Outside the wind is howling as I sit in the office. It reminds me of the odd times that we have had to sit through some heavy weather during our cruises, less the rocking and rolling of course. Still, it is weird. A few days ago we were -15 degrees and here we are at more than 11 on the positive side and over the weekend it will drop again to around freezing. I mustn’t complain as it is much milder and warmer that it used to be.

Yep. It’s much warmer.......wait a moment.....now it’s snowing......nope, nope now it’s raining.....hang on....freezing now.....now back to warm. Sheesh!

I have a potential new crew member for Nelleke at least for the shorter gunkholes if not for the longer ones. Our neighbour, Murray, has expressed interest in trying it out to see what the lifestyle is like so we will be taking him out when he is available on some of the weekend junkets. A few nice days to sail, a couple of dramatic sunsets and perhaps landing a fish or two and maybe we will have hooked another one for the lifestyle..

For the last two weeks I have been the boss of me as my real boss has been off for a holiday to visit his in-laws in Colorado. I will be very happy when he comes back as I am now doing two jobs and frankly I think his portion is much more difficult. Public Works is essentially project management and engineering – duck soup for me. Whereas his side of things is much more political and I suffer physical pain when I have to be nice to people who desperately need a good slap. Oh well. It will be over this weekend and he will be back in his office again and I in my little cubicle. I can’t wait.

I suppose that as a true Canadian I should bask in winter, and back in the days when I was active in winter sports I did. Problem is that nowadays any winter sport I would have to do on my own as even with her new knees, Barb isn’t an ice skating, cross country skiing, snowshoeing sort of person and those sort of things are way more fun if you do them with someone. That’s the reason that I like sailing. It’s warmer weather (usually); it’s something that we can both do (her more so with her new knees); and it combines travel with exploration and adventure, something that we are both interested in.

We have begun planning some of the details of our next cruise south. Can you spell eager? Besides a visit to the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, something that I have always wanted to do but never were able to fit it in on our previous cruises, we are also planning a trip up the Potomac to spend some time in Washington. I have been told that a lot of the “good” stuff is within easy walking distance of the Capital Yacht Club that we can anchor off and dingy in to for a pseudo modest fee. Besides all the monuments etc., Barb and I would both like to spend several days wandering around the Smithsonian’s Buildings. Herself has already spent an afternoon in one of them and is the voice that tells me that the complex is so huge that we could easily spend a week there and not see everything. I’d also like to see Miami; perhaps not from the shore but at least the skyline from Biscayne Bay. So, I gather, would everyone else so we might be hampered by the availability of an anchor spot. We might wind up a little further afield than we would like to be but it shouldn’t stop us from achieving the overall objective. The cruise up the Potomac alone would be fun given the history that we will be passing on either side. Even the names of the places that you would pass evoke stories. At least they do in my mind. Stories from the Indian wars, from the Revolutionary War and from the US Civil War all spring out from the estates and communities that we will be passing. I do have a small worry – that with the spread of civilization much of the fantasy that I have about what we will be passing will be something totally different in reality – nuclear power stations instead of antebellum mansions; hydro lines carving up forests; gated communities instead of quaint villages. Oh well. I guess we will just have to wait and see.