To Go or Not to Go

Since buying the new house and having all that comes with making your house your own. We have spent ourselves to a point of being uncomfortable with our current level of savings. This summer sneaked up on us so fast! It is only June and we have had one of the warmest summers on record. March we had 80s and June we have had many days in the 90s already. This has materialized itself into a costly summer so far as we have been driving the boat every weekend burning fuel. It has been fun too though, I can not lie.

We have considered not doing our yearly trip across the big lake due to all the money we do not have at the moment, and the fact that my job is not all that secure right now. In fact, if I were to advise anyone on what to do in my situation, it would be NOT to do what we are about to do. But, you only live once and who knows what tomorrow will bring, right?

The destination will be completely different this year. Even the starting point will be new. We are going to take the boat to Sheboygan, WI and go over to Grand Haven, MI as long as mother nature cooperates. The schedule is set for the week of July 20th-29th. If the wind and waves do not allow us to do that we may just hang out on the WI side, and visit some cities on that side. However, I do hope we can make it across, Grand Haven, MI looks very nice and would love to spend a few days there click here The big difference with this trip is it is being planed for one city. In the past we have bounced around so much in an attempt to see as much as we can.  Not this year however. There is a possibility of being forced to go north on the Michigan side to shorten the cross. If the weather is sketchy on the way back I may opt to go north first to where the lake is narrower. Only time and mother nature will tell.

 

Getting ready to splash!

Always Starboard came home this morning! The day was spent bottom painting.  This was the first time I have attempted to do this task.  Actually, not as bad as I thought.  I was planning on having this done professionally this spring and called around last fall to get an idea of the cost and details.  It ranged from $850 - 2,500!  We had worked out that the bottom paint and some fiberglass repair at the same shop and had planned on calling him up this spring.  Well, this did not happen, and it was mainly due to moving recently.  Over the winter we sold our house and moved in to a new place at the end of March. Needless to say we have had plenty of miscellaneous expense and have plans for some cosmetic updates through-out the house, so money is tight.  This job was physically strenuous, but I do not think at my age and physical condition is worth having someone else do it for even $800.  It took my about 4 hrs. Granted I did not get all the way under the boat, but it was good enough for what we wanted.  Maybe I will find some jack stands so that I can do it off the trailer some time.

Last season before putting her away I did perform the impeller repair and thank goodness I did not put this out any further. They were toast.  About half the blades were missing or damaged.  I replaced both without incident. I wish I could say the same for the rest of the winterization. I had one mess up.  I pulled the wrong plug on my generator.  This was not the first time I had done this, however, as soon as the fluid released I realized what I had done.  In my urgency to replace the plug to avoid all the antifreeze leaving the cooler and reservoir I dropped the plug in an attempt to thread it back in. I quickly bent into multiple contortions trying to locate the plug in the bilge, but failed to find the damn thing before all the fluid had drained.  I then spent hours attempting to find it and was not successful.  I will be ordering the plug tomorrow.

I purchased one new battery (one of four).  I hope this was not a bad idea to only to replace the one and not as a pair.  Only time will tell.  I just have to put the batteries in and put her in the water.  Launching it can be a task in itself as I need to put up the radar dome and put up all the canvas so we may just be waiting until next weekend.  Oh almost forgot...I don't think I filled up before we put her away....this will be a treat to fill up at fuel cost over $4.00 a gallon at the local stations.  Cant wait to see what the no ethanol on water prices are!

Winterization: Time to Put Her Away

I am, and am not looking forward to putting Always Starboard away for the winter.  I am, because boating is expensive, especially for us weekend warriors!  We attempt to pack so much into a weekend and our season seems so short.  I am not happy, because winter is always so cold, dark and long....

This year we are pulling out earlier to do the work when it is not so cold.  I have always tried to extend the season to the last possible day and it inevitably gets cold and cleaning and winterization is horrible in the cold.  We also are going to attempt to have the boat all waxed and ready for next season. This is something we also always procrastinate on and do in the spring.  There are some things I am going to wait for spring to do. One is the impellers, but I can do that in the slip next spring. I have never changed them on this boat and are well over due I am sure.  I have not seen any change in the engine temps, but I want to do them as preventative.  When you finally do see it in the engine temps you are too late and are doing damage to components. 

It will be nice to have the boat all ready with the wax on her for spring. It is always a gamble with the weather.  This year we had to wait out the snow.  I never thought I was going to have to wait for it to stop snowing when the boat was at the house to begin waxing it.  We were also hurrying to get a cockpit cover we bought over the winter installed, so we could keep the snow out. Ah the joys of Wisconsin weather....

Well, until I start thinking about projects or trips this may be it for awhile....see you next year.