We have a motor!

 Things have been crazy busy for us as of late with the holidays coming, busy at work, and still working on the house, but we took time out to run down to Bardstown KY to look at a 2006 Nissan 3.5 hp long shaft outboard for Memory Maker. The owner said the motor had never been in the water and once I saw it I believed him as it is brand new. Just a bit of dust under the cowl from sitting around for so long. He said the original owner bought it and took it out of the box. Was going to fill it with oil and mount it on the boat the next day but his boat was stolen that night. After a couple of years he sold the motor, still un ran, to the person we got it from. He was new to boats and did not know the difference between long and short shaft motors. He takes it home, fills it full of oil, sticks it in a bucket of water and fires it up. Said it started on the first pull. Satisfied that it ran he mounted it on his small john boat. Luckily he stepped back and looked down. The bottom of the motor was almost dragging the ground. He put it back in his garage and there it set for another year. He got it out and fire it up this year and listed it for sale. That is where we come in.
 Bardstown is about an hour and half south of us in Bourbon Country, as the locals call it. Jim Beam, Heaven Hills, and several other distilleries are all located right around the Bardstown area. Downtown Bardstown is very neat with nice shops and places to eat and sample local bourbon. Just go there on any day other than Sunday as most places close on Sundays. We walked around the town for a while and checked out a local antique mall before going to the bourbon bar on the sw corner across from the courthouse. Cindy tried some bourbon while we shared some loaded cheese fries. It was not long before it was time to go look at the motor. Another lesson learned with my phone's GPS. If you are outside of Verizon's coverage area the gps will not give directions. Luckily Cindy's phone picked up a stray Verizon tower and got us to the owner's house. Checked out the motor, fired it up, paid the man, loaded it up and headed home.
 The weather in Indiana is always unpredictable but it is getting to the time of year that we can start having winter weather any day so I was planning on covering Memory Make up for her long winter's nap. We had received 2 letters from the company we insured Memory Maker through and I had assumed Cindy had opened them. Luckily, I happened to come across the un opened envelopes in the boat file before I covered her for the winter. I opened them to discover that we had ten days to send them detailed pics of the boat from all angles, inside and out, plus photos of the rigging, sails, and motor. A quick look at the calendar showed we had only a few days left to get them pics or have them cancel our policy. Yet another lesson learned, always open letters from the boat insurance company. We got lucky and the day after Thanksgiving was sunny with temps in the lower 40's. We bundled up, well at least I did, and headed out to step the mast and rig the boat one more time. One would think that things would have gone smoother the second time around since we had one previous rigging under out belts. Stepping the mast did seem to work better this time with me lifting it off the crutch to Cindy who held it in place while I got on top of the cabin with her. Then I lifted it up to vertical while she attached the forestay. We, ok, I, really thought that when we put the jib sail up the last time that we put it in the bag so that the first eye to come out would be the top of the sail so we could attach the jib halyard and go. Well, turns out that was the main sail. The jib still had the jib sheet attached so we rolled it up with the jib sheet going in last. Goof ball me attached the jib halyard to the tack instead of the head of the sail. Cindy started clipping the jib to the forestay as I pulled the jib halyard down. A stray line hit my head so I looked up and was surprised to  see the jib sheet hanging 8 feet in the air. OH crap! We, ok,  I , put the sail on upside down! Had Cindy's sister Dottie not been standing on the ground watching we might not have ever told anyone what we, I, did. Minor delay as we re rigged the jib. From there on it went smoothly. I attached our new motor to the mount and started taking pics.

 

 

It did not take long to take the pics which was good as Cindy was freezing. We looked like old pros taking everything down and dropping the mast. It was just getting dark as we backed her into her parking spot and put her to bed for another nap. This time we did not have any issues with the trailer coming off the ball as I picked up a 2" ball at Harbor Freight. Amazing how well the right size ball works.

 Well with this being Indiana if you do not like the weather just wait a few minutes and it will change. The past few days have been crazy warm, like 70 degrees yesterday. I took advantage of the warm days to get Memory Maker ready for the winter. I took her mast off and hung it from the trusses in the garage. I felt safer with it indoors so we do not have to worry about a tree falling over it and ruining it. then I build a vertical support that attaches to the mast mount. I then ran a 2x4 from the front pulpit to the support and another 2x4 from the rear rail to the support. The 2x4's will make the ridge boards for the tarp roof over the cabin top of Memory Maker. Last night I covered her up with a new tarp and secured it down around her. My covering skills will get their first test over the next few days. Rain is forecasted for today, changing to sleet this evening, changing to snow tonight with 5-7" total expected. Then Sunday we are forecasted to get up to 3/4" of ice. I wish she set level as then the slope of the tarp would shed water off both side equally. With her listing to port about 5 degrees the starboard side of the tarp is almost level. Until I get her parking spot leveled all I can do is keep an eye  on it and clear the tarp off as necessary. Hoping to work on the cabin though the winter I covered is so I can still get in the cockpit under the rear rail.

 After I removed the mast there really is not much left on the cabin top. That got me thinking that it would be pretty easy to go ahead and paint the cabin top before we put the mast back on. Looking at the mast it could use a new coat of paint as well. Looks like I just added a few more things to our to do list. Lets hope we have an early spring so we can get everything done before it is time to take her to the lake!!!!