Saugatuck late October. Last trip in for the season.
Did I sail as much as I wanted to? Well no but that is probably something that will never happen. When I had more time I used to make it out on the lake twice a week sometimes more and I still wasn't satisfied. Regardless the season has come to an end for me this year. Shenanigans was hulled out Thursday 10/14/2010 this year. Saturday I went down to check on her and started pulling things off the boat for the winter. Wow did we have a lot of stuff on the boat this year. Sleeping bags, blankets, towels, even found my good blue jeans; "I'd been wondering where I had put those." Not to mention the board books toys and toddler snacks of Myles's. While we might not have sailed the boat as much as I would have like we defiantly used the boat; sleeping over, sunning out on the deck, just stopping by on the way to the pool here at the marina the boat was a good distraction for us.
So now to the engines drained, oils changed, cylinders fogged.
Lessons of the season.
Preventing Sea Sickness See the link
Re-bedding
The best tool to have are baby wipes. That's right forget the caulk gun, spreaders, rags, scrapers, razor blades. No article on re-bedding you read tells you what you really need to know. Sure they talk about how to re-bed fittings, shrouds and other deck fittings. They say clean the area be sure the deck is sealed. However not one of the articles on the web or in print tells you about this essential tool.
I did a lot of re-bedding this season and it wasn't till the end of the year I discovered that baby wipes work miracles. Once you have placed your fittings back together and mushed them to the deck the ooze that is re-bedding compound comes squeezing outs from below. This is where the baby wipes come in. I used to have a rag handy for getting the excess goop off until one day the rag I had been using was so full of gunk it was just making a bigger mess. I went down below deck looking for another rag to finish the job and their they where sitting on counter. Baby wipes I was only going to use a few to finish up the side stay re-bedding no bid deal. Wow what a discovery baby wipes take bedding compound of quickly easily and you have a lot of control over how the finished bead lines looks. Not only that but it leaves your stainless steal fittings shimmering and does not effect the paint on the deck. Best of all when you are finished your hands are clean and not all sticky.
Boats are Good for Kids Learning to Walk.
The other weekend we where at the park. Myles was up on the play structure. Granted not alone. BB and I where running around below the structure standing in strategic locations where a 18 month old might fall. This structure has one of the bridges you know the kind that sways up and down as the kids walk/run across it. Myles was having a great time running down the bridge as it swayed up and down under his feet. Then came along a 3 year old scared to go over the bridge as he stood watching it shake. Nervous to put his feet on the unsteady surface. To Myles a moving surface was old news the boat hardly ever sits still even when at the dock it tips up and down. Foot work on a sailboat is essential. Myles has really become aware of this over the summer as he has leaned to walk. It has been great to watch him over the summer go from stumbling over things and tumbling down every time the boat rocks to really being aware of his foot placement. Now he watches where he steps, placing his foot in between deck fittings and other obstacles walking through the inner shrouds. He has not by any means mastered the walking running thing just yet. He is desperately trying to jump but I have no doubt that sailing has helped him become steadier on his feet.
CO2 detectors are essential
I preface this section with no one was ever in danger at any time. It had been a few weeks since I had been down to the boat and started the engine so I thought hey better get it running. So I started it up closed up the hatches and got to work cleaning the deck. What I discovered is that if you run the engine at the dock with all the hatches closed for a little over an hour while you scrub and rinse the deck it will set of the CO2 detector.
Canvas is Thick
My sewing machine will sew threw 5 layers of outdoor canvas not 6. At 6 it will either make a distinctive thump noise and stop, or break the needle. It is not to fond of the gluey back on industrial strength Velcro either.
So that wraps up wet water sailing for 2010. Next week is the Gull lake ice boat swap meet. Time to change over hardware and get ready for some hard water Sailing. Time to THINK ICE!
No comments:
Post a Comment