So, Monday was a very busy day. I have to go to OIST, en route, I pass what was once a wonderful vegetable garden. https://quietripple.wordpress.com/2018/01/20/torpor/

Not now.

Tis an unweeded garden
That grows to seed. Things rank and gross in nature
Possess it merely.

I so hope that the old lady who tended it is OK.

My former workmates have invited me to the divisional meeting to present me with a souvenir of the good old days.

It is a book

It chronicles my time at OIST in pictures and kind comments.

These are the best people. Thank you.

I then have lunch with Julia who is 9 months pregnant. She is beautiful and I wish I had taken a photo. We have a wonderful time and try not to laugh too hard, so as not to precipitate labour.

However, no more frivolity, as I wait at the boatyard to transfer the boat from one trailer to a higher one. This is quite an operation. My trailer is low, which means that I cannot get at the bottom of the boat and importantly cannot attempt to lower the center plate. The center plate, I fear, is heavily corroded and probably jammed. I need height to persuade it to drop. This is a bit like having a baby.

We pull the boat to the massive boat lift.

We pass the slings under her and gently ease her skyward. All of this is done with typical merriment and good cheer.

How does she feel?

Tabata san has lent me a higher trailer, not as high as I might have hoped, but sufficient to play with center plate and, with great suppleness, scrape and sand, the bottom of the boat in preparation for painting on anti-fouling.

Petit a petit l’oiseau fait son nid.

Archival picture. You can just see corroded center plate protruding a few inches below the keel. This will be the focus of my interest over the next days. I hope few days.