Where’s the Weblog?

Past due for sure.  We’re surprised to find that we do not even have an “end of season” blog here.  Well, let’s fill in the blanks.  We had a wonderful end of season, finally making it back to Prickley Bay for haulout, with time to spare to haul everyone we could find to the local brew-pub to dive into the flavours, and then just the two of us having a lovely meal at the beach restaurant “Umbrellas”.  We carried out our usual floating end-of-season work, and got hauled out on April 13^th.  The week on the hard was made easy with, as usual, a stay in the air-conditioned comfort of “Cool Running”, across the street from the boatyard.  Even the technical work was easy, with us not really taking on many serious chores beyond decommissioning.

The trip home was also normal.  Once we arrived, we were once again on flood-watch, as the St. John River system was on the rise.  Ultimately, our lake community suffered a flood of only 8 inches lower than the flood of record, which was just the year before.  Our part in saving homes and property was much smaller this year.  Our friends Hugh and Liz had made major flood-proofing changes to their basement, and abandoned the idea of sandbagging.  We did give our friend Debbi one long-hard day; involving the rotation of all the furniture while we removed the engineered flooring, and re-piling the furniture. 

This is in front of our cottage.  The water continued to rise after this shot.

We also caught a break in our cove when high winds, at the peak elevation of the water, entered the cove with the longest fetch possible.  The break was the last of the lake ice, which, although scarring a few trees, kept the water calm.  The next morning, just after the wind subsided, the ice vanished.  Other properties on the lake, without the ice on the upwind side, were damaged, knocked over, and in some cases blown to smithereens.  Since the water receded, at least 5 different contractors have had a busy summer, raising cottages and summer-homes along the lakeshore.

Debbi's place goes up...high and dry!

Our own property, although the house was high and dry, suffered with issues in the basement, and major damage to the percolation piping of our hybrid wastewater treatment system.  The latter kept me busy for approximately 100 man-hours, distributed through the season, as I did the manual labour pretty much single-handed.  Other work: wood splitting, applying exterior coatings, and carrying out normal maintenance, also kept me busy. 

  Richard Brogan's Independent 20 was launched and hauled by the boys of the community. 

Still, lots of fun here, as we got together at least weekly for barbecues with the gang, a trip to Storeytown for great food and river activity with the same gang, sailing the Hobie 21, family gatherings, etc.  Dawn again enjoyed a night each week with her mother and sisters, a week-long sister get-together in Ontario, and a weekend stay with her good friend upriver. 

With a stick and no hook, the fishing is just as productive.  Laurie enjoying the Miramichi.

We’re now consolidating our notes, packing our clothes, and decommissioning the house for our return trip, with a flight date of November 11^th, 7 days hence.

About 2 weeks ago, we were hit with a raging wind and rain storm.  Our neighbour lost 8 trees.  These ones totally wiped out their grandchildren's playhouse, but not much else.  The work David had to do over the last two weeks just removing trees and stumps was no small thing.

From the left - Paul, Laurie, Ken and Mike: the Corbett boys!  Nice looking bunch of cotton tops!

TECHNICAL

As mentioned, the haul out was pretty normal, but for a trip to the top of the mast for some electrical work, and the renovation of the starboard escape hatch.  Actually, the escape hatch did cause some extra stress.  We removed and dismantled the hatch, but while cleaning it, noticed that the glass was bulging out of the hatch-cover.  Aluminum oxides, the result of saltwater corrosion, was growing under the glass and edge-seal, pushing the assembly apart.  Rather than fix it myself, I had it sent to another boatyard, where a company called “Driftwood” dismantled, cleaned, and recaulked it with an appropriate product.  We managed the rest of the surfaces by cleaning, spraying with zinc chromate, and finishing with the brushing on of a one-part silver primer.  This last bit of treatment had been done the previous season to the port escape hatch, and seemed to do a good job.  Both of these windows, originally manufactured by Goiot, were receiving the treatment after the oxides of corrosion had compromised the seal between the flanges and the boat hulls.

Cat Tales sitting in the Spice Island boatyard waiting just one more week for activity to begin again for another season in the sun!