Leadership Group 1

There comes a time when all of the students leave—the very same students that you watched mature and change over the course of their respective programs—and head back out into the world; a time when all the remaining people (which, of course, means the leaderships) do a final complete cleanup of HQ and the equipment, as well as preparing things for next year’s events. It’s quite a big job, but with the return of a safe and healthy Jacky, and the arrival of Alastair, things are running quite smoothly.

We had the opportunity to sleep in later this morning, but we also had to clean the apartment—vacuuming the carpets, wiping the floors, windows and the like. When we arrived at HQ, we immediately set to work disassembling the Feathercraft kayaks. We had to move them into the building from the trailer outside; they had a great deal of water on them from the thunderstorm last night, but luckily, we’d been able to flip them over yesterday to prevent the water from flowing into them and potentially damaging the kayaks’ frames. Drying and waxing the fibreglass kayaks, and cleaning and taking apart the Feathercrafts was very time-consuming, but still faster than assembling them. However, we still only had enough time to get a few nibbles of raisin bread.

After taking a break for a lunch of instant noodles, and the arrival of Jacky, we finished up with the disassembly of the two K2 Feathercrafts. We also had to record all of the damages to the equipment, such as a bending (and therefore disfiguration) of a part of the K2’s frame, or a breaking of a tow line. After we finished with the kayaks, we washed the Zodiac, which proved to be highly entertaining as Alastair appeared right in the middle of our soap suds and sponges. We also took in the full effect of the damage done to the fibreglass kayaks and then waxing them to prevent further deterioration.

The cleanup will continue for the next few days, but we’re all running on different schedules now that school will be starting soon. So expect to see different arrays and combinations of faces on the blog everyday!

Jennifer

This place seems so empty without the sounds of laughter and many able hands doing work. Sure, there are all of the leaderships, finally reunited, but it just doesn’t feel the same. I miss Alpha group’s energy, Bravo group’s openness, and Charlie group’s kindness, and of course, all of them and their entertainment factor. I will be going home for a few days, but I will be back to help on Thursday. It just feels a bit odd to be going home now, because although I’ll be getting rest, I’m no longer used to my own lazy pace anymore. And dare I say it? I’ll almost be lonely; but of course, that can’t be it.