Someone asked me recently if I was getting bored in retirement yet. I assured them NOT! In fact, with all the preparations to be made for the big journey ahead, I have no idea how I would have got it all done if I was still working. Thanks, CMHC, for paying me to stay home and work on boat projects  🙂

Here a few things I have been doing to keep busy:

Taking a Navigation course. Digging up some old skills (when was the last time you were asked to “solve for x”?) and learning some new ones (navigation also has its own language – a cocked hat? Really?)

Stitching a new wheel-cover. Kinship’s wheel got a new paint job over the winter, so the grungy and slightly worn old cover had to go.  Stitching leather, even when the holes are pre-punched, can be a tough job.

Updating important equipment. Kinship came with two essentials for an ocean passage, a first aid kit and a ditch bag, but both were vintage 1998, so they came home for an inventory and update this winter. A quick trip to Ontario Medical supply with a 5-page order for re-fill supplies, and the First Aid Kits are updated and ready to go.

The Ditch Bag is that critical thing you grab on your way into the life-raft, so you definitely want it to be complete. A few trips to the Chandlery, and some on-line shopping for emergency rations, and it is now ready to go too. Here’s hoping we never need it!

So, boredom? Not an issue!