Whew. It has been a little hectic over the last few days. I have a lot to catch up on.

First we have done some more work on the boat (Huzzah!) but as usual there is still a lot more to do. I have discovered that there is stuff that I will need some professional help for. For example figuring out the meter wiring for the engine. I would have thought that the end of the wire would go to either the hot or ground side, but nope, neither works. We are all cleaned up and ready to head out for a nice weekend or so at McNutts should we have some good weather in our future and I can start on some of the more major items in the evenings during the week.

Just this morning I went down to the club in my role of Manager of Public Works for a meeting with some of the club officials and discovered that there were two more US boats came in last night. The weather was totally calm and one of them lost their motor off Brazil Rock. The second cam along and helped to tow them into the harbour. The towing boat happens to be from Oxford Maryland, one of the spots that we would like to cruise to on our next trip south so I was able to get some initial local intel on places to go and things to see.

The club is sponsoring the Albacore Eastern Canada Regatta this fall and is planning to hold the Nationals next year so there are big doings going on down there. They have some great ideas for expansion both in facilities and in their sail training program. As it is they have already developed several young sailors at the national level and look well set to do more.

To more mundane things, we have added several more perennials to the garden and most of them seem to be coming along quite well. One of the peach trees seems to be struggling but the nursery has said that they'll replace it so we can't complain about that.

We have also heard that there is another film company coming to Shelburne to shoot a movie, this one called Adrift and they are casting for actors and crew today and tomorrow. Apparently it is a project for a film school from somewhere in Los Angeles so there are some folk here all atwitter. Who knows, maybe one of our neighbours will become famous overnight.

Hiatus on the Hard 2011-?

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I guess for most of our American friends the diamond jubilee of a monarch must appear rather, well, quaint, but for those of us in the Commonwealth it's a pretty big deal, enough to bump regularly scheduled broadcasting even. Even those who are against the monarchy and want it to be abolished were watching. Barb and I spent the better part of last night watching the Jubilee Concert as performer after performer was introduced to a huge live crowd and even more on the airwaves. I was more than a little struck at the number of them who were introduced as a big deal and who we had never heard of. A sure sign of age I guess. Oh well. At least there were some that I recognized - Cliff Richards, Tom Jones, Stevie Wonder, Annie Lenox and of course, Paul McCartney. The close ups of some of them certainly weren't too flattering which made me feel a little better about Father Time. Stevie Wonder had a major receding hairline and has really bulked up, Cliff Richards clearly had dyed hair and mega wrinkles and Sir Paul had jowls! Tom Jones seems to have fared the best but even he had snow white hair. The show was great, or so it was in my opinion, with each performer doing just enough without overtaxing themselves, although it was close in the case of McCartney, and still with enough time for others. It was fun to watch the Royals in the Royal Enclosure gamely trying to boogie.

A couple of days ago they had the cavalcade of boats - over 1000 boats took to the Thames to salute the monarch. I guess the wet weather was a bit much for Prince Philip as he was "taken unwell" as Charles said at the closing of the concert. It was fascinating to see boats and ships large and small from all over the commonwealth traveling down the river, some of them powered by oars and paddles struggling to keep up with the 4 kn minimum speed mandated by the event organizers. That might not seem like a lot but 4 kn in a birch bark canoe over a 10k course would be inclined to take a little of the yahoo out of me anyway!

I am not a Royal watcher. I really couldn't care less who they are having tea with today or who they bonked last night, but still it is fun to watch them. Her sons: Chuckie Charles, Randy Andy, and the third one whose name I can never remember, oh yes, Reddy Eddie. An of course, let us not forget Anne. Dear Anne. Honorary Col or the Regiment for several units that I served with, who, in her youth went to great pains to be "hot" and to whom time has not been terribly kind. Ah well. I don't look like I did at thirty either so who am I to comment.

Hiatus on the Hard 2011-?

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Wow! What a weekend. I almost hate to say it, as a dyed in the wool cruiser, but it was fun to be ashore this weekend. We started off Friday with some friends over for our first of the year BBQ and then on Saturday morning we started off with a visit to the town's Farmer's Market. This was quite good although it was a bit early in the season for locally grown crops. Still we had baked goods and crafts as well as a Petite Riviere Vineyard's booth selling their wines and Ironworks, a distillery selling their hooch. Concurrently there was the Town Wide Yard Sale so Barb and I walked the streets looking for bargains. Herself bough a few more plants and a couple of crockery thing-a-me-bobs and I scored a dart board made from pigs bristles which struck me as kind of interesting. It is apparently unused and I got it for $5! Now I just need to buy some darts.

During the PM we finished planting the remaining transplants that we had and settled back to relax. The stress of the earlier part of the day was hard on Barb's knees and she had to slap on the cold packs. But we weren't done for the day quite yet. That evening we went to the Osprey Arts Centre for a perfromance of "The Brier Island Wail", the story of Joshua Slocum and teh sirens of Brier Island. No, this isn't a part of Captain Slocum's life that you missed. It's all fabrication but a really good one performed by a young woman's choir. Apparently according to the story the reason Capt Slocum was able to successfully sail around the world was because as a young man he was friends with a "flock" of sirens that had made their home on Brier Island. Interesting concept eh?

Sunday we were up early and down to Nelleke. I began by flushing out the holding tank which took a couple of swishes as apparently I hadn't quite drained it out when we put the lady to bed last year. Then I got to work on the bilge pump. The situation with that piece of equipment was that the manual cycle works fine but the automatic doesn't. I took it out and tested the auto portion with my finger and I am afraid that I have to admit that it must have sat in some ice over the winter and the little mercury switch was discombobulated! Nothing for it. It must be replaced, but at least I know. I couldn't finish the wiring for the engine as I needed to think it out, which I have now done and I think I know what I need to do. Next work session aboard I will get on with it. We reinstalled the ship's computer and were quite happy that this time it seemed to work perfectly. We still need to hook up the speakers so we can watch the movies, but that is small stuff by comparison.

We are planning our first "gunkhole" this coming weekend out to McNutt's Island for Friday and Saturday night. This'll give us a chance to shake out some more bugs in particular to test out the Suki Suzuki our little outboard and make sure that it doesn't need another tune up. It will also let us go ashore for an explore and walk about the island. Peri the wonder hound will be quite happy to stretch his legs on a beach and I will enjoy exploring the south east side of the place. If the outboard is performing I might even try some fishing. There are numerous salmon aquaculture cages around the island and some of the little devils are always escaping. I am hoping to catch one of the truants.

Hiatus on the Hard 2011-?

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