Silence in the night.

After the flags are flown

After the last hot dogs are eaten

After the final rockets a blazin

After little one's are sleepin

There is a Silence in the night like no other.  Mast at night V-Berth 2011 July 4 

Happy 4th of July

A windless start

Last Sunday Adam and I took off for a day on the lake it started out pretty calm.  A little to calm so we decided hey why not go for a dip.  The lake was a welcoming cool relief from the hot deck and black flies.  The water off shore is amazingly blue nothing like the river and inland lakes.  You can clearly see the keel and a good bit further down into the lake.  We where in about 60 ft of water at the time.  Moving along at about 1.2 kts.  To fast to swim and keep up but easy enough to hold onto the ladder.  I picked up a stern ladder at Wolfs to install I just haven't got to it yet.  

 

As the day continued on the wind did finally began to fill it.  We had a great time flew the #1, Stay sail, and even pulled the spinnaker out.   We flew the spinnaker as if it where an asymmetric.  I'm not sure if that is legit with this sail or not. I tried to get a hold of the manufacture about this particular AP spinnaker but never heard back from them.  (Michael if you are still reading feel free to chime in on this one. =-).   Any ways in the light wind it really worked well and with just the two of on board it was way easier to handle with out having to pull the spinnaker pull and deal with topping lifts, down halls. 

main,stay & #1

Hey....  Trim!   Trim!  

I like strings.

Deck Carnage sails every where.

In the Church of the Double Spreader.

Ain't that Cool

Hey it does have sails. First time sailing for the year.

Last Friday we made it out on the lake.  The boat has been away from the dock a few times to cruise up and down the river but Friday was our first day sails up.  We've been running around the state all of June for family events and visiting friends we haven't seen in a while so it was finally good to get some sea air.  The winds and waves cooperated also.  We had a nice low wind day with practically flat water.  We could have water skied out on the lake if we still had our ski boat.  All in all it was a great sail only glitch I found was the windex has broke in half sometime over the winter.  Guess I'll be making a trip to the top of the mast pretty soon.  Over all it was a really good day.  When we started to bring down the sails Myles said "ut-oh why it fall down."  Apparently he wasn't finished sailing yet this day. 

In other news Myles and I have been working on bringing our dingy back to life.  Well I've been working he's been playing in my car or napping.  The dink or as all who have seen it floating know to call it. "The bathtub" hasn't been used in years now and has been pretty severely neglected. Last time I painted it dark blue to go with my old Catalina.  However the paint I used did not stick.  I power washed most of it off.  While Myles played in my car the other day.  Today I started repairing the sharp edges where the fiberglass has cracked.   West System to the rescue.   Hopefully I'll get it finished this summer sometime and find a motor to put on it.  If nothing else it will be fun to muck around in on some of the smaller lakes around here.  =-)

Knock Knock Hello Spring 2011. Can I get my wrench back? =-)

Well we're off to a good start Shenanigans is in the water cleaned up and ready to go.


In the Dawn's Early Light



Over the winter I finished sewing up the V berth cushions. The gray material isn't a perfect match but most of the time they are going to be under the sheets anyway.

I also found the mast base wrap. I took it off last year intent on remaking it and could not find it. Well I opened the box to my sander and there it was. So I finished remaking it and also made a cover for the forward hatch.

 

 

Today I cleaned the deck down and inspected all the turnbuckles and re-sail taped all the cotter keys.

Even re-calibrated the depth sounder.

Why don't Pirates use safety deposit boxes? They use Davy Jones' Locker.

Knock Knock.

Who's there?

Al sink

Al sink who?

Al sink ya in Davy Jones Locker if you don't let me in.

I lost a wrench to Davy Jones locker so I thought the jokes were necessary.

Oh yeah and the 1st spring test drive... Just up and down the river.  It was a bit too rough on the lake for kiddo today but it's still great to get away from the dock. 

That Copper Bottom's as Pretty as a Penny Spring prep 2011

Shenanigans has held up very well over the winter especially considering I found half the tarp framing spars in December when I pulled the iceboat down.

This spring I boarded to a dusty boat under the clear tarp.  After spending a few hours aboard wiping out the interior with glass cleaner she looks pretty good.

 Next I did a little faring on the keel.  All the usual spots.

 After a little sanding and a bit of VC-17 it's as pretty as a penny.  

 

Now I just need a few more sunny days to get the hull washed and buffed out.  

O yeah and polish up that proper.

 

Winter sailing in Michigan.

Seasons Greetings from Rose Lake

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