Friday Oct. 23

Friday Oct 23.

Can't believe that the week has gone so fast!

We went swimming yesterday for the first time in a few days. The water was actually cold enough that Rick and Quentin only swam for about a half hour. I got wet up to my knees thanks!

We stopped into the Smithsonian Aquarium at the end of the park. Quentin didn't seem too interested at first but when he started to watch them feeding those tanks and hear about the fish in them, he started to ask lots of questions and seemed more taken by what was there. We were there for about an hour and a half, then we stopped at the market and bought some shark for dinner. I am getting sick of pork chops and ground beef. Canadian walleye [pickerel] was selling for $21.50/lb. The meat guy asked if I wanted to try a sample. I told him I used to catch my own and he laughed. Shark was only $7.99!

We are still having issues about timing and focus but hopefully we will manage to get a pattern going when we get offshore. Worst case scenario... he repeats grade 10. He knows this!

We are still trying to get the boat painted, but seriously we have not had a single day without rain!! The only thing in our favour is that even if we were ready to cross the Stream, the weather is not co-operating. The winds are out of the northeast and would be pushing us back to the continent. We can wait...the Homeland Security guy said so!  It would be nice to be ready when it's time! 

Today if it doesn't rain, when we get back from the library [where we are now] it isn’t raining, I am going to try *painting* and get the waterline painted as well. Anything else will be a bonus. I just hate the idea of putting on the primer only to have Mother Nature wash it off an hour later. We need 4 clear hours of dry to let it set up. Then we can put on top coat and be done.  There are still a few other little jobs that need to be done [now that I found the list], like checking the small sail attachments, and greasing the rudder pins.  I am still looking for a spinnaker but I think I may just have to make one.

The trains are still an issue. I tried to take a picture from the deck of the boat so you could see just how close we are, but they are travelling at about 200 miles an hour! Sigh... interrupted sleep...the night I said I didn't hear them was because there weren't any that night! OK ... on to Canadian history.