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It's official we are now Dirt Dwellers for the next 6 or 7 months. We had a successful lift out on Saturday, October 18th, yeah!! The boat was balanced, it was close to high tide and everything went off without a hitch. What a relief!! It was a great day for lift out and there were a number of boats to be hauled so there were others around to lend us a hand so all is well. We spent most of that day cleaning up and Barry was helping others so at the end of day he was wet and cold. It was decent day for lift out but weather had moved in and it started raining in the afternoon so we were very glad to head back to our apartment and jump into a hot bath.
Sunday was wet, windy and cold but the sun came out on Monday and I spent most of the next two days polishing our year old paint job, hopefully protecting it from whatever a Cape Breton winter will throw at it. I was remembering the overpowering heat and humidity when I did it last year in Trinidad, not sure which I prefer. Having cold water drip down my arms and soak my layers of jacket so my arms were freezing by the end of the day may have preferable to sweat streaming down my body but I am just not sure. Barry did all those winterizing things guys do to motors and water pipes, hoses and intake valves. Cat's-Paw IV is about as ready as she is going to get to spend this season on the hard.
While we were waiting for the lift to be fixed we took a day and went for a drive around the Cabot Trail. It was gorgeous with the fall colours shining in their glory. We have never been in this part of the country at this time of year before and now we can understand why there has been a cruise ship in Sydney Harbour every day for the past two or three weeks. We stopped and did two short hikes along the trail, leaving me with the desire to do more.
I regularly check up on Facebook and found out from reading her daughter's posts that one of our old friends from Yellowknife was in the area. We managed to hook up and had a very delicious lunch with Pat Barbour, now Fielding. We invited her for lunch later in the week and took her down to see a very messy boat. She used to sail with us on our first boat in Yellowknife. She was here with her brother and his wife to take in a series of concerts that is Celtic Colours week. She inspired us and we attended an Acadian Night that featured some great fiddling and step dancing as well as a very entertaining groups from Quebec.
We stopped by to see our family the other day ( how great is it to be able to say that ) and after a short road hockey game, William and Leeland joined me in creating an undersea garden on the driveway. Cat's-Paw IV was riding on the waves and a palm tree was waving on a beach off to the side.
When Jennifer got home she asked if we wanted to help carve pumpkins. The boys decided what faces they wanted and Mom and Grannie carved away. Grandpa was the official photographer and took some great photos.
We had our first guests to sleep over last Saturday night.
We thoroughly enjoyed our evening with them, playing cards, a shortened game of Scrabble and trying a beginner form of Yahztee. They fell asleep without too many problems and Mom and Dad got to sleep in on Sunday morning while we took them to hockey. Fortunately William knows how to put on his own hockey equipment and we managed to get him on the ice on time. After the practise I went down to the change room. It was my first ever visit to a hockey dressing room and the I was amazed at the amount of energy that was emanating from that space. It was filled with parents peeling off sweaty hockey gear and stuffing it in big bags, siblings waiting for their turn to get dressed or wanting to leave, and grandparents standing back against the wall in silent support, a real Canadian experience.
