ODDS and SODS

We still had River here from his sleepover when his Dad brought little brother Gibson for the day ... so the first order of the day was to make a tent.



That was good for a few minutes entertainment, until Gibson decided he didn't want me taking pictures of their tent, thank you very much -- he even knows the words 'move ... it!" Guess I got told... lol.


On to Knit'n'Cafe in the afternoon... I finished the blue shawl and I'm hoping to finish a brown-tones one before we leave on Tuesday, but there were much more interesting things than that at Knit'n'Cafe today! First of all, Sarena (Celena?) ... was the highlight of our afternoon, I'm sure. Her Mom said some 'distant relative' knit that outfit for her... adorable!

And then I glanced up to see what Karen was working on, and zoomed right past the knitting to the necklace...

She calls it her wearable garden, and you can read more about that here. What a great idea!

After Knit'n'Cafe I drove to Clover Point (it was REALLY noisy at Serious Coffee for some reason, and I was craving quiet...) and saw the Quadra Queen II (recognisable by native artwork painted at the forward end of her superstructure just below the bridge)coming in to the harbour.

This is an unusual sight -- this 30-car, 290+-passenger ferry is normally on the Port McNeill - Sointula - Alert Bay triangle run, 'way north of here. Built in 1969, I guess it's getting a little old and weary, and needed to come in to Point Hope Shipyard for some refit work.

The Quadra Queen II is naamed after Quadra Island, one of my favorite places and the island to which she initially provided ferry service. Quadra Island is named after Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra,a Spanish explorer on BC's coast in the late 18th century. (His main 'claim to fame' is having met with British explorer Captain George Vancouver at Friendly Cove in Nootka Sound in 1792).

According to the BC Ferries website yesterday, "the MV Tachek will replace the MV Quadra Queen II which is being removed from service to undergo scheduled dry-docking, maintenance and Transport Canada Inspections. This work is expected to take approximately 10 weeks, and will also include a complete rebuild of the starboard main engine and inside and outside painting."

My friend Bev mentioned at Knit'n'Cafe that I never did finish the story about the batteries yesterday! Well, when you live on a boat, your life is very dependent on batteries -- there are mainly starting batteries (to start the boat's engines) and house batteries (to run the lights, toilet, inverter, and lots of other things -- and there are usually four of these), and the ones on the Wind Walker are easily 10 years old. So every year we're 'gonna' start replacing our batteries -- ha! Well, this year it simply couldn't be put off any longer ... so $800 later, Michael was busy installing all new batteries day before yesterday!

Today ... the Victoria Classic Boat Festival begins!