Gibban

Weeks after harvesting the bark, it was time to prepare the stuff for the birchbark canoe build. This involved some pre-soaking before the coiled bark could be safely unrolled on the building bed. I brought down 5 of the largest rolls down to the lake and fastened them together with some nylon cord. I managed to find an old concrete anchor with a rusted chain in the shallows of the lake used this as a tie-down point. Bark is very bouyant of course, so within each roll, I used some stones by the shore to weigh them down and submerge them fully. Dried bark rolls; Soaking in the lake After this overnight soak, the bark was carefully unrolled onto the building bed for the messiest part of the process - cleaning. The outer layers of the bark need to be scraped to remove the accumulated moss, dead bark, and general detritus in order for proper stitching with spruce root. Using a dull, broken knife picked up at a flea market for pennies (which I intend to use for harvesting pine resin later)...

Everybody is running to the store A quick shout-out to family & friends (and new blog friends)!  I'm working on a blog post about our week+ in "Velcro", mostly about going to the vet and what a pita government paperwork is...but here is a quick overview: We are officially prepping for our first international crossing to the Bahamas. Both my husband and I have travelled in the Caribbean quite a bit for work. We're excited. We love learning about new places. Trying new food.  LOVE seafood. Exploring (our boat name should be "What's over there?" but it wouldn't fit, thus Odin--the Wanderer.   We've been spending the week doing a few last minute errands and chatting with other cruisers about routing, their favorite spots, departure windows, and Chris Parker's weather forecast. For my non-sailing friends, here is an example of cruiser chat (Most conversations skip hello and go straight to business): "Hey, did you just get in?" "...