Travels with SV Shannon's Spirit: July 2015

Howdy folks, 'tis little ol' me... checking in, to say hello and that we hope you're having a good summer so far. Yes, the heat has been exhausting... and yes, we too are worried about what this lack of water is doing to our planet in general and our neighborhood in particular. When one considers the number of forest fires burning, the oppressive heat, and the pestilence (eg: bugs) that are reproducing like wild fire and starting to cause problems for the farmers et al.... well it would be easy to understand if some of the religions convinced we are going to self-destruct very soon... might be feeling pretty smug right now.

But we shall persevere. We shall become experts at micro-drip systems, heat pump / air conditioning machinery, and insulation installations... and we will do what we can to reduce the impact of our footprints as we go about our daily business and adventurous way of life. And so it goes...

Now then, down to business. We have so much to tell you... and don't want to bore you in the telling. After much consideration, rife with acknowledgements that we have been very poor at sharing photographs with you, we have decided to bring you up to date one short vignette at a time. Kathy has some marvelous video of the Princess she wants to share. And, well ... I have a confession to make about dear old Chuck (you remember him.. Chuck the truck). True confessions will follow. And, yes, for those of you who have been asking... we will pull together some photos of our new digs. At least the heavy work is now done and our home is shaping up. Finally, we will move smoothly to the plans and preparations for our upcoming sojourn back to Mexico and the SV Shannon's Spirit.

So, for starters... let me turn this over to Kathy who will walk you through some of the ways our little wonder is dealing with her new life.

Hi folks. It's been 7 months since we arrived back in Canada and our almost-14 year old pup went through her rear leg amputation surgery. Looking back at the videos of Sophie which we posted back in December, I realize now that I must have been feeling kinda sappy and exhausted at the time (have to admit that the musical accompaniment might have been just a bit much!). Well, life is pretty much back to normal now and she is getting around just fine. While she tires more easily these days, she's as excited as ever to get out on the local trails or down to the beach and has settled right back in to life aboard when out sailing with us. She even joined us on a little sailing race last month and quickly adapted her technique for hanging on while on a starboard tack... with her chin hooked firmly over the cockpit combing!

So.. I thought it was time to give you a look at how far Sophie has progressed since those early days post-surgery.