July 29, 2007

Hello everyone,

First, I must apologize for the long delay between messages. It has been so busy that I don’t even take my day off! Or rather, I work about 8 hours on my day off, so that sort of feels like a day off.

I can’t remember if I told you about the closing of the Sportsman’s Inn this spring. It went into receivership in April. This was devastating for the town as approx 50 to 100 boats would tie up there each night. The lack of these spaces greatly affects the number of visitors to the village and thus the amount of money spent in our few stores. But, the Inn was sold recently and has re-opened. The docks are not in great shape but they do have power and water available. Their fuel dock will not open this summer as it requires a lot of work. So, for these reasons, we have been extremely busy. We pump approx 8000 liters of fuel per day and fill our docks every night since the first week in July. The line-up for the fuel dock has been as long as an hour and the radio calls and phone calls are continuous.

Needless to say, we are very tired after 12 hours/ six days a week of this level of work. And, we just cannot be spared from the dock, so seldom actually take a whole day off. But very soon things will slow down. There is approximately two weeks of this craziness left before the boats start to disappear. This usually coincides with the departure of our student staff, thus keeping the “old timers” occupied. Then, I must get working on the “Round the Island” Race which happens on Sat,Sept 1st. This will be the third running of the event, which raises money for the Health Centre Building Fund. Of course, Fandango ( our Goman 20 ) will be in it.

The weather here has been hot and dry. How has it been in your area? The rain seems to go north of us most of the time and the lawns are suffering. My hummingbird feeder is very busy and I have actually managed to get some photos of those fast little birds. In fact, on my time off, I have spent some happy hours printing photos of the them as well as pictures taken in France. I will share them with you when we next get together.

Cynthia and the new arrival are doing well and she will deliver by caesarean section near the end of August. It will be wonderful to see and to hold her ( yes, it is a girl, Samantha ). Matthew has completed his swimming lessons and soccer games. We look forward to spending time with them all this fall.

That is all the news. Not too exciting, huh? Maybe that is a good thing. We hope all is well with you and look forward to connecting with you in the fall. Write when you have time.

Hugs, Heather & Murray