HAPPY CANADA DAY



ANOTHER WAY TO CONSERVE WATER - SHOWERING IN THE RAIN ON THE ATLANTIC OCEAN
I can't believe that I did not know it was Canada Day yesterday. This morning when I opened up Yahoo I realised that I had let the day go by with our big Canadian flag furled up - to protect it from wind damage - we do have a smaller one up high on one of our shrouds, slightly lower of course than the Maltese courtesy flag. I'm sure if Tony had been here we would have remembered.
Last Canada Day 2009 we were on the Atlantic Ocean between Bermuda and the Azores; we happened to 'bump into' - not literally - an English boat we had met in Bermuda and as they knew it was Canada Day - they hailed us and wished us Happy Canada Day and held up their Canadian flag for our benefit. Funny huh!
Tony's been away all week on a charter around Malta and Gozo so I have had a fairly quiet time working on the boat, swimming when I got hot, lying in the sun to dry off (something I almost never do), lugging very heavy things around, i.e. Our dive tanks, laundry, 2 24 packs of beer for Tony, 2 10 gallon water containers which we take ashore, fill up at a friendly hosepipe, bring back, 'put' on the boat and fill the water tanks up. Now there's a way to improve water conservation. 'Putting' the jerry cans on the boat from the dinghy was very, very difficult. Here's how I used to do it - stand with one foot on the dinghy seat which is rigid and the other foot on the rubber side, not rigid - bend down with knees bent, lift the 10 gallon jerry can up onto the rigid seat, bend knees again and lift jerry can up to chest height and onto the deck. Sounds simple - and if I were alot stronger it would be - not. I did this about 6 times over the last 4 days, the last lift I fell backwards under the weight and decided not to do that again.
So - what do we women do when we don't have the brawn - we use our brains. Yesterday I used the running backs blocks which have twice the lifting power that I do, so I detached the running back block from the boat, brought it down to the jerry can, climbed back on the boat and pulled it aboard without straining myself at all.
Oh my God - you think - that's the highlight of her day???? Actually those small victories really do feel great - can't wait to show Tony, so that he doesn't have to keep struggling. No doubt he'll just continue the old way, doesn't take so long and my way might seem 'gay'.
He's back later today and tomorrow we plan to take off and sail to many of the beautiful places around the islands that we have not yet seen. We have 6 days holiday and I'm really looking forward to it.

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