It's downhill to Christmas

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 The highlight of this week for me was been told that I had successfully completed my probationary period on the PS Waimarie. I am now officially a deckhand for the rest of the season. Coincidently, the Bosun decided it was time to move my steering tuition onto the next section of the river. This requires going under two bridges, without hitting them! This is a bit of a challenge as the river isn’t straight and the bridges are not perpendicular to the river, so they have to be approached at an angle and then the boat straightened up just at the right time. Fun! I’ve done OK so far and in different conditions, but I still need more practice.


It has been a busy week generally on the boat, with six sailings in total. Yesterday our second one was a 3 hour cruise, departing at 5pm, so as I was bringing the boat under the bridges and starting the approach to the wharf, the sun was directly ahead of us much of the time. This sailing also made it a very long and tiring day.


We have brought the Christmas tree in from the garden, and on Tuesday Nicky decorated it, red and gold this year:



The weather has been better this week so Nicky has been working in the garden while drying the laundry. The fernery and front garden are both looking attractive and tidier:




Christmas activities also began in earnest with Home Group afternoon tea which Nicky enjoyed. Regular phones calls to Farnborough have kept us up-to-date with their situation and all the help they are getting. We had our last communal dinner fo the year at the marae on Thursday, another enjoyable event with another range of guests, this time from Long Island University in New York. Watching the football highlights each day has kept me in touch with World Cup developments.


Nicky had a good morning at church today, but we have had a relatively quiet afternoon with us both being tired after a busy week of working. Nicky is doing some more ironing as I write this, and before we settle down to fall asleep in front of the telly.


Take care, Rick and Nicky

Comments

Cocker1 said…
Congratulations on your elevation Captain Pugwash!
December 4, 2022 at 11:13 AM
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