Today defies the weather gurus, or should I say, they have just changed their predictions to match what they can see out the window. Funny thing how that works, isn't it?

We are getting down to the "creature comfort" tasks aboard. There are only a couple of major jobs and one of them is being done by Derek the welder. The other is to install the new AT-140 for the SSB, which really isn't a huge thing; I just have to go up the mizzen mast again. As for the small jobs: we have a small pump water leak in the aft head so that is something that I am trying to fix; I am trying to install our HD screen so we can watch our movies etc., in comfort rather than clustering around a laptop; and I am finishing the desk for the office. All of which are relatively minor and especially with Barb's help will happen very quickly. The only problem is that with all of the clutter that is only just being cleared up in the cabin she has been unable to do a lot of the things that she had planned and now that the table has been cleared of my stuff it is covered with her's. From my point of view this is great as most of the jobs are things that the boat sorely needs and I simply don't have the skills to accomplish.

Our friends Judy and Steve are having a birthday party for their boat Sempre Vivens at the dock tomorrow so we will be popping over to say many "happies" to them and their old girl. I really shouldn't cast stones as Nelleke is three years older and I wouldn't want her to think that I didn't feel that she was still full of get up and go.

We have heard from the crew of the other Canadian boat that will be heading south this fall in company with us or we with them. They had been off to Ontario to visit family and friends prior to the trip and have now returned, and are making their final preparations for the trip as well. As with all cruisers, if you wait until everything is done, you'll never get away, so at this point things become a matter of a sort of flotsam's triage - what must get done now, what could get done at stops along the way, and what is really only a nice to have sort of thing. We are at that state too although we have a grand total of 2 weeks before our departure which is a lot of time to get stuff done.

I will be redoing all of the NMEA datastream to ensure that we get everything set up, in particular the new things that we have added to the boat. Even the replacement technology is adding to the job load as we have to re-learn all of the "how tos" for each piece of kit. For instance, the radar is no longer as simple as just turning it on since it now shares a display with the GPS Chart Plotter. This afternoon I spent a couple of hours on deck with it and the manual for company. Such fun, really!

I was pleasantly surprised to find out that Convergence, the 77' power yacht that has been tied up at RNSYS for the better part of the summer, also has a Leviathan PC as its ship's computer. Even more pleasantly surprised to find that the owner/manufacturer of the hardware will be visiting this afternoon. Check out their website at www.marinenav.ca and have a look at the IT related gear that they design and build for the marine environment.

Oh and a late breaking piece of bad news. The RADAR that I was dancing about? Well, it failed this afternoon during the test process that I was using to learn the how's and wherefores. Now we have to take it down and return it to a repair depot. Hopefully they can fix it within a few days.