It's still winter in Nova Scotia but its become LATE winter...we get more rain than snow, the ice chunks floating in the Minas Basin and piled on the mud flats at low tide have almost vanished, and the days are notably longer.

It's also the time of year when what we refer to as "boat bits" begin to arrive at the house and I start making more frequent visits to Northern Symphony. This year, we are doing a massive refit in preparation for the Grander Scheme and so the number of boat bits is much greater than usual. And, since we had Northern Symphony put into a (unheated) shed last fall, I can now start doing boat projects! It's still barely above freezing in the shed, but there's no snow or ice and there's no wind. Plus, with the plastic roof, its a bit of greenhouse if it ever gets sunny (not likely in Nova Scotia in springtime!). So I've been visiting the boat and making measurements, figuring things out, and even starting to do some first steps of projects.

Today, Leslie and I took the first concrete steps towards replacing our engine: We disconnected everything except the prop shaft from the engine! Having made almost all those connections myself during upgrades over the years, it was a bit of a wrench to cut wires, cap-off fuel lines, etc. but the engine is now ready to be lifted out by our engine installer...He's going to do all the things that require actual skill or knowledge and we're doing all the rest...which looks to be most of the hours. It seems somewhat mad to contemplate starting a major cruise with a brand-new engine but I'm pretty that our old engine wasn't going to survive the cruise: Basically, we'd have had to replace the engine within the next two years anyway...so this way we get to do it at a time and place of OUR choosing.

The projects have begun!