Sailing twice around the world in one winter has been fun and it will end when I land in St. Petersberg, Russia tonight, I will be glad to be abkle to do other things as I have alot to get done for the Sociable by next Thursday. I was busy today in between course corretions stapling up flyers for the Social. I got 75 up and handed a bunch out Tomorrow I will get the rest out there and that will be one less thing to worry about. I have posted the annoucement to some of Yellowknifes popular search sites and sent it to Coffee Break news hoping they publish it.

The actuall set up takes about half a day for a couple of folks with a truck and trailer. setting the camp up is about two hours including travel, but hauling the boats out takes a bit of effort.

I  started off great on the lst leg and then had a computer glitch that crashed my boat while I was out. I lost over 200,000 places and getting them back won't be easy. This will really wreck my overall standing good thing the real race is over. I had changed course and was progressing smoothly and came home an hour later to find my boat heading SE, not N where I had left it and I was aground and at the tail end of the fleet. I have won back 12,000 places and still have about 180, 000 to go. The distance ias really only about 15 miles but there are a lot of boats there. We are sailing east in the Gulf of Finland and it is a small piece of water for such a large fleet. This will be a very tactical leg with lots of little course changes trying to get the best out of the light winds.

Tonights CERT meet was attended by Patrick and myself. Naomi had been out in the sun to much and was at home on recovery. Anne-Marie, we think is on holiday . Patrick and I practiced a couple of different throw bag drills and I taught Patrick the 3 part crown knot.

 This is a double loop knot used for hanging things around a campsite and it is quick and easy to tie and could be useful for many things. One more knot up Patricks sleeve.  I practiced the Ashley bend,  to tie two ropes together. The Ashley bend is different as it allows the rope to take a load in four directions, this could come in handy at times. I also worked on the crown knot just for fun and I may try using it in a back splice. There are of course thousands of knots and for rescue work you really only need a small handfull of the tried and true. There are now rescue systems available that use carabiners and swivels in place of knots and with these the Figure 8 in a bight knot is all you would need to know. I personally believe in the basics and good knot work, works every time and you can't forget part of it at home or lose it over the edge if it is in your head where it belongs.

This week and next will be busy as we have the Paddlers for Parts annual "Sociable Affair" coming up the week-end of July 3,4,and 5. We have a lot to organize and grub to get ready. Patrick has to work that day and so it means I am going solo for the first part of the day. Setting up and hauling the boats out there is the biggest part of the job. I may have to find some gung-ho volunteers to give me a hand.