I remembered at the last moment that this evening was the Santa Claus parade in Yellowknife. Years ago we held it close to the big day but it was usually far to cold and so it was moved up to catch the warmer weather. It worked today only around -8C and without a breath of wind.

For a relatively small town Yellowknife puts on a pretty good parade and a lot of local companies build floats and the kids march. Treats are tossed to the crowd and glowsticks for just about everyone.

The parade lasted about 30 minutes, short and sweet and lots of laughs for everyone.

Another big thing that is coming up is the shortest day of the year is now one month away. Of course we won't really notice any difference here for awhile but,  we know it is coming, the return of "RA."

The shortest day is also the first day of winter but by that time we have been snow and ice covered for a couple of months and think more about the returning of the light than the temperture. I always like to think that spring and boating season is just around the corner just a matter of time till we hit the right corner. 

Lets not forget the Annual Paddlers for Parts Association New Years Eve Free swim followed by the City of Yellowknifes Fireworks display. The Paddlers for Parts have been hosting this swim now since 2002. I believe and it is usually a big hit. Our record attendance was 294 people and the place was packed. We had to call in volunteer life guards and pool spotters. The response was great but it did leave very little room to move in the pool. We find that 200 is a pretty good number as it leaves you enough room to actually move around in the pool. It is a fun event and we manage to give out a few donor cards and leaflets on Kidney disease and so we raise awareness and comply with our mandates of promoting Organ and Tissue donation.

I was beginning to wonder about these puppies but they were in my mailbox this morning. I have been giving Trans Canada trail meters away for the past number of years. These are great little gifts, for fifty dollars you get a name inscibed on the Trail pavilion of your choice and a certificate detailing where it is located.

Recently a few years ago I started to buy meters " In memory of"  for friends that have passed away. The families really like the certificates and we enjoy adding our friends names to the pavilions and visit them when in the area.

Our friend Mark Fraser Scott (AKA Prince of Australia) recenty was overpowered by cancer and we have added him to the list. Mark married a charming Australian woman many years ago and immigrated to Australia. However the world being as small as it is these days I managed to visit them there and they us here. Mark stopped by to visit me just weeks before his passing and it was the first I had heard of his illness. My facebook profile picture was taken by Mark on that visit and will remain as my picture for as long as I remain on Facebook. Mark lived on the BC coast when not in Yellowknife or Australia and we are having his named placed on the Yellowknife pavilion and the Vancouver one as well. Mark loved life his two daughters Tessa and Kahli and his two Harley-Davidson motorcycles. His favouite places included Yellowknife, Gabriloa Island and Cedar Creek, Australia.

One of my funniest memories of Mark took place in Sandgate or Brighton, Queensland when I was visiting them in 1984. We where spending a day at the beach and rented a 14 foot Hobie-cat saiboat and Mark was sailing me around. At one point when we were a fair ways from the beach Mark became to hot and bailed off the boat. The shocked look on his face as he surfaced and it dawned on him he had yet to show me how to turn the boat around. I just smiled and continued to sail away as Mark wasn't a great swimmer. We were out in shark country and so I did a quick come about and sailed back and got him. It took a while as I hadn't learned how to sail at that point something I have since corrected. It was this day that started me thinking about the sailing life and for that I wil thank Mark forever.

The point of this was to get you interested in supporting the Trans Canada Trail soon to cover 21,000 kilometers and 1,000 towns across Canada. They make great gifts and unless they have bought one for themselves they probably won't have one. Even if they have one already, two never hurt anyone. Cheers, Greg

This morning being our coldest so far, I tried out the Neos boots again and they are still very warm. I think they were one of my better buys kit wise. I have shown them to a few folks and so far carol has bought a pair and they are a few others interested in them as well. These boots are of the overboot type which allows me to wear my runners inside. They add at least 25 degrees to the temp. rating of the fiootwear and are extremely light. I can wear runners outside all day long at -15 or so as long as i am walking. These overboots will give my runners a maximum rating of about -40 C or so.

Knocked off another 11,000 steps along the trail and accomplished one or two other litle things today as well. The other week I won the "Journal of the Week" award but unfortunately I was unable to get the badge coding to work, still it was nice to see that some one likes what gets stuck in here.

My virtual sailing in both races is going well and we are nearing the finish of one. It hould end about the same time as leg four in The Clipper fires up and we leave Capetown for freemantle, western Australia. My boat in the Jules Verne is just passing below the Cape of Good Hope now and will soon enter the southern Indian Ocean. I really need to get a sailboat and do this for real as it has been a drean for many years to solo sail the worlds oceans.

Getting a little closer to the seasonal norms, hovering around minus 20 C and that is about right. The rest of the winter would be wonderful if this was as cold as it gets, but the chances are very slim. We have along ways till spring and that old minus 40 stuff is waiting for us somewhere ahead. The time to ski is now.

On the bright side I am getting lots of the walking done and have plenty of outdoor things to do that are good for me.

I send for my new passport today and they feel I should have it in less than four weeks. Now I have to renew my British passport as well and that one is good for ten years. I travelled in Africa on my British passport in 1991/2 and African countries are very fond of the British passport. My Canadian one was also good but things went just a little faster with the British one.

Getting very close to the 7,750,000 step mark now and am looking forward to cracking the 8 million mark. That should happen around Saskatoon or very close to it one way or the other.

My virtual boats are all heading in the right directions at the best possible speeds but I am considering a restart for the Jules Verne around the world in 50 days or less. Since this is basically a race against the clock and not the other boats I can go back and restart my record attempt if I think I can do better, nice option. Cheers, Greg

Yellowknife was very nice all day a little cool in the breeze but other than that it was great.

My day began with a trip top the dentist and it could have been much worse. Looks like ai have a few small sessions ahead of me and the damage will be about 800 bucks OUCH. Stil it could be a lot worse and I really should go more often.

I managed to knock off about 13,000 steps along the virtual trail and have all three of my virtual boats heading in the right directions at the best speeds possible.

I think I will strap on the boards tomorrow and practice the basics of telemark skiing. That should be interesting but yesterday I found a great web page from the Telemark Ski Association of America with some great clips on beginners excerises to help me on my way. He of course makes every thing very easy and I think that I will catch on very quickly. I also want to work on my ice axe arrest and other mountaineering skills. Ice axe self arrest is a very important and basic skill and practice is the only way to stay on top of it. Proper tie-ins for roped ascend also takes practice or you forget what goes where.  I practice knots every day and learn a couple of new ones every week . This means you need to keep stepping back to keep them all fresh in your brain. Great way to pass time . I have made a life size practice manikin that I used to practice first-aid skills on. Lots of times I have worked with beginner first aid people that have forgotten how to make a basic tubular sling. Last week I was practicing making a splint for the forearm out of a sheet of cardboard and towels. Very easy to do but you feel more conifident if you have built a few first. Here is a link to one of my favourite resources for first-aid info http://firstaid.about.com/. Great site for keeping you on your toes first-aid wise. Back to the sailboats. Cheers, Greg

Once gain the country honours the fallen. Their sacrafice makes my life possible and for this we have an obligation to remember the price of freedom. To those that have served, will serve or are serving now at home and abroad I have one word "RESPECT."

On another tack I finished the 3rd. leg of the Clipper from Rio to Capetown in 15 days, four hours and 48 minutes. Unfortunately I dropped back about 4,000 places in the standings but there is still 12 legs to go.

We are having so far a very mild winter and only one night of -20 C which is fine with me. There is lots of snow and thhe weather is good for skiing. A little to warm and to much snow cover to be making good ice yet. I don't drive the winter road and it really has little effect on me. The ferry is still crossing the Mackenzie River at Ft. Providence so we have we still have groceries etc; coming in by truck and life is good. Mild winters are easy on fuel which I like as it is cheaper than cold winters and helps reduce my carbon foot print.

Tomorrow if the winds remain steady I will reach Capetown South Africa in the Clipper around the World race finishing leg 3 of 15. This will mean that I will be down to three boats instead of four which will be a little nice. I am sailing two global races and one dash across the Atlantic, in this short race I have both a multi-hull and a monohull. This race we hope to complete in less than 15 days , the Jules Verne is a record attempt instead of a race and all enteries are trying to circumnavigate in less than 50 days. The Clipper is a 15 leg race that is very different than any other. In the Clipper the boats are owned by a company and each boat has a professional skipper. The crews are made up of people that have paid to race and usually have never sailed before. Many sign on for the whole race and some just for one or two legs. They are getting really good results and at the end of it there will be 450 people that have an entirely different way of thinking.

The virtual walk across Canada is going well. Today I tried a new pair of walking poles that I bought yesterday at the Salvation Army thrift  shop. This is one of my favorite places to shop. I am amazed at the brand new stuff that ends up in this store. Yellowknifes city dump is also a treasure chest at times. We  have found brand new bathtubs with the fittings and countless new things that are worth lots. Contractors over order and send it to the dump which is cheaper than storage to you need one I guess

Remembrance day begins in just a few minutes and I will spend part of my day at the services and visiting at my branch of the Royal Canadian Legion Vincent Massey branch#164, this is my 27th year as a member. I can pay my dues for the past year and next year as well.

Not that I am complaining but I am wondering about the warm weather we are having. Today was great for walking and we have enough snow now to ski. Winter will eventually show up it always does. How and when could be very interesting this year.

 I had to clear the path from the door today and sweep off the oil tank. I can start banking the walls with snow and that may not help much but makes me feel better knowing it is done. Living in small very old shacks teaches you a few tricks on staying warm during the hard water season. All and all things in Knife are progressing smoothly and with the weather keeps up it will be easy on the fuel bill.

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.