I bought a book on baking bread a few years back and finally decided to try it . Aweek ago I made two loaves of white bread and discovered lots. I need mixing bowls and ingridients that I never have at home. By the time it was over I had two nice loaves white bread that cost about 10.00 a piece. Lesson learned I tackled Whole wheat and discovered it is much harder to make. Turned out that the yeast was not working at all and I ended up with two things that were not bread. However I did eat one before conceding defeat and trashing the second one. Life moves on and tonight I began round two. Following Marinas advice and with new yeast and things ran quite smoothly. I had purchased more mixing bowls and whiskers and and managed to get things together fairly quickly. This time the yeast actually rose as the directions said it would and so I felt I was on the right track. I followed the kneading instructions and the dough rose and I beat it down split it into pans and allowed the second rising. This worked well the bread dough doubled and so I turned up the eat and we were baking. Forty-five minutes later the bread was cooling nicely and looking very good. I allowed it to cool almost and then ate one of the loaves as it was actually very nice. I'm no bettty Crocker but this was a lot of fun and I will continue to bake bread now until I have it mastered. There are over fifty recipes in my book so it could take awhile.

I have been making bannock for a number of years and bread was the next step up. I may even tackly a pastry shell and try making some nice meat pies. On a roll (bread roll that is.) Cheers, Greg

Thats right folks awoke this morning tripping over our winter. The mercury was reading -28 C. This is a little closer to normal for this time of year however I didn't mind the warmer weather. Winter here will last awhile and the warmer weather is great. Easy on fuel oil and better for ooutdoor activities. This would offical close our paddling season even if some rapids are still running.

Tomorrow I willl pass the 7.75 million step mark on the Trans Canada trail virtual walk. I am also doing well in the sailing races . The triamaran I am racing in the Jacques Vabre has about 800 miles to port and the monohull has about 1500 miles left in this race. In the Jules Verne I am making steady progress to the east across the bottom of the Indian Ocean and have about 16,000 miles yet to sail in the Clipper we have about 4500 miles to sail across the Indian Ocean until out next port, Geraldton near Perth Australia.

I was wearing my new overshoes today and at -28 my feet were still very warm. I would reccomend the Neos overshoes to anyone looking for an overshoe boot. These allow me to wear my runners inside them and add over 25 degrees to the temp rating of you exsisting footwear. When you step inside they come right off and your all ready in your shoes. Great if your stopping somewhere for a while and don`t want your feet to over heat. I have the ice stabilizer model which comes complete with screw in ice cleats and a little wrench to change them with. The wrench fits in a little pocket inside the upper of the right foot, very cool.

I decided to take a break from everything today except the sailing races. The walk yesterday trudging through all the new snow took its toll.

The fourth Leg of the Clipper around the world fired up atb13:00+1GMT so around 5 AM my time. There is 4,750 nautical miles to sail to Geraldton, Australia which is near Perth western Australia. This should take about 3 weeks. I am getting close to finishing the Jacques Fabre race and when that is done I will be back to two boats in two races. My triamaran in the Jules Verne is heading east at 30 knots a few hundred miles south of Cape Good hope and just entering the Southern Indian ocean. Great winds here and we are now heading to pass under Australia and circle the Antarctic heading for Cape horn.

Yellowknife is hovering at -18 C and so things have cooled of a little. For this time of year that really isn't to bad and we have seen much worse.

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, Galiano 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.