Not many folks that are not of British origin may remember that today is Guy Fawkes day and there will be bonfires burning across Britian tonight. For those of you that don't recognize the name Guy Fawkes and a group of fellow conspiritors attempted to blow up the British Parilment and came very close to exceeding. Their plot was discovered and foiled and for his efforts Guy was hung and drawn and quatered, the pieces being send to every corner of Great Britian.

Today is also the begining of Remembrance week from the 5th. till the 11th of November. Very important week as we need to remember the dead of two world wars and quite a few other conflicts. These Veterans bought our freedom with their lives and this we must always remember and respect.

Today also the Olympic torch began travelling across the NWT and ther rest of Canada. All and all 12,000  people will carry the torch across Canada, each carrying the torch for 300 metres I believe. Our friend Conrad was a torch bearer in Yellowknife today a cancer survivor  congratulations Conrad first for suviving and second for making the run. those that carried the torch were allowed to buy them at a very reasonable rate and unfortunatelythe whole affair meant so much to some that their torches arealready for sale on E-bay. Personally I  think this shows very poor form, just my opinion.

Snow has been lightly falling over the past 24 hours and this week end I will ski for the first time in a few years and that should be interesting (I bought a helmet.)

I am now almost 7.6 million steps into the TCT virtual walk and heading for Saskatoon. The virtual sailing races are going well and I am gaining in the Jules Verne record attempt and dropping back slowly in the Clipper globe. Still making good time just a little slower than those ahead of myself. Our line from Rio to Capetown in the clipper crosses the doldrums from west to east and we are constantly running into holes into the wind.

Unbelievable not reallly but rain in Yellowknife in November. This certainly makes a mess of everything. Better today than yesterday where it would have made a really mess of the Torch run.

Yesterday we were hitting -18 C in the evening and it is probably around that now. I can tell when things have cooled of outside as my shack cools inside as it cools outside to a degree. We had a small amount of snow but not enough to really do anything with ski wise.

The other day I bought a new pair of winter boots made by Nelos different from any winter boots I have used before. These are an overboot that adds a 25 degree temp rating to your exsiting foot wear. I can where my regular running shoes, workboots or thick winter duffles inside them. They are very warm after 3 hours outside at -15 C and my feet were cooking. They also have ice cleats installed and come with a small t-wrench that can be used to remove the cleats or install new ones wear out. There is a small pockert built into the boot top for the wrench so that it is always with you. I am so far very impressed with these boots thay are warm, light, easy on and off and I am looking forward to trying them in my snowshoes.

I managed to knoock off my daily walk on the TCT and have left North Battleford miles to my rear as I head for Saskatoon. Sailing inn two virtual races and doing very well in the Jules Verne. The Jules Verne is not a race in the trdtional sense but each boat involved is attempting to beat the exsiting circumnavigation record. We are trying to round the globe in ess than 50 days the exsiting record I think is 54 days , It is listed on the site it just slipped my mind at the moment. This is basically a time trail racing against the clock the Clipper on the other tack is an actual race first across the line for each leg wins.

I received an e-mail from bravenet today and this blog was selected as a "Journal of the Week" and that is very nice. I have been unable to add the code to the little icon that comes with it so far but will continue to work on it.

At 14:00 hrs we blasted off in the Jules Verne Around the world race sailing virtual 115 foot mutihulls. Leaving from France we cross the Bay of Biscay and turn South bound for the first port of call Cape town, South Africa. This is also where our boats from the clipper are heading at the moment. The multi- hulls are very fast and could very well arrive in Capetown very close to our other boats. In the clipper race at the moment we are south of the Tropic of Capricorn and there is a lot of low wind systems slowing things down.

Weather in Yellowknife is starting to cool off and we are around -5, I think, really not bad for the 1st.of November. Snow cover is light and so the lakes will start to make ice as long as the tempertures keep dropping. The ice we have a present is a combination of ice and frozen overflow much like frozen slush and is not as strong as solid blue ice which is the best. Should we get a few inchs of snow the ski trails will have enough cover to make skiing possible.

I finally decided to rip out the huge bed platform in the back room and convert it into a storage room. I have to much stuff and to little house. Platform beds are great in small places and in old houses up north the floors can be cool and the platforms are higher up and warm. I was amazed how much room is actually lost to the platform and am pleased with the results of yesterdays efforts. I have stored most of the stuff so that I can still reach it easily and still have room left over.

This gives me some breathing room to do some other stuff around the old homestead. I have a small fiber glass kayak that I could fit into the space for some repair work. Life in small places is a constant reno to improve usage and storage. Biggest project on the books is a new false roof.

The virtual clipper around the world sail race is going well for me trading places with the usual boats I race against.There are 2700 nautical miles between me and capetown and I am in the top 9,000 boats. I had worked my way up to 7,000 and something and then hit a lull in the winds. I was still making good tome but everyone around me was getting just that little extra enough to push them past me. still I can gain the places back as there is still a long way to sail.

We are dropping closer to normal temperatures for this time of year. Today is -4 and the snow is staying put when it hits the ground. Now since itis here bring on the snow and we can start cross country skiing.. I hope that we have a mild winter, down to -20 is easy enough to live with. Skiing past that gets to be a little to much like work. I used to o at -30/40C but it is just no fun. You really have to move every second to stay warm and that isn't as much fun. The downhills can really cool you off with the increased wind chills.

I will continue the trail walk all winter regardless of the weather as it is my main form of excersize and I will try to get back into the swimming . I enjoy swimming for awhile then lose interest but it really does wonders for me. I am fine when I get into the routine it is just getting back into it, that is the hard part.

Sailing ace is going  well less than 3,000 nautical miles to Capetown and I am making 9,3 knots in the right direction, Sail in the Virtual Clipper around the globe race, my 3rd; global sailing race since 2008. I sailed the Vendee and the Volvo Ocean as well. Great winter time pastime, meeting many nice people that share the same interst and we have a small race with each other in every leg. After the leg we virtually meet and party together in port, great fun.

We  have been getting snow on and off all day and the ground is white, and if the weather last Halloween will once again be white and as it should be in Yellowknife. This works out great as I like snow.

I have also past the 7.5 million step mark and can see the lights of North Battleford.  I am with a mile or so and later today will pass through and start knocking off the steps to Saskatoon. In a month or so I could be virtual visiting Rejean and Cindy. That is always a pleasure but not as nice as a real visit.

Today I received confirmation that the meters of Trans Canada trail that we ordered in memory of our friend Mark Fraser Scott are duly noted and locations recorded . Just a few weeks to wait for the certificates to show up and them we can send everything where it belongs. Marks name will be inscribed in both Yellowknife where he spend many years and in Victoria as he was orginally from Vancouver Island.  Mark immigrated to Australia years ago but was here every chance that he got. Nice to see his name a little closer to home and cheaper to visit.

Time to dust off the skis and snow shoes and other winter gear  and once the ice is tough enough and there is enough snow we are open for the skiing season. In Yellowknife that would be cross country or kite skiing what ever flavour you prefer. Our area is pretty darn flat and downhill isn't a real option. There are how ever so extremely steep but very short runs on some of the ski trails. Miles of ski-doo trail means that there is access every where. The north can blossom into a tavellers world with six inches of good ice and a foot or two of snow rivers and lake systems turn into road systems and all that bog is now solid ground and traveling is easy. Nice as winter is bug free and here in the summer time they can be thick.

The weather has been warm and even as I type it is only -2 C which is good. Perhaps this year Halloween will be warm and white. In any case the decorations are going up around town and folks are getting ready for a big night.

Still on the north side of North Battleford and will get through the town tomorrow and start working the trail towards Saskatoon.

Yellowknife has always had permenant snow by Halloween and we had it but it melted. The spook night draws closer and still the white stuff is absent. I am not complaining as there are a few days left.  Green Halloweens here have come very close but the snow has always arrived sometimes even on the day of but it was here. I have seen kids trick or treating here in -20 with howling winds, surprising they could even find the trail to your door. We will know soon enough.

Just waiting for the 3rd. leg of the Clipper race to fire up over 50,000 virtual racers now. This leg we sail from Rio De Janeiro to Cape Town and winds here can be good. There is the dreaded South Atlantic high to watch out for as this can slow you down and can last for days. I am waiting for the briefing to see if there are icegates or buoys that we need to round. Icegates were installed on the Vendee and Volvo races to keep the fleet North of the drifting icepacks.  The iceburgs from the Antarctica shelf are drifting further north lately and create a great hazard to a racing sailboat. You can imagine what your boat would look like if you hit a big one but the small ones( growlers) that are impossible to see cause the greatest risk.

Ice gates are a set of co-ordinates that the boats must pass in one of three ways. You can stay north and pass with them on your starboard side, you can sail between them entering from either north or south of the gate or you can sail up through them from the south turn and drop back down again. At one point your starboard side must pass the imaginary line between the markers. In circumnavigating the further south you go the shorter your sailing distance but the trade off is the weather as it gets worse the further south you go. Deep down in the southern ocean there is no land mass to brake the wind and they roar around the globe pretty much undisturbed. This makes for fast but dangerous sailing.

I just recieved the race briefing and there are no ice gates or markers  to clear and we have free riegn on our sail plans. The gun goes off tomorrow at 18:00 GMT+1 and the distance is 3,400 nautical miles roughly 3 weeks of sailing. Looking forward to hooking up with the crew of virtaul party animals from Rio . They are much quieter at sea.