Summer fun and Shooting Stars!!!

 It had been a crazy summer so far and we had yet to overnight on our boat even once so far. It seemed like between the birth of Cindy's new granddaughter and the weather's none stop rain we just had not had an opportunity. But last week we started planning for our first overnight of the season for this Saturday night. Puppy care was arranged for the boys, we made flexible plans with my old neighbors to meet us on the water, and it looked like the weather would be just bad enough to keep me from having to fly for work. It just might work out this time!
 After a long hard roofing project I finally got to take a bit of a break Thursday afternoon after I ran errands in town all morning. I came home to find Cindy resting in a lawn chair in the yard so I decided to join her and take a rest. In no time my little lady was asleep with her head on my chest. As we laid there like a couple of slugs I could not help but notice the wind was actually blowing. I had been texting with slip mates of ours who keep their Hunter 23 a few slips west from our girl. They were on the lake for the weekend. When Cindy finally woke up I floated the idea of running over to the lake past her. 15 mins later we were lake bound!
 With all the rain Lake Monroe is running 11.5 feet above normal pool which means the pennisula where we normally park is cut off from the rest of the park.

 As you can see the peninsula the slips are on are cut off from the rest of the park by about 5 feet of water over the road to it. Luckily the DNR put in a temporary dock for their pontoon and they will shuttle us back and forth. What a deal for the money!!! Can you spot the Memory Maker in her slip?
 After grabbing a quick bite to eat on the way we were soon pulling in and hopping on the pontoon for the ride to the slip. Luckily the driver warned us that the power was out to the slips so there were no lights. Good to know.
 Soon we were leaving slip cove and raising sails. It was a nice breeze and we were clipping right along. It was not long before we spotted Analogue with Mike and Kathy on board tacking across the lake. After a few texts back and forth with Mike we were passing each other on opposite tacks taking snapshots of each other. Here is Mike taking a pic of us from Analogue

 It was fun to actually know someone else on the water who was sailing too. Mike got a nice pic of us once I finally got all the fenders pulled in LOL

 After several photo passes we headed into Moores Creek cove to anchor and tie up so we could talk and work on the permanent tiller tamer setup. We arrived first and dropped anchor and I went to work drilling holes for the pad eyes and a jam cleat. Analogue was soon approaching our port side. It was our first time to raft up with another boat but Mike and Kathy were rafting pros and gave us all the tips we needed. Just a few cleat knots later and we were checking out each other's boats and shooting the breeze. Analogue is a really nice Hunter 23 that they have sailed for 3 years now.
 The sun was sliding down the evening sky fast and Cindy wanted to get back before dark so it was not long before it was time to un tie and head off. We said our goodbyes and made plans to meet up Saturday when we got back to the lake.
 Motoring back to the slip it was crazy to see how much was under water. The parking lot we normally parked in was under 2 to 3 feet of water and if you did not know it was there it would be easy to try and cut the corner only to hear a nasty sound from under the boat. We gave that point plenty of room did not have any issues getting our girl put back to bed.
 It was really nice to get back on the water after a 7 day hiatus. It was our first time to raft up and Mike and Kathy are super nice. We drove home looking forward to the weekend and being back on the water again!
 Friday was a long day for both of us with Cindy at the dentist and myself a work. All the more reason to look forward to the weekend and getting back on the water.
 While I was flying back into Seymour I was close enough to the lake to fly over and see if I could find Analogue. Mike said they were in a cove close to where we left them the day before so I should have been able to find them pretty easy. As I came up on the cove I did not see any sailboats. On the west edge of the cove I rolled hard left to turn back and looked straight down. There they were!

 They had her tucked way back into a cove further than I thought they could get. The advantage of high water. I snapped a quick pic of them and of our parking area so Cindy could see how high the water was then pointed the bird southeast for home.
 It was a bit past noon Saturday before we were finally all loaded up and westbound for the lake. Quick pit stop at the junction of 446 and 50 for chicken sandwiches as we were both starving and then north to the lake. Tom, Sherry, and their daughter Lindsey had a head start on us and arrived first. From their texts the ramp at Paynetown was the only one people could launch from due to the high water so of course it was busy. Tom has even less patience than I do so he was in a chipper mood LOL! They finally got launched and parked just a few minutes before we pulled in.
 Pulling in to the shuttle parking area I pulled up to the dock and unloaded Pearl then ran her up to park. Cindy had almost everything on the shuttle by the time I got back so there was minimal time lost. Tom was waiting for us by our slip in their boat and Lindsey was chomping at the bit to tube with someone. Cindy helped me get the Memory Maker ready to sail then hopped on the tube with Lindsey as I backed out of the slip. I was able to use the tiller tamer lock on the tiller with a temporary line I rigged up which allowed me to scurry forward and raise the sails. In no time I was running closed hauled in about about 5 mph of breeze. The lake was busy and the water was choppy but it was fun to be sailing  again.
 Tom pulled the girls around close enough I could see them while Sherry acted as spotter.

 Here is Cindy one handing the tube like a pro

  It did not take long to wear them out and he dropped Cindy off out in front of me about 500 feet. You know, brakes would be handy at times. I wasn't going fast but being that I was single handing I had to work to get her slowed up in time to pick up my lady floating overboard. It took a quick toss of a deck line but soon I was helping Cindy onboard.
  We wound up dropping the sails and just motoring back to our cove to tie up with Tom and the girls. The lake was too busy and there really wasn't good wind to allow us to sail with any speed. The cove was hopping as there were several double decker pontoons and other boats scattered about. We found a spot and dropped both anchors to better hold our position. Soon we had Tom's bass boat tied up and the air was going in the floats and paddle board.
 Starting last Friday, my first day on a large roofing job, it felt like summer had just started over night. It was hot and humid and did not take long for us to be jumping overboard to get cooled off. All summer to this point it had been cool, cloudy, with rain almost everyday. Now it just felt like someone had flipped a switch and it was hot, humid, and more like a typical summer.
 The girls seemed content to float around in the chairs and boat so Tom and I untied and went to try our luck at fishing for a bit. With water this high it was anyone's guess where the fish might be. We worked along the trees north of us that were half under water and caught a few small blugills. I somehow managed to sail my lure over a small limb and then as luck would have it I caught a small fish as we went into retrieve my lure. Made things more interesting. Small fish were easy to find but the larger ones must have been laying low in the heat of the day. Time seemed to be flying by and it was not long before we decided we better head back and fire up the grill.
 Lindsey was back on the paddle board while I cooked dinner. She sure seemed to enjoy playing with it. Dinner was delicious and a big thanks to Sherry for the yummy pasta dish and the delicious Oreo dirt pudding desert! Man that stuff is yummy!!!!
 With dinner consumed I hopped on the paddle board with my fly rod to show everyone how real men fish LOL! It was fun fishing but I did not have a popper small enough for the baby fish that kept taking the rubbery legs of my popper and running off with it. I soon gave up and headed back to the boat.
 Tom got a call from some friends who were on the lake as well. He gave them directions on how to find us. It did not take long and they were pulling in the cove with us in their pontoon boat .
 We enjoyed a nice visit while Lindsey tried to help Billie try out the paddleboard. They spent a good 30 to mins trying to get Billie up on it but it just wasnt meant to be. I have to give her credit though, she gave it one heck of a try. We heard a few days later she was really sore as that board kicked her butt!
 The sun was setting so Tom and Sherry headed back to load up and head home. We headed north across the lake to meet up with Mike and Kathy who were anchored in the Moores Creek cove. Cindy's paddle board made a nice float barge for our two floating chairs.

 We towed the chairs behind once before but they did not like it very much. This way we did not have to bring them aboard and we hardly knew they were back there. It was probably close to 11 when we finally tied up with Mike and Kathy. After shots of Pirate rum we just sat in the cockpit of Analogue doing what all sailors do, swap sailing stories. It was about midnight when the sky and lake lit up like someone just took a flash picture. I was looking south at the time but Cindy and Kathy where looking north and had a great view of one very bright meteor! I turned around just in time to see its trail fading fast. It was really neat and I don't think any of us had ever seen one that bright before.
 It was getting late and my yawns were becoming more frequent so off we went to drop anchor and catch some shut eye. I was wiped out and did not last 2 mins once we curled up in the V birth. We have always slept very well onbaord our little boat and that night was no exception. We had a nice breeze coming in through the front hatch and the bugs were not bad.
 Waking up the next morning I could have swore I was up early, like 7 or so, but turns out we slept in till 9:30. Sticking our heads up out of the hatch we could see Analogue was gone but we were in the same place we were when we went to sleep. That is always good. Seems Mike and Kathy headed into town for breakfast and gas for their outboard.
 I jumped into the lake to get woke up and that worked perfectly! While not cold, it was cool enough to be very refreshing. After my quick swim I went about getting breakfast started for us only to discover I did not have any cooking oil to keep the omelets from sticking. Seems I remembered our coffee maker attachment but forgot the coffee too. Luckily Cindy is very understanding and she was more than fine with Cajon pork loins and Mimosas for breakfast.
 After breakfast I went about working on the boat while Cindy paddled her board around the cove. I was able to get the pad eyes and cleat installed for the tiller tamer and then dropped the bow attach points for the lifelines down from the pulpit to just inside of the rub rail on the deck. I did not like how our jib would rub and get hung up on the lifeline so dropping the lifelines down will eleminate that problem. Plus now I can step on and off the bow right behind the bow pulpit without having to drop the lifelines. Just have to male sure you don't catch your foot on the line when you step on or off there.
The next project was to install the solar powered cabin vent fan. This has been a on going project for sometime now. I think I finally had everything I needed. Drill, check, circle cutter, check, fan, check. I started drilling the hole for it and it was not long before both boats were covered in dust. Then shortly there after the drill battery went dead! Things were going just perfectly! It would take one more trip over but I would finally get the vent fan installed!

 Time was just flying past and it was mid afternoon already. Sleeping in totally screws with my internal clock. While Cindy loves to sleep in I just feel like I am running behind for the whole day.  
 While we could feel the wind blowing but it was far from ideal sailing conditions. We raised anchors and headed out anyway as we were sailboats and that is what you are supposed to do. I think Mother nature just made enough wind blow long enough to sucker us out into the lake. Seemed like once we did it all but died. We chased Analogue across the lake a couple of times before finally catching her. Being a smaller a lighter boat Memory Maker has a bit of light wind advantage on her bigger sister. I caught a nice pic of Cindy over my shoulder as she steered us along

 I am such a lucky guy to not only have a pretty boat but a beautiful fiancé to Captain that boat!!!
 Even though it was cloudy the temp was really toasty so it did not take long before both Cindy and I were ready to take a dip to cool off. We heaved to and jumped in as Mike and Kathy turned around to come back at us. It was really fun chasing a each other around the lake. I think it was as much a learning experience as it was fun as I could watch Analogue and see what was working for her and what wasn't and make changes to the Memory Maker to see if would help us as well.
 We both gave it our best attempts but the wind just continued to weaken. Mike threw in the towel first and as I looked over they were dropping their main and starting the motor.

It had been a really fun weekend but like all good things it too much come to an end. We motored our way back to the slip and tucked our girl in before hopping onto the shuttle for the ride back to our car. It had been a long day and several hours since breakfast so we reflected over all the fun we had while enjoying a savory Pine Room Tavern cheeseburger in Nashville IN on the way home. That sure hit the spot. While we tried to get Mike and Kathy to stop and share one with us but they had to get home. I sent them a pic of what they were missing and they agreed that next time they were stopping with us!!!

Sailing into the night

7-6-2015

 With the fourth of July quickly approaching we had hoped to spend the night on the water so we could watch fireworks again but sadly they decided not to have them on the lake this year. Since the lake just gets crazy busy on holiday weekend we went over on Thursday the 2nd to sail and enjoy the lake before every boat in southern Indiana descended up on it.
 It was a perfect evening to sail with the wind out of the north by northeast at 8 to 10 mph. After getting the boat ready to head out and leaving the slip Cindy wanted to go forward and raise the sails as that is usually my job. She handled the new task very well and soon we were setting into a nice broad reach across the lake.
 I had just made a new Go Pro mount pole that slips into a piece of 1/2" pvc conduit that I clamped to the solar panel support rod. After a few test I finally got the camera leveled on the rod and turned it on. I think we captured over an hour half of us sailing back and forth across the lake that probably only Cindy and I would enjoy watching. I am not even sure about Cindy as she feel asleep with her head on my shoulder a few minutes into watching it on the laptop! Not a whole lot of excitement on a night like this to keep the viewers entertained.
 It was a wonderfully relaxing evening to sail and soon we were sitting on the port bench in the cockpit with me leaning back into the pulpit with Cindy leaning back into me relaxing as we sailed along. One advantage of being tall is I can see over the cabin as we sail like this so I can make sure the area is clear in front of us. We were in our happy place and loving every lazy minute of it!
 We finally arrived in our favorite cove where we proceeded to drop anchor and pop the top. It was about now we had our first bug issue of the season as it seemed like every fly in the county was flying in our around our boat. They particularly liked my pale legs as I was swatting them off right and left. I quickly got Cindy's inflatable paddle board out and aired it up so she could go exploring as I stayed behind to deal with the flies.

 There goes my lil Lady on her inflatable board for the first time this season. Now it was time to kill some pesky critters and install new line on my spinning reel.
 With new line installed and a trusty beetle spin attached to it was time to do a little fishing, with the fly swatter nearby on the solar panel. It was not long before I landed a whopper!

 Ok, so it wasn't a whopper but he was a fighter LOL! I guess the size of the lure compared to the fish kinda gives his real size away. I caught several striped bass his size. I think they like the rock bottom in this cove as I am usually able to catch a few each time we anchor there.
 It was not long before it was time to light the grill and start dinner. With Cindy still out exploring on her board I got the corn on the cob on the grill. We really love summer evenings on the boat, especially the ones that involve food! Nothing beats fresh corn on the cob on the grill. We leave the husk on it and cook it on low heat. The natural moisture of the corn steams it inside the husk and once you slather it in butter and a little salt it is just to die for!
 Cindy returned to the Memory Maker to find me still swatting at flies. She proceeded to get a beverage and her book she had been reading then took her normal place on the port cockpit bench. The flies hardly even noticed her. I looked like a windmill I was swatting at so many of them hovering around or landing on me!!!
 Soon the pork tenderloins were done and it was time to retreat to the cabin for dinner. Not that was much protection for me as the top was popped and all the hatches were open. Slowly the number of flies dwindled to just a few stragglers and we enjoyed a nice dinner on the water.
 With dinner done and dishes put away I asked if I could use Cindy's board to go fish a bit. I had fly fished once on it last year late in the season and it was a real trip to balance myself on the board, cast a fly rod, while keeping track of the drift and the paddle laying across my feet. I remember my core muscles being really tired when I got back on board the boat after about 20 mins of fishing. Thankfully I did not catch anything that day as I am sure I would have went for a swim. But this time I was much more relaxed and after a few minutes of fishing sitting on the board I stood up and casted away. I guess after doing it once already my body was able to relax more and I really enjoyed it. I did manage to catch two small bluegills on a popper. While no huge bass it was still fun to catch fish standing up on a paddle board.
 While I was fishing a 26-28 foot sailboat came silently slipping into our cove under sail. It is so neat to look up and see a boat moving silently across the water. He drove the boat deep into the cove before turning back out and passing just off our starboard side as Cindy sat in the cockpit and read. He said hello as he passed by her and told her we should be out sailing as the wind was still blowing. I headed back to the Memory Maker and proceeded to deflate and store the board so we could head off.
 I don't think either one of us really thought about sailing into the night when we raised the anchor but once we cleared the point of the cove we feel the wind. It was out of the northeast, cool, and still had good speed, so up went the sails and off went the motor. The sails instantly filled with air and off we went. We never did see where the sailboat went that told us he hoped to see us out later as we had the lake to ourselves. With the nav lights and spreader bar lights on we headed across the lake to the north as it was going to take several tacks to get us back to the cove our slip is in. That was fine with us as we both wanted to be no place but right there with each other as the darkness of night swallowed us and our Memory Maker into itself.

 It was dark by the time we reached our tack point on the north side of the lake and we still had a great breeze, steady 8 to 10 mph out of the northeast. Tacking back to the southeast Cindy settled back into me with her head leaning back on my shoulder as we listened to the water as it rippled off the hull. While it was dark and the moon was well masked by the clouds there was still enough ambient light that once our eyes adjusted we were able to make out the tree covered shoreline so there was not much fear of running her aground. We erred on the side of caution and made our tacks early just to make sure the night did not end on a sour note.
 As we moved along over the lake we talked about things we need to add to our boat for our trip to the North Channel next summer. I told Cindy about how someone on the Hunter forum posted a picture of how they mounted a chart plotter to a LCD tv swiveling wall mount. It was really slick as it was inside the cabin and could be swung out and positioned right at the edge of the cabin opening so you could see it clearly from ether side of the cockpit. Too bad we did not have it on board right then as it would have been nice to have depth information as we sailed along in the darkness.
 I went below to adjust the radio and just had to take a pic of my pretty little captain as she commanded her ship through the perils of darkness.

 



 I guess maybe I should have turned the flash off as with the press of one shutter release I took away all of Cindy's night vision for the next few minutes. Oops :-) No fear though as we had several minutes to go before we would be close to the rocky shoreline on the south side of the lake.
 There was just something very enjoyable about moving along across the lake in the darkness of night with my best friend by my side. Until you have been on a sailboat under sail in a nice breeze and all you hear is the sound of water rippling past the hull and the wind in the sails you can't fully comprehend the magical effect it has over you. It is just has such a soothing and calming affect on even someone wound as tightly as myself. so much so even I find it relaxing to the point that I am totally content to just sit and watch the water go past the hull as we sail on mile after mile. If you know me then you know that "just sitting" is just not in my vocabulary.  Then to be able to share this with my soul mate as she rest her head back on your shoulder while I have my arm wrapped tightly around her protecting her from the slight chill that is starting to infiltrate the night air is just such a special experience in life. One I never would have gotten to experience without Cindy. Sharing moments like this with my pretty little Captain makes all the hours it took restoring our Memory Maker so, so worth it. Thanks Babe, I love you!
 Although it is approaching 11 pm by the time we make our last tack back to the northeast and head towards the slips I am not wanting to stop sailing. But it is late and we still have an hours drive home from the lake. We both wished we had brought supplies so we could have spent the night but neither one of thought it would turn out to be such an awesome evening weather wise. We had not gone 24 hours without rain or a storm for the past several weeks and this night was forecasted to be more of the same. But the rain held off and it was a wonderful evening that we made the most of.
 AS Crosby, Stills, and Nash's Southern Cross played on the radio down below I went through the process of getting our girl ready for bed. Out went the fenders, dock lines on the cleats, jib down and bagged, main sail down and wrapped. With Cindy at the helm we were soon easing into our slip with all the grace of a large swan gliding across a tranquil pond. As I stepped off the Memory Maker onto the slip to tie up all the calmness of the night was replaced by the loud sounds of wings flapping and water splashing! As we focused our attention on the boat neither one of us saw the large Great Blue Heron gliding over from the shoreline to the east edge of our slip. I caught him out of the corner of my right eye just as he passed a few feet away from Cindy who had her back to him. He was gliding in for a landing on the end of the slip and the sound of the air off his wings was soon replaced by the loud flapping of his wings and his feet splashing in the water. Seems he misjudged his glide path by mere inches, and was not able to make it to the edge of slip! He bounced off the rubber rub strip and flapped like crazy trying to get air flowing back over his wings before he went for a swim. Luckily he was able to save it as I do not think they can swim which is ironic as they spend all there life standing  in or near water. The look on Cindy's face as she turned around was a priceless combination of shock, surprise and fear all wrapped up in one beautiful pose. Of all times to have the Go Pro bagged up in the cabin!!!
 With our girl tied fast and all the covers installed we said good by and headed for the house. Cindy had asked if we would see the moon that night and I jokingly said probably on the way home. Guess who was right? As we crossed the causeway headed south the clouds broke apart just enough to let us see the full moon they had been hiding from us all night. Then in just a few miles the moon was gone and raindrops filled the night sky.
 Staying awake on the ride home late at night is usually not an issue as we are constantly on deer watch as there are so many deer in this area. Being on point for a deer to streak out of nowhere paid dividends that night as one shot out of the darkness on the left side of the road! It was like the side of Cindy's Rav had a bulls eye painted on it and the deer was going for bonus points. Of course there had to be a car coming in the other lane so my options were limited. I hit the gas as the deer was going to hit somewhere behind the midpoint of the car if he kept coming straight at us. I swerved to the left at the last moment trying to get more room between our left rear quarter panel and the deer. It was a good effort but the goofball never slowed down and we caught his head inside the left rear wheel opening. It sounded like a glancing blow but we still hit him, or actually, he hit us. I pulled over and stopped as soon as I could to exchange insurance information with him but of course it was a hit a run. While I was glad he was able to run off I am sure he had a heck of headache the next morning. Pearl, Cindy's named her for her Rav, was fine as the rubber trim piece just had a smudge from where the deer hit it so all was good.
 We had been so lucky that evening for several reasons. The rain held off, the wind kept blowing, the deer did not run out a few seconds sooner, and we got to share such a wonderful experience of our first night sail with each other. As we drifted off to sleep I held my best friend tightly in arms, kissed her gently on her forehead, and said "Thank you Babe, I love you"...

Enjoying our Memory Maker

7-1-2015

 El Nino must be in full swing as we have had a daily threat of rain and storms since we launched our Memory Maker. Even with the rain threats we have tried every chance we can get to run over to the lake and raise sails. Some trips are more productive than others as several times we have arrived only to get rained on as soon as we get there or get a tornado warning on my phone for just south of our location. We elect not to sail on nights with tornado warnings, erring on the side of caution LOL. One night we could have sailed, had someone, sadly that was me, not went off and forgotten the rudder he had taken home to make a modification to. Hate it when that happens...
 But even with all the rain delays we have been making the best use of our Memory Maker and her new slip. We both really enjoy just being able to walk to the boat, hop on, load the cooler, uncover the sails, fire up the motor, untie and go sail. It is just awesome in fact! No more rigging sails, hooking up to the trailer, extending the tongue, launching the boat, driving back with the trailer, picking Cindy up at the dock, then doing it all in reverse again when we get back.
 When we have not been sailing or working on the house, I have been busy preparing our dingy for next summers North Channel adventure. At first Cindy thought I was crazy wanting to put a small outboard motor on the Walmart rubber boat that Bill and I had used to fish out of in Michigan. It had not been used since we got back from that trip so finally I had a reason to blow it up and dust it off. We lucked out and found the ideal motor about 40 minutes to our west on Craig's list. It is a small, as in 10 lbs, 2 stroke air cooled outboard. We ran over to get it and the lady we bought it from said her husband was upset as she priced it too cheap. It was in good shape but I saw there was a repair to the gas tank. We bought it and brought it home. It fire up and ran but leaked fuel which really stunk up my Tracker for several days.
 The gas tank repair was easy and is good as new now. Getting it to run properly took a bit of work as I had to take the carb off and clean it 4 times but finally I got all the hidden dirt and varnish blown out and now she starts on the first pull most of the time!

Once the motor was all dialed in I started on the motor mount for the dingy. Cindy still had her doubts at this point but I think she was starting to warm up to the idea of dingy cruises around the islands in the North Channel.

 First thing to do was to make a floor for the raft so it would be more stable and give me a place to attach the motor mount. One piece of 1/2 ply later we had a floor and she is very stable now. So much so I can see fly fishing out of her, standing up!!!



Here I am testing it our in Dottie's pool just shortly after we had opened it for the season. Hopefully all that chlorine she just dumped in the pool does not eat the dingy! Once the floor was fitted it was time to make the motor mount legs. Not having a way to bend EMT tubing I resorted to welding together cut pieces as I could get premade 90 degree transitions and I already had the tube I needed. A few hours later and we had a motor mount legs!

 So far so good. Just need to add the board to mount the Cruise and Carry on then she would be ready for her maiden voyage under outboard power. It was late and I was hungry so it would have to wait till the next day. Plus I needed screws to attach the board to the mount legs.
 The next morning after a quick trip to the hardware store and few minutes in the shop making a motor mount board the moment of truth had arrived. I carried the dingy down to our small pond and then attached the motor. After sinking up to my knee in a hole in the dam of the pond as I shoved off, more on that later, I was ready to fire her up. With one pull of the rope she roared to life, as much as 25 cc's of water muffled two stroke power can roar to life LOL! All was good so I engage the transmission and off I went. Did I mention our pond is small? Plus thanks to the hole in the dam I fell in during the launch the water was down a bit. So all I could do was one tight circle over and over again in the middle of the pond. It is so small I could not even get the motor off idle as it just went too fast! After a quick video to prove that it worked it was time to go to back to shore. Ok, I was getting dizzy from so many circles. Here she is after her maiden powered voyage

 Remember me saying how Cindy was slow to warm up to the whole dingy idea? Well after seeing proof with the video she was singing a new tune. So much so she asked if would take her grandson for ride in it when they got back home. Amazing how seeing truly is believing.
 With the dingy project a success I turned my attention back to installing our solar powered vent fan in the Memory Maker. Cindy was unable to go over with me as she was baby sitting her grandson as he got a new little sister the day before. He was clueless how much his life had just changed but I am pretty sure he has figured it out by now. So I loaded up the tools I need including the new hole saw bits Cindy picked up for me and headed to the lake. It only took about five minutes after I got there to realize I had screwed up again. Seems the directions I read online about how to install the fan were for the other fan I had been considering. It took a 4 1/4" hole while the one I bought took a 4 1/2" hole, Argghhh. So needless to say there was no fan install that night as I did not have a 4 1/2" hole saw. I started to just button her up and head back home but it was a nice evening, there was a nice breeze, and it seemed like such a shame to not got out for a quick sail.
 Having never sail single handed before this was going to be new for me but I really thought I could do it. It just took a few minutes to get things ready and soon I was motoring out of the slips. I took some precautions to make sure I returned to the slips with the boat. I threw a 25 foot long deck line out off the port stern cleat. In case I feel overboard I could swim over and grab it instead of letting the boat sail off without me. I just flipped the fenders up on the deck instead of bringing them in and I only planned on raising the main sail since the boat does not like going straight by itself. Soon I was raising the main and sailing into a beautiful sunset. It did not take long to figure out to do this successfully I would need some help in the form of some way to keep the tiller in place while I tended to other matters. So out of necessity I rigged up what I affectionately refer to as the Redneck Tiller Tamer

 OMG!!! Why had I not done this sooner???? Talk about making life so much easier!!! I was able to set a heading, then get up and do things without going for a wild ride like we would each time we would take our hand off the tiller for any amount of time longer than 5 seconds! Cindy was going to love this! Speaking of Cindy, I was really missing her. Sailing by myself was just boring once I got everything set up and the boat cleaned up. It was not long before I turned back and headed in. Making memories by myself is not near as much fun as making memories with Captain Cindy.
 The jib bag that I made has worked very well and since I did not raise the jib by myself it just rode along on the bow

 My first attempt at single handing went just fine and I returned our girl to her slip with no issues. After adding the tiller tamer I am pretty sure I could have raised the jib as well. I buttoned her all back up and installed the covers then headed for home.
 Cindy and I finally got a nice evening this past Monday and we headed for the lake like a couple of home sick angels. It was a perfect evening with a nice breeze out of the northwest which allowed us to sail on a beam reach down the long length of the lake to area we call the Narrows. The wind was blowing 10-12 mph with higher gusts so at Cindy's urging I reefed the main sail. With Cindy back at the helm we raised sails and headed for the land beyond the bend that we had only sailed to once before. It was like uncharted territory for us in a way. We clipped right along a beam reach making good progress down the lake. About a mile or so into the sail I remembered to start my tracking app so we could see how far and how fast we had gone. Here is a look at our sail path

 We pretty much ran a straight line on a beam reach out of the slips to the southwest till we got closer to the Narrows then the wind started to shift and we had to tack a couple of ties to get past the Narrows. Once past the point to Allen's creek we turned south and sailed down to the 4 Winds area before nasty clouds to our north made us turn back as it was going to be an hour or so back to the slip. It took a bit of tacking back and forth to  clear the Allen's creek point but once back into the Narrows we set course for the cove where our slip is at and sailed on a broad reach which turned into a running sail about half way back. To the non sailors looking at our track we look a bit lost and confused. To me that is a course line of beauty compared to what we normally have to sail. Most days when the wind is out of the southwest we have to tack back and forth a dozen times or more just to get to the boy scout camp cove we like to anchor in which is only about half way to the narrows. The wind shifts around so much on this lake due to the trees that what starts out as one heading soon turns into something else 45 degrees off the first one.
 The app I was using also tracks your speed. It showed us topping out at 6.43 mph. I know, that is not eye watering fast but considering the boat's listed hull speed is only 5.5 mph we were humming right along!!! I was surprised how slow it felt when we were running with the wind to our stern but it still showed us making better than 4 mph. It just seemed a lot slower as the wind was not in our face and since we were going with it we did not feel the full speed of the wind blowing past us from the stern.
 Cindy was at the tiller for the biggest part of the sail. I want to get her as much tiller time as possible so her comfort level and proficiency increase as much as possible. Cindy is still a bit apprehensive when the boat heels over much past 15 degrees. We are fine up past 30 and she will round up and plop down into the water between 40 and 45 degrees. Ideally we would get the best speed at between 15 and 20 degrees of heel. For the most part we ran between 10 ad 15 the majority of the time and she loved that but there were the occasional gust that would load the sail and heel us over a bit more. The idea is when that happens you want to keep the boat going straight by pulling on the tiller to counteract the wind trying to blow the bow off course. As the wind reduces back to a normal speed you want to release the pressure on the tiller to maintain your heading. If done right it is very smooth and no one knows the better. The boat will just heel over and then return back to the pre gust heel angle once it dies down. Cindy is doing much better now after another 3 hours at the tiller. She now keeps the main sheet tucked under her leg so it is right there as needed should she need to release the main sheet to reduce the heel. Bad things would happen when she would have to looked down to the cockpit floor then reach for the main sheet. Her short lil arms do not have much reach so she would have to slide down to reach it and with her other hand on the tiller the chances of holding it in place were slim to none. Several interesting moments were caused by that maneuver. Now with the main sheet tucked under her leg there is no more dropping of the head. Plus with her doing a much better job of holding a heading during a gust the overall ride is much smoother. Cindy really liked the tiller tamer and said it made things much easier as well.  I am very proud of her progress and I am really hoping she too will get to where she can single hand our girl soon.

 Here is my pretty lil Captain doing her thing. Luckily our sail came with a reef point built in as some of them did not. I used a much simpler procedure for reefing this time and it worked very well. I used our Nite Eyz Grip Ties to tie up the extra main sail around the boom and that worked really well too. I really thinking our boat is a floating promo for Nite Eyz and there Grip Ties as we use them everywhere for everything. They are awesome and very handy to have on hand.
 I practiced a heave to again and showed Cindy how it is done. On the way back once we entered the Narrows I had Cindy heave to so I could un reef the sail since we were going to be running with the wind. The more sail the better in light winds and running like we were. Cindy had no problem getting the boat to settle down and just sit there calmly in the water using the heave to maneuver.
 All too soon we were back to the slips and I went about getting everything ready to dock. Cindy guided us into the slip with the prowess of a seasoned veteran of several around the world voyages. We went about our task of securing our girl to the slip and getting her all tucked in from a wonderful sail. On the ride home we laughed another good old laugh about our first sailing lesson with Capt Scott and how much we learned what not to do!!!

Fianlly Sailing again!!!

6-17-2015

While at times I wondered if I would ever get the boat back on the water this season it finally happened and we got to get her wet for the first tie this past Saturday. While we had hoped on getting to the lake early, my work (hate that word), prevented that from happening. So instead of stepping and rigging the boat in the cooler morning temps it was straight up noon by the time we pulled into the Paynetown boat ramp.
 We made it look like we knew what we were doing and it only took us about 35 mins to step the mast and rig the boat. Last season when we took the boat home we dropped the mast using a line connectedd to the forestay cable then ran through the nose tied down ring back to the cockpit jib pulley with Cindy holding the lien helping to control the rate of descent of the mast. So we did that again to raise the mast and it was so much easier than both of us up on top of the boat trying to raise it. Once I got it lifted off the mast crutch Cindy started pulling and I just walked it up. Took longer to tighten the stays and shrouds than it did anything else.
 This was our first launch from this ramp and I can already tell you I do not like it as well as the Moores Creek ramp we used last year. Not only is it busier but it lines up with the prevailing winds making the wind more of a factor. Then throw in the fact that the water is not as deep there and you have to be careful with a deep draft boat.
 We launched with out any issues and Cindy took the trailer up to park then I was going to pick her up at the dock by the ramp. While I was out motoring around in circles waiting on my lil lady's return I discovered I made a bit of goof when I re installed the jib cleats. Always before I would throw a fender over the side in front of the aft starboard life line stanchion then cleat it off in the jib cleat. Well it is a spring loaded jam cleat and three times I put the fender line in it and three times it fell right out. I about lost the fender the last time so I had to stop and figure out what was going on. After a few tries it dawned on me. I had the cleats backwards. The would keep lines tight in the cockpit but not over board. Oops. So I picked Cindy up and told her I would have to switch those around. As we motored away from the dock it hit me, I forgot my tool bag in the 4 Runner. Turned around and dropped Cindy off at the dock to go get it for me. Well, in the mean time I had already dropped the rudder blade thinking we were going sailing. I forgot to raise it and when I dropped Cindy off at the dock I hit a rock with the rudder as I pulled away. Darn shallow water! Luckily the rudder blade kicked up like it should have so no damage done. I raised the blade for the next pick up.
 Cindy returned, tool bag in hand, and I picked her up. I turned the helm over to the Captain and I got busy changing the cleats around. The advantage of long arms is that I could reach around inside the cabin and hold the fasteners myself and was able to change them both around in about 5 mins. Problem solved. Time to raise the sails!
 With Cindy at the helm I hopped up on the top deck and raised the main then the jib. We had good wind and in no time we were sailing! Here is my proud lil Captain at the helm of her shiny lil boat

 

 It felt good to finally be back under sail and scooting across the lake again. She sailed great, just like she had before but now I think there was more of  sense of pride within us as we had taking the ugly duckling and turned her into a very pretty little sailboat we could be proud of. We knew her well last year, we new her even better this year as we had literally taken every piece of her apart and put her back together. It was a long project full of frustration at times but we made it and now were getting to enjoy all that hard work.

 Cindy is the reason I am sailing or even writing this blog. Without her and her contagious enthusiasm for having fun I can't imagine how boring my life would be today. She was totally understanding when it came to all the long nights I spent out in the garage working on our girl and more importantly she was very accepting of changes to the plan as we ran into problem after problem. In the end we wound up meeting our goals of having a pretty blue sailboat that we both like and enjoy. Like so much of what we do it is not so much about the destination as it is the fun we have along the way. I can't say all of the painting process was fun but yet I enjoyed it. I like to think I learned some new lessons that I hopefully do not forget. I think Cindy learned a lot as well, like don't paint another boat!!! It is sad but a lot of boats like ours will just get thrown away at some point because not everyone wants to spend 250 hours rebuilding them or has the ability to do so. It is cost prohibitive to have the work done as there are other used boats they could buy that would cost less than the cost to repair. At close to 40 grand for a new boat likes ours with similar features there was no way that was in our budget. I had the ability, and now I have a wonderful lady in my life who will back me up and support me projects such as this and that means the world.

 We sailed back and forth across Lake Monroe for probably a couple of hours giving Cindy time to get used to the boat heeling again. As the afternoon went on with the sun shining down through the clouds it got pretty darn warm so it was time to take our new rubber coated anchor forward and drop her in so we could go for a swim. I let Cindy jump in first so I could gauge the temperature of the water from her reaction. She did not come up gasping for air so I followed her in. Wow! The water is already warmer this year than it got all last season. We splashed around a bit then got back in to relax a bit before sailing off.

 After our little break we took back off across the lake and I turned on the tracking app on my phone to get a speed check. Surely she was faster now with new bottom paint. Not that it really matter because in a small sailboat you are going no where fast. We topped out at 6.7 mph on one closed hauled run. I have no way to compare that to last years performance but that is pretty darn good for a 20 foot sailboat.

 Several times last year I would look down in the water and think I found someone's line floating in the water only to discover it was actually our jib or main halyard that had slipped overboard and was getting drug behind us in the water. Well this year I came up with a solution to loosing them

 I love the Nite Eyz Grip Ties. We use them for all sorts of things from tieing up the main sail when it is down to securing the gas bottle to the rear pulpit when we cook on the grill. They are handier than a shirt pocket. Now no more lost lines over the side.
 It was getting close to dinner time or so my stomach was telling me so. We headed north back into the Moores Creek area to cook our dinner. Along the way we sailed past our slip neighbors who keep their Hunter 23 a few slips down from us. They have one of the few boats I can tell who it is from a mile away because of the portholes they added down below the rub line in the V birth area. They really stand out being that low. We had came over to check out slip about a month back and spoke with them as they were coming into their slip. They were really happy with keeping their boat there and that made us feel better about our decision to get a slip there as well. We said hello and re introduced ourselves as we sailed past. They and their friends in a Catalina 27 both said how nice the Memory Maker looked on the water. We were proud boat owners to hear that.

 After anchoring and getting the grill going I turned around to see Cindy raising the pop top. I started forward to help but before I got there she slipped and it dinged her in the head as it came back down on top of her. I grabbed it and got he weight off her then put it up. I checked on my lil Captain and she said she was fine but that it hurt. I thought it would leave a mark the next day myself as she took a pretty good hit.

 While I cooked dinner Cindy stretched out on a cockpit cushion in the sun. She was asleep in no time. Between the long travel day on Tuesday, being sick, and having to work she had not been sleeping well so I knew she had to be tired. I did a little fishing off the stern while the baked potatoes cooked on the grill. We were anchored about 50-60 feet off the shoreline and there was a log laying in the water along the shore that I thought looked like an ideal place for a fish to be hiding. Problem was that after getting my lure snagged on the stays an shrouds several times last season I did not have enough line left on my real to reach the log with my lure. Add fishing line to the get list. I probably could have reached it with my fly rod but fly fishing on a sail boat just isn't in your best interest.

 After checking radar as I heard thunder off in the distance, it was time to throw the meat on the grill for the first dinner aboard for the 2015 sailing season.

 

 

 We keep pre seasoned pork tenderloins in the freezer ready for the cooler during the sailing season. They usually thaw out while we sail, are easy to cook on the grill, and are very tasty. We just grab a bag of them and we are off. Makes getting ready to go to the boat quick and easy.

 Dinner was done to it was time to wake up Miss Sleepy Head. We enjoyed the view out of our new windows as we sat at the table to eat dinner. Nothing like having dinner onboard the boat. Food just taste better for some reason. While she may be small at only 20 feet it is really pretty comfy for a couple who likes each other. As we ate we discussed adding a small tv/dvd player to the aft cabin wall so we could watch movies and the news when we over night aboard her.

 As we were finishing up dinner it started to sprinkle then drizzle, before it rained a brief shower. We just dropped the top, slide the top hatch back and crawled up in the v birth to take a little break. I knew by looking at radar it would not last long so we just enjoyed bobbing up and down in the water as the waves gently rocked the Memory Maker against her anchor line. Had it lasted another 5 minutes we both would have been asleep and we would have probably woke up there the next morning. We both can't wait till we can overnight on her again.

 The rain stopped and the sun came back out not too long after it started. Now the sails were wet but the best way to dry them out is to sail so raised them and away we went! As Cindy set course for our the cove where our slip is located I dried off the top deck and got her ready to dock. It was a beautiful evening sail with nice wind a double rainbow in the eastern sky, the second double rainbow we had seen in as many days. How often does that happen?

 

 We got to extend our sailing time a bit longer as we tacked across the lake hoping we could tack back and sail into the cove but the wild lulled on us and it was time to fire up old trusty. We motored into the slips and tied our girl up in her new summer home. After putting the new cockpit cover on I had just made we took a quick pic of her all tucked in for the night

 

 She looks so small in the slip but they only came in one size. She will be fine as she her big sister, a Hunter 26 is sitting across from her keeping watch

 

After checking in at the boat house and finding out we need to get one more sticker for the port side of the hull we headed for home. It had been a long fun day and we were so glad to be back on the water again in our Memory Maker!!!!







New paint for the Memory maker, part 3

6-16-2015
 With our girl back at home in our garage work could begin in earnest to get the new paint on her. The clock was ticking and I only had little over a month to get all the white painted, the hull striped, and put her all back together. Could I get it done and how much sleep do I really need?
 First thing was first. I had to get a urethane epoxy primer sealer on all the repaired areas. While expensive and a mess to apply this is awesome primer that will fill 80 grit sand scratches. Luckily I had some left over from previous projects so I did not have to buy it. Good news as our budget was about at its limit already. Here she is primed.

 I had just enough to cover all the areas I needed to so I really lucked out there because at a 100 bucks a quart I was not buying anymore of that stuff!
 We used a Dupont automotive single stage urethane enamel paint because I wanted this to last longer than the 3-5 years they say the boat paint will last. While it last much longer it also much more hazardous to spray so we had to make sure we had the correct gear. Cindy loved the stylish look I had her decked out in

 I liked to never got her out of it that night LOL!!!
 We finally lucked out and the day we wanted to spray the white on the hull and other parts the weather actually cooperated and we had great conditions. The wind even blew the right direction to keep the over spray off the house and garage. After a busy afternoon of masking and prepping for paint we finally had a white boat!!!

 That was a big step done but there is still more to do and the days are winding down. At this point there are only about 20 days left till we launch. Starting to sweat a little bit.
 After the white dried it was time to finish the bottom paint and start prepping for the stripes. The bottom paint went on well and by the end of the weekend it was done.

 Now is about the time that my luck would run out. Always before I have always tried to keep things as simple as I can to prevent what was about to happen but for some crazy reason I let caution go to the wind and paid dearly for it.
 I used to paint motorcycle tanks and used to use cut stencils to paint on the logos. Well my source for the stencil material passed away so I had a friend of ours  cut stencils for our name out of decal material. Lesson number one, decal material is not stencil material!!! I got everything positioned and started spraying the blue

But the slick stencil material made the paint run off like water! Plus not only that but the adhesive on the back of the material was not paint safe and it reacted with the paint! It was a disaster about to only get worse.
 Thinking it was bad but salvageable I decided to proceed that same night with painting the gray stripe. Huge mistake. While trying to carefully mask over the blue without getting in it the wind blew the paper right into the still tacky blue paint. The result, well, it was how shall I say, game over?

It stuck like super glue and pulled a large area of paint off with the paper. I got that familiar sick feeling in my stomach when things go really really wrong. I am proud though, I was able to control myself to the point that I did not have a full on nuclear meltdown in the driveway. I knew I had screwed up and it was all my fault. Cindy could tell I was about to blow and made herself scarce for a while. All I could do was push her back in the garage and go get a beer. It would have to dry before I could do anything to fix it. Clock is really ticking now...
 I barely slept that night and about 4 am I had to go to the garage. The name looked horrible, there was no saving that mess. If I could get it off the hull I could at least save myself from having to repaint the white. So very carefully I scraped it off with a razor blade and then compounded the rest off. There was no saving the Hunter 20 logo. It was just too far gone as well

 It just looked like you had on fuzzy glassed when you looked at it. The place where the paper pulled the paint off was going to have to be feather edged sanded and repainted as well. So basically I was going to have to repaint all the blue. Ugh. Oh well, no time to cry, I had a lot of wet sanding to do.
 It took a few days to get it ready for attempt number two and I had to change the plans of having a white stripe between the blue and gray stripes due to paint bleed under the masking tape. But by Friday evening I reshot the blue and the gray came the next day.

 It turned out much better and although I can see every lil mistake in it Cindy was very happy with it and that is all that matters. We would later add a white reflective vinyl stripe between the blue and gray and talk about something that jumps out at you in the dark!

 Maybe it will keep us from getting ran over on the water some night.
 During this whole process I added a few custom touches to the pop top and companionway slider as well. I added the name to the rear face of the pop top

 And the words no step to the top of the companionway slider because it is the weakest part of the whole boat!

 It was time to start putting her all back together which seemed like it took forever. Every part had to be cleaned and all the old sealer removed. Then new sealer applied, the part re installed, then the extra sealer had to be cleaned off. I worked on that for several late nights till it was time to make her the Memory Maker again

 Work continued on while Cindy was out in Havasu visiting with her sister and friends. I worked every night till at least 11 pm trying to get everything back together as I was down to the wire.
 Our old side windows were original and very crazed. My original plan of removing the old plexi and installing new failed when I broke the frame in half. It was too brittle to come apart. So I just made new side windows out of tinted plex

 Of course my drill press would have to stick it to me by jumping the stop as I countersunk the screw holes. The bit dug into the plex and just shattered a bit chunk right out of it. Argh.... Lady luck is not on my side at this point.
 The port hole windows are really nice in that they open which is rare for a boat this size. But they were either smoked or really hazed because you could not see through them. Knowing how dirty glass can make a car or boat look dirty I was not going to put them back in that way. So after a hour of wet sanding and polishing I think they looked much better

 Huge improvement!
 At night I would work in the shop on the all the teak wood and new companionway boards. I changed the boards into three pieces instead of 2 to make them smaller to store.

Now I just need to make birth plywood match teak. That ought to be real easy, NOT! After seeing where the water came in at last summer I made a change to the companionway slider top rails by removing the wood along the bottom of them between the screws that held the rails to the pop top. This will allow the water that lands on top of the slider and pop top to run off right under the rails instead of getting trapped on top and then running over into the cabin.

 Once I had all I could put on the boat back on with her still in the garage it was time to paint the remaining few pieces. While there were not many it took one very long night to get them all apart and ready for paint. The next day it was a exercise in creativity trying to get all the parts hung up so I could shoot the white.

 I like to think of it as a red neck jungle gym LOL! It looked goofy but worked great. Had to laugh thinking about how our neighbors would re act if we lived in town...
 With just a few days to go I worked on relocating  battery to the very forward hatch area in the v birth to better balance the boat and get some more storage room in the keel locker. It was a tight squeeze but after making a shelf to sit it on the battery slid right into place in it's new home

 with minimal trimming of the opening.

 Once all the parts dried it was time to get serious and get this boat back together. More late nights and early mornings plus a few afternoons off from work and she was all but done. I had a good friend of ours come out and help me re install the front and rear pulpits and step the mast the night before Cindy got back. My plan was to have the spreader bar lights on and shining down on her as we drove up the driveway in the dark as the original plan was to pick Cindy up at about 4 am. But they ran late and the sun was up by the time we got back home so this is what she saw instead.

 

 The Memory Make is almost ready to head to the lake in this pic. It took one more evening to install the life line stanchions and the lifelines, then put the trailer winch stand and spare tire back on.

 I did not make the proposed launch date of June 10th but I could have. Cindy had to work a couple of days so between that and the fact that she came home sick we moved the launch back to that next Saturday, the 13th. That gave me time to make a new cockpit cover for her so she can stay clean and dry in her new slip! Time to take a break and enjoy our almost new boat!!!!

New paint for the Memory Maker, part 2

6-16-2015
 I know, it took me a while to get time to write part 2. I knew it would be a long project painting our sailboat but how long I may have underestimated just a bit. As of today she is on the water floating in her slip, after about 250 hours of my time. But I am getting ahead of myself. Where did I leave off?
 I believe I was just getting ready to start stripping the bottom of the latex paint covering the copper hull paint. Since we are going to leave her slipped all summer we decided we needed actual marine paint on the bottom to avoid that nasty lake Monroe scum ring disease that boats get there. But in order to put the new Hyrdocoat blue bottom paint on all the old paint had to come off. Now for the fun work, not...

 After coating the paint with a striper I was able to scrape it off, a 1 1/2" at a time with a razor scraper. That only took 4 evenings to do. Nothing like getting all this copper paint stuck to your clothes and skin. Amazing how well the copper transferred to my skin. Even more surprising was how hard it was too scrub off.

Even once it was scraped off it still left the hull colored. That made it easy to tell where I sanded and where I needed to.
 Once all the bottom that I could reach with her on the trailer was all scraped free of paint and sanded it was time to get her off the trailer so I could strip the rest of the paint and pull the keel for sandblasting and new paint.
 Luckily Cindy's sister, who lives across the road, offered us the use of her concrete pad in front of her garage which was large enough and level. It is protected from the wind by large trees so it made a great place to remove her from the trailer.

 

 Here she is up on blocks and supported. I had read several stories of concrete blocks breaking and boats falling on their owners so I too extra precaution and inserted 4x4 wood pieces inside the blocks to carry the load and then mad a set of boat stand pads to help support it while we worked on it.
 Once I had the boat off the trailer it was time to modify my motorcycle jack and convert it into a keel jack.

 A few pieces of scrap steel and 15 mins of welding and I had my very own keel jack! The jack worked sweet but there was one small problem I did not see coming. The keel was taller than I thought it would be so the boat was sitting about 2" too low to get the keel clear of the keel trunk. I had to jack it up a few inches at the bow to get enough clearance to remove the keel.

 

 

 Here is the old rusty keel once I finally got to clear the boat and roll out from under her. It weighs 400 lbs and it is a bit nose heavy. Luckily I guessed the positioning of the jack in the right position so it balanced perfectly.

 The keel is held into the boat with four 3" long countersunk machine screws that come up through the hull of the boat. The two on the port side came right out but the two on the starboard side I had to drive out with a pin punch and hammer. Once I got them out I could see why.

 

 

 The keel must have had a heck of a side load placed on it at some point in the last 35 years to bend these two stainless 5/16" machine screws!

 With the keel out I could finally see up into the keel trunk and find the source of the mystery leak that I fought all last season. It did not take me long to pin point the issue.

 

Someone in the past had set the trailer up wrong and instead of the boat being supported by the bunk boards the boat was sitting on the board under the keel with the bunk boards just there to stabilize the boat. Through the years the boat had vibrated on top of the keel long enough to wear through the gel coat and into the fabric. Once that happened the water just migrated it's way where ever it could. That is why I never could get the leak to stop.

 Repairing the damage with the keel out was straightforward epoxy and glass work.







 

While the repairs dried I sanded the whole bottom of the boat and prepped it for the bottom paint. I could only paint the very bottom as I wanted the white hull paint to wrap around and under the blue bottom paint as it would be much easier to paint the bottom paint over the white enamel than the opposite way around. It was not long and we had color going on the bottom of our boat!

During this time I loaded our rusty keel up and took it north about 20 mins to a friend of mine and we blasted the keel to remove all the old rust and barnacles.

 

 We used a very coarse grit blasting sand that the people who painted the water towers in Rocky's county had given him. It made quick work of the rusty old keel and a few hours later I was home spraying epoxy primer on the keel. 24 hours later and we had a blue keel!

 

 Over all I was very impressed with how the boat was built. Instead of a steel keel pin in a steel bracket  wearing out ad breaking off our boat has it's steel pin encased in a thick ploy tube to prevent metal to metal contact.

 

 there was a small amount of wear on the poly tube but not enough to warrant replacement. So I greased it up after I painted the keel and re installed it back into the boat with 4 new machine screws and a new keel winch line, although not in the order I had hoped for. Due to storms being forecasted I wanted to get the boat back on the trailer asap and with the new keel line not being scheduled to be delivered till the middle of the next week I elected get the boat back on the trailer and change the line later. So what would have taken 5 mins wound up taking 2 hours but at least I can change ours on the trailer. a lot of boats you can't and had someone not cut an access window in the port side of our keel trunk we would not have been able to either.

 But before I could put her back on her trailer the trailer itself needed some attention. The carpet on the bunk boards was shot and I wanted to modify the arrangement of the boards to better allow us to load the boat. So I spent most of one whole day replacing, modifying, and carpeting the bunk boards and fighting with all the old rusted nuts and bolts! But it turned out really nice and I think the extended v between the center boards will really help with lining the keel up with the keel slot when we load her.

 

 

 Once the trailer rehab was done I was able to load the boat back on to the trailer by myself  in about 15 mins. After seeing what I needed to change when I took it off I was able to reload it much easier. Here you can see the keel in the slot

 

The bottom that is not painted will get painted after I shoot the white and wrap it down under the water line. Here is our girl all loaded up and ready to head home to complete her transformation.

 

 Although there was still a lot of work left to be done at this point I felt like I might actually make our proposed launch date of June 10th which was just a month away at this point. Little did I know just how much work was left to do...