The Boys are Back in Town

Bruce, Barry's twin brother, decided to make a lightning visit to the island so he could visit with us. He has just returned from a 6 week, 600 km. adventure hiking the Pyrennes (not sure of the spelling) in Spain on a trek called the El Camino. He arrived yesterday, Monday, Aug. 23, with his two grandchildren aged 7 and 10, and will head back to Alberta this evening. We took them down to see Cat's Paw today and she is almost ready. The minnow nets got another work out on the dock and the older kids actually managed to catch some minnows, a worm like thing and a small crab.

Barry heard the sweet sound of the engine purring away today. It is installed, as is the fuel tank, now they just have to finish off rebuilding the V-berth to fit around the new tank, this involves some fibreglassing, so that takes a few days to cure. They had to cut out the old fuel tank because they had built the boat around the tank so were unable to take the old fuel tank out the entryway. The new tank is smaller, we are unsure at this time how much smaller it is, but it is in. The fellow working on the boat said maybe Thursday, so I am hoping that the boat will be ready for Friday so we will be able to sail on the weekend.

We got the boom gallows back from the fellow that made it for us, instead of the $150.00 he quoted us, (which I thought was terribly cheap for a solid piece of teak) it was almost $400.00, but it looks lovely and I am in the process of finishing it. It is suspended in my mother-in-laws garage so that I can put a coat of Seatol on it all at once. It seems to working quite well, so far!! We pick up the foam bed we had made for the aft berth tomorrow and the new sails are all finished and are just at the sailmakers waiting for us to pick them up. So cross your fingers and your toes that the boat will be ready by Friday and we will be out sailing around and getting up to our usual mischief over the weekend.