Preparations are underway to put the boat to bed for the winter.  I really wanted to do some more sailing but the Captain is in no mood so.....  We have taken all the sails off, the oil is changed, there are lines hung over Jennifer's fence to dry, I managed to get the dodger off and things are progressing.  We are hauling out in Sydney at a local yacht club and we have to buy our own jack stands, they will be coming in on Monday and we are hoping to get out of the water some time this week.  

We can move into our apt. on Wed. the first of the month.  Jen and Mark are putting their cabin up for sale and they are emptying it of furniture and have very generously offered us the use of it for the duration of our stay.  I am looking forward to putting up some of our art that we have acquired around the world on our walls. Mark and Barry have been out at the cabin for the past couple of days painting the outside.  Mark has been there for the past week doing some reno's before putting it on the market.  

William is in the red pants. 

Last weekend it was very busy.  William was involved in a road hockey tournament and Jen had volunteered to be the medical attendant for a morning.  William and Leeland were invited to a birthday party and Barry and I had the pleasure of taking the two of them plus a friend to a horse stable, where they got to ride around a ring and then go on a wagon ride (towed by a tractor) to a hut in the woods where they had hot dogs and cake.  The group of seven year olds were very rambunctious and when William had another party this weekend and Jen had to work, I balked at the thought of attending another party and Jen called the Mom who's child we took last week and she graciously took William!!

The boys and I have been in the pool almost everyday after school.  The weather has been quite nice, in the 20's during the day but cooling off quite a bit every night.  The hot tub is a great addition and the thought of it's warm embrace encourages me to get in the pool when the wind is cool and the air is crisp.  The trees are starting to turn and we plan to take a trip around the Cabot Trail once the colours become more consistent.  There is a big festival called Celtic Colours which goes on about this time of year and we plan to take in some activities.   We had the tail end of a hurricane come through here last week and although the boat was securely tied to the dock, it managed to get itself blown over enough to rub against the dock and now there is a very ugly gouge in our new paint job.  I will have to contact the fellow that did the painting and see if I can get some advice on how to get make a good looking repair. There are a number of repairs that need to be made on the sails including trying to fix the spinnaker that I blew out on our trip to Newfoundland.  I had it up when the winds were gusty and on one particular big gust, it just split right across the middle.  It is too old to pay someone else to repair it, there is a lot of sewing involved, and we do not want to buy a new one, so we are in the market for a used spinnaker for a 40 foot boat, if you happen to have one hanging about or know someone with one to spare. :)