Snowed in at the boat yard in Canoe Cove

With snow on the deck and ice on the ground we haven’t been up to any grand adventures in the last week. However the work on the boat is still on going and hats-off to Zach from Blackline for pressing on in freezing conditions! We are having a new hatch fitted in the saloon roof. All three hatches had been leaking, we managed to salvage and re-seat the other two but this one was too warped. So now we are ready to go back into the water.

After a flurry of conversations with the Canadian Border Security folks we are now assured that we can stay here with the boat until the work is finished.This was a relief as we did not relish sailing across to USA in this miserable February weather. The nearest port of entry is on Juan Island about 25NM away, not far at all but we would have been very cold at anchor. So the plan now is to stay here until mid-March then explore the Strait of Georgia and Puget Sound for a couple of months before heading south to Oregon, California and beyond.

We’re keeping ourselves amused with the carving tools we received for Christmas

So it’s been a quiet week on board doing indoor projects and clearing snow. I finally finished the carving I started in Tofino at the Carvers Workshop. We bought some carving tools while we were in Europe which spurred me on. I also got around to making some new curtains for the aft cabin. The old ones redefined tatty; they were faded and sun-bleached and falling apart, so I’m quite happy with the new ones.

I have been working on improving the webpage. If you have a look around you’ll see some changes. I’ve put some menus in the header to make various posts easier to find. Under the Equipment menu we will post reviews of gear and gadgets on board that we like. It has links to the product on Amazon which will pay us a small commission for any purchases you make (not just that product). So if you feel like going shopping on Amazon, please use our links! On the right there’s a subscribe button if you’d like an email when I update the blog, and I’ve added Facebook like/share buttons. If you like our blog please share it with your friends on Facebook, as I am trying to increase our web exposure. Thanks heaps for your help on that.

Making some new curtains for the aft cabin is also keeping me busy

Neil’s been pining for an Aussie meat pie. This has been going on for some months now and we have scoured the freezer sections of all the supermarkets. None of the pies were up to scratch so he decided to make his own. I never realized the simple pie was so complex! Flaky pastry on top, shortcrust below, just the right ratio of beef (chopped up just so) to sauce which must have a specific gloopiness . . . the list goes on. Anyway the first batch was spectacular! So good we polished of the first two without thinking of taking a photo to share the moment! The third was reheated for lunch and burned – I’ll have to post a snap of the next batch.

So life in the boatyard goes on. We have another month or so on the hard in Canoe Cove – lucky we like it here!

Suzy