Whats going on in our lives these days.

First sail with Moondancer's cruising chute. What fun that was. Putting it up Tony was almost hoisted up into the air. As soon as the chute filled we shot forward and had a romping sail.

My daughter Mary and her son Mission at a few days old, living in Victoria BC, Canada.

Wilfred Pirotta is a diver, who still works under boats replacing zincs, cleaning bottoms etc. even though he's in his 70's now. He carries his tank and equipment on this motor scooter which he bought a long time ago. The scooter still advertises the previous owners, Thomas Smith, Admiralty chart agents in Malta. He never bothered to take the name off.
I saw him later in the day after he had finished his dive and asked his name. I told him I would put him on the blog. He gave me his professional card and said that though he knew nothing about computers, perhaps his sister who lives in Canada would be able to see him.
We went to an exhibition of art by Wayne Attwood, a fellow sailor who has been travelling on his boat, Hitrapia with his wife Angie. He's been painting architecture in Malta, mostly water colors and now some oils. His show was very successful, half of his painting were sold by the end of the show. My brother Peter and wife Sue came to the party also and they found a painting they really liked for their home.
We spent yesterday being ambling tourists yesterday. We walked into Valletta and on the way found the most beautiful secluded gardens, directly across from our mooring on the other side of the creek. We couldn't find any plaque to tell us the history of the gardens, but we did find many carvings in the stone walls, which seemed to be memorials - perhaps it had been a graveyard in the past. We were the only people there and the gardens had such a beautiful, peaceful mood, the only sounds being many birds twittering and the palm leaves rustling in the wind. We found dates of the late 1800's and statues of lions which were almost completely eroded, which seemed to indicate older than that. Many of the wall engravings were dedicated to the queen - probably Queen Victoria who has quite a presence in Valletta.
This day started with a 'boat jumble' where we and other boaters took items we wanted to sell or swap at the marina. It was alot of fun and we sold most of what we didn't want, bought some things that we needed, but mostly enjoyed the company of friends. We shared a table with our new Canadian friends Trevor and Jean, who also live aboard their sailboat from Vancouver, Onward. They came into the harbour a couple of weeks ago, but we have been so busy with work and my exam that we had not had time to get together socially. The time we spent with them today was lots of fun, we all tried to sell the things we had, kept each other entertained and enjoyed lots of interaction with our neighbours.