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!

New Addition to the Condo

I know, I know, this isn't about my boat or sailing. However, there is a nautical component to this post. Recently for my birthday, my parents had 2 nautical charts framed for me: Lake Michigan and Milwaukee Harbor (chart numbers 14901 and 14924, respectively). They are both 2009 NOAA charts. They add a nice touch to my humble abode!

OPEN LAKE FORECAST FOR LAKE MICHIGAN

"Does anyone know where the love of God goes when the waves turn the minutes to hours..." -Gordon Lightfoot, The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald

NOAA Lake Michigan open water forecast:

GALE WARNING IN EFFECT UNTIL 3 AM CST WEDNESDAY...
...STORM WARNING IN EFFECT FROM 3 AM CST WEDNESDAY THROUGH WEDNESDAY EVENING...
...GALE WARNING IN EFFECT FROM WEDNESDAY EVENING THROUGH LATE THURSDAY NIGHT...
.REST OF TONIGHT...EAST GALES TO 40 KT BECOMING SOUTHEAST STORM FORCE WINDS TO 50 KT. SNOW...OCCASIONALLY MIXED WITH RAIN OR SLEET. WAVES 14 TO 18 FT.
.WEDNESDAY...SOUTHEAST GALES TO 45 KT VEERING TO WEST STORM FORCE WINDS TO 50 KT. RAIN THROUGH MID MORNING. SNOW IN THE MORNING...
THEN CHANCE OF SNOW IN THE AFTERNOON. WAVES 12 TO 16 FT BUILDING TO 14 TO 18 FT IN THE AFTERNOON.
.WEDNESDAY NIGHT...NORTHWEST STORM FORCE WINDS TO 50 KT BECOMING WEST GALES TO 40 KT. CHANCE OF SNOW SHOWERS IN THE EVENING...THEN SNOW SHOWERS OVERNIGHT. WAVES 14 TO 18 FT.
.THURSDAY...WEST GALES TO 40 KT. CHANCE OF SNOW SHOWERS. WAVES 14 TO 18 FT.
.THURSDAY NIGHT...WEST GALES TO 40 KT. CHANCE OF SNOW SHOWERS. WAVES 14 TO 18 FT.
.FRIDAY...WEST GALES TO 35 KT DIMINISHING TO 30 KT. WAVES 12 TO 16 FT.

Not exactly conditions that make for an ideal sail! The wind is howling like hell out there right now! It's still 34 degrees Fahrenheit so lets hope most of the snow melts before the temperature drops. What I wouldn't do for an 85 degree day with an icy cold PBR and a 10 knot breeze off my beam!

Note regarding the picture: This is an image from weather.com

Jep is getting shore power for 2010

The national weather service issued a winter strom watch today for Tuesday and Wednesday. The greater Milwaukee area is expected to get a little snow this week. Oh joy!

I can only speak for myself in this regard, but I've found that surviving the winter is much easier if you periodically buy project materials for your boat so you can day dream about installing in the spring. It's funny how big chores such as installing electrical components or refinishing wood seem really fun in December.

I have two major projects penciled in for the spring. The first and most difficult will be the bottom painting job. Since bottom paint and barrier coat has not gone on sale and won't until March or April, I'll have to hold off on buying the necessary material until then. The second major project I am going to undertake is installing a simple shore power system.

After doing some research on various boating forums, I came across one thread that was very helpful. Here is the link. One of the members described in detail a system that would be more than adequate for my application as all I want to add are a couple outlets and a single bank on board battery charger.

The first thing I need is a shore power inlet. I bought a standard Marinco 30A 125V shore power inlet from Amazon.com. It's heavy duty white plastic with a stainless steel insert on the flip up cover. It should look quite nice. I haven't decided on a mounting location yet, but I am leaning towards the very back of the foot well in the cockpit. I don't want to be stepping over the shore power cord every second when we are in the slip!

The next item I purchased is a circuit breaker. In addition to offering my system protection, the breaker will also act as an on/off switch. The switch is made by Blue Sea Systems and is a double pole 30A main breaker. From the breaker, I'll connect a standard GFCI (ground-fault circuit-interrupter) outlet. This will act as secondary protection from shock as most GFCI outlets trip at 15A. Everything wired down from the first GFCI outlet will also be protected. I'm planning on installing 3 GFCI outlets. You can pick these up at any hardware store for about $10 a piece.

The final electrical component that will be wired into the system is a 6A on-board battery charger. I have not purchased this component yet, but I am going to go with a Cablea's Prosport II 6 charger. This is actually manufactured by Promariner and Cablea's just slaps their badge on it. Most of the reviews are favorable, so this should do the trick. Since I'll have shore power, I've decided to only run one deep cycle battery. I bought a deep cycle battery from Batteries Plus last winter and ran it parallel with the battery that came with the boat this past season. It has a capacity of 90 amp hours which is more than enough for my needs, especially if I'll be hooking it up to the charger after each use.

As if I didn't have enough power generation, I'm planning on keeping the solar charge system I fabricated this past season. Not to toot my own horn, but this was a terrific addition I thought of. I mounted a 15 watt solar panel on the stern pulpit and hooked it to a charge controller that ensured the batteries would not over charge or bleed off when the sun went down. Since last season I was dry sailing the boat, I had no electrical connection at the storage facility and no means of easily charging my batteries, short of pulling the batteries after every sail. The solar charger worked beautifully and I never had to pull the batteries to charge them - the entire season!

The last item I purchased for the shore power system is the all important shore power cord! The system is rendered useless without the shore power cord. Again, I found a great deal with free shipping on Amazon.com. It's a standard yellow 50', 30A cord. I was going to try and find a used one on Craigslist but with the deal I got, I'd rather have a new cord! What would I do without the Internet?