We went to the QWS yesterday in Lansing.  Lots of kayaking and non-motorized sports booths were present.  Also, there were amateur presentations on neat places they had been.  All-in-all a good day that was bright, sunny and warm.  I guess this kicks off the beginning of the boating season.

I received the bottom paint – VC17M – and also scheduled the launch for first week of May.  We need to get up to the boat to apply the bottom coats and paint the water line stripe.  While we are doing that the batteries will be charging.  I am also installing a Pro-Mariner 30 A Galvanic Isolator this year so I am safer and not sorry.  The zinc seemed to go faster last year so some neighboring boat must have a problem.

I have not bought a 125% jib yet but plan on doing this if I can find a used one.  If it works well then I will buy a new one.  The club footed jib is in great shape so that will last for years.  The main pulls well in higher winds so that one appears to be good too.  Her current 80% jib is in good shape too.  I guess we are pretty much ready for the season.

We drove up to the boat to look at the cleat fix and clean up a bit.  While there we put the companionway doors back on and charged the batteries.  There was about 20″ of snow on the ground and we talked with a gentleman (& his wife) who was spending the winter on his boat – the rugged individualist type to be sure – and blowing the snow into the river to clear his pathway.  He had slipped on the ice a week before and broken his arm so he was in a cast and using one hand to operate the snowblower.  He said it was probably going to be his last winter since the new marina general manager did not want any winter residents at his slips.  He is being priced out was his term for the situation.

After 2 months of slow but steady progress I finally finished the sailboat companionway doors. Here are the stats: Sanded several times with progressively increased grit size, 5 coats of Cetol Light and one coat Cetol Gloss. Also, new stainless steel screws for the hardware. It looks good if I do say so myself. I received no help from the First Mate either and did the whole job myself.

I have spent some of the time during the last week in stripping, sanding and start of refinishing the companionway doors on the cockpit side.  The inside is in perfect shape so we are only doing the outside.  Initial results are promising and it looks like the wood is beautiful and good grained.  I have two coats of Cetol light on right now and will do at least two more as I am using a black china bristle brush.  This allows me to apply a thinner but more precisely controlled coat as the bristles are stiffer and do not flex the brush as much.  I may just move from the white bristle to the black for all the work but we shall see.

The radar indicates the rain is past us for today but a deep low persistes to make life miserable for the next few days.  I spent today researching marine grounding systems and galvanic corrosion.  In addition to the discovery process and revamp of the alternator system, I have been wanting to install a galvanic isolator in the green wire AC ground system.  In order to do all this I have to insure that the boat’s current 120VAC neutral and green wire ground system is set up correctly.  I just have a sneaking hunch that the neutral and earth ground are tied together somewhere in those three or four busses that lurk behind the circuit breaker panel.  Since the boat is coming out for winter storage in the next few days this task becomes a winter project.

I went up to the boat on Saturday afternoon for some late season contemplation. Actually, I was there to accomplish the end of the season objective of getting the boat ready for a winter’s nap. I would have to consult the log to determine what I actually did on what day here is the synopsis of Saturday, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday.

We have a few more things to do before the boat is removed from the water. I want to bring the main & jib booms back to PL to paint and revamp the reefing system. This is a whole new thread to be developed over time. The old wood cradle has to be disposed of and the new steel one fitted as we remove the boat. All this should occur next Monday but we will see.

The end of the sailing season is nigh.  We have been waiting for a week for gales , rain and cold weather to give way to the fall “Indian Summer” but it looks like this is wishful thinking as one low after another marches from the west coast towards us.  The only question now is how to get the sails down, hopefully dry, and into the bag.  Then comes the oil change.  That is about all we have to do since it is going into heated storage for the winter.  We will have more later as we do the final closing of the season.

The winds started to rise Sunday afternoon and just kept building up to 40 knots with gusts to 55+ by Monday afternoon. All this time the barometric pressure continued to fall to 29.22″ or 992 mb. Not hurricane levels but pretty low for around here. The waves built to nearly 20′ with a period of 4 to 6 seconds and were breaking out as far as we could see and there were little ripples on the far horizon which is a sure indicator of big seas.

We had lots more details but it somehow got lost ………….Sorry.

What a great day sailing!  We hit the lake about 1200 hrs local and with all sails raised we went no where fast towards the WSW.  After about a half hour we saw some ripples on the water and headed for them.  The breeze picked up to about 7 knots from the NW.  I tightened her up a bit more towards the West and trimmed the sails.  After a minute or two we were going about 3.5 kts or better.  This tack was held for an hour or more and we were gaining on Moon Dance who was way out there.

I was sort of playing around with the wind and I tacked to the NE and then tightened her up a few points and we got 3.9 kts out of a 7.2 kt breeze.  This heading was taking us to a point just south of Holland.  It seemed like kind of a cool direction to go and with the waves less than a foot who could complain?  Certainly not the First Mate who was sleeping like the dead in the midships bunk.

After an hour or so I changed course for a beam reach or slightly aft and held her until it was time to turn to the south to go back to port.  What a great day in great weather and seas.  We were back at the slip at 1700 hrs local.

Since we returned from the cruise things have been slow with no sailing. The tooth they had to remove after I broke it completely off the root system is not healing real wekk so I have not felt much like sailing anyway.  It has been very hot and night sleeping is similar to the tropics and the days equal to or more temperature and humidity.  Summer has arrived finally but we think it will be short lived.

The spiders plugged up the diesel tank air vent again and I need to work on that before we stray to far from port.  Today we checked out a few new places to slip for next year – our marina is raising their fees again and we are being priced out.  That means spending time on the hook and renting a transient slip from time to time or finding a lower scale slip for the same projected cost which is nearly $2500 US.

We will keep you up to date on our experiments.