Our buddies we have been kind of waiting for, Mike and Liz on Argonaut, finally showed up. We spent 3 days at a very safe, non rolly anchorage. We combed the beaches, had lunch ashore and checked out their reefs to see what shape the coral was in. One our buddies showed up it was time to be on the move again. Yesterday we landed at a spot that supposedly had a sunken WWII plane that you could snorkel on. We went ashore and found a path through the bush and went exploring. We got sidetracked in the bush and wandered around for about 10 minutes looking for the path. Finally we discovered it and followed it out of the bush into a big grassy field. I felt like I was in Africa, the grass was taller than our heads and I kept expecting lions to pounce of wild boar to come charging out of the grass. We did not even spot a gopher.
At the end of the path there was a lovely clearing where an older Fijian couple lived. They looked out upon the most gorgeous lagoon I have ever seen. At low tide the lagoon was mostly free of water, it was sand everywhere and there were large tree covered islands protecting the lagoon on all sides. WE had not taken our snorkel gear so today we returned and asked where the sunken plane was and were given a very good drawing on the sand of where it was located. Barry and I walked out about 300 meter before the water got deep enough to snorkel and we found the remains of the plane. It was a P39 whose pilot apparently made and error and down he went. The small brightly coloured fish had made it their home and were happily swimming in and out of the engine block. Clara, the lady of the island, had requested sugar and tea when we asked if she needed anything yesterday so today we happily gave it to her and she reciprocated by giving us what she referred to as lemons. We aren't sure what fruit they are, they are kind of shaped like a fat lemon, they vary in colour from yellow to green and the insides are orange. They are quite sour but taste kind of like a cross between a lemon and an orange. Squeezed with a little sugar and cold water they make a very refreshing drink.
When we got back to the boat today a fishing boat came up and asked if we would like to buy some lobster, and did we ever.
These lobsters were huge, bigger than I have ever seen, Barry and I each had one for dinner about three in the afternoon, and felt like royalty as we ate the lobster with butter and the strange sour fruit squeezed on them. Tomorrow we will head further north to a spot called the Blue Lagoon where there is a farmer that will sell vegetables to cruisers, we are almost out of fresh fruit and veggies and are being very careful with our precious water.

We have had a lively last few days. We tramped over the hill to scavenge some parts from the beached yacht Moonduster. We got a very nice jam cleat that we can use for ten dollars Fijian, about six Canadian, new it would cost approx. $50.00 CND. Barry had to climb aboard the yacht and unscrew it, I have some great pictures. On the way back across the hill we met three different local guys who asked if we were from the yacht anchored off the village, they said we should move. Barry wasn't quite sure whether to believe them but after the third guy told us to leave we did. When we arrived back in the anchorage by a resort one of the boats that had left the same time as we did, except from Vancouver, was there, it was great to see them again and we spent some quality time together. The wind kicked up and was blowing about 35 knots in the gusts, but it was offshore so all of us decided we could go to shore and have dinner. It was the night before our 36th anniversary so we splurged. It was wonderful, there was an awesome sunset, we drank kava on the deck of the resort while the Fijian employees serenaded us and all the other diners. We had a lovely meal, more singing and then there was a quiz night organized by the resort that we were encouraged to join. It is a celebration that will linger in my memory for a long time.
That night the winds were continuing to blow. Barry got up about midnight and determined that our buddies were not where they should be, their anchor had dragged. He woke me up out of a sound sleep, I was in panic mode immediately, the last time I had been woken up like that was when we went aground in the Marquesas. He immediately reassured me that we were safe and explained that Cop Out was not where it should be. They were about 100 meters from where they had been when we went to sleep. We honked our horn, called them on the radio and shone our million watt candle power light on their boat, no reaction. We were convinced they had not moved since we had started watching them but thought that if we didn't make an effort to wake them and they dragged further and came to grief we would not be able to forgive ourselves.
The wind had flipped our dinghy over, thank goodness Barry had the foresight to take the motor aboard so we had little trouble turning it over. Barry put on his lifejacket, lowered the motor into the dinghy and off he went. After banging repeatedly on their hull they woke up and Barry apprised them of their situation. They reanchored safely but none of us was able to go back to sleep for a couple of hours. Barry stayed up and did anchor watch until the wind abated around 0330 and then came to bed.
The next day the wind was still up so we decided to stay another day, we were getting low on water so Barry was going to stay aboard and make water and I went off with the other women for a hike. When we returned Barry informed me that he had been unable to make any water, apparently one of the pumps was malfunctioning so all we had left was about 6 gallons of fresh water. I think I just reported what a wonderful job the watermaker had been doing, man I should know better than to praise a piece of equipment that belongs in a boat. What a conundrum, what should we do, return to the marina, a 6 hour motor away, and see if anyone could fix our problem, ask the resort if we could fill up our water tanks and continue on with our trip, being extra careful with our precious water. In the end we borrowed water jugs and went ashore to fill up after Cop Out had given us 20 gallons of water maker water as a favour. It was not a problem topping up our tanks so today we left and continued further north.
It was not easy finding our proposed destination, we negotiated a rather hairy pass, the water was only 4 meters deep and we draw close to 2 so there was little margin for error. When we went to put up our genoa, we discovered we had forgotten to tighten the halyard so it dropped down and started coming out of the foil on the furler. We quickly wound the sail in but did not get a good wrap and whenever we turned into the wind about 1/2 meter of the sail flogged and flapped about, this is death to a sail because it causes excess deterioration of the sail, so all in all it was not a fun day. We salvaged what we could of the day when we finally anchored somewhere semi protected (but we may be on coral). We put the dinghy in the water and went off to explore a nearby coral reef. I swam at least 500 meters on the way back to the boat, that released some of the frustration that had built up. Life on a boat is seldom boring but more often the challenge of fixing whatever breaks that day can put a big dent in your enjoyment of the day.

We had our first interaction with a Fijian village today. In Fiji, whenever you anchor in waters that are close to a village you are deemed to be in their territory. You must request their permission to snorkel, or walk on the lands around the village. You are not allowed to fish because the fish and any other creatures in their waters belong to the villagers. To request permission to anchor you participate in a ceremony called sevusevu. You take a bunch of kava root to the village and ask to see the chief, you give him the roots and he performs a little ceremony and then you make your requests. Kava is the root of a plant that the Polynesian peoples pound into a powder and then drink. It has a mildly narcotic quality, it causes numbness in the mouth and I think depending on the strength can cause other symptoms such as a feeling of euphoria.
When we arrived at the village location yesterday we anchored where there was a big patch of coral. The first thing we asked after the sevusevu was over was is there was a better place to anchor and we were told that there was a patch of sand in another location. The other thing we asked was whether or not we could climb the hills. They told us to come ashore whenever we wanted to go climbing and ask one of the boys and they would show us the path to go climbing. Once you have done this ceremony they accept you as part of their village and take care of you. This was ably demonstrated this afternoon.
We decided we would pull up our anchor and move to the sandy spot. Our chain had become hopelessly tangled up in the coral. Barry tried to get it free, first of all, he snorkeled down and tried to pull the chain up. By the time he reached the bottom, at 6 meters he had about 10 seconds of breath and then he had to resurface. He said it was stuck and asked that I get in the water and try to direct him as he steered to boat around so we could try and free the boat by just juggling the chain around while motoring. We tried that for about a half an hour and we getting nowhere, the chain was wrapped around underneath the coral. There was a huge 50 meter motor yacht that had pulled into the bay today. Barry called them up on the radio asking if they had diving equipment that we could use to free our chain. They said that they had to do some diving themselves but they would come to help us after they had finished. Just as Barry got off the radio I heard a "bula" (hello in Fijian) from the side of the boat. There were 3 Fijian guys next to the boat, two were in the water and one was in a little tin canoe. The fellow in the water looked through his mask down into the water and down he went, when he came he indicated that I should motor forwards and low and behold the boat moved. He had gotten us free in one dive. Man were we ever relieved. The 2 fellows in the water, Ben and Sai came aboard and they showed us where the sandy spot was. We dropped anchor, gave the guys a tour of the boat and offered them chips and Diet Coke. We found out a little about how they live, they marveled at our gimballed stove and were fascinated with our binoculars. We hope they will be our guides in a couple of days when we go hiking up the hills. I wonder if we hadn't gone ashore to do the sevusevu whether they would have come to help us??
Our buddies on Argonaut, Mike and Liz from Seattle are supposed to join us tomorrow, hopefully they will. Barry said to let you know how well our water maker is running. We had not topped up our water tanks since leaving Vuda Point Marina so yesterday we turned on the generator and put the water maker to work. Barry thinks it is putting out about 10 gallons an hour, more than it has ever done before (We had it repaired in New Zealand and the water is very warm here which increases production as well.) We run the generator at the same time as the water maker because it would seriously run down our batteries if we did not.

We are at Waya Island, it is the start of the Yasawa Group of islands in Fiji. The scenery is spectacular with towering mountain peaks that lead down to steep slopes from the shoreline, which are covered with palm trees. We are currently anchored off another resort although it is inaccessible because there is a huge onshore surf and we dare not try another dinghy landing. There are 2 other sailboats in the anchorage. With an off shore wind and an on shore surf everyone is really rolling back and forth. We feel slightly superior because we have the "flopper stopper" a device which dampens our rolling so we think we are rolling significantly less than the other 2 boats. We purchased the flopper stopper in San Diego because there are notoriously rolly anchorages in Mexico.

On shore we see the hull of a sailboat formerly known as Moonduster. Moonduster crossed the Pacific the same time as we did, but last year the owner did not heed local warnings and head for shelter when a cyclone was forecast. Now his boat, an S & S 46 lies stranded ashore, after being driven there during the cyclone season last year, it was uninsured. It is a stark reminder of how unforgiving the sea can be.
We had a good sail over to this anchorage, but Barry was on edge the whole time, there are reefs with breaking waves everywhere. You have to be alert at all times and keep an eye on your electronic maps, paper charts as well as an eagle eye out to watch for the reefs. I find myself getting uptight when Barry flits about the cockpit reminding me every 5 minutes about a reef that is still 4 miles off. I guess his vigilance has been rewarded so far as we are safe and sound in another anchorage in paradise. We are hoping another boat will join us here, but so far they do not want to leave the safely of Musket Cove. They were here last year and have already visited these anchorages. It would be nice to have some company but since we only have 3 weeks until Barry's brother Bruce joins us for a week we would like to explore this end of Fiji.

We have left Musket Cove and the comfort of semi-resort living. Semi-resort because we still lived on the boat but were allowed all the comforts of a resort. There were restaurants, activity centers, dive shops, grocery stores, bars, swimming pools and shower with laundry facilities. We had an account and could charge everything to our boat, you would just have to say Cat's-Paw IV and then sign a little chit. Lovely, except that is not why I came to Fiji so yesterday we upped anchor and left.
Fiji waters are quite tricky, they are charted but not really well and there are reefs and sandbars everywhere. We left close to low tide when the sun was behind us and we could see all the reefs and shallow spots. It is a little disconcerting when you are moving along and all you can see in the distance are breaking waves. Once we got closer we could see our way around.
The anchorage we are in is about 20 miles from the resort, but there is another resort just 5 miles away. We are in small bay surrounded on three sides by islands. There is a huge swell from the south at the moment that we are protected from by one of the islands but the wrap around swell makes it a little rolly. We have our flopper stopper out to dampen the roll and we are quite comfortable.
I awoke this morning to the cry of a baby goat, one of the islands is quite rocky and they were foraging on the cliffs about 100 meters from the boat. Yesterday after we arrived we went ashore, good thing we rowed rather than put on the motor. As we got closer Barry headed through the surf for shore and bam we were in the drink, the dinghy was upside down the oars were floating beside us and the camera which was in a plastic bag was floating about hither and yon. Barry's Tilley hat was floating between us, I grabbed his hat, (mine was still on my head as I had put on the chin strap), then shoved the oars at him and went to rescue the camera. As I got close another wave came crashing in and as I lunged at the camera it got away from me. I looked back out into the bay thinking it was gone but when I turned back to shore there it was washed up on the sand. I went and grabbed it, we righted the dinghy and pulled it up out of the surf. Barry opened the plastic bag and low and behold the camera was fine.
As we strolled along the shore a large bat flitted about the trees. There are lots of coconut trees, Barry brought a coconut aboard and he plans to drill a hole to see if the juice is still sweet. We walked along a sand spit that runs from one island to the other. As the tide came up the spit would be covered, when we went across waves from each side were washing over it. I felt a bit like that woman in the movie with Burt Lancaster that rolled about smooching in the surf. I did not float that idea with Barry as I am sure he would let me know what he thought of that.
On our way off the island we decided to swim the dinghy off rather than try and row through it. We made it, Barry was on one side, I was one the other yelling at each other every time a wave would go over to keep the dinghy straight and then swim like crazy. Barry was making better headway than I was because he had shoes on and could reach bottom longer than I could, I will not go ashore shoeless again. My feet got scraped up on the coral. I finally just grabbed the painter line and started towing the boat, Barry let go and swam. We got out of the surf and Barry got in and rowed until we were out of danger and then I got in.
When we got back to the boat, Barry just soaked our waterproof camera in fresh water and it seems to be working just fine. Yippie Aye Yeah for waterproof cameras. We plan to be out in the boonies until we have to return to pick up Barry's brother on July 7. Hopefully we will have good weather and continued internet access.

Annoe
s/v Cat's-Paw IV

We have been hanging out at the Musket Cove Yacht Club for the past few days. We are full fledged members of the club, you are only allowed to become members if you have sailed to Musket Cove from a foreign port, so it is an exclusive club!! The club is located on an island that is about 2 ½ hour sail from the marina we were staying at on a large island in Fiji. We are moored about 400 meters from the entrance to Musket Cove. There are several resorts on this island, New Zealanders and Australians come to vacation here, there are family time share situations as well as an adults only spots. There are several nice looking restaurants as well as a couple of small grocery stores. Cruisers are not looked upon as second class citizens here as we were in some resorts in Mexico. The resort provides a spot where everyone can meet nightly if they choose. There is a bar and tables and a wood burning bar-b-q. You can purchase prepackaged meals that you cook it consists of a half baked potato, your choice of meat and a salad, you are also allowed to bring all your own food in and cook it on the fire. It is a lovely location.
I have been taking big long walks every morning with friends we met 2 years ago, we leave at 0730 and today we wandered along the beach after climbing up one side of the hill and then going down to the beach. It was great to catch up with them and find out how their cyclone season had gone. Every afternoon we meet at the pool, where I manage to swim some lengths. We had dinner on another boat the other night and plan to have a dinner party for 6 tomorrow night.
I was hoping to do some diving here and went to sign up but they are unable to locate my Padi # so they will not allow me to dive. The dive shop asked if I was alone on the boat and I told them that my husband was with me but insisted that he couldn’t dive because he has problems with his sinuses. The dive master asked me if he could fly and I said yes and he said tell him if he can fly he can dive. SO I DID, and Barry decided to try it and signed up for the diving course. He has done 2 dives and quite enjoyed himself, he had no problems equalizing his ears and commented on the sharks, the turtles and the barracuda he saw underwater. He completes his training in a couple of days so we will be able to dive together, once I find out my number. That should be a lot of fun.
We are going to stay a week here and then head out for the more remote regions of Fiji. Our lowers are all fixed and Barry has managed to repair everything else we broke on our way here. Barry claimed we went sailing for 10 days and then we spent 5 days fixing everything. I haven’t been doing too many boat chores since we got to Musket Cove feeling the need for a bit of a rest having worked very hard for 6 weeks before we left NZ and then another week when we arrived. Someone lent me some Indian and Thai cookbooks so I scanned a whole bunch of new recipes, so I plan to try some out on our poor unsuspecting company tomorrow night. Hope all is well back in Canada.

Captain Greybeard (as Trish calls him) at the helm near the beginning of the trip.




A flying fish that ended up on the deck, just to give you an idea of the size of them, aren't the wings huge??








This is all that is left of the Mexican dolls, that smashed Barry in the face during a particularly trying time.








This is our first sunrise over Fiji, it was wonderful to see it as we got closer to the pass that would allow us to enter the reef into protected Fijian water.





If you look closely you can see the frayed lower. Any more stress and it was likely to give out, good thing we noticed it, YIKES!!







Here is our tiny storm staysail. I am not sure this conveys how small the sail is but it is really tiny, this is all we had up to keep up from rolling while we motored and with it and the triple reefed main we made it throw the stormy weather, yeah storm staysail.






The boat looks like a Chinese Junk as we have strung everything up to dry out. Rather than clothes pins and risk losing stuff we string the line through the clothes.









This is the boat we saw at anchorage in Laukota, I thought the name was significant.



Barry took this picture at the Sunset Bar, the geckos are inside a light.

Sorry these aren't in the right order but this connection is weird so be happy there are pictures.

We are really enjoying ourselves here. We are working hard on the boat, fixing all the stuff that broke on the way over. I have made mosquito nets for both the hatches and traded another cruiser a flag of country we are not going to for some more netting so will make a big cover for the companionway at the back. Barry is busy working on some electrical issues we have. When we went to drop the anchor our brand new windlass would not work, you would not believe how frustrating that was. When we found out it was just an electrical problem I was quite relieved, there is nothing wrong with the new winch, just electrical connections, whew!!
We have been hanging out with an interesting couple from Seattle, he is a retired cardiac surgeon and listening to his take on what is wrong with the US Health Care system last night was a real eye opener. His brother who also made the crossing with them, has his doctorate in Oceanography, so had very interesting stories about studying the ocean floor in nuclear submarines. They enjoyed our stories of sailing North of 60 and I think if we are ever in Yellowknife over the summer again we could convince them to visit.
Late in the afternoon, we call a halt to work and head over the resort that is about 400M away and take a dip in the pool. There was a wedding there yesterday and we peered out of the foliage and watched the bride cross the bridge to get married on an island. She was beautiful, Marg you would have enjoyed conducting this wedding, such an exotic setting, the bride was from the Cook Islands.
The rigger is coming on Monday to replace all 4 lowers, so technically we can leave after that. I am anxious to head out, so we can swim off the boat and find a spot with a bit more wind so that the boat might stay a bit cooler. Hopefully we can head off on Tues. I will try and load some pics later but our internet connection is not the greatest.

Well we got here. We put the anchor down in Lautoka, Fiji at 1345 or 1:45 PM on Wednesday, May 26,2010. It is really hot here, I have my swim suit on and I am sweating to beat the band, the water temperature is 24 degrees. Barry is at customs clearing in and I am impatiently wondering what is going on, only Captain's go ashore, I should have put on my Admiral's Hat and gone in. We spoke to friends on the VHF on the way in and another boat that left NZ at the same time of us invited us for beers at sunset, so our social life looks good.
After we clear in we hope to get to a marina tonight and then take it easy for the rest of the day. Tomorrow we need to find that rigger. I am glad this passage ended safely, that is the main thing. The boat sure showed what she could do in the weather and it was great that the wind vane did the majority of the steering, YEAH BOB!
Barry and I did pretty well on this passage, only a couple of yelling matches and they were really short! One night we were sailing along, the moonlight was shimmering off the water and I said to Barry that not many people get a chance to experience this, just the two of us out in the middle of the ocean, relaxing and enjoying each other's company while the boat glides silently along on the wind. It was a pretty fantastic moment.

Pictures later. We went shopping and are now cleaning up the boat. The marina is great, there is a pool in a resort next door so I am going to take a dip later. The rigger came by and it looks like we may be able to get the work done by Monday, today is Thursday, so we are really pleased by that. Ran into Dave on Toketie this afternoon, he is at the same spot so we are having him for dinner so must run.

Ann sent this 2 hours ago.
We are inside the reef in Fiji, that sounds so exotic doesn't it? Fiji, anyway we are safe and sound heading towards customs. We hope to get in touch with the rigger ASAP and then get on with cruising. We are looking forward to a nice shower, doing some laundry and replenishing our supplies. We might even try out a Fijian beer.

Ann sen this 2 hours ago.....Well one of those storm cells that were battering us a couple of days ago put an end to our sailing. One of the wires that holds up the mast started to fray. Rather than try any number of fixes I suggested Barry wisely said that we would take down all sails and motor. This stops any stress on the mast and will prevent the mast from falling over all together. I prevailed upon him to leave up the little storm staysail for stability and we are motoring. It was about 200 miles to go when we started the motor.
The storm cells would hit the boat and we would go from 3.5 knots to 7 in a minute and we would be off to the races. At one point we were down to under 2 knots and the boat was wallowing around. I convinced Barry to roll out about 1/3 of the genoa and we picked up a bit of speed. When the wind came up again we were struggling to roll the genoa in. The sheets (the lines from the sail to the back of the boat) were flailing about, whipping the outside edge of the dodger, the sail was flogging itself to death. I had two 10 centimeter dolls from Mexico hanging very close together from the dodger at the door way, one male, one female. They were supposedly good luck charms, I was quite attached to them enjoying watching them dance together as the boat rolled and swayed. The dolls were flopping around smacking Barry in the face as he desperately tried to roll the sail in. He got really mad at them and ripped them off the dodger and threw them overboard. When I noticed it today I asked why he couldn't have just thrown them below. He said he figured they deserved a burial at sea, better them than me !!!
We are currently motoring in calm seas under sunny skies, temperature about 28. Life if good once again. I wish we could have sailed all the way it would have been nice to say that we used the motor only for a couple of hours for this trip as opposed to our 80 hours we used it on the way from Tonga to Fiji. Oh well as long as we get there safely and in one piece all will be well.
Here are the predictions on the arrival.
Person date time
Lois Grabke 5/27/2010 14:58:00
Bob Shanks 5/26/2010 16:54:00
Doreen Shanks 5/27/2010 11:49:00
Ann 5/28/2010 9:30:00
Barry 5/27/2010 9:00:00
Aaron Cameron 5/27/2010 14:15

Ann phoned
They have decided to head for Lautoka and not Savusavu. It is 100 miles closer. They are under motor as one of the inner stays on the Port side - the forward one is fraying and the decision has been made to motor to Lautoka where it can be repaired.

We will ask that you make a new guess as to the arrival time.
Please get your new guesses in quickly to bob.shanks@gmail.com

3 hours ago
We are still surrounded by a cold front. Winds are high as are the waves, it rains off and on, we are wet as soon as we step into the cockpit, either with rain pelting down or doused by seawater as a wave breaks over the boat. We are running under our storm staysail and a triple reefed main, the least amount of sail we can have up without taking one of the sails down, we are currently making 5.5 knots but we are 100 degrees off course, time to tack. I will wait until Barry wakes up, no rush. It is warm though, I am pretty sure at 21 degrees 55 minutes south we have once again crossed the Tropic of Capricorn (I know I looked it up last year but I can't remember it's latitude). I just downloaded some grib files which give projected wind strength and direction. It looks like within 24 hours it should calm down and we should be able to make our course. With 209 nm to go to our first waypoint we should see land on Wed morning, our time. It will be nice to not be on our side, we should be able to cook something decent for a change.
It has been great having e-mail access on the boat via our ham radio. Being able to get weather information as well as report our position every day gives me a sense of security and of not quite being all alone.
The other night it was calm the boat was ghosting along under a half moon. The moonlight was bouncing off the waves and I went forward and sat on the deck and contemplated life. I wondered what I would do if Barry passed away, and what he would do if I wasn't around. Later on that morning I asked him. Just to show how we are on completely different frequencies, I was looking for a answer that would indicate what direction he would take with his life if I wasn't around. He looked at me and said, "I would cremate you." When I said, "No, I mean what would you do with the boat?" he replied well I wouldn't light it afire and set you adrift in it, when further pushed for a straight answer he replied, "Well I certainly would reef a lot sooner!!!!" Enough said.

Sent by Ann May 21 at 5:21 PM
Well, I think we have hit the SE trade winds, YIPPEE! The wind is at our back, finally, and we are flying the spinnaker, moseying along at about 5 knots. We have shorts and t-shirts on in the cockpit and life is good. Hopefully we will have a least a couple of days of this.
Just to clarify, time of arrival will be when we either tie up at a dock, a mooring ball or drop the anchor. We are headed for Savusavu which is about a days sail after we actually see land. The other choice was Suva and apparently it is not a great spot, quite dirty and a little rough so we opted to head for Savusavu. In order to generate some guesses out there I am going to throw in a t-shirt from Fiji for the winner. You can send me the size you want and the address you would like me to send it to and when I find an appropriate one I will put it in the mail. The winner will be the person that is closest to the time, it doesn't matter if you are over or under, an other hint is that we do not enter strange ports after dark. Okay I am going to send my guess into my brother today and the contest should close within 24 hours.

The last couple of days have been rather rough. The wind is on our nose, 2 nights ago we had thunder showers with lightening in the area. Barry's fancy new wind instruments measured 38 knots in a gust and then gave up the ghost so once again we are not sure exactly how bad it is out there. At the moment 0225 local time we have up a triple reefed main and the staysail and we are making 7 1/2 knots, just screaming along. Every once in awhile we hit a wave wrong and wham the boat slams down. This afternoon the slams jumped the anchor out of it's slot and Barry went up front to lash it down. What a treat that he feels he is able to get around when the boat is unstable. As I was watching him a huge wall of water reared it's head, it was at least 3 meters high, I yelled at him to hang on, the boat just plunged up and over the wave, he didn't even get wet. I wish I had a video camera handy, it was pretty impressive.
I report in every afternoon on a ham radio net, they record our position, course and speed as well as the weather. I told him that the barometer dropped 6 points in the last 3 hours. The front just went tearing through giving us these huge waves and wind, then the wind drops and you are left with the huge seas and the boat wallows and slams around. The seas did drop and the wind picked up again, thus the steady 7 1/2 knots.
We are managing to eat pretty well, although it is a challenge to cook at times. Today I made scrambled eggs and toast for breakfast, lunch was non existent because that front was coming through, we had some orange juice, nuts and raisins. For supper I made chicken and garlic in a white pasta sauce over spaghetti. It was pretty good but I forgot the rule about what to put it on and as I was putting some Parmesan cheese on Barry's plate, the spaghetti sauce and all slid off the plate onto the counter. @#$@#$@!! Gotta use big bowls, no matter what you eat.
Hopefully the wind will move around tomorrow and we will find those nice SE trade winds. Not likely yet though, we are into the 20's now so the sea has warmed up a few degrees as have the air temp. We are close to the halfway point. Have you made your guess as to our arrival, all you sailors out there who say you read the blog are you guessing???

To see their position:
http://www.pangolin.co.nz/yotreps/tracker.php?ident=VE8BL

Send your guesses to bob.shanks@gmail.com Ann has requested we close the contest about 3 days before their projected arrival. That will be May 23 in North America May 24 in Fiji. Get your guesses in....

Cat's-Paw IV left New Zealand for Fiji
The weather gave the crew the Heebi-Jeebi
The crew, though no rookies
Soon lost their cookies

They cleaned it all up with a squeegi



Well there is a wee bit of trouble on board. Bob is not happy, he has not been fed or had a rest since leaving New Zealand. He wasn't even offered the smallest bowl of Raison Bran and he has been steering 24/7 for over 72 hours. The Captain and the First Mate have been loafing, reading, getting weather faxes, preparing meals when they should have been hanging on to the wheel steering. They even left poor Bob out all alone in the pouring rain when the lightning was all around. What is with that?? Bob continues to soldier on, quietly, steadily steering north heading for the tropics. How long will he hang in there? What is your guess, when will Bob and the rest of the crew will make landfall. Fiji is +12 hours from Zulu, or UTC or Greenwhich Mean Time.

May 19 at 0149 Zulu or 1349 Local time. We are doing great, did 120 NM yesterday. It was a yukky night with rain squalls and wind shifts. We motored for about 3 hours because the wind dropped to nothing after we were under triple reef and staysail making 6.5 knots. Sunny and steady light winds today, making 4 knots still dead on the wind.

We are both feeling a lot better today. The wind is still on our nose. We went through a big squall about 4 hours ago in the middle of the night. We have a double reef in the main and we are making about 5 knots. Bob is doing a terrific job of steering. We are deliberately heading a bit east of the rhumb line, but also that is what the wind is allowing us to make. If you get your easting in them once you get closer you pick up the SE trade winds and it will push you towards Fiji and you will have a down wind run, rather than trying to go against the wind once you get close.

Ann has updated their location on:
http://www.pangolin.co.nz/yotreps/tracker.php?ident=VE8BL

We have one entry in our contest..... get yours in before the time you want is gone....

At Ann's request we will have a poll.
Guess the Date hour and minute Ann and Barry make landfall on Fiji.
The winner of course will get the same prize as with all Lange contests "Bragging Rights"
Send your entries to
bob.shanks@gmail.com
You can also let me know if you want all the guesses posted or just the winner and time guessed. It will be local time in Fiji that you are guessing.

Sent by Ann 18 minutes ago. Editors comment here "Ann is back in true form"
Today is Monday the 17, we have been at sea for over 24 hours now. The first 24 were a bit rough. The seas were lumpy and both Barry and I got really seasick for the first time on Cat's-Paw IV. We both lost our cookies overboard, me first and then about 3 hours later Barry did it as well. I went to sleep afterwards and then felt a lot better once I got up. We did not eat much and had to remind ourselves to keep hydrated. After I was feeling better I asked Barry if he would like some eggs to eat and he practically gagged at the suggestion.
Today was a much different day. It was sunny and bright with light winds all day. We did put the spinnaker up in the morning, at Barry's suggestion I might add, but took it down a couple of hours later as there was not enough wind to keep it inflated. At the moment I am in the cockpit surrounded by darkness. There are millions of stars twinkling everywhere but then I look closer, in one section of the sky I can not see any stars, and a dark menacing presence is brooding. Then a brilliant flash of lightning rips across the sky, my night vision destroyed for a few seconds. The lightning is off in the distance so I am not too worried about it yet. I hear the gentle lapping of the ocean swell on our hull and feel the breeze on my cheeks. I am dressed in longjohns, sweats, merino wool socks,Crocks, my Icebreaker merino shirt I got for a really good deal in Yellowknife at the sports store and my floater jacket. It is still cool on watch at night.
About a half and hour ago a light appeared on the horizon. As it got closer I could distinguish that there were 2 white lights and one green one. Having read "How to avoid large ships" given to us by a pair of Yellowknife sailors before we left, I immediately turned on the radar and then woke Barry up to keep an eye on the radar down below as I kept my eyes pealed above decks. The large ship passed within 2 miles of us, going across our bow, we called on the VHF, but there was no reply. It makes you wonder if there is anyone on watch?????
I have decided to test out Icebreaker's claim that their gear does not smell even after you wear it for days on end. I am going to wear this shirt day and night until it gets too hot for it and see how it smells at the end of the trip!!!
Ahhh, the sweet sound of our new wind generator. What a good purchase, it goes all day and all night when there is wind. Do you know that yesterday it actually stopped a few times because the batteries were all topped off and we did not need anymore power, how sweet it that, WOW. BOB our new wind vane is steering away allowing me to do this while I am at the helm. Hang on a second while I scan a 360 to make sure there are now other large ships lurking out there waiting to make my heart go pitter patter. No freighters but those big ugly clouds aren't going away any time soon. All the other gear we have put on seems to be working just fine, the new wireless wind instruments are talking to each other faithfully putting out a picture of where the wind is coming from and the strength. I still stare up at the wind vane at the top of the mast to determine how to set the sails. The only other thing to report is, do you remember be going on about the straps that I sewed on the sail at the reefing points, that weren't ever going to come off. Well they are still on there but you will never believe it, I put one of the straps in the wrong spot, @#$!@ I will have to undo it and sew it up again as I do not have enough strapping to make another. ARRRGGH! I will sign off now, anyone interested in guessing when we will make landfall in Fiji, that sound so exotic doesn't it?

If you go to this website you will find their current location.
http://www.pangolin.co.nz/yotreps/tracker.php?ident=VE8BL

Ann sent this 23 hours ago.
At sea, good winds, 20 knots just in the wrong direction, on the nose. Well I guess you can't have everything. We are both feeling at little nauseous. I have the next three hours off so will try and get some rest.

It's a beautiful day in the neighbourhood, so we are going leave today. No use waiting another day, it is gorgeous and sunny and the weather looks decent for the next week so we are out of here. We have cleared NZ customs and are on our way. Check back for updates.

We are down at Marsden Cove, about 3 hours down the river from Whangarei, almost at the mouth of the river. This is where we have to sign out from. We put the sails up on the way down and the furler seems to be working fine and the main went up and down although we did not put in any reefs. The motor purred away, we had some work done on it and the mechanic diagnosed some electrical and lift pump problems so hopefully we will not experience any more heart stopping moments because the fantastic red machine decides not to work at a critical moment.
Well you can tell we are a little rusty. We had a SNAFU leaving the dock in Whangarei with Barry at the helm, it is hard to leave the dock when you still have one line tied up to it!!!!!!(that was my fault) Then when I was at the helm on arrival in Marsden Cove I hit a post and had to back out of a slipway that was too narrow for us, then when I finally made a decent landing on a dock Barry threw the bow line to a lady and she immediately fastened us hard to the dock and the bow plowed into the dock, man you would think we had never docked before. We should have thrown her the midship line and we would have been fine. After we hit the dock Barry threw her the line and she couldn't get it so the boat blew a 180, tied on at the bow, good thing there was enough room. Man, I hope we can remember how to anchor.
The weather looks like it should be good to leave on Monday, we have a few more boat projects to complete before then. I would upload a picture of Barry at the helm but the connection is really slow.

We are planning on leaving the dock tomorrow, hurray!!!!! and heading up the river to where you can sign out of the country. We will sail around tomorrow and hopefully do a shakedown sail to make sure everything works. Then we hope to leave Monday morning. It should take us 10 to 11 days enroute, so that would mean we would not get to Fiji until about May 27, where has the month gone??
We had the new furler put on yesterday and we ran the sail up today. It fits just fine. I was a bit worried when we were hauling it up as it looked as if the sail was too long but it is fine, whew!!!
When we were putting it on Barry switched sides for the furler line. In order to do that he had to take the lifelines off in order to get the furler blocks over the stantions. Well he was going to move some stuff so he wouldn't trip and fall in and he went to lean on the lifeline and opps. He was in the drink. I was at the mast and heard a big splash and thought we had lost some hardware to do with the lifelines and then I said "Barry" and up he came and he was fine. He had a hard time hauling himself up on the dock, I went and got the ladder but he could not make it up, but with a hand from me he pulled himself out. He was very wet, but his hat stayed on, good old Tilley hats. I had 2 minds when he asked me to get the ladder, I was tempted to get the camera but took pity on him. He is fine!! It actually was quite funny.
I went grocery shopping, put the laundry on and now I am uptown running some last minute errands. We both are really excited to get out on the water again.

An old sailing friend from Yellowknife showed up at the boat yesterday. Kevin Quinn's parents live here so he visits regularly. We just missed him the last time he was here, it was nice to show off Cat's-Paw IV to a Yellowknife sailor and we had a wonderful visit and a buddy that was with him treated us to a great sushi lunch. Make sure you say thank you to Allan from us, Kevin, I think I forgot yesterday. We also used Kevin's car to fill up our diesel cans so all is good.
I hope to get my brother to post some blogs from the boat so you can follow our journey. Fiji sounds so exotic, I can't wait.

Here is our latest upgrade. It is our new wind generator. We had the pole made and Barry installed the generator on the pole and strung the wires. The wires had to go down the inside of the pole, through the hull and then through the dungeon, which involved me rolling around in the dirty space at the bottom of the back of the boat to string the wires forward. Then we got an electrician to wire it to our system. It is quite crappy out today so there is no sun so our solar panels are not putting out any power but now our new wind generator is humming away and the power is flowing. It is not very noisy and there is no vibration through the boat so I think we did a good job of installing it.
Yesterday we finished the installation of "Bob" our new wind vane, which will steer the boat without using any power. We had to fix the lines, which one again involved drilling holes in the hull to put a block on, so the lines could be lead to the steering wheel. I also sewed another line on so it is ready to go.
We have got the boom back on, the reefing system has been simplified and seems to work quite well. I had to sew some straps on at the mast so we can hook the reef cringles at the mast into the hook on the gooseneck. That is getting technical, but I had to put two stainless steel doughnuts, one on each side of the sail and sew strapping together so the doughnuts hang on either side of the sail, ready to be hooked on when we want to. Believe me I really sewed those suckers. There is no way they are ever coming undone. First I did a back stitch across the ends, then I did an x stitch in the same direction. Then I sewed a back stitch down each side and down the middle, so if that sewing ever comes undone I will be amazed. The new reefing system can not all be done from the cockpit as before, it requires someone to go to the mast and hook on a doughnut once the sail has been lowered. Hopefully it will not be me all the time, but possibly!!
We are hunkered down inside, reading, embroidering, doing computer stuff, playing games online, and resting. It is pouring outside, so hopefully the water use ban will be lifted and I can give the boat a good scrub one of these days.
Last night we were invited to an acquaintance house and attended a lovely dinner party. Another cruiser gave us a ride and it was nice to see a Kiwi home and have pleasant conversation.
The other thing is that I found out that the ham radio is transmitting. I called someone the other day and they could actually here me so I was really pleased. That will be fantastic when we are on passage to be able to communicate with people.
I wish all of the Mother's out there a happy day. May your children be in touch with you today and may you share some special time together.

Things are moving along, not as quickly as I would like but moving none the less. We have a new windlass, or should I say A NEW WINDLASS. This particular piece of equipment sits at the front of you boat and hauls up the anchor. Our old one still worked but it was getting warn and Barry would have to slave away resetting the chain in the windlass about every 5 meters. It was a real pain. The new one has an up and a down function on it so when we are setting anchor we can wheel out the anchor instead of just letting it go and then taking your life in your hands as we slowed the chain down. This should add immeasurably to our comfort when at anchor.


If you examine the above photo most of you should be able to spot something that is not quite right. There is no boom on the boat. The rigger showed up last week and said yes we needed to change the forestay because it has a kink and the problems we were having with our reefing system could only be solved if we removed the boom and he took it to the shop. So off it came. Poor old Cat's-Paw IV looks pretty sad without her boom. Barry has been madly trying to get the furler apart so the rigger can tell what forestay connection is like. I winced every time he hammered at the thing to try and get it off, he came in the boat declaring that it was fused and he couldn't get it off. GOOD THING, the rigger showed up this morning and said that it was welded and it wasn't meant to be taken apart, whew, another disaster avoided. The boss rigger showed up today and heavens to betsy he knew our good friends the Cloughleys and one of their friends that I had met in Nova Scotia when I was there many years ago. Anyway he took a look at our forestay and said the thought it was undersized for the size of our boat. Well no big deal you think, just buy bigger wire. Well, you're wrong, it is a b o a t (bring on another thousand), if we get bigger wire (which we should) we have to get a bigger furler because the one we have won't fit bigger wire. Sometimes I think we are just hemorrhaging money, but the positive way to look at it is that the boat will be in better shape than when we left Canada and should be in good shape for awhile.
On the positive side, as well, we have our fancy new wireless wind instruments, installed and working. The ham radio seems to be receiving very well, I had some good luck and managed to install all the software to run it and the radio e-mail on the computer and it seems to work. We haven't actually talked to anyone yet so I am not convinced it is working 100% but we can hear, so we must have done something right. Barry is working on the wind generator and the boom came back today and we managed to put it back on with only slight detours. The reefing system has been simplified and should work very well. We should be able to leave some time next week. It is getting cooler, we turned on the furnace yesterday and most of the other boats have departed. It is very hard to see your chums leave when you know that the weather is good and it is time to go. Oh well, our turn will come pretty soon.

Today is the day apparently. We are going to put in the water, yyeeaahhh!. It has been over a year since Cat's-Paw Iv has been in the water so it is high time we were floating again. We were told that it would be about 0930 so we were ready, the backstay is undone, the fenders and dock lines are tied on in the appropriate spots and we are all a go. The boat is on a trailer at the moment so they towed us to the middle of the lot and left us there. We had been tucked away in a little corner but they moved us and we are here until after lunch apparently. It is a quite weird being in the centre of everything but I guess I should be happy we are closer to the water.
We have been busy getting new stuff and installing it on the boat. Barry insisted that we have a new wind vane, the one we had was getting old and we were always having problems with it. Our buddy Brian came for a visit the other day and he called it boat jewelery, it is so shiny and new. We have decided to call our wind vane, "Bob", if we can't have my brother on board steering we will have something that should be almost as reliable as him! We spent a good two days getting Bob installed, I hope we did it properly, we used the old mounts on the boat so we did not have to make any new holes or gunk up any old ones.
The other things we have been working on is a new wind generator, we have the pole and the new stainless steel bracing struts to reinforce the radar arch where the wind generator will be attached. The only thing is that it may cast a shadow on the solar panels, but I don't think that can be helped, there wasn't too many other choices about where it could go.
We also bought a new dinghy. It is a 2.6 meter rigid bottom with inflatable pontoons. I was worried that it looked a little small, it is 30 cm smaller than out last dinghy but I think it will do fine. I think a bigger one would not go very fast at all with out little 5 hp motor to move it along. A dinghy is hugely important, whenever you anchor it is your conveyance to shore and back, it is your taxi for your groceries and fuel, and it allows you explore all sorts of places that you can't take your boat. This dinghy also comes with nice wooden rowing oars, so I should be able to get some exercise when I feel like it.

We are afloat at long last. We got into the slip with only a slight nudge of one of the pilings. It rained all day so it put a stop to our work, and I decided that to celebrate I was going to take the rest of the day off and just relax and enjoy being afloat.

Due to popular demand, actually my brother asked for me to put this on, here is the video of Barry skiing. It was just 8 short months from walking with a cane to skiing with ease down the slopes, isn't modern medicine a miracle!!
Even more impressive is this video of Trish snowboarding, the fact that she is a wonder on the board is impressive enough, the really cool thing about it is that her Dad is following her down the slopes taking the video of her while he is skiing, proof that he is fully in control of himself and his hips!!
Not to be outdone, Quinn has his own skiing video. Trish strapped on my ski rentals at the end of the day and went up and down the bunny hill a few times with Quinn. It was great to be there at the beginning of his skiing career. That is Graeme in the picture at the beginning and Quinn was having great fun chasing him down the hill. I am sure many more fun filled days at the hill are in their future.
I would like to share a picture of Quinn and I outside the hot springs. It is a great shot of Quinn, we are looking at the pool at Radium and checking out the waterfall that was near the road. On the way back to the car there were a couple of back hoes, one quite small and a large one was parked across the highway. When we were gazing at the bigger one a big semi-trailor came lumbering up the road. Quinn waved and the driver honked his horn in acknowledgment; it made Quinn's day!!

We arrived safe and sound in Auckland, and miracle of miracles our bag showed up,I guess we were just lucky. That was so nice that we didn't have to replace all the cruising guides or have the bag follow us around. The boat buddies that crossed from the Marquesas to Tahiti, Brian and Cathy from Tarun, met us at the airport and gave us a ride to the bus station. We both managed to sleep on the plane and snooze as well on the 2 1/2 hour bus ride to Whangarei. We luckily showed up on the day the merchants were giving a farewell feast to the cruisers so after we moved around some gear and made the bed we headed off to renew acquaintances and meet new friends and have a wonderful dinner.
Cat's-Paw IV was quite musty and dirty below so I spent the next day cleaning up and sorting out the galley. Another cruising buddy gave up a lift to the store so we hit the market and got lots of lovely fresh fruits and vegs. It is fall down here so the harvest is in full swing. There are quite a few people here that we met before we left so it isn't as if everyone has left us behind, I guess lots of people spend more than one season in this area.
We are still on the hard and no date for lift in has been decided. We are busy putting on some new gear we have purchased so a lot of decisions are being made and money being spent. We are adding a wind generator so we won't have to depend on our solar panels for power and we won't have to feel guilty about turning on the lights at night or plugging in the computers. Out fridge has packed it is so we are getting a new thingy (I suppose it must be a compressor) to make it go. Barry says that we are getting a complete refrigeration unit, but the actual fridge part will stay the same.
It is very pleasant to sit in the cockpit at lunchtime and munch away on garden carrots and fresh tomatoes in sandwiches. The temperature is about 20 during the day and cools off nicely in the evening. The days are not nearly as long as they were in Yellowknife when we left so it makes for a long evening. We go to bed about cruisers midnight which is 9:00 P.M. Hope all is well with everyone back in Canada.

We are in Honolulu at the moment about to embark on the last stage of our journey back to Cat’s-Paw IV. Everything has gone smoothly, well let’s rephrase that, we haven’t missed any connections so all is good. They lost one of our bags between Victoria and San Francisco, how can they do that, all three bags went on together and then only two appeared in SF. Luckily they were the 2 very large hockey bags that showed up, but the third bag had all our guide bookhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifs for the next 6 months, all nicely copied and collated. Hopefully it got put on the plane and may show up in Auckland. We have had long waits between flights.
Our buddies from our first year in Mexico, Pat and Carole from Espiritu met us in San Fran. What a treat to see them again. Carole was like the big sister I never had in Mexico, always looking out for us, we really enjoyed knowing them. We had laid a friendly wager about the outcome of the Canada/US Olympic Hockey game so Carole had to parade around the airport in the Canadian Hockey Jersey I purchased. We also gave them a Go Canada Go flag and requested that they take pictures at the hot spots around San Francisco to prove they were flying it. I expect a picture of their car with a tram car going by the “flag” at the very least. It was absolutely wonderful to have a 3 hour visit with them.
The leg from SF to Hawaii was uneventful except that we are unsure of where the bag might be. We had a seven hour layover here, so we hopped an airporter bus and did a little sight seeing. We went down to Waikiki Beach at Diamond Head and watched some surfing as I dipped my toes in the Pacific once again. We both broke out into a sweat as soon as we left the airport building. It is very humid here. We stopped downtown and gorged ourselves at an all you can eat Japanese buffet. They had great sushi, and the other forms of seafood were really good.. We are currently waiting to board the Air New Zealand flight that will whisk us off to Auckland. I hope to fall asleep and wake up when we land.
I had a few anxious moments in downtown Honolulu waiting for a city bus to take us to the airport, we are in cruiser mode already and would rather wait and take the bus, paying $2.25 each rather than pay a $50.00 taxi ride. We waited over hhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifalf and hour but it eventually came and after much teeth gnashing on my part we pulled into the airport and stopped right along side the terminal we needed.
Barry has had to deal with one of the consequences of his new hip, the new improved pat down procedures, where they get up close and personal to make sure he really is the gentle kind soul he appears to be and not some crazed maniac with stuff strapped to his body that may blow up.

P.S. I have video proof that Barry was skiing at Panorama but the connection is really slow here so will not try to load it here. I promise to put it on later.
I've got some good pics, they will have to be later as well, really, really slow.

Quinn, who is not quite 3, riding his bike!
We have been having a great time getting reacquainted with Quinn and June. June is just 10 months old and has been making strange, she seems to have gotten used to me but still has some reservations about Barry. Today he fed her some lunch and after some initial reluctance that was a downright refusal to open her mouth, she decided that if Grandpa held his mouth open perhaps she could as well. She has a beautiful smile and a mischievous personality is starting to assert itself.



















Today we were had hoped to go skiing, but with the possibility of wet snow, rain and winds forecast up to 30 knots we decided we would head to Radium Hot Springs instead and soak out the kinks we have accumulated from driving over 3000 km. June seemed to love the water, not objecting to having her picture taken under water. Quinn was learning to navigate with his life jacket on and happily jumped in to chase a floating toy. The harder he splashed his hands the further the toy got away, but he would persevere and nab it. We hope to go skiing tomorrow, in the fresh snow that is visible on the mountain tops.

We are now in Invermere visiting Trish, Graeme, Quinn and June. We did get to the page playoff game at the Women's World Curling Championship in Swift Current on our way. It was a really close game and we had great seats in the front row,
unfortunately the Canadian Team lost after she went for it in the 9th end and ended up giving up 4 when her last rock missed by a millimeter. I don't think anyone in the building thought her rock could go through the hole it did. Barry got some decent shots of the team.

Here is the German skip relaxing between ends. She was kind of scary to look at on TV but she wasn't so bad in person. She was definitely the BOSS on her team. She won this game and went on to defeat Scotland in the final to ascend to her second World title, she won the first once in 1988, pretty impressive, 22 years between championships.










PROOF POSITIVE THAT I WAS REALLY THERE!

On the ICE ROAD crossing the Mackenzie River
We are safely in Winnipeg, visiting with my Mom. The drive down was not uneventful. The first day we left Yellowknife early in the morning and headed to Peace River, AB. The roads were good until about 2 hours outside of High Level and it started to snow. There was about 10 cm accumulating on the roads and I was driving and had to slow to about 80 km/hr. That was painful to a speed demon like myself, but every once in awhile I could feel the car start to slide and I knew it would be really dangerous to speed up. We changed drivers in High Level and it was crazy as soon as we left town the roads were dry, not a bit of snow, it was great driving the rest of the way to Peace River.
The next day we had a lovely drive to Cold Lake AB, close to the AB/SK border about 100 kms north of Lloydminster. We had a great visit with friends we had met sailing on Great Slave Lake when they had towed their boat up to Yellowknife to compete in the Commissioner's Cup. The next day we once again left before dawn. I was a bit worried about driving in that country in the dark. Barry was tooling along and a couple of deer leaped out in front of the car. We clipped the hind end of one of them at 100 km/hr. Fortunately, we only caught the end of it and all that was damaged was our front signal light. The headlight was fine but the right signal light did not work any more. We saw quite a few more deer but they were smart enough to stay away from the road while we were speeding by. We arrived in Wpg. about 9:00 P.M. and were very happy to be here without any more incidents. Barry is off at the moment at the auto wreckers trying to buy a new signal light.
Barry had suggested before we left Yellowknife that we would be driving by Swift Current SK, while the World Women's Curling Championships was on so we should see if we could get tickets. I went online and sure enough there were some tickets left, we are going to see the 1 - 2 page playoff game on Friday night. I guess I should figure out how far it is from Wpg. so we will know when we have to leave on Friday morning.
Mom had a big dinner planned tonight, my uncle and his new wife will be here as well as Bill, my Mom's friend. All I have to do while I am here is buy a team Canada hockey jersey so my buddy in San Franscico can wear it around the airport, to pay off a bet we made about the results of the Olympic hockey game.

We took Cassidy and Elijah out ice fishing today. We found a hole that was already open and stuck our lines in. There was a net down the hole and the first thing Elijah caught was the net, then when I went to investigate another possible hole he hooked a jack fish. It is a pretty good size and we were so happy that Elijah finally caught a fish when we were together. He pulled it out and we took it back to the car so his Dad or Grandpa could clean it. I am sure they will have a very tasty supper tonight. YEAH ELIJAH!!

Yesterday Barry and I went out cross country skiing. He came into the store on Sat. at closing and suggested that we rent some skis. The kids are in Edmonton with their Mom on spring break so we had the day to ourselves. It was great. Barry probably has not skied in 10 years so it was wonderful to get out.

We went and visited our friends Ian and Helen and saw the progress they are making on their Liberty 45. They have stripped their teak decks and are getting it ready to put a fiberglass deck down. They have made a lot of progress since we last had a look. They are going to be very comfortable on their lovely roomy boat. They told us there was an ice road going down the lake, so we headed out with our skis.
We stopped at the fish plant, a favourite sailing destination and skied around. They had Bombardier's outside the plant that they use for ice fishing. We skied over to the marker at the corner of Yellowknife Bay. We have never been that close before!!

It was a gorgeous day, bright and sunny, with temperatures close to zero Celcius. We ended up driving almost out to Moose Bay, I thought about skiing in but the ice had frozen very uneven in that spot and my heel had been rubbing in my ski boot so I decided to just look. It will be a long time until we see that again. We have less than 2 weeks to stay in Yellowknife.

I just realized I have changed mind sets and become a North American once again. I went kind of hog wild in Whitehorse and bought myself some "STUFF". Man what was I thinking. I bought a lovely gold nugget ring, with the remainder of my Christmas bonus from my employers. As well I purchased a pair of hiking boots, the last pair, while still good, hurt my feet, so what good are they??? I bought three, count them three new tank tops, the other ones are really sun bleached and old. They would have been perfectly fine for the boat and lasted a few more years before shredding!! I also indulged in a pair of earrings which I really did not need, just because I always buy earrings when I am in Whitehorse (what kind of sick mentality is that).
When I thought about it I figured out that I have once again become a Canadian consumer and NEED to get back to the boat to regain my perspective.
Oh yeah, I also bought all my grandchildren presents but that doesn't really count because all grandparents give their grandchildren necessary clothing. It is their job to look cute!
We have both not bought much except boat parts since we arrived in Canada, so I guess it is time return to our other life.
We are planning to leave Yellowknife on March 20, drive to Wpg. to visit with my Mom and then head out to the coast visiting family and friends on the way. Barry is interested in trying out his new hip on the ski slopes and thinks that Panorama close to Windermere where our daughter Trish lives is a good place to try it. I would like to go kite skiing if there is some good wind.

Usually, what goes on the road stays on the road, but I thought I would share a few pictures with you. We were planning on going to Ottawa this year so we thought that a beaver theme for the year would inspire us
When we got to Whitehorse we found Bucky the Beaver in the store, here is our lead Lois modeling him. The girls were huddled on the bed. Everyone is in our room tonight and the topic at the moment is ice and whether or not the Yellowknife ice is better than Whitehorse ice.
We took a little side trip to the Olympics to check out curling!!!!

It was nice to have some time off work to watch and good friends to discuss the curling shots with. Go Canada Go!
Whitehorse is a city with a lot of history, I love the buildings in the downtown area. The gold rush is a big tourist draw and while we were here they had the Sourdough Rendezvous contest and the men were singing to see who would become Sourdough Sam.

Okay we lost. We are not in a position to win anymore so my dream of going to to go to the Nationals is squashed. It is unfortuneate but the other team came up big and we lost. I am not going to Ottawa and at the moment we are partying and having a good time. We went to the oppositions room and gave them a bottle of champagne. I know that I really wanted to go to Ottawas but not this year.
Instead, Barry and I will go to visit my Mom in Wpg. before we leave to go back to the boat.
Hasta La Vista.

Barry and I have been wearing Tilley hats which my Mom gave us before we left Canada for the first time. I lost mine in a big storm just west of Tahiti but Barry managed to hang on to his. It has a lot of sun damage and then he got a hole in it when he put it in the dryer. Tilley offers a life time guarantee with their products so Barry sent his hat in and sure enough a while later a brand new one showed up in the mail. It is amazing what the sun has done to the hat and now I know what it does to your skin, no wonder mine looks a little used!!
Life just kind of rolls along here in the north. It has been cold and windy the last few days and I am counting the weeks (just 6, maybe 5 and 1/2) until we get to return to Cat's-Paw IV and warmer weather. We did inventory at the store last week and I worked all day on Sunday and then 12 hours on Monday counting everything in the store. We had a bit of fun on Tuesday making up some interesting window displays.
Our curling season is entering it's competitive phase. This weekend is the NWT playdowns but since there are only 2 senior ladies team we both get to go on to the next level, the NWT/Yukon playdowns. The NWT Curling Assoc. in their wisdom has decided that we only have to draw to the button to see which team will be designated NWT 1 or 2. We both get a 10 minute warm up then each team member has to draw to the button, with sweepers, the cumulative distance from the pin is measured and the team with the least distance wins, Whoop Dee Do!! The other team has agreed to play a game so at least we will get one game out of the process, it will mean nothing though. We will do that this Sat. afternoon. Once we get to Whitehorse in 2 weeks there is only 1 team from the Yukon so we have to beat 2 teams to get to the Nationals which take place in Ottawa in mid March. We have a pretty good team so I am quite confident at this point that we have a good chance, but anything can happen.

Barry has been busy spending our hard earned "cold cash." He has bought a new wind vane, ours getting really old and we bent the paddle the last time out in NZ. We have also decided to install a wind generator as our solar panels are great but the sun only shines 12 hours in the tropics and the wind can blow 24 hours at a time. He has also ordered a new ham radio so the sailing gods willing we will have a working radio when we cross to Fiji. We will have to order a new dinghy when we get to NZ as our old one was still suffering from the huge hole I put in it when I took Mom shore in Whangamumu. It still holds air but it is not reliable any more and you really need a solid boat to get to shore and back. Cat's-Paw IV should be in great shape when we leave NZ, almost as good as when we left Canada.