Bristol-Blue Lake Michigan Sailing Adventures

Today we have had another weekend of rain. Well today it has rained and we have plans away from the lake tomorrow so this weekend has been an arm chair sailing weekend.  About a month ago I found e-regatta.  This app is available for Apple as well as Android devices.  Beware it is hard to stop playing.  My previous sailing game Sailboat Gold has been untouched.  Except for Words with Friends, e-regatta is the only game I play now.   In e-regatta you are racing other players online.  It is far more challenging.  I rarely place above fourth place.  I have one in my last twenty races and to be honest, it was a match race.  The start line can be tough and I have no ability to sail to weather.  Just like a Typhoon captain.  I love down wind sailing just like in real life.  Spinnaker humming along.  Anyway, if you have a few minutes to burn check it out.  

Today we made it out to sail!  We sailed for about and hour between the storm fronts wow was it windy.  We went main sail only and that was about it.  Came back in and as we were buttoning up the sail covers it started raining on us.   Here is a fun video we made though.

Well we have had two weekends in a row of rain.  This has really put a cramp on finishing up the varnish work for the season.  The cockpit is all finished.  I just scuffed it up and did a maintance coat. However the toe rails have just the two base coats on.  I had hopped to finish this before launch but this time of year the boat yards are on a schedule to get everyone in before Memorial Day weekend.  So I guess I'll be hanging over the side of the boat to get at least one more coat on the toe rails sometime this summer.   Launch date t-minus 2 days. I reset all the screws.  I had back them out slightly when varnishing. I buff out the cabin top between rain drops. Post launch: This Memorial Day weekend has been heavily scheduled and I'm hopping to get out and sail today. That is weather permitting. Yesterday my wife helped me drop the mast, so I could fix the wind vane.  It looked like a seagull may have sat on it.  The vane has been bent ov...

Loading up this weekend.  It rained here so I didn't get the last coat of varnish on yet but I was able to get all the Gear and sails down to the boat.  The motor got to ride shot gun in the front seat.  Everything else fit in the back. Yeah my little vw clown car can pack it in.  

Friday my parents were coming into town so hanging around the house I sewed this handy little bumper cover up.  The bumper is one of the good ones you can reinflate with an air compressor but it is getting a but dried out and scuffed the hull last year.  Nothing that didn't buff right out but I thought I'd sew up a cover to prevent it again this season.  This took about 30 minutes including heating up the iron deflating the bumper sewing then reinflating the bumper once it was inserted int the cover.  Not bad. Saturday I got down and put a base coat on the toe rails.  Sunday I came back gave the toe rails their second coat and did the maintance coat for the season on the rest of the teak.  We are really coming along.  One or two more coats of varnish then buff out the deck I'll be ready to launch! Those are tooth picks in there so I can lock up for the night with out having varnished my drop boards together.  

So it snowed here again Wednesday.  Nothing stuck and hopefully it will be the last time for the year.  The orchards in the area are looking like they are getting ready to bloom soon and a hard frost canbe devastating in this area for the farmers.    Regardless, it is still cold here this Saturday morning and the boat yard was pretty quiet until afternoon.  I ran into one guy who came over from Chicago to work on his boat.  Our marina has a lot of boat owners from out of state due to the high cost of keeping a boat in the city.  He said he is hoping tomorrow it will get warm enough for him to do his bottom paint.  If the forecast is right he just might get lucky before he has to head back to the city.   The cold weather isn't going to interfere with any of my plans for the day. I  started by cleaning the teak in preparation for varnishing.  This time I used Meguiare's teak cleaner.  It came with a pour out bottle top but I...

So this Saturday I started some varnish maintance.  It has been three years since I've done anything to the toe rails. I think, at most, I put two coats of varnish on them to begin with. So, it is no surprise they have started to break down.  The drop boards, and combing boards look great.  Plenty of maintance coats on those pieces so I won't mess with them.  Looking around online I read the best way to pull the old varnish up is to use a heat gun.  It worked great the varnish scraped right off with minimal damage to the teak underneath.  I'll go over it with some teak cleaner and try to get some varnish back on them before launch the launch date.   Today, Wednesday it is snowing.  Have to laugh sunburn and frost bite in the same week.  Hope it warms back up before the weekend.