"Today is a Good Day to Drive!" .....Van-Go

This is the boat when we arrived back in the beginning of May.  We thought we would come in paint, add closets and storage space and move in.  But we found rust and more rust. It is normal each spring to find that the nails and bolts have rusted through the paint.  so we dug out the nails, cleaned them, put epoxy over them and painted a primer paint over them; we shined the bolts and put a rust prime paint over them. Around the stern we found some rust too and open area we needed to seal. That included cleaning and rust proof primer on the inside too.  All normal preparations for painting. The nails and bolts in the cockpit area also needed clean and primed. But then we found the rot.... It was across the entire bow, in both corners of the v-berth, around both port and starboard windows along the pilot house doors and the center windshield. This is under the front bow where we had to dry it out. The locker area before the holes were put in. Will...

We had been parking at Pier C and some days the papermill was blowing so much pollution in to the air that you could not even see the mill.  The heavy particles are the bad stuff they put in to the air.  For many years the people of surrounding areas have been trying to get the mill to clean up before sending out the smoke and this is the year.  Next week they are to shut down the mill and fix the scrubbers. A paper ship came to town.  In the old days they came all the time; today it is a novelty.  The trucks for the mill bring the paper over across the causeway and it is loaded on to the ship with those big yellow cranes on the ship.  This ship is from Africa! We were at Tim Horton's doing some internetting when who should we meet but our friend, Sinda.  Her name is short for Cinderella; her mom said that she spelled it with an S because that is the way it sounded to her.  It was fun catching up. May 23 was clean up day at the Quay so we stopped ...

Will drew up lots of plans for how the bow roller would work and the pulpit needed to support it.  We are hoping that Partner's Construction where we are parked will be able to fabricate it for us. We also need a base for the windless under the deck, like a huge washer of aluminum.  This is the design he came up with for the pulpit. We sat down with John at the company and he  gave some ideas and said it could be done; he is going to draw it all up and look for some spare aluminum. Raymond came to visit!! Will explained all the work we are doing and some we need done.  Raymond said he could help! Kathy finished painting three coats of paint on the bench area in the pilot house. Will added a few strokes too! Then she started in the head, that is the boat lingo for bathroom. The hole in the ceiling corner is coming along.  It has epoxy and now is being filled with wood filler. The port side window is almost finished; it was filled with epoxy. Will is putting seala...