After reading Les baleines et les coquillages sailing website, we discovered a young French couple named their windvane Raymond, after the French politician Raymond Barre, and in French the verb “barrer” means to steer. This name made Paul laugh a lot (Sundy just raised an eyebrow…) so he stole the name because it is very fitting for a windvane. We hope Tomtom and Clairette won’t be upset with us… Installing Raymond was the first “big” modification to Arbutus. Our new additon involved the terrible experiance of drilling into Arbutus’s hull! The unbearable sound of the drill eating away at the aluminum was like an ear piercing shriek of a young girl. To ensure there were no mistakes made, we quadruple checked our measurements before drilling each of the four holes. Raymond projects awkwardly from the stern of Arbutus and restricts access to the swim platform. However, Raymond is an integral member of our crew, especially in long crossings, and now Arbutus looks even more like a travelling sailboat. After many hours of planning and preparation, and with the help of Paul’s father (who has hands of gold), and Mathieu (Paul’s brother) they installed Raymond at the stern of Arbutus. Those two better get along! Initially, they were not meant to be together because Arbutus is made out of aluminum and Raymond out of stainless steel. These two metals together generally do not mix well on a boat because of the likelihood of corrosion. So to solve this problem of electrolysis, Raymond is isolated from Arbutus by PTFE (Teflon) plates and spacers.         The teflon plates and spacers ensure that Raymond is not electrically connected to Arbutus, one of the conditions necessary to create electrolysis. In order to attach Raymond’s mounting tubes, we had to remove some of the wall panelings and insulation in the dining area. We took this opportunity to replace some of the insulation which has been there for over 30 years. When touched, the old insulation began to disintegrate into fine powder…not very healthy for our lungs.