Bristol-Blue Lake Michigan Sailing Adventures

Today we set off for some big lake adventures on Lake Michigan.  With waves around 1ft we made good time sailing south to Oval Beach.  Oval is a huge destination beach and we usually go by car, logistically it is easier but nowhere near as fun.   Lunch Time Oval Beach Land Ho As we close in on the beach I like to anchor near one of the swim area markers.  This performs two tasks; first, it shortens the swim to the beach.  Second, and more importantly, is it gives me an easy frame of reference to see if my anchor is dragging.  After all, I'm anchoring on a sand bar and it would be nice to know if the boat is moving before it gets too close to shore.  Finding an anchorage site.   The picture here doesn't really do it justice, we were quite close.   Close enough to chat with a couple who came out and asked what kind of boat we were on and have a whole conversation about the water temperature and depth while they stood on the other s...

Rigged and Ready.  We even got out Sunday (Mothers Day) for a quick shake down.  Things are looking good and we are ready for the season

This year I have decided to switch up not just my bottom paint but I'm starting to phase out the varnish for teak oil.  The varnish does a nice job but it tends to have some difficulties holding up on horizontal services and the toe rails.  The other problem I tend to run into with the varnish is the need to have several good warm days to apply it.  My plan is to have the boat in the water sometime in the next week and frankly we've only had a few days that would have been warm enough to varnish. This season, I have moved to a mixed medium; some areas varnish and some teak oil.  By next season I expect all of the wood work on the boat will be switched over.  I have been pleasantly surprised how well the two have worked in combination.  The teak oil color matches very well and two coats of oil bring the sheen right up to the same level of the remaining varnish. Starting sanding of the rails. Nicely scuffed up peeling and flaking removed. Ho...

The desire to get the boat in the water this spring is has reached a fever pitch.  Just after noon today the temperature outside reached the magic number: 50 degrees.  What is so magic about this number?  It is the temperature one needs it to be to apply bottom paint.  Immediately after lunch I headed for the marina.  When I arrived one other boater was there working on waxing his hull but within the hour, several other sailors had showed up and opened their paint cans. This year, I have decided to switch up my bottom paint.  I'm going with a multi-season paint.  I'm hoping this will set the boat up for the next 2 years.  The sales rep says it may be good for three years with some touch up. So this is some different stuff.  It is super thin and looks a bit like soapy water.  As I started I was beginning to have second thoughts.  It goes on super thin then it began to bubble.  I've seen this before with latex paints an...

Spring training starts for many this week and it is time to start the boat prep.  Fist trick is to climb in. After a few hours and a bottle of glass cleaner.  I moved all the gear, sails, and cushions back aboard and here is the finished project.  Ship shape and cleaned up. 

I haven't posted in a while and a few people have been wondering what is up. This summer Myles and I have been fishing a bit and he has been using his Mom's sit on top Kayak.  I decided it was time to go ahead and build him one of his own after all he is starting to get too big to sit and just ride along.  First I looked at  Yostwerks .  I highly recommend Tom's boats.  I built a Sea Tour about 10 years ago I'm building a Canvas Back Kayak.  Here are the plans  for those interested.  This came from an old  Mechanix Illustrated  magazine. My brother ran across someone selling a pile of already cut out kayaks a few years back and he assembled one but has had limited success with his canvas skin.  We took it out this summer and it is far more stable than my kayak, a plus for a young child in my eyes.  After about 30 minutes, the water started soaking through the canvas in my brother's kayak and we came back. ...

22 inches of snow and just a little on the cover looks like I got a steep enough pitch on the cover this year to get the snow to slide off!