Nantucket provided a fabulous playground for the Dunoyer family and Zia crew.  Our sail over on Monday was fabulous, with wind and current both from the right direction.  It was a treat to watch Francois and Lisa soaking up the sun and savoring the perfect breeze.  We all had a marvelous time enjoying Zia at her best.  Just outside of the Vinyard, a beautiful 120ft. (est.) two masted ketch called Cyclos turned towards us to raise her sails.  We were side by side as they bore off and started sailing.  Clearly they were challenging us to a race!  We were flying our big headsail, trimming and adjusting lines to achieve maximum speed.  With the current's help, we saw a few high 10s on the speedometer.  Even better, we were keeping up with our competition nicely.  He had no idea who he was dealing with!  As the wind picked up, reaching into the 20s, Joe commanded we do the prudent thing and roll up the big headsail and unfurl the genoa.  Naturally, as soon as we accomplished that task, the wind died back down to 15 knots.  We lasted about 10 minutes before Joe said, "Lets get big daddy back out.  We'll run with them both for a while."  Although we had never tried sailing with both headsails up, what better time to try it than in the middle of a fierce competition.  Cyclos had pulled ahead of us and that was all the incentive we needed.

Zia, with a much shallower draft than the 120ft. mega yacht, was able to sail a straighter path to the mark.  We were both heading for a green can that marked a shoal about six miles out from the entrance to Nantucket harbor.  Cyclos had sailed a more northerly course to avoid a 12ft. shoal that we sailed right over.  As they turned towards us and closer to the wind, they picked up speed.  We reached the mark just a half a boat length behind Cyclos.  The Zia crew shared a proud moment as they crossed our bow, heading into the wind to drop sail, while we continued on, tightening up as we rounded the mark and headed for the harbor.  We cheerfully waved to the crew of professional sailors, at least eight strong, as we sailed by with our five kids and four grinning adults.  We had won, at least in our heads, which is all that counts!

A swim off the boat, dinner aboard and an early bed time rounded out our day.  We were greeted with fog and clouds on Tuesday, to be complimented by rain on Wednesday.  Nonetheless, we made a daily trek to Surfside Beach to frolic in the waves.  We found a fabulous restaurant for leisurely lunches and then walked a few blocks to the bus stop.  The NRTA bus served us well, transporting the whole crowd, cooler, boogie boards and beach bags to and from the beach for $10 a trip. 

Our patience and good spirits were rewarded on Thursday, as the sun shone brilliantly in the sky.  The beach was much more crowded and the waves much bigger, but the kids and adults could find no complaints.  We ate dinner on board each night and the kids enjoyed a few DVDs to keep them occupied.  They would have happily gone to bed at 8pm, except it was still too light outside and the boys were sleeping in the middle of the living room.  By the time the adults had finished the dishes, the kids movie was over and they all collapsed into bed.  By the same token, the sun is up mighty early so we all had an early to bed, early to rise policy.  Again, there were no complaints.

We sailed back to Woods Hole yesterday, Friday.  It started out just perfectly, but the fog rolled in while we were still a couple of hours out.  We fired up the radar and lowered our sails.  The wind had died anyway, so we wanted to spend a little time as we could under those conditions.  Joe at the helm and me watching the radar, we had assistance from Francois in spotting the targets we identified on the radar screen.  The dense initial fog lightened up quickly and we had one to two mile visibility.  Although still tense, the situation was much mellower than our previous fog event in the dark.  We pulled up to our mooring in Woods Hole just before 7pm and made for Captain Kidd's for dinner. 

We are now waiting for Francois' brother, Jean (pronounced ZHON), to meet us for a day sail.  The wind is blowing and we have Tarpaulin Cove in our sights.  We will anchor there and swim to the beach, launch the windsurfer and enjoy a gourmet lunch.  The Dunoyers are shooting for an early departure tomorrow morning, so we will make the most of our last day with them.

Hope you all are enjoying your weekend, regardless of the weather!

Much love,

Christy, Joe, Cassie and Juliana