We left Huntsville on Saturday about 1 pm on a glorious day, spectacular. Gotta remember that it was below zero in the morning tho and plenty of ice on my truck.

I am up early and working on shutting the place down. We had our showers last night before going to see Scott and Carol so just need enough water for a couple of toilet flushes and some breakfast.

It all goes well, we eventually head out and have a nice drive to Toronto, stop at the Rigging Shoppe for some 3M 5200 and then head to the condo. Danforth Avenue is jail so we decide to take a detour through the old ‘hood – we see Emma on Scarborough Road and stop for a nice chat.

At the condo, Audrey arrives and the four of us chat for a bit before I give Audrey a ride home. Always great to spend some time alone with her.

Back at the condo Ben is heading out (It’s Saturday night doncha know) so mom and I watch a few old Who’s Lines before going to bed early. We need to be up and rolling before 6 am.

21 October 2026, Thursday

Days are hot maybe getting a bit easier as we acclimatize.

At the boat early, no sign of the sanders, no word on email. No response from Palm Tree Marine who may be the only company that can help with the Yanmar engine.

After the Cruisers Net I call Andre at Spice Island Services (different than the marina, they are over at Clarke’s). He says he’ll be right over. He shows up pretty quickly and immediately says “oh no, we’ll need to machine sand this, I’ll go back and make another quote.” That really pisses us off. He wasted two days then does the old bait ‘n’ switch. He sends the quote pretty quickly, now EC$3500. Christy and I both say “f*ck him”. We don’t respond to his email.

We decide to try sanding ourselves and I go and get the orbital sander we brought from Canada 2 years ago. It looks in fine shape. I stick an abrasive paper on it, turn it on and the rubber plate that holds the sandpaper immediately disintegrates into nothing. No way a belt and loop paper will stick to it. We try to McGiver it with some 3M 4200 but I have my doubts. Won’t know until tomorrow. We make some calls to try and rent a sander but no one in town seems to rent orbital or rotating sanders – only the belt or hand held type which won’t work for us.

I install the new alternator and rig up fresh water to feed the engine cooling line. Christy tries the ignition. Nothing. Looks like we have a spare alternator anyway. All the forums say carry a spare.

We had planned to change the two through hulls that feed the engine and generator cooling lines but I realize I don’t have the intake strainers to do that. I’ll order them and we’ll change them later.

Michael’s crew (the guy that does our bimini/dodger and Christy has hired to do a cover for Son of Milu) shows up and takes the ripped bimini down. We then dinghy around to the Prickly Park beach (I think that’s what it’s called) and help him load it on the trailer. Trouble getting the motor up but just another day.

Christy and I enjoy a dip in the ocean after they leave and cool off. Then we walk down to Scuba West Indies to see if we can get an air tank to blow out our aft shower sump line. In the interest of brevity, the answer is no. They are very nice though, I might bite the bullet and go to Treasure Trove for some used scuba gear.

We’re back at the apartment by 5 pm – L of the R starts around 4:30 pm and runs to 8:30 pm. Takes that long to get through all the commercials. Turns out this is only episode 2 so we’ll have to get home in time to watch the finale tomorrow. My memory of L of the R is intact – very long periods where nothing much happens just oh so dramatic googly eyes with the elves. Either that or interminable war scenes with orcs.