For no better reason than the
interests of continuity, we think it is appropriate to advise you what
transpired with the crew of Cat Tales during the summer.
Starting with the boat, we had
the staff at Virgin Gorda Yacht Harbour Boatyard check on her just after
Hurricane Gonzalo passed to the east in mid-October, and all was fine.
For us in Atlantic Canada, our
time home was rather a blur. There were
doctors and dentists, parties and visits, friends and relatives, fishing and sailing,
biking and hiking.
In early June, Laurie got in a
fishing trip at Scott Kennah's camp on the Nepisiguit River with Scott and Ken
Corbett, and the trout were excellent.
The July 1st long weekend had us
driving to Buctouche, NB, to spend time with brother Ken Corbett and Linda, and
brother Mike and Anne while we visited a lobster boil with our Aunt Marion and
her family. The biking on the trails
there was fabulous! Dawn and Laurie
carried on to Bathurst for 3 days with Scott and Tina Kennah at their
traditional rental on Youghall Beach.
Both were fantastic.
However, we returned just in time
for Hurricane Arthur to hit New Brunswick.
We stayed in the cottage for most of the storm, just watching the
carnage. We were too busy watching trees
fall next door to see our Hobie-21 lift up out of its cradle and land on its
side 20 feet away. Amazingly, the boat
was fine. The damage to our cottage was
slight - one tree onto and through our shed - but we've been taking down trees
every spare moment since. Besides the
dangerous trees on our own property (about 8), we helped our neighbour David
Wasson take down over 25 jack pines, all over 70 feet high. It was interesting in that we dealt with many
by using a heavy nylon anchor rode and a pulley to direct the descent to miss
buildings and good trees.
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| Hurricane Arthur |
Still, we found ways to get
away. At the end of July, we drove to
Acadia National Park to go camping and biking with Paula and Brian of s/v
Magique. It was fantastic, with great
views, cool biking, fantastic lobster rolls, excellent craft beers, and scampering
up giant mountains of granite.
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| Brian & Paula and Laurie and Dawn in a seaside restaurant in Maine. |
When we got back we continued to
cut down trees while we planned our 21 days out west. That trip had us flying to Whitehorse to
spend time with Dawn's sister Valerie and her husband Rick, driving with them
to Dawson City, visiting the Dempster Highway and the Tombstone Mountains,
taking the White Pass down to Skagway, Alaska, ferrying down the Pacific (our
first time in the Pacific) to Prince Rupert, British Columbia, taking a train
through the Rockies to Jasper, Alberta, driving through the Glacier Trail to
Calgary, where we spent a week with brother Paul and his wife Alida, and taking
in a rodeo, a trip to Head Smashed In Buffalo Jump, and another to the
Drumheller Royal Tyrrell Evolution Museum.
No way Laurie can express the amazing joy he experienced with the
geology, history, paleontology etc.
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| Dawn & Laurie hiking with Val and Rick at Tombstone, Yukon. |
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| At Heritage Park in Calgary staying with Alida and Paul. Here we are with friends we just met at the rodeo! |
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| Laurie's in heaven at the dinosaur museum! Thanks Alida and Paul!! |
We got back to our cottage in
time to welcome visitors Steve and Maria, s/v Aspen, all the way from
Colorado. With them, we traveled to
Halifax and visited with Michele and Al of s/v Tarantella. We ate way too well, drank the usual, toured
the harbour in Al's 34' powerboat, saw the sights, and laughed ourselves hoarse
constantly.
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| Maria from Colorado, Michele from Dartmouth and Dawn from Grand Lake in Michele and Al's kitchen. |
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| What a feed of lobster Al scored for us!! We can't wait to see these guys again down south when we all launch our boats! |
So, now we are tidying up our
chores, putting things away, making lists, and ordering parts for our trip back
to Virgin Gorda. We will board the
airplane on November 24th, and start Cat Tales chores the very next day. Chores include the installation of a
replacement hot water tank that let go at the end of last season, and the
installation of a significant amount of electronics (assuming they get here in
time being shipped from Halifax). At
least this year, we hope to minimize the living in the boatyard. We have booked a week at the nearby Bayview
Apartments. Please stay tuned!
