As most of you know, Phyllis and I are taking a vacation from publishing new articles to both spend time with my daughter’s family on a RV (camper van) trip and make a last-ditch effort to get our new-to-us J/109 sailing before the snow flies.
We recently returned the RV to CanaDream and are now back home, having had a great family time on the Gaspé Peninsula. This was our first ever RV trip. Definitely not something that will replace or even compete with boats in our lives, but fun all the same.
And now we are firmly stuck into rigging the mast we and the insurance company bought to replace the original that the trucker damaged beyond repair.
Said rig looks pretty good but there’s still lots of stuff to check and fix before we can stand it up. This will be the grist of a future article since even new masts from reputable manufacturers are not anywhere close to ready to step and forgetting that could result in a nasty gravity storm.
Not sure if we will get this all done before the weather gets too crappy for fun sailing, but we are giving it the old collage try, assisted by having a great place to work in one of the sheds our friends at East River Shipyard allocated to us.
With all this going on, as well as all the other stuff that needs attention after being away for two weeks, we are going to wait at least another week, and maybe two, before returning to our normal publishing schedule.
Talking of other stuff, our venerable Subaru Outback welcomed us home by putting its toes to the air (it had been ailing for some time), so we also had to find time to buy a new car. We were really hoping the old one would last until there was an electric vehicle available that would meet our needs, but it was not to be. What a miserable and expensive experience that was with the current shortages.
Added to that, our favourite contractors are replacing all the windows and properly insulating Base Camp, our cottage in the woods. It will be great when it’s finished but the incessant grind of impact drivers and concussion of nail guns is not exactly conducive to writing.
All that said, I’m still writing in stolen moments from the boat project, and after the carpenters stop for the day, and have completed the first draft of the docking-in-current article.
I hope no one is feeling aggrieved at this longer break. If so, hopefully the fact that this is our first break in two years, and the first time we have taken more than two weeks off since we went over to membership in 2013, will help you feel better about it.
Also, don’t forget that we have over 1100 articles in the Archives and 12 Online Books to read, and I’m back to being available in the comments pretty much every day.
See you in November…or before that in the comments.
Looks like fun! I’ve long wanted to sample the backcountry skiing up there. Btw, I’m a big fan of my Chrysler Pacifica hybrid. It goes ~25 miles on electricity, so for most of my driving I get well over 50mpg/tank, but I can still go anywhere without needing to charge. Studded tires in winter works fine here in Portland.
Hi Michael,
That sounds good. I wish I had, had more time to really dig into plug in hybrid options but with a dead car and a rental that’s costing us CAD$750 / week (only one we could get) there just was not the time for that.
My wife decided she needed a newer car. Her Subaru Forester was dated at 20 years. We found her a new home with a family in need.
After a series of internet searches and a couple months of on-site visits to dealers near and far, she settled on a Honda C-RV 2018. It is AWD. Fits 5 comfortably (2 grand kids and daughter) with space to carry bags or the dog and crate. And it gets 34 plus mileage per gallon, which was a shock to me. Granted it is not electric, but we will not be expending the carbon costs of acquiring the batteries and filling the landfill in 7-10 years with dead lithium batteries. Nor will we be sitting in the dark waiting for electricity to come back on to charge the car, as the decaying power grid is shut down due to lack of generators.
Being green is a challenge to decode the complex options.
Hi John,
Sounds like you did a good job and got a good result. I’m just not enough of a car guy to buy second hand, particularly since we only have one car and live in the country where we are totally dependant on a working one, so went new…at vast expense.
It sure is an expensive proposition. At one time the performance of new cars was exceptional. I am afraid the car makers followed the software designers in there rush to market. So many recalls abound. That and the financial hit as you drive the car off the lot and down the block.
But like a new boat, that new car scent is intoxicating. Seems you could bottle it and then give a spritz in the morning when you get into the car.
Enjoy your time away!
Hi Phyllis, John,
We’re in the Boston area and are planning on cruising the coast of Nova Scotia in August, potentially leaving the boat in Nova Scotia for the winter. You’ve spoken highly of East River Shipyard in the past. Do you still feel the same about them with the new management? If your opinion has changed, is there another yard that you would recommend?
Best wishes,
-Sasha
Hi Sasha,
Yes, still very happy with ERSY and the new management has been a big positive. Give them a call and and talk to Mike, the new operations manager who is doing a great job. Tell him I sent you— a good thing for them to know, particularly since I owe Mike and Brad (owner) big time at the moment for all the slack they cut me during our refit of the J/109.
If you want to store with them, particularly inside, call sooner rather than later, they were full last winter and are taking deposits as I write for next winter. Outside storage should be less problematic since they just expanded the hard stand area.
Excellent. Thank you for the recommendation.