Montague Harbour

We have been looking forward to beautiful sunny weather, but we don’t like this. It made it up to 96 degrees today, and no wind! We took the dinghy over to the campground area. Merlin got to run on the beach and we had a nice hike around Grey Peninsula. Fortunately there was some shade there. At the far end of the peninsula there used to be a staircase up to the campground area. Well those have fallen apart, so the only ways back to the dinghy are; walk all the way back around the peninsula, swim or climb up the dry, dirt hill. Fred went before me and then reached the backpack down to me so I would have some kind of safety line. While we were climbing up on all fours, Merlin is running up & down as if to say, what is taking you so long? The coolest we’ve been today was running the dinghy fast across the water. When we returned to Aquila we were all filthy. Fred figured the best way to clean his feet was to splash them in the water. I did that too and it felt wonderful. We then looked at Merlin. He had every kind of burr and twig in his fur possible. We considered putting him in the water to splash around but we thought the best solution was 50/50. I got down on the swim platform and Fred held Merlin and let the lower half of him splash in the water. I’m telling you he did a mean dog-paddle. I then took him down to the tub to wash the lower half of his body and brush out all the stickers, etc. Then we both went topside to dry off. Fred & I had a late lunch out in the cockpit. Out there is a “Pet-Potty” which is a box with special Astro-turf on top. This is so when we are truly unable to get Merlin to shore for his walks, this is his spot. We wondered where Merlin had decided to nap. I looked behind me and say him curled up in the box in the sun… We laughed so hard, until I thought he would need to be bathed again. Fortunately the asto-turf was dry.