New Neighbor?

In a story first reported on MLB.com, it appears that left fielder of the Milwaukee Brewers, Ryan Braun, is venturing into the restaurant industry. The name of his new establishment will be Ryan Braun's Waterfront Grill and will replace Fratello's Waterfront Restaurant, 102 N. Water St., in the Third Ward. This happens to be directly across the river from Jep. I'm not exactly sure what a left fielder knows about being a restaurateur, but if Brett Farve's Steakhouse in Milwaukee (which is now closed, by the way) is any indication of how well a professional athlete can manage in that industry, I'm not overly optimistic. Hopefully I'll be proven wrong.

A Slip Patiently Waiting in the Cold

After running some errands on Saturday, I thought I'd stop by the slip and do a little day dreaming. Looking at the countdown clock on the blog, there's only 73ish days until the launch! This assumes the boat is launched on May 15th. If at all possible, I would like to get in the weekend before. We'll see. I couldn't hang around and day dream for long because it was too dang cold!

As you can see from the picture, the floating fingers of the dock have been removed. There are slips further down the river that are left in year round, which is surprising given the amount of ice that moves down the river in the winter months. As of now, I do not know my exact slip assignment. I'm hoping to be somewhere in the middle. Either way, it's a huge improvement over EZ Storage!

Readin' and Day Dreamin'

I can honestly read this over and over. The author of the article does a terrific job articulating the story about crossing Lake Michigan. Their trip over to Michigan sounded very similar to our crossing last year for the Queens Cup. It's tough to describe the feeling of being in the middle of Lake Michigan at 3 a.m. with calm seas and 10 knots of wind.

Every time I read this I can't help but imagine the quintessential moment of the Queens Cup. It was around 3:30 a.m. Half of the crew was below deck taking a cat nap while the rest of us were keeping our eyes on the wind and sails. I was sitting on the port side of the boat in the cockpit as we were on a port tack. It was about 50 degrees and dew was forming on my foulies. As my eyes were getting heavy, the song "Sailing" by Christopher Cross came on the radio. The timing was impeccable! The night was clear and the stars were amazing. I sat there and drank it all in - along with my PBR!

Crossing Lake Michigan

Lake Effect Snow...Awesome...errrrr

This picture was taken in the EXACT same location as the picture in the post below, "Spring Planning Begins." The emotional roller coaster Mother Nature puts those of us in the Midwest through this time of year is like a Wile E. Coyote cartoon where he's walking through the desert and thinks he sees a pond and runs to take a big drink of water but ends up drinking sand! Today, without any warning we were hit with a lake-effect snow storm. Anyone feel like drinking sand? Beep Beep!

Halyard Organizer Plate Has Arrived!

As I alluded in my previous post, one of the projects planned for the spring is to install a halyard organizer plate. The main reason to install this piece of hardware is to allow additional blocks to attach to the base of the mast so that all control lines can route back to the cockpit. Currently, only the main and jib halyards run back to the cockpit. There is a bolt that runs through the base of the mast / mast step plate to ensure the mast doesn't bounce around while under sail. There are 2 blocks ghetto-rigged to this bolt that allow the halyards to come back to my cam cleats. The halyard organizer plate will go UNDER the mast step plate and bolt to the deck. This will give me the ability to attach more blocks than Jep could ever use at the base of the mast!

I purchased the halyard organizer plate through Garhauer Marine. It's top quality, high-polished 316 stainless steel. The only drawback is that I'll have to drill 4 holes at the base to attach this sucker to the deck (under the mast step plate). Drilling through stainless isn't exactly like drilling through wood, aluminum, or even regular steel. Luckily I have some very resourceful friends! Don't worry, if you cannot visualize I'll be sure to post pictures once the install is complete.

Spring Planning Begins

The weather last week has got me thinking of the endless spring projects I have to complete on the boat. For the first time in God-knows-how-long, mother nature gave us a couple days of sun last week! While I have to walk 40 feet to actually see outside at the ol' ore-i-fice, I do have a direct line to a window when I have to print out spreadsheets or make copies. During the summer, the view can be painful!

When I first started authoring this post, I had Bill O'Reilly on in the background. The subject matter was quite intriguing. However, it just didn't feel right posting to my blog and not have Kenny Chesney, Zac Brown Band, or Jimmy Buffett cranking on the Dell! It took 30 seconds after turning on Kenny before I made a b-line to the fridge and got a Leiny Sunset Wheat!

Enough about that.

It's a harsh reality realizing you're a loser. Stay with me. A few nights ago I opened the Excel spreadsheet I use to keep track of all boat additions and their related costs. The workbook contains detailed information such as a description of the item or hardware, total cost, where purchased, date purchased, etc. After reading down the list it became apparent that, like my blog, I had not updated my improvement log in quite some time. With boxes of boat crap and receipts in my large, walk in closet, I began to reconcile the list. Only a total loser would do what I did next. Looking at my improvement log, which is quite long, I thought, "Huh, wonder what my total spend is by retail location?" So, what would a Senior Finance Analyst do in this situation to quickly and accurately compile the data? Create a pivot table and pie chart, of course! Possibly the worst part of all, I actually enjoyed it and started screwing with the cell formats as if I were at work presenting some important financial data to my boss. Turns out 44% of the money I've spent on my boat has gone to West Marine. Lousy crooks!

Along with reconciling my boat improvement log, I also started a list of projects that need to be completed. While my mast is down, I am going to complete the following:

1. Install shore power
2. Barrier coat and bottom paint
3. Install and rig lazy jacks
4. Install halyard organizer plate
5. Rig new halyards and boom topping lift

Mast up:

1. Rewire the DC electrical system (will be quite easy, actually)
2. Repair coax VHF radio connection
3. Lay genoa track
4. Install deck organizers
5. Install new Spinlock cam-cleat

That's a pretty aggressive project list. The 2 main and most difficult projects will be the shore power and bottom paint. All of the other stuff I can do with a can of PBR once the boat in resting peacefully in her slip! Too bad I can't speed up that countdown clock!

Happy New Year!

Okay, so I'm a little late on the New Year front. I hope everyone had a safe and eventful holiday season!

Well, I had a hunch, but have confirmed beyond a reasonable doubt that Santa is a sailor! I mean, how else would he know to get me all of the terrific boat hardware that I definitely did not email my parents that I wanted...errr... Anyway, Jep got some great new stuff for Christmas, including Ronstan genoa track slides, Ronstan 2 sheave Series 40 deck organizers, new dock line, and everything I need to complete the shore power install. Spring is going to be quite busy!

In the spirit of the season, I decided to finally have t-shirts made for the boat. They made fantastic Christmas gifts! I had the shirts done at Rick's T-Shirts Southside. Rick is an ornery guy, but he did great work and was on time with the order. His prices were also more reasonable than the other shops in town where I received quotes. Check, check, and check! Don't worry, Rick is not paying me to praise his business! I had the shirts done in royal blue (same color as the canvas on the boat) with white ink. Unfortunately I gave all of the shirts away, but if I get enough interest, I'll put in another order.

I'll have to show off my new duds at this weeks O Dock party, hosted my the Captain of Corvus!

MAST Christmas Party

Last weekend was the MAST Christmas Party. The party was held at South Shore Yacht Club here in Milwaukee. We had approximately 95 people attend the event! The team who organized the party did a wonderful job!

As a quick note, every Friday in the summer I crew on s/v Blue Pearl (pictured) in the MAST (Mid America Sail and Trail) races. s/v Blue Pearl is a Beneteau First 405 and we are in the Grand Prix division. Including the captain, we have a crew of 6 on the Pearl. I am planning on registering Jep with MAST for 2010.

Anyway, we had a terrific time at the party. There was, of course, an open bar. However, they also had a free keg of Louie's Demise from the Milwaukee Ale House. Dinner was delicious. The party planning crew sent invitations out a month of 2 in advance allowing everyone to select their meal for the party. Three dishes were served: Salmon, chicken, and steak. I had the salmon and Stephanie had the chicken. Both were excellent!

Dinner was filled with stories of summer adventures from the past season. Of course, the story about Drew and I donating our breakfast to the Lake Michigan God's on our way from Muskegon, MI to Pentwater, MI got a few laughs. I'll embarrass myself in more detail soon. And what night would be complete without mentioning the Twin Moons over Pentwater? You need to rig a preventer for that thing! Again, I'll explain later!

After dinner, we all did what sailors do best: knock back a few more cocktails! A great time was had by all!