We are at Tower Marine and they have nice flowers all through the season.  It starts out with the flowering trees and Tulips.  Since we have plenty of time on our hands we have been taking pictures of the flowers & some of the trees.

The picture of the tulips in this post is from the grounds last week on a windy, crisp day.  I have several others that I may put in a future slideshow.  The internet here this year is pretty fast so I can upload more than in the past.  I have already done some work on websites and it is screaming right now.

Life onboard has been a slow series of Downs & Ups lately.  The down came last week when the bottom dropped out of the barometer and got down to 29.21″.  It has gradually been working upwards but took until today to break 30.00″ .  The Mares Tails of today tell me there will be some weather moving in Friday late or Saturday. 

We have met some of the moving back onto their boats but so far we are the only live aboards so far this year.  The water is seriously low for this time of year.  We can actually see under the docks right now – what will happen when the dry season comes?  We are worried & so are the marinas around here.

Today, as I sit in the coffee shop, the sun is shining and the winds are reducing and backing to NE.  There was a lot of rain.  I performed the usual preventive and recurring maintenence during the stormy time.  Barometric pressure was down to 29.21″ and is now rapidly rising. 

I forgot to download all the current website data from my business server so I am reduced to only writing blogs.  No development is happening right now.  I will have to make a trip back just to get the data.  I purchased the long range wifi unit that should allow D&D on the boat.  Soon life will be even better.

We started floating again on 21 April.  The launch was uneventful.  This year we use VC17M original again and it was heavily coated.  After that we re-coated the waterline green paint with the remaining epoxy anti-foul paint.  For some reason it looked darker this year. 

Prior to float, we equalized the batteries at 14VDC for 8 hours.  The 4 12VDC batteries are Deka Marine Master DC31DT type and are in two switched banks.  Mostly we run them in “both” position but sometimes it would be advantageous from a conservative point of view to only discharge one bank each day and alternate days.  We will probably install the wind generator this year – mostly we do not – because the Lake Michigan islands are beckoning us.

A long range wifi unit was purchased from RadioLabs so we can stay in touch with the internet.  Also, I just received the Belkin wifi pcmcia wireless N cards that are highly rated.  I am watching the great signal from my old dlink G router.  The new card works well.  With the N cards came the TP-Link wireless N router.  I probably will not get to have it operational with the TV computer until later this summer or maybe this winter but it was a great price so I just bought it.  Most of my TV has switched to Hulu watching.  I think cable TV is dead.

Later…………

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.