With the great weather we have been having, we’ve been spending most of our time working on the boat. Last week we hauled her - the first time in almost 4 years - and she was given a fresh coat of anti-fouling bottom paint.
In the slings being hoisted out of the water, the bottom was in great condition with no barnacles
This was the fastest, easiest, and definately most expensive haulout we have ever done and we were back in the water 48 hours later. We managed to wax part of the hull while “on the hard” and finished the job over the weekend working from the dock and dinghy.
Sundancer is now dazzling everyone with her shiny hull, and as soon as Ray completes a few essential electrical jobs we will be heading out to the islands again.
Needless to say, working on my Terelj web gallery is low priority, but not forgotten and I will eventually finish it……..
We had fun looking after David for a couple of days early last week, here are a few pictures from a visit to one of the local playgrounds.
Ray showing David how to operate the excavator
and a very determined little guy succeeding
and just having fun
It’s been almost two weeks since we arrived back home, totally exhausted after four very hard months finishing the project. I have over 600 images of the hotel and Grand opening events, farewell parties etc. from the last month at the hotel to sort and edit, which is an overwhelming task, but as soon as its done I will publish a web gallery with a link from my blog.
After recovering from our jet lag, restocking the larder and taking care of immediate necessities, we escaped to the boat last week and took advantage of the first days of good summer weather here with a 3 day cruise to the San Juan Islands.
We had a glorious sail over to Echo Bay on Sucia, where we anchored with this incredible view of Mount Baker.
Now its time to settle back into our new life of retirement - 100% R & R in which we plan to make plently of time for all our friends and family who we have missed so much during the last 3+ years we were away.
This week saw the Grand Opening of the Terelj Hotel - Mongolia’s first true International Five Star Hotel near Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia and the successful installation of the main entrance gates manufactured by THE GREAT LITTLE GATE CO. of Langley, B.C. The gates were manufactured in Canada, shipped by ocean container to Tianjin China, and then by rail to Mongolia.
Almost another month has passed and its been non-stop work, but we have seen huge progress and are getting close to the Grand Opening of the hotel next month. This was was taken yesterday just after we were all issued our lovely red shirts with the hotel logo. Pictured left to right are Ray, myself, Nick (furniture and millwork supplier) Louis (Designer) and Nomin (Owners daughter).
Here is what the same area - the main hotel lobby - looked like when we arrived here in April 2005, quite a transformation.
We got back last night from a great trip to the Oregon Dunes. Rather than post pictures from the trip, here is the link to son Sean’s blog, where he has already posted some of his great images.
http://sdbphoto.com/blog/
I can’t believe its almost a month since I visited my blog and Christmas 2007 is now history. We got to see lots of family and friends over Christmas and are enjoying having Sean home from Hong Kong. Tonight we are heading off with Grant and Sean in the motorhome to Florence, Oregon for a few days, where the boys can play with their toys (sand buggys) in the dunes. I have packed a good book and some warm clothes and hope to have a few days of doing very little.
Best wishes to everyone for 2008 - hope the New Year brings you good health, wealth and happiness.
i arrived back late last night after a long but uneventful trip. As soon as I get over my jet lag I’ll get on to putting some new stuff on the blog.