Voted Off the Island

On the island, I'm a free agent.  I'm not paid to be here, and can pick and choose what I want to spend my time doing. 

Usually that's a good thing.  But sometimes it means I end up doing things no one else has time to do.

That's how I ended up sleeping in my truck Friday night in Seal Cove on Grand Manan.  We ordered a simple solar water system, and given the ferry difficulty the small company that supplies them was skeptical about delivering to Grand Manan.  I was voted to go meet them in Blacks Harbor on the mainland.  So Friday at high tide we pushed off from Kent Island and I was dropped off at the ferry terminal.  With a couple of hours to kill I said hello to our friend at the Grand Manan Whale and Seabird Research Station and had some junk food at the cafe near the wharf (I suspend my eating rules while on Kent Island).  Then I took the 3:30 ferry to the Mainland.  On arrival I picked up our vehicle we left over there (given the ferry lines, that was the polite thing to do last week) and immediately got back in line to come back.  This left me with a good chance to make the 9:30 ferry. 

The solar people met me and we loaded up the van with our future luxury -- hot water!  Then it was on the ferry and back to Grand Manan.  I didn't want to spend the cash on a hotel room, so I slept in the back of our truck -- a bit cold and uncomfortable; but that was made up for at the provincial park where I took a hot shower.  Unfortunately I brought conditioner instead of shampoo, so although I had soft hair, it was still pretty gross!

These boxes (loaded in our workboat, the Ernest Joy), hold lovely hot water!

I love this banner.  It was made last year when the old boat was "retired".
No one expected it to come back into service.  I love how the "45" has been
updated to "46" and "2010" to "2011"!

Unfortunately, all this ferrying has left me without much time at the loom.  I have warped Jane up with my somber grey and green scarf, but only a few inches have been woven.  I'm determined to finish this before heading to Vavstuga on Friday; so I hope to report progress in my next post.  In the mean time, I'll be anticipating the set up of our solar water system!