Bristol-Blue Lake Michigan Sailing Adventures

This might not work.......  Then again it might.  So today I went down to the boat and started taking measurements for a boom tent.  The plan is for this tent to start over the coach house and extend all the way to the back stay.  This will encompass the entire cockpit giving us some more room when we spend the night on board.   After 15ish years we decided to retire our old dome tent, so I have several good quality parts to work with.  There will be three arches with approximately 50 inches between them.    So after getting all the measurements down the wind took my note pad and threw it in the water.   Grrr. This project might be cursed. I came home and recopied all my measurements from the soaking wet paper on to a new piece of paper.  This is a pretty rough start.  I think I'm going to make a proto-type with some old fabric creating a rough pattern to work from before building a true final project.    This might not wo...

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One little thing that bothers me is finding water in my winches after it rains.  I decided it was high time I sewed up some winch covers.  This little project took very little time once I sat down and got it started.  The tape measure made several trips back and forth to the marina in the bottom of the cooler before I used it to measure the winches.   The winch is three and a quarter inches tall so I started by making the sides up.  This gets sewed to the round top piece. Turns out a Bush's bean can is the perfect circumference.  I put the cover on the can to pin up so I'd get a nice tight finish. Completed i turned it right side out and it looks like this is finished. I left the elastic extra long to tie under the winch mounting brackets. There we are. Nice, cozy and dry winches tucked in under their covers. The long elastic ties under so the wind does not take them away. 

A few weeks ago we got together with some family.  My uncle and I were talking about sailing at night and all the great adventures we've had out on the lake after dark.   Well little ears are always listening. Myles I think figured out that if he could talk us into sailing at night he would be able to stay up past his bed time.  He has been relentless in his pursuit of a night sail.  So Friday we made it happen.   The weather all day was gorgeous with a nice sailing breeze but we held off until night.  Leaving  the dock about 9:30 in the dead calm.  About an hour later the wind returned.  The south side of the lake was super quiet with the exception of a few late night fisherman returning.  The north side had a nice party going on with a great live band.  As we drifted back and forth we went from silent to rock and roll.  It was quite a contrast and very humorous.   Here we are doing a light check before we leave...