It's August and we've now completed a whole month living and working on board Destiny Calls at the yacht club. It's been relatively easy so far; partly because we're over the stress of moving out of the house, (the stress of looking forward to actually going sailing this September is pale by comparison); and partly because our friends are not only very interested in our up coming adventure, they've actually been very supportive!

We've had help collecting and installing equipment, been wined and dined, and generally treated like conquering heroes even though we haven't even left the dock!!

I guess that it's just obvious that we're past the point of no return and HAVE to go now. Our friends seem to recognise that we may have already accomplished something, even though we feel we have yet to.

Another factor making it easy to live inside of a 27 foot plastic pail is that the weather this summer has been fabulous in general. Not too hot, (a little cold perhaps), and not too rainy (rather a dry summer by most accounts). If it was raining day after day I suspect that this report would read differently.

Our only major complaint so far is that the City has decided to tear up the street that serves the Yacht Club and the construction starts at 7:30 each week day. The job will take three to four weeks and effectively encompasses half our time living here. Luckily for us we are far enough out that the awful dust seems to miss Destiny Calls preferring to torture the boats closer in. The walk from the interim parking however adds five minutes each way to our walk to the car each day, each direction!

Mik the dog has become quite the boat animal. Everyone at the club knows him and expects him to write a regular piece for these pages...he's working on it!

There was a boat from Michigan USA staying at our visitor dock for just over two weeks. Bruce Parks and his Gossard 36 "Emerald Sea" had planned to stay for two days but seemed to enjoy his time milling about the club so much he stayed. He's sailing single handed south towards South America and changed his original plan to sail via the Gaspe and Canadian East Coast partly after I told him of my experiences in those cold harsh waters. We expect to bump into him again.

Only a few more days to go!! We are starting to get very antsy!