Getting ready to head west

And not a minute too soon, judging by the thermometer.  Ours showed minus 35 this morning.  At that point its not material whether its minus 35 C or F.

A year ago now we were holed up in Victoria, both of us sick.  We went there for Christmas and to watch The Hobbit, Part II.  I don’t think we did much in January but we got real busy at the end of January.  That’s when we left for Seattle, followed by Vancouver and then Alaska. 

When we arrived back on the prairies we were both happy to be away from the boat but now we’re both pretty homesick for the ocean.  I brought the bow roller and anchor home with me, hung them up in the garage and more or less forgot about them.  “I’ve got lots 0f time – we’re not going back to the boat for at least 6 months” Well, that was 6 months ago and I’ve been scrambling to get that project wrapped up so I can start on the other project we brought back with us.  The lathe got a good workout again today when I used it to ream out some more holes on the new bracket as well as the pivot sleeve.  I think that project is complete which means I can start on the deck box.

We bought 2 looks-like-teak deck storage boxes when we bought Gray Hawk.  I brought one of them back with us a year ago so that I could epoxy coat and varnish it.  I brought the second one back this year but of course it sat forgotten in the little house until we dragged it over here about a week ago now.  In addition to the bow roller bracket and deck box I also brought out old stainless CQR anchor back.  My plan is to add an some steel and some weight to the point in the hope that will help it engage the bottom.  As it is its really just an ornament – I need to either make it useful as an anchor or find someone else who wants to own it because – in its current state – it just takes up space.

So I’ve got a lot of projects to wrap up before we head west again.  And the departure date is fast approaching.  Weather permitting we hope to leave on Jan 15.  We’ll take a more leisurely trip than we usually do so that we can visit some friends near Edmonton but we’ll be back on the boat 4 or 5 days after we leave Buchanan and maybe sooner.  We’ve done that trip in 2 days when the weather through the mountains cooperates.

We wouldn’t mind seeing The Hobbit, Part III sometime but we’re not as focused on that as we were on the first two in the series.  I expect we’ll find it in a remainder bin at WallyWorld and watch it at home.  It will make more sense in sequence after the first two anyway.  We won’t be dashing out to watch the stupid movie that makes fun of Kim Ill Ding Dong.  I wouldn’t mind seeing a movie that mocks the little clown but I doubt that movie is worth the price of a WallyMart DVD, let alone theatre pricing.