At around 21h30 last night I suddenly opened my eyes to the realization that I had totally forgotten to post anything to the blog. Not that it's deathless prose, nor that you probably couldn't use a rest from my yammerings, nor even that I had anything earthshaking to share with you, it's just that the blog is both my diary and the ship's log but also like many people who have the fantasy of someday writing professionally, you need to establish a discipline. Most professional writers make it a habit to write so many words a day. Some write a page, some write a thousand words, the point is they all keep the juices flowing, the machinery oiled, and here yesterday the mechanism ground to a halt.

Well, a little catch up is in order.

Yesterday was warm but overcast and after doing the weekly pilgrimage to the laundromat we noticed that the marina was filling up with people getting their boats ready for the water or taking them out of the boatel and roaring off fishing. We got the port lazarette finished with the shelf for the 2K generator and began the install of the Sirius radio. The big addition on the latter is to add the antenna out on deck which we will do through the port that we already have in place for the satellite phone. Speaking of which we should get that hooked up and tested too since we are paying for the subscription whether we are using it or not and once we are underway it will be too late then to try to work out any problems.

We also heard from our friends Mary Lou and Jay off Screech yesterday. They have left Florida and are heading north and their original plan would have had them in Virginia sometime this afternoon. Then by early morning they had decided to visit the outer banks in South and North Carolina so their trip will be delayed a day or so. It will be great to see them again and perhaps they'll stay with us for a visit. I am trying to persuade Barb to let me get them to help work on the boat jobs and then to talk them into a trip to Jamestown with us. Their impending visit did occasion a general tidy up and clearing off of bunks space. My contribution was to put away all my tools that I had been leaving out for ease of use. Barb has been after me to do this for weeks so if for no other reason I am sure that she is glad that their visit stirred me into some sort of action about that. There were a few other jobs that needed attending to, including confirming that the forward head was functioning, that added to the job list for today. All things that needed doing, we just needed a wee poke to get at them.

I have wired up the new binnacle compass. Thanks to Tony's clean up of the wiring in there that job wasn't too difficult. The compass will now be illuminated whenever we have the key turned on.

We also moved the Danforth anchor aft to its position next to the new chain locker that we built there. Now all that remains for that particular project is to cut the hole for the deck plate and move the rode aft as well. The real objective of all this was to make room for the Bruce anchor forward once we modify the anchor roller to accept a second anchor.

I am getting psyched up for the drive back to Canada at the end of the week. The plan is to leave here at 05h00 or so and head on up making Washington by 07h30, Baltimore by 09h00 and maybe NYC by 13h00. This should get me into Saint John, NB by 22h00 Atlantic Time and then I could visit with Kayt and rest up for a day before heading on back to Halifax on Saturday. Our friends Pat and Lisa have agreed to put me up over night and then I'll get out to the airport and be back in Richmond by 17h30 where Dianne has also agreed to help out by driving me back to the boat. I am hoping to persuade her to have dinner with us and stay overnight and drive back the following AM early for work. Yes, poor creature. She is one of those working stiffs although I think that the time is fast approaching where she would like to retire too.

After getting back to Nelleke there will still be the dreaded job list that I will have to dust off and get back at. There is another job that I will have to add to the list - repairing the mizzen mast step. I am not looking forward to that one but it definitely needs to be done and certainly before we make the fall cruise and most definitely before we do anything major next year.

A very early post today both to make up for my forgetfulness of yesterday and to make sure I don't do it again.