Day 17 - David King

Getting soaked in tropical rains

The day began full of promise. An early morning trip to the distributors secured us both a delivery on the wood and the tools needed to have a very productive day. Balance beams were ready to fix to the supports in the ground, the final cuts were to be made in the swings before being ready to assemble and Eamonn's beast of a tyre-swing looked set for a bit of cement also. Once the ones who had stayed behind arrived to meet the 6:30am bus lot, they were already well into the swing of things. Jesse and Lindsay were carving up the 54 pieces of ply for their 'noughts and crosses', after devastatingly working out what 9x6 was. Will had made good inroads in making the joints on the swings; and Eamonn was completing the final countersinks to apply the shorter 8'' bolts to the main body of the tyre-swing. This good progress continued through past lunch, Crab and Liam were able to complete the balance beam and wobble boards whilst Jesse and Lindsay moved on to applying the primer to various parts of the interactive board. However, just as Will and Emma were completing the swing sets and Eamonn had brought his seemingly ten-tonne tyre-swing over to the playground for construction...the first signs of hurricane season struck. From 3pm to 6pm, rain that can only be described as torrential, poured down - with no sign of giving way. This put a bit of a dampner on both progress and the mood (especially of the people who realised it was their turn to ride in the back of the truck). So the day came to an unfortunate end as the loudest thunder I've ever heard sounded that no more was possible to be done today. Yet, with a better forecast and a lot of equipment already prepared in the workshop, a day of vast potential lies ahead tomorrow.