Golf Balls and Glowing Strings, Batman!

To preface this post has been wrote over several weeks. The season is over for me. The boat was hauled out a bit on the early side this year but with work and the baby I didn't think I'd get much use out of it. I also wanted to give my self some extra time to look the boat over and winterize it this year.
With the A4 Engine drained and anti-freezed, oil changed, and new spark plugs put in for next season it looks clean and ready to go for next year's start up. I RV anti-freezed the head and sink drain. Pulled all the Cushions off the boat then the sails off also. Our guest bedroom has become even more of a sail loft that it was this summer with the boats full complement of 12 sails. BB says I should re-think the off season sail storage plans so I have started clearing space in the basement. As soon as I get the ice boat off the back wall I'll move the some of the sail downstairs. I started sanding the railing last week with hopes to paint it before tarping off the boat for the winter but the weather this weekend is not looking good with and 80 % chance of rain all day Saturday.

Myles has been sick the last two weekend so we've been pretty busy. I'll have to finish sanding and painting the railing next spring. I spent Sunday afternoon framing the boat up with pvc and 2x4's. Then I covered it with clear plastic that I had lying around. In the magazine "Good Old Boat" I read and article about tarping off and using golf balls to add additional points for tie downs. This appears to have worked pretty well. I Placed several of these in the plastic and tied them off with ... wait for it..... GLOW IN THE DARK LINE. Hey what can I say it was on sale at Harbor Freight so I picked up 200ft. I hope this style of framing and tarping will allow me access to the boat through out the winter months. I'm not sure what I'll be doing on the boat in January but you can always keep reading here and find out.





























One good thing comes of winter it will soon be ice boating season. =-) Now I have to go dig out my DN.

Ying Yang Last Outing of the Season

Are last night out for the season was fun and we had a lot happen. The wind was up and it was a nice night for sailing. But we were sloppy sailors this evening. We made it out of the harbor pulled the main sail up. Well pulled it up most of the way we never did crank up the last 2 inches. The traveler never moved all night and the sail trimming was minimal. We never did get around to setting a jib. A few minutes after the main was up we set the auto pilot and that was about it for the evening with regards to any actual sailing. We were clearly the sloppiest sailed boat out on the lake.

BB and I stopped and took some time to feed Myles. Myles had been down to the boat probably once or twice a week all summer with me for lunch but tonight he had his first solid food out on the boat oat cereal. It was an interesting adventure as the boat rocked back and forth and Myles continually tried to eat his life jacket.


It was really a good night for sailing but we just were out bobbing around on the lake. When my dock partner came sailing by so we snapped a few pictures of him sailing on his Catalina.















Finally we decided it was time to head back into the harbor. As we began to line up the boat for the final entry into the channel another sailboat,that was motoring in ahead of us had their engine fail. They were just to the south of the channel adrift and signaling for assistance. Luckily Myles had gone to sleep by this point. BB and I started our motor rounded up and pulled down the main sail. A few minutes later we were near by. It took us three tries but we finally caught their line and secured it to one of the starboard rear cleat. We towed them all the way back to Tower Marine. It took us about and hour but the motor ran well. I constantly was checking the temperature and oil pressure gauges. I was quite impressed to find out the boat we towed back weighed 14,000 LBS. Almost twice the weight of our Chaser 29.

The Ying Yang of the season. The 1st day of the season we were towed back in. The last day of the season we were the one's doing the towing. As I clasped the lock onto the boat that night I was quite happy. It seemed a fitting way to round out the season and I can hardly wait for the spring.

1st family aquatic slumber party

Last weekend we did our first family overnight on the boat. Labor day weekend. Their was a party at Tower Marina so we decided to make it a family outing. First we went for a swim then we got cleaned up and went to the party. We laid out on the grass and ate some great chicken and sweet corn. As it was getting dark we decided hey why don't we stay on the boat tonight. We made a quick run home for the dog and to get warmer cloths for the baby (Myles). By the end of the night we had Myles completely wrapped in everything we had brought with us and moved him up into the V berth with us. To bad at the time we didn't have the awesome looking hot pepper blanket. I'm sure it would have kept us all warm. Regardless it was a fun night just next time we'd be well served to bring a space heater for the little ones comfort. After all if he's not comfy no one is sleeping much.