oliver

Saturday - re-jigged the front lawn so I can get the boat (trailer sailer) in and out without a crew of spotters, including removing a stupid little gateway and a scruffy wisteria, much to the disappointment of my ex M.I.L when she heard about it! There will be a hedge I think, softer to clip with the boat than a fence. Sunday, took the trailer sailer that all this was in aid of for the first sail it's had since Waitangi weekend in Nelson. It's been under repair in my carport since then. We left Seaview about 10, left Somes to port and Ward to starboard then back to Seaview, gave a couple

Which is exactly what I did. So did I, and as I've been busy or out of town every weekend for weeks it was bloody epic. Emptying the catcher every few widths of the lawn. There's still a bit of lawn to go actually, I should really go do it. I did also glue the new ply patch into the deck of my boat, next weekend maybe it'll get faired and possibly glassed too, and this afternoon we're sailing with sea scouts.

Last weekend's achievements: the kids and I got the ferry on Friday morning, picked up a trademe trailer sailer in Motueka Friday afternoon, sailed from Nelson into Tasman Bay on Saturday, back on the trailer then drove to Picton Sunday, slept in the boat, ferry on Monday and home. It's in the carport now for some cockpit repairs. I've cut out a small area of soft ply, thankfully not spread far at all and we should be back on the water relatively soon.

Hooray chooks! Mine are Helen Cluck, Doris and Mrs Brown.

We had our regular Sea Scout sailing this afternoon, bit of a disappointing turnout of kids today after they nearly all turned up on Thursday. We had a good sail anyway, out to Somes from Petone, with those who were there, and gave the new (old) Naiad we bought from the Cadets for a rescue boat a good testing. It's nice to have a decent boat for that job, the previous one we had was decidedly sub-par.

Trundelled round a mountain bike race this morning, didn't crash or collapse, then provided ballast, advice and wake up calls to the young skipper of a Sea Scout cutter while he tried to avoid colliding with the Lowry Bay Yacht Club race this afternoon. Was cool.