She lasted in the dorms for the first quater and is now sharing a house with a friend of hers. One would think that a girl who spent seventeen years living on a boat would manage in a dorm, but with three people to a room, no storage and cold water showers in the bathroom that was a hike away, she decided to bail. The good news is now we can sleep on her couch when we are in Seattle! Darby is a freshman this year in high school. She made it to the state champs swimming, which was very exciting. Now she is looking forward to the start of the sailing season. At 5'10.5" she is as tall as Sugar and she enjoys looking down on her mother. She stepped up to the challenage of being our deckhand last summer. She was suprised at how much fun she had and she is looking forward to this coming charter season. Our winter has been spent with Sugar making sails and Leslie painting out the forward cabins in the boat. Having the houes makes painting out the boat much easier, and the upstairs TV/pingpong/family room has now morphed into a sail loft. We spent Christmas in Hawaii, on the island of Kauai. It is much quicker to fly there than sail. We have visited Hawaii many times, but this was the first time for Sugar, Alyce and Darby flying there. Sugar and the girls took surfing lessons. It turned into a day of surfing and then a day to recoperate... Leslie's family was all there. Grandpa had rented a house across the road from the beach in Hanelei Bay. With Jeff and Bridget and the two girls were there and there was lots of baby play time; Ramona is now 4 and Nora is almost 2. We have had such a warm winter that all the plants think that spring will be here soon. Our lazy days of winter are almost over. Sugar is still helping coach the high school sailing team, that keeps him busy from March through the beginning of May. We are involved in putting on two regattas this year, a high school regatta on May 8th and then the 505 Pacific Coast Champs May 22-24. Sugar is still having fun sailing his 505, Alyce skippers for him when she can, but Darby hasn't given it a try yet. Fair winds for the coming year, Sugar, Leslie, Alyce and Darby Family Update 2009 |