Yesterday we finally got our Coast Guard compliance sticker from the inspector. He had told us that in his opinion our boat was perfectly safe, but that in order to follow to the letter the regulations we had to rearrange our fire extinguishers a little bit. For a boat our size we had to have an extinguisher at the entrance to every cabin, in the galley and near the entrance to the engine room, plus they have to be BC 10s or the equivalent (for that read 2 x BC 5 = 1 BC 10). Anyway, it's done and we have the sticker. I was very surprised to discover that we were the only member of the Halifax Squadron that had their inspection done. It was free and there is no real penalty if you don't comply, but you will know what things that the Coast Guard or the Halifax Police water patrol might fine you for, so I really don't understand it. Oh well.

I am finishing off the chain locker today giving it an upstairs and a downstairs so we can store booth sets of rode without them interfering with each other. That will make anchoring a whole lot easier for us and allow us to use both anchors if necessary. The material that I was able to find seems to be just about perfect and now I will be fibre glassing it into place and raising the chain and rope rodes to see how everything fits. I needed to buy one last piece in the morning and then I was off to the races. Getting the space for both just right has turned out to be quite a challenge compounded by the fact that while up on the hard the boat lays in a slightly bow down position meaning that the chain is flaking in a manner that it likely wouldn't normally. I think that I'll wait to finish it when she is back afloat.

I have painted the transducers with the special paint so all that remains before launch is to change the zinc and repack the stuffing box. Perhaps Barb and I could do those two things in an hour or so on Sunday.

I have added a breaker panel for the AC voltage coming into the boat which is something that has been missing since it was built. There are not too many circuits left now that we have converted the fridge to strictly running off the DC voltage so we will have a main switch, a switch to put power to the charger and to the inverter and a final one to the water heater. I have always wanted to be able to turn off the AC to the water heater so that we can use the inverter while at anchor without draining the batteries to heat the water and now we can.

Derrick Jackson, the welder, came around to the boat to talk about the solar panel davits and finalize the plans so we can get a price and decide to go ahead with the work. He used to be in the army too as a reservist in the artillery but now he has a welding business specializing in stainless steel. Most of his business is for the food and beverage industry and he was telling me about a big contract for the French fry people McCain's who Barb and I used to work for before I went into the army full time, so we had some mutual stories to tell.

Barb is getting her drive home today. Hurrah! I should be picking her up sometime this evening and I thought that we'd go out for a quick bite of dinner. I just have to wait for a phone call.