On June 15th, we headed to Poet’s Cove, to spend an evening with Bert’s brother , Roel and his wife, my sister!     We anchored out, and Roel put his boat on the dock.  We had a wonderful dinner that evening, and the next morning, the guys did some swimming, Ineke sat in the hottub, i took it easy.     We left late that afternoon, after having said goodbye to the; so long, see you again, for sure, we just dont know when.       We then headed for James Bay, off of Prevost Island, a beautiful little bay, with a wonderful hike on the shore, it is park land, and looks to be well protected.   There was one other sailboat anchored, and we had a quiet night, the next morning, beautiful day with bright sun, Bert rowed to the shore and we hiked to the lighthouse at the point.  The forest is very dry, even the low lying spots have no water in them, but , everything is still green…..     Eagles are every where, the young are already practicing their moves, they sure look bigger somehow then the adults.    One lone Osprey flew in for a closer look, but that was just not a good idea, the 4 eagles became very upset, and a chorus of calls started across the bay.    The Osprey didnt stay long…….    Here are some photos , to try and show  the atmosphere in this beautiful place.

We are anchored in Nanaimo harbour, visiting family here, and Bert is trying to download  programs for the SSB, ( single side band), not a easy task it seems, there are some strange noises coming from him and the computer……..       We have been working on the boat, installing a Hydrovane, which is a self steering system , mounted on the stern.   It will basically act like another person on board, Bert had taken measurements, made drawings, took photos, all of Curtsy’s stern, we have an arch on the back, so it would have to fit free from that.    The manufacturer assured him that it would indeed fit.    Once we took all the pieces, which came very well packed in wooden crates, from the UK, and put them on the dock, Bert realized that the windvane would hit the arch, when used in certain winds.     So, his first reaction was to cut the arch off of the boat. No way!!!!!!      We put our heads together, and mainly, through his engineer brain, he designed a bracket, which would bring the whole system away from the stern, enough for it to NOT touch the arch.  A metal worker made up the bracket for him, out of stainless steel, and did one heck of a nice job.     Slowly but surely , we put the whole thing together, the main component is very heavy to say the least, with Bert working on the inside of the boat and myself , hanging over the water on the outside, we put the huge bolts in place.    It started to look just great, very impressive.  here are some photos, to give you an idea what its all about.