It's Thanksgiving week here in the USA. Holiday greetings to all my fellow cruisers out there.

The guy that supplied our tender also supplied ratcheting tie down straps for it. And these ratchets are wretched! I always feel like they are going to tear my hands up when I'm trying to use them, especially loosening them. 

Welcome to Mahalo, you strapping beauties (on the right). That's how to do it! There are heavy plastic where you need to touch the units. Nice wide grips. Look at those pathetic ones on the left. I bet in an emergency I couldn't even get them loose!

I got the carabiner version, because why not? Even if they got a little loose they still cannot fall off. Plus they will stay attached to Mahalo when the tender is in the water. I trimmed off some extra material, now I'm set! American made to boot! 

Get yours on Amazon with this link!

Okay, so a minor blog post, minor project. 

There are a few places on Mahalo where I need a ladder. I found a really nice on at Home Depot, light but really sturdy. I like these ones with the really deep steps. 

Looking around the lazarette I noticed that this corner would be ideal. There is a storage area behind where the ladder is now, but at the moment I just keep the oil diapers in there, so I don't access them often. I did some thinking about how to mount the ladder. I decided I really didn't want to drill any holes in the walls. ​
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Then I remembered I had some of these 3M Command hooks. Really cool product. When applied, they have strength in the  direction of the pull. But you can remove them by pushing the opposite direction and they don't leave any mark behind.

I had also bought a supply of shock cord, the bull nose rings and the special pliers to crimp the rings. Make your own shock cord! Good stuff.

Bob has a friend named Eric.

Eric likes boats! 

​Do you want to meet Eric?

This is Eric.

Eric thinks Mahalo is fun!

Do you want to the boat Eric drives?

This is the Noordam. 

It's big.

Eric likes big boats too.

​Eric is famous.

When little airplanes fall out of the sky into the ocean, Eric rescues them.
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Eric has many friends on the boat.

​And that is his new friend, the little airplane pilot.

It was fun going on a short cruise on Mahalo with Eric.

We saw a pretty sunset.

But then it got late, so Eric had to go home.

Bye Eric!

Let's go cruising again another day.

Kayaking around the Genoa BC bay was interesting. Lots of old things to look at. I gave all these images a Sepia treatment to create a mood. What was that TV show? Oh yes, Gilligan's Island.

Classic! This is at the west end of the bay which is where the small town is. Rustic.

I think this old gal has been anchored here a while.

Now it's getting good. This felt like the marine equivalent of Deliverance or something. I was listening carefully for a shotgun to rack a shell. Fortunately no one seemed to be around. Or at least awake. These old floating shacks are in the east end of the bay. Like, the Danger Zone.

Ahem, I'll just get my shot and keep moseying along.

Pretty sure this was their prior abode. 

These are phone shots. Next year I'm going to get a real camera to take out on the kayaks.  Something like an Olympus TG-5 Tough, or whatever is the next generation.