Picture frame

As you may be aware from some of my other posts, KEP station benefits from a well equipped carpentry workshop, and a supply of wood which we can use for personal projects.  The time here can be well spent learning a new skill or brushing up on old ones.  I have an interest in woodworking, and did a fair bit building wooden boats at Woolston maritime college.  That was a few years ago now though, and I felt it was time I started practising some of the old skills.

Sue Gregory, BAS marine biologist extraordinaire and long distance girlfriend of mine left our shores 7 weeks ago now to work a 7 week stint at sea aboard the longliner San Aspiring as a scientific observer (see blog) and to mark her departure, I wanted to put my skills in to practice and make her a nice leaving gift.  A couple of weeks prior to her leaving we had enjoyed a glorious day in the snow covered foothills to the North of Mount Hodges and she had become particularly fond of a photograph I took of us in the lee of Hodges cap.  I decided I would print the photo and hand make a frame for it (see photos)

The frame is white oak with dark hardwood inlays, mitred and butted together with a perspex glass and a scanned chart backing on which I plotted the exact location the photo was taken.  I also scribed some words of wisdom which I first read carved in to the companion way of Wander III.  It reads "Grab a chanceand you wont be sorry for a might-have-been".  Never a truer word spoken in my view.  Except perhaps "Never eat yellow snow"....

Boat School

One of the many highly skilled (sic) duties of a BAS boatman is to train other base staff in the safe use of the boats.  As in the UK, this requires a mix of practical instruction afloat and shore based classroom lessons.  Ashley and I have devised this years theory curriculum and have divided responsibility for delivering each subject equally between us.
Last week the subject was 'Buoyage' and it was my class.  I spent the morning drawing all the different kinds of buoys on the computer, printing and laminating them.  After a short introduction and refresher on the IALA systems of buoyage and how they are used, I got the guys to design their own harbour.  I laid out a channel using rope on the dinning room table and I placed a few hazards and area of interest along it.  The idea was for them to use their knowledge as a group and place the buoys where they think they should go.  It worked very well and I think everyone enjoyed it.  They may of course have learned something along the way, but its always difficult to tell when your all having a laugh!