Happy New Year everyone!

On one of the first days of the new year we awoke to a light dusting of snow and large flakes falling lazily. It was a post card morning. We sipped at coffee and marveled at the simple beauties of our rural life. I even thought to run down and take a picture of the boat shed nicely protecting the COLUMBIA III from the elements . . . ” Yes, that was a big project but gosh I was sure smart to build that thing” . . .  and I returned to the house smug in my “aren’t I great with my boat shed” kinda feelings . . . 

But as usual in my life, any time I get just a little too full of myself something happens to correct such a silly imbalance. Something happens . . . like the sound of our son-in-law racing down to the dock yelling, “THE BOAT SHED IS SINKING!!!!”

Well, whilst i was smugly sipping my self-satisfied coffee those “lazy” flakes had turned into a blizzard! And a heavy, wet blizzard to boot. The shed we built has huge amounts of reserve buoyancy if I pump out all the ballast water from the 32  8′ deep flotation tanks . . . But if a smug and self-satisfied captain rests on his laurels a little too much and doesn’t anticipate a 14″ snow fall in 5 hours . . .  his boat shed float could get dangerously low in the water with the expensive bits and pieces on the roof (like $10,000 worth of radars . . ) of his PRECIOUS COLUMBIA III in peril.

So, it was quite simple, really. Fern, Ross, Luke, Farlyn, Jody, Rowan, Miray and Theo shoveled snow for 4 hours straight and pumped out the tanks to the level they should have been at before the snow fall . . .

Just chock that up to life lesson #2,389,436. and a slightly less smug Captain.

“Uhmm . . . thanks everyone for the hand . . . I should have had that pumped out before the snow season. Sorry.”

PS: no pictures of that frantic little episode.