Busy Times in October

October flew past in a flurry of activity. Richard went out to work, I worked at home (home for the present, anyway), blogging and writing and making arrangements and generally getting ready to go to Toronto for my art show. In between we finalized arrangements for taking Into The Blue out of the water at Purcell’s Cove Marina. We agreed on a nice sheltered spot, since she will be out for a while, and a friend offered us a cradle there we could use. Things began to fall into place.

Richard went to work on modifying the cradle so that it would fit Into The Blue. He cut, moved supports, and generally tried to make it ready. Then they moved the cradle into place, and that revealed a few weaknesses that meant trips to the lumber store, for 4 x 4s and 2 x 4s to reinforce areas that had grown rotten. After that, it was time to think about getting the boat from Alderney Marina across to Purcells Cove.

With my art show coming up rapidly, and the date for climbing aboard the train to Toronto even closer, we chose the best weather day we could find to move the boat. Winds had been blowing out of the north and the east, strongly. This day it was cold but, in spite of grey clouds building to the south west, the winds were good and the water pleasantly smooth. Richard fired up the outboard, thinking of a smooth trip across the harbour and around the shallows off Point Pleasant Park to Purcells Cove. We left it to warm up, while we got the sails ready - just in case. We always get the sails ready, just in case.

The outboard went one step beyond warming upn -it overheated. Then it refused to start. Time was passing. The clouds were building. The choices were diminishing. We pulled the sails up and went. The sailing was good. We went to Plan C - Richard called ahead to say we were on our way without an engine, and what were our options?

The wind was from a good direction for sailing down the channel into the cove and to the marina. It seemed our option - the one we ended up using anyway - was to sail in to the dock, where someone would meet us and take our lines. The only snag there was when the main decided to jam and not come running smoothly down. We kissed the tyres on the outside docks and everyone stayed well clear of the boom as they took our ropes. Then they held us long enough for us to get the main lowered, handed us down to an empty slip and left us to tidy up and take down and put away our sails. With that accomplished I left Richard to finish haul-out preprations while I prepared for the show.

During that week he took the mast down, worked more on the cradle, and generally go the boat ready to be hauled. Then, while I concentrated on last minute preparations in Toronto, the boat was hauled in Halifax. By crane. Those who have boats will know the feeling of seeing your boat lift from the water hanging on two straps over water and then over rocky land... Richard got to witness the lift directly - I only had to look at the pictures afterward.

Putting the boat on the cradle revealed a few more spots in need of reinforcement, plus some slight miscalculations. More lumber, more cutting, more shoring up - but now as you read this Into The Blue is sitting on her cradle, waiting for us to erect a shed around her to protect us and boat from the worst of the weather. Meanwhile we’ve started doing more unloading of gear and bits. It’s still amazes us what we can fit into a thirty foot boat.

For me, the time in Toronto was a welcome interlude, a chance not just to present my art and ideas but a chance to see some family and friends, and share what I had been doing. The time was almost all spent preparing for my art show. There was a lot of walking, meeting - and finding refuge in a friends apartment, where I could do all the writing and printing and computer checking that needed to be done. As for the show - you can read more about it on my art blog. Here I’ll just say it was exciting, tiring, and rewarding and that I’ll be doing another one next year, with a whole new group of paintings and prints.

In the meantime prints from this show are available online now, at an online store I’ve created, and as with paintings and prints sold at the show part of the proceeds go to support artists working with teachers and children to improve access to and the quality of education in one of the poorer areas of Nicaragua. Some of you already know a lot about the show and how it went, and I would invite anyone else who’s interested to visit my art blog and store site.

So now the boat is resting on it’s much strengthened cradle; I am back and recovering from the burst of activity in Toronto. And the winds and weather of a Nova Scotia fall are coming and going, sometimes tempestuous, sometimes calm. We are looking ahead to weekend days of planning and measuring and remeasuring and discussing and boat work. On and off the boat.

Refit time...

Haulout pictures courtesy of Swedish Joe, who had his camera there.