Hi from here in victoria.  One week tommorrow we start sailing!!!! Wow so soon and so much to do.  Things are steadily progressing and slowly we are becoming to look more like a sail boat.  The crane came last week and placed all the rest of the big spars on. The Swift is a square topsail rig so the crane placed the yards which are the big horizontal spars close to the top of the mast.  I have been doing lots of lashing this past week, useing miles of marlin- Tying down all of the lines from rig tightening, lashing sails on, and putting pin rails in place.  All the cracks in my hands are a nice black color from the tar that is imbeded in the line.A lashing for the tension rigging

The Jib and Jib Topsail all lashed one and rigged

 Also working in bits of time to work on planning for cooking- menu plans and grocery lists made up for the next couple of weeks and starting to think about getting all the galley stuff on the boat.    Everyone else is busy too rigging all the running rigging for the boat involves stringing miles of line, oiling dories, reworking some of the leather, and all other sorts of boat maitainicy things.   The weather has been kind to us lots of sunshine and just spats of rain, although on Friday I woke up to pouring rain and it rained ALL day!!! This week has been dry but bitterly cold and windy. 
The view across the gorge from the shipyard

Outside of work life has been good and full of friends.  My mom came for two days last week and it was FABULOUS!!! so nice to see her, show her around, just hangout and have time together. Thanks for coming mom!!
Also part of living on an island is going to the beach as much as possible!!!  This is a sunshiney morning at China Beach (about 1 hour up the west coast of the island)

(all iphone pics)

Dry Dock

Alright so here are some posts.  Google has become a business!! I was having so many issues because apparently I have used up all of my free space so now have to pay a small (read less then a Starbucks coffee per year) to have my blog.. Also my picture loading has gained three extra steps.  But now it is all figured out so posting can resume =) 

These pictures are from work last week.  For the winter all of the spars (big beams that stretch out the sails) are all taken off of the boat to protect them from the nasty winter weather and for matinence- sanding/varnishing, reworking some of the leather and maintaining the ropes.  Here they are where they lived for the winter in the shed.  They don't look very big but when they are all yours to sand and varnish x2 they become very long!!!

Last week the Swift also had here annual time in dry dock for hull repainting and some other maintenance.  We had to be at work at 630 that morning to coincide with high tide for the take out.  Quite the process.  We motor the boat into a space between two fixtures.  Beneath the water off to the sides are specially designed supports for the boat.  Once we are in place they are moved into place snugly alongside the hull.  The supports are on tracks and they are cranked along the tracks up a ramp to shallower water and eventually dry dock.  Once on the dry dock there is a turn table that sends the ships into different sections of the shipyard for their work to be completed. 

A super cute tug alongside the dock. 

Michelle and I in our hard hats

A view alongside the boat just as we cleared the water.  My hard hat did not like the angle of my head for the picture and nicely took a tumble off my head almost hitting some poor unsuspecting dockworker =)

The Swift silhouetted in dawn.  Once the boat is out of the water the hugeness of her is amazing. The amount of hull beneath the waterline to lend stability to the rig at sea

Spent a good part of the days when the boat was in dry dock sitting up in the head rig (the lines off the front of the boat) lashing on the foresail.  Kinda interesting because I have never been at all nervous in the head rig before but it was soooo high above steel beams!!

The turn table for the boats

I definitely have the working person hands now =)   Went to go and give blood last week - first of all when they did the alcohol wipe for the blood poke the swab came away filthy and then when the nurse did the forearm check for track marks and skin disease I had to explain away the varnish stain =)

Six on Saturday

1) This post will be pictureless due to the continued malfunctioning of blogger.... not very happy about that but I guess if forces me to write instead of letting my pictures do the talking.  It also causes regret that I don't write down the little tidbits that I think of during the week =(.

2) Had my first full week of work  (last week was split up by the retreat).  It was a full week started out with a repeat of sanding and varnishing all the spars but then morphed into learning all sorts of stuff.  As the Swift is wood and now 25 years old the upkeep is continual and work getting it ready for another season is tremendous. The swift came out to dry dock this week to have hull repairs done.  It was a super interesting process to get it out of the water.. I have pics and will explain that later.   I did some leather work making coverings for some of the rigging, splicing and whipping to make sail ties.  A big job each spring is relashing all the sails back on to the stays and hoops.  Michelle and I started doing that this week. I did the staysail and fore and she did the jib and jibtopsail. Lots of marlin (tar infused rope), knots and cuts later the sails are attached for the season.    Its very cool seeing the progress of your work and that fact that you are learning an ancient art.

3) “A community is the mental and spiritual condition of knowing that the place is shared, and that the people who share the place define and limit the possibilities of each other's lives. It is the knowledge that people have of each other, their concern for each other, their trust in each other, the freedom with which they come and go among themselves.”  Wendle Berry  
  This quote is typed up on an old typewriter upstairs in the the house.  I am truly learning what it is like to live, work, eat, play, worship, learn, grow and laugh in community. 

4) Elske and I have a new friend- Kammi the Kombucha.  We went for dinner at a a co-worker's on Monday night and when enquiring about a glass jar on her counter we were introduced to this symbiotic yeast organism bacteria mushroomy thing that ferments tea and apparently is a good natural detoxifying health drink.  So she gave us a growth from her jar and now we are awaiting the process.  Between Kammi, the sprouts we are growing and our little basil plant we have the beginnings of a little health food window =)

5) Switching from an inside job to an outside one definently impacts ones willingness to go for walks in the rain.  Thankfully if you wait long enough in Victoria the sun does come out =)  Afternoon walks are almost as nice as ones first thing in the morning. 

6) Not quite sure if I am entirely cut out for the city- I had to pay for parking for errands downtown  and then when I went to walmart there were flag people directing traffic in the parking lot... something wrong with that picture.

Hello All.. Sorry for the lack of posting.. I have been trying for two days to upload some photos and write abit about shipyard work but the blogger land have been "error" filled.  So I will attempt again tomorrow night. 

Snowyaking

Rosie and I had earmarked today on the calender about 3 weeks ago as the day we were going to go snowshoeing.  But as the day rolled around due to several different logistical things we decided to go kayaking instead.  We picked Chilliwack Lake.  We anticipated that there would definitely be snow surrounding the lake.. but what we didn't know was that the park was actually closed.  When we got up there and saw the gates closing off the park we weren't deterred. We thought the lake must be right inside the gates so we'll just do our usual initial walk in with all the gear and then make a second trip for the kayaks.  Well.... close to a kilometer trek through > 1foot of snow later we reached the lake... and the conclusion that we would not be making another 3 trips to bring and return boats and gear.  This was rather disappointing because the lake was smooth, gorgeous, misty, deserted, and unphotographed (the camera had been left in the truck).  We sat on a rock and soaked in some of the foggy mistiness.  Then after deciding it was a little to early to set up the stove and make lunch we hoofed it back to the road retrieved the camera for a few pics and then swapping our down vests and toques for rain jackets we headed out and back to Cultus Lake so we could at least do some paddling. 

We look abit like Mexican Tourists that took a wrong turn.

I guess the sign was right after all...

My first week of work is done. It was fabulous.  The pace is different, the tasks so completely polar opposite of what I have been doing for the past 6 years but yet the feeling so right.  I only worked two and half days this week. Spent one day cleaning water tanks for on the Swift- definitely motivated to do a steller job on that as that is where all the drinking water for the next 9 months is coming from. Then I spend a day and a half sanding and varnishing spars- dusty and detailed but extremely therapeutic.  The rest of the week was at Crew Retreat at Camp Quwanos up in Crofton.   2 1/2 days of workshops, mediation's, collaboration, worship and laughter.

Early morning beach shots

 

Walks in the rain

Playing games in the rain- with a foggy lens

Squishy/muddy fields

Patrick- keeping us all in line

Tristian doing his best to catch the hockey ball =)

Fabulous teaching from the Quest Leaders

Fun with the disco lights

John- Grace Skipper

Sarah- Swift Skipper

So excited to be sailing with Sarah this whole season.

Michelle- my upstairs roomie and fellow swift crew

Lots of good music from all

Laughed and laughed and laughed more during Extreme Catch Phase

Six on Saturday

1)     I officially have gone two days without a U-turn.  I still however am too attached to my MAP app.

2)    Walks are a bit lonely (read peaceful) without Death and Destruction (aka Sasha and Kasey) but I have discovered a lovely trail within walking distance of our house. It encircles a golf course and has lovely little duck ponds and sweeping views of the Olympic Peninsula Mountains.

3)    Modern Art Cake Pops with the last drippings of candymelt and some chocolate.  The pretty ones are for our house warming dinner tonight.

4)    The Grace was up out of the water in dry dock this week for some painting and work on the rudders.  The Swift should come out next week and then I’ll make sure I have my real camera to take some pictures of her.  The boats look absolutely huge when they are out of the water.  For perspective Sam and GlenAllen are about 6feet tall.

 

5) pretty sure I have gone to the store every day this week. Hopeing next week will be a little less as my cupboards fill up a little.

6) This week has gone so smooth and I have so felt all your wish and prayers and really felt the Lord near. I have been reading in some Psalms and these verses just really stuck out as those which show that He truly guides us in all.

Psalm 18:32 It is the God who arms me with strength, and makes my way perfect.
Psalm 18:36 You enlarged my path under me, So my feet did not slip.