Hual out

Friday Oct 14th was our scheduled haul-out at Rivers Bend in St Clair. I decided to head up early in the morning rather than stay over Thursday night because we had the heat winterized, the heads not usable any more and basically no food or water on board. So, we got to the marina at about 8:00am. The forecast had been for a crappy Friday, Saturday and Sunday and they were spot on. Gray, overcast, showers and gusty winds – oh joy. We got the last of the bedding off the boat and into the car. I had planned to catch the 10:00 bridge lift at St Clair for our 10:30 haul out. But the forecast was for the winds to only get worse so we headed off as soon as we were ready. Thankfully the rain let up – especially since we did not have the helmsman’s wiper working yet. The trip down the river was fine – a slight chop with the SW wind but with the canvas in place and the radio on it was cozy.

Underway - exiting the channel at Bridgeview

We got the 9:30 bridge opening and negotiated the river up to the marina. It was really windy and the river seemed a bit narrow but we arrived with no issues. Even though we were early the marina took straight into the lift well and we were out and bottom washed in no time. Rivers Bend build a special frame to support the boat and move that around on a trailer – rather than block it. They got that done real quick and moved us onto the hard to do what we needed. Ed explained that they had 2 big boats to haul out and move into eth sheds that required the travel hoist to move and thus had to go in first. Then they would start to move the boats like ours inside. Hopefully she is inside and sheltered soon. Sea Ray Girl drove down and met us at the marina. She defrosted / wiped out the fridges and generally cleaned up inside. Next is to winterize the water systems and then a good clean inside and out.

In the slings again - another haul-out

Winterizing

Saturday Oct 22nd:
Will and I headed down to the boat in St Clair. The trip was fine – about a 15min wait to get through customs at the bridge. At Rivers Bend Marina we found Plan B indoors in building 4 – just where they said it would be. It was quite dark in the building with only a little light coming through windows in the roof. Luckily I had anticipated this and brought some halogen work lights with us and a few hundred feet of extension cords. Those lights work great – so much light and heat too. They will be great in winter when it’s cold on board. We got to work winterizing – the hot water tank first and then the water systems. The hot water actually went OK – a pain to try to drain sufficiently but done. The rest of the system went fine – starting at the bow with the anchor wash down and working my way back to the stern.

Sunday Oct 30th:

I headed down to the boat to do the final clean-up. The trip is about 1 ½ hrs – not too bad and so far we have not had any real hold-ups at the bridge – the nexus helps. Both times we have returned to Canada the Nexus card has saved us about an hour in the “normal” line. The morning was bright and sunny but cool – temp was 0 when I got to Rivers Bend. I started with a quick clean up, wipe down and vacuum inside. Then a wash-down and wipe of the decks and windows. One nice thing about this marina is that they have power inside I can use and also a washroom open all year. So I was able to get a bucket of hot water for the cleaning. We also have some room around the boat to work. In the heated storage in Bridgeview they are packed in so tight that you can barely squeeze between the boats, let alone wipe the hull down. Maybe when they have finished moving boats in it will get more packed but at the moment we have elbow room,

Next was a wash and wipe of the hull. This actually takes a quite a while by yourself. Up the ladder to wash, down the ladder, up the ladder to wipe, down the ladder, move the ladder – repeat…..Anyway, it is done and at least clean and shiny for the winter. Then I added a cover over the canvas to keep the dust and any bird or spider droppings off. I used a military surplus parachute as a cover. It was 20ft x 10ft, weighs 2 lbs total and cost me $35 on line. It seems to be a great way to get a lightweight nylon cover – I could not buy any material for that cost – let alone make it into a cover. I attached a picture – sorry about the quality – the camera batteries were dying and so it shut down the flash. With the low light this is what I ended up with.

Lastly was a trip into the engine room. Firstly to do a final wipe down of the bilge area. Then I hooked the water lines back to the hot water tank – I had by-passed the tank for winterizing but did not want to leave them hooked up that way all winter. Lastly I set to work to get the V belts off one engine for replacement. This involves slackening off the alternator and the idler pulley – both easy to get at. The issue came with the removal of the raw water pump belt. The gap between the crank pulley and the circulating pump pulley is not sufficient to get the belt off. And that belt has to come off to get the alternator belt off. I did manage to finally work the belt between the 2 pulleys but there is no way to get the new belt on that way. I have to do some research but I am suspecting I need a puller to get the water pump pulley off……..

For the new belts obviously I can get them from a Mercruiser parts outlet but I wanted to see if a NAPA type auto parts store can supply them without the “Mercruiser” premium. We will see what happens.

I have to say it is a real treat having the boat indoors – it is going to be really sheltered from the wind and weather and it is so easy to get aboard and move around. And it is nice to know that it should stay basically as clean as it was on Sunday throughout the winter. At least that is my optimistic assumption. I am guessing there will be some dust and I did notice some condensation dripping from the roof as the building heated up from freezing to about 15 degrees in the sun. But overall I am looking forward to a worry free winter for Plan B.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving turned out to be a wonderful week-end with some of the best weather all season – clear blue skies and temperatures in the high 70’s and a light breeze. William had to work until 4:00pm Saturday so I picked him up and we headed to the boat. Natalie and Mary had gone up in the morning – in fact they had gone across to the states to shop…….

We got to the boat and the plans were to head with Iron Genny to River Street Marina in Port Huron to take a transient slip for the night. So we got things stowed and fired up the big boys and headed off. At River Street we were moored in line with another 3 other Sea Rays – all of them bigger than ours – a 46, a 48 and a 50 footer. Hmmm……

John and Leslie joined us with their sailboat – Sundance. Since this was George and Jen’s anniversary they got to pick the restaurant for dinner. They picked the Zebra Bar – a very short walk down the river from our slips.

Next day we had a very relaxing morning and then headed back to Bridgeview. Natalie headed back home later in the afternoon to start getting things sorted for Thanksgiving dinner that we were hosting on Monday. Will and I stayed up to a) get work done and b) enjoy more of this outstanding weather. We got the dingy outboard winterized, the dingy out, scrubbed clean and deflated and all packed away in the car. Monday morning we motored across to fuel dock for our last pump-out of the season.
Then back in our slip I winterized the A/C units. Then packed up almost all the items we were taking off the boat for the winter and stuffed them into the car. I also emptied the fridges but left them on – we need towels etc when the freezer defrosts to contain any melt water.

All in all a fantastic week-end - that is 2 Thanksgivings in a row that have been awesome on the boat.

Mary relaxing back at Bridgeview

Will and Sea Ray puppy

Will flaked out. To explain, that is actually my beer not his.............

Odd Jobs

Saturday Sept 24th was a near perfect day. William had races ongoing at the track all week-end so I was up alone. So, I took the opportunity to get some jobs done.

Engine oil – got the oil changed in the big boys – with the West Marine siphon pump system this is a pretty painless process – only trick is to get the oil hot enough.

Master cabin TV. I finally got the wooden veneered shelf installed and the new 22” LED TV installed and secured. It certainly looks nicer than the old CRT TV that was there. In the picture below you can see the digital cable box to the left of the TV that I wrote about in such detail a few weeks ago!

New LED TV and veneered shelf in the Master cabin.

Stove top. I picked the new stove top up from our sales office in Detroit. I send all my orders there – it saves me paying the brokerage fees crossing the boarded and often shipping within the US is free. Anyway – I got the stove out of the counter and removed the shattered cook top. The new cook top comes with a metal frame bonded to it. This had separated on the broken one. So I set to work removing about 20 screws to dis-assemble the stove. Basically the stove is in a metal ‘box’. And everything is screwed to this box. So, to remove the cook top frame you have to literally take the stove apart. The controls get unscrewed. And the burners sit on a frame attached to and suspended above the box. But as you unscrew the burner frame it drops out of position. The instructions were not that helpful so ……I threw them away and went at it. It took a couple of hours but I got the new cook top installed and working. In fact the new top has the latest graphics that do look a lot nicer than the old one. I think I am now qualified to work at Kenyon Marine in the stove assembly department.

The old stove top - very broken and held togetgher with tape.

The new stove top - actually nicer than the old one (even before it broke).

Canvas – I took the canvas top pieces off the boat and sprayed water proofing on them. In fact I did the forward piece the week before and the aft one this week-end. In heavy rains we were seeing some dripping through the canvas so it was time. It seems to help – at least the water beads on the canvas again. We will see if it is more water-proof.

Deck hatch in the head – I listed in the last post this was leaking and on the project list. Well, on the Friday evening it was raining pretty good and the hatch was indeed leaking. But I took a good look at were the leak was. In fact the handle had come loose and since it screws to the cap or plug on the outside, this to was loose and letting a large quantity of water pour in. So, with a simple tightening of the screw I think I may have fixed that. I didn’t have time to get the hose on it but it will rain this week so we will see if it was the only leak.

Haul-out Plans

Inevitably at some point around this time of the year we have to acknowledge that plans have to be made for haul out – even though it only seems a couple of weeks ago that we launched. At the conclusion of our mechanical maladies Sean (the mechanic) drove me to their marina (Rivers Bend Marina) just up the Pine River from the St Claire .Harbour. He gave me the low down on the place. After paying the bill I asked about their rates for winter storage – indoors but not heated. The rate I got was $3.15 per sq. ft including haul out, launch and pressure wash. Hmmm, that’s not too bad.. I got a tour of the facilities with the owner – Ed and shown the storage sheds. Nice buildings with access all year, 120V power all year and its OK to work on the boat as long as the job is not making any kind of mess – so no sanding the bottom, spray painting, grinding etc. Ed is an offshore boat owner / racer with a string of national and world titles. He showed us his boat – a sleek lime green beast with 2 hulls, a cockpit canopy and 2000hp. They do all the engine work themselves so I was getting even more confidence in the mechanical evaluation of our engines.

Eds race boat - all 2000 hp of it

Anyway, once back in Sarnia I got the costs from Bridgeview for the full season and also summer only dockage. Then I did the math;

Winter storage indoors at Rivers Bend $1880

Savings to not winter store at Bridgeview $ 550

Estimated shrink wrap costs
(Bridgeview marine - $18 linear foot
of material used – estimate 52 ft) $1057

Winterize main engines
(savings at Rivers Bend) $ 60

Total savings $1667

Total extra-cost to store indoors $ 213.


Ok – I could save about half the shrink wrap costs if I do it myself. Issue is the work, the time and the need to have decent conditions (no rain, no wind) and have that occur on a week-end when I can get help since it is far from a 1 person job. Even with getting the shop to do it I still need to co-ordinate since I have to remove all the cockpit canvas to get the frame up and would want to get the frame up and wrap done the same day. Remember, in 2009 we did this in Bayfield where Ron brought the boat into the shop. Last year we reused the cover so we could get the frame up and the boat covered quickly.

So the decision was made to store Plan B at Rivers Bend this winter. I am looking forward to what should be a relatively stress free winter storage ritual and the luxury of being able to work on the boat in the winter inside. Being un-heated I still have to winterize so I am making lists of what I need again – referring to my notes from last year.


Winter Projects list


As ever there is a list of things to work on once Plan B is away for the winter. And, as before I put them into 2 categories – repairs and update / upgrade projects.

Repairs / Maintenance:

New V belts on the engines
New oil lines on the engines (these ones are starting to drip slightly)
Wiper motor repair or replace
Master head deck hatch – remove and re-seal.
Replace port-hole screens
Salon hatch screen – needs screen to be replaced – OceanAir parts.
Upgrades:

LED lights in the cockpit
Blue LED underwater lights – investigate at least
Head / shower floors – add tile.
Wood blinds in Master cabin.

The Season Winds Down

August has flown by and now we are past labour day – that only means the season is coming to an end – like it or not. Most of August was spent having people up to the boat – friends and neighbors that we had not managed to get plans in place earlier in the season. For that reason virtually every week-end was taken up entertaining. Not that I mind this but it was a bit intense every week-end.

Some times it just pays to stay home

So, one of the above mentioned visits was with our next door neighbors – Terry and Patty. They (or rather Terry) have been very interested in buying a boat – Patty has been the hold-back. So, in an effort to help things along we suggested they should come along for a week-end and get a taste of the boating life. We made transient slip reservations at Saint Clair Harbour which is ½ hour run down the river. So, to try to keep the story brief we set off Saturday afternoon, got down to St Clair and moored without incident. We relaxed and enjoyed a dinner out at Pepper Joes on the river. Sunday morning it was windy – and I mean windy – blowing at 50 – 60 kph out of the north. Anyway, it was just a quick run up the river. We got some fuel at the fuel dock and then tried to hold position on the Pine River waiting for the bridge. Even being relatively sheltered the wind made this tricky. Finally the bridge opened and we got out into the St Clair River. With the north wind the river was kicked up pretty bad – a good 2 ft waves and an insane current running. We hugged the shore waiting for a freighter to pass and then throttled up to cruise speed. There was lots of spray and a bit lumpy but easily manageable. That was until the port engine dropped to idle all by itself. This puts all the load on the starboard engine which dropped about 500 rpm. I did a quick assessment of the situation. One engine down – reason unknown but there was no throttle response at all. A ridiculous wind and a dangerously strong current. I could press on with the one engine but it would be slow in these conditions. And what if the issue that effected the port engine got the starboard one (like bad fuel?). We would be drifting in the river at the mercy of a strong current and wind. Chances of anchoring were slim if we drifted that quick – the anchor would likely just bounce along the bottom. And if we did manage to get an anchor down and it happened to be out of the main shipping channel then what……?
So, I decided the prudent thing was to get back to St Clair Harbour. Issue was that the bridge would not open for another 25 mins and I did not think I could maneuver on the main river in these conditions with one engine. I radioed the bridge master and he immediately agreed to open the bridge as soon as I got to it. We got into the Pine River and secured to the fuel dock with no issues in spite of the tricky maneuvering on one engine with the wind. I shut the engine down and opened the engine room hatch expecting to see oil everywhere or something. Nothing – everything looked OK. I poked around looking for some obvious reason for the issue – nothing. I started both engines up and they ran great. At idle they revved freely. Hmmm. However, I did not want to chance the river run again without getting them checked. So we put Plan B back in a transient slip (both engines responded to throttle etc). Some people on the dock were heading back to our marina and offered a lift which we gladly accepted. I got the phone number of a trusted local marine mechanic and we left – Sea Ray Girl and I on a 31 ft Carver (with Sea Ray puppy) and Terry and Patty on a 29 Ft Sea Ray Amberjack.

As a side note I don’t suspect this helped convince Patty that boating was a fun and stress free pastime!!

Monday I got in touch with the mechanic who was down checking the boat by noon. That afternoon he reported nothing seemed untoward so he suggested a sea trial. He also checked all the fuel filters and there was no water or dirt. I was on vacation starting on the Tuesday through to after Labour Day so we drove over the boarder and met the mechanic at the boat. We had a 45 minute run on the river with the engine room hatch open and the Mercruiser diagnostic computer hooked up – first to the port engine and then the starboard. Every reading the computer checked was perfect. Sean (the mechanic) crawled all over the engines looking for issues but they ran flawlessly. Back at the dock he could only guess what happened. His best guess was related to the high pressure fuel pump reservoir float that may have shut the fuel off and not until it was re-started would it re-set. I was hoping for a more concrete answer – this is the broken part and here is the new one – fixed. Sean believed it will be virtually impossible to duplicate the conditions that caused this. Ok………..

We stayed on the boat Tuesday night and planned to get back to Sarnia Wednesday. Originally we planned to go down to Lake St Clair with the kids for the week but frankly the experience and the mechanics bill of over $400 to find nothing damped our enthusiasm to carry on. Just to add to the misery on Wednesday morning Sea Ray girl dropped a coffee mug on the stove top. The $3 mug was fine – the glass stove top was on about 20 pcs. Great.

So, vacation trip cancelled – cooking on board down to the microwave. We got Plan B back to Bridgeview with no issues- the engines ran strong as ever and just relaxed around the marina for the rest of the week.

I got a new stove top ordered from Kenyon - $250 dollars!

Labour Day

We went across to Port Huron with the George and Jen for the Saturday and Sunday. It was hot and humid with showers and thunderstorms on Saturday night. We took the dingy and explored further up the Black River. Dinner was at the Quay Street Pub. Sunday was overcast and humid. We trekked to the local greasy spoon for breakfast and headed back to Sarnia in the afternoon.
Monday was a relax day.

Monday morning William turned the wipers on to clear the morning dew – and the starboard one didn’t work……..wow – we are on a role with breaking things.

This last week-end I investigated and the shaft that connects the motor to the wiper arm has sheared. Hopefully I don’t need them this season any more and I will have to figure out how to access the motor in the off-season. It is not immediately apparent how to get to the wiper motor. In true Sea Ray fashion it is buried.

Blinds, Cable TV and a clogged Loo!

Blinds:

We had been planning to add wooden blinds to the cabin ports – a bit more updating rather than the curtains in the main salon. Nat had gotten them ordered – cut to width but we had to adjust the length. No problem – how hard can that be……..

The blinds we finally picked are actually not wood – they are some type of plastic. I know that sounds a bit tacky but there are 2 reasons to go this way.
First – they were a great colour match to the stain I have used in the cabin
Second – they will not fade with the sun like real wood will.

So – that’s what we have.

Installation day – a day when I am at the boat alone so I can make all the mess I want. First job is to adjust the length. Well, they are 48” long and needed to be 9” and 12” so there was a lot of adjusting of various bits of string. So I worked on the salon floor with screw drivers and scissors and went at it. Once the length was adjusted I could hold them in place and work out how to attach them. Then came the actual install. In my mind it was a 20 min job. In reality it took close to 3 hours. The biggest challenge was the brackets that hold the blinds up – they are designed to attach and then slide the blind in place. Easy as long as you have the room (hard to image that being an issue with a house) but in our galley / main salon we didn’t. So it was a lot of improvising to get them installed. However, I believe the effort was worth it. I also added the valance trim that came with the blinds to the valance over the galley porthole. It really finishes things off and adds a warm touch.

Next I will tackle blinds in our master cabin – that should be interesting.

Cable TV

We enjoy having the TV at the boat – some days it is just nice to relax down below and catch a show we watch. Last year we just plugged in and away we went. This year the local cable supplier had changed from analog to digital signal – necessitating a converter box (at least that was what was explained to us by the marina). So I trotted over to the office to see what was needed. I was handed 2 large boxes of electronic items – one for each TV. Great……..more wires and complexity. I just knew this was not going to be easy.

I had visions of them being the thumping great box like we have at home for Rogers. Mercifully it was about ¼ that size – nice and compact. OK, so pretty much everyone has hooked one of these up – the cable in from the main feed and the cable out back to the TV – piece of cake. Ah – not so fast Kimosabe, this is a boat remember. So let’s deal with one TV at a time.
The master cabin. Simple – the TV is just sitting on a shelf with plenty of room to place the converter box next to it (remember, this is the old TV/VHS combo unit). However, theTV is positioned so that the back is basically touching the forward locker wall so disconnecting the cable from it to plug into the box is impossible. The TV has to be moved. It is screwed to a piece of wood that is screwed down to the shelf – from the underside. So, to access that I had to empty the locker of clothes, the central vacuum attachments etc. Then remove the little access door that lets me get under the TV shelf and then contort myself to get a light and screwdriver in there and working upside down remove the screws holding the TV down. All this just to unscrew one cable lead. Got it all hooked up and low and behold no signal………A quick call to the marina office confirmed that Cogico had picked today to do work at the marina and the cable was off - great.

So on to the main salon where the new flat panel TV is mounded on a bracket over the fridge – part of the work I did early in 2010. There is really nowhere to practically mount the box here. Luckily they also supply an IR remote dome that allowed me to hide the box and still have the remote work. So, detach the TV from the mount bracket, unplug the leads, remove the close out panel and now I have access to the area behind the TV – and the boat is looking really torn apart. Anyway, I installed the box in behind the TV and ran the out cable and the IR remote dome out through the close out panel, re-installed the panel, hooked up the cable and power to the TV and re-attached it to the bracket. And……still nothing. Another call to the office and yes, they are still working on the cable – call back. I do several times. Finally at about 4:00PM the marina’s “Larry the Cable Guy” comes down and tests my cable on the dock. The office staff must have been convinced I was having TV withdrawal since I had called so many times about the status of the cable. I just wanted to know if my installs were OK before putting everything back together. We finally have a signal again. The main salon TV comes to life – the master cabin one does not. Hooking up a tester shows the box is faulty. Back in the dingy and over to the office to exchange the box and we have 100+ channels in our cabin now. The main salon TV is only getting about half of them. I am suspecting the box is faulty but it is an ordeal to get at it so I have not been able to verify that yet.

Marina heads:

We have been boating as a family for 19 years now in various boats and never clogged the head – until our trip to Mac Ray. Now, to try to put this delicately, it was the results of too much paper, and not enough water in the bowl and how shall I put this – a non pee flush. Anyway, the vacuum pump did not like that and I think the mass lodged in one of the valves – called a duck-bill. I did some research on the computed and it seemed to be a straight forward – albeit messy fix to replace the 4 duck-bills. I jiggled teh hoses around hoping to mov ethings along but no luck. Sea Ray girl suggested we go for a pump out to see if that would work to dis-lodge things. So we went around to the Mac Ray fuel dock for our free pump out. We did the normal pump out and then turned on the vacu-flush system and flushed the loo……low and behold it sucked the blockage out and the system is working great again – way to go Nat – I means Sea Ray girl. We got fuel at the same time – they were offering a 20 cent per gallon discount to transients so why not. I mean, may as well kick the visa a bit more. Lesson learned with the head - plenty of water and minimize the paper.

Vacation Week - July 9 - 17th

I have only booked one week off for the boat this season, using one week to go to Quebec with Will for track Nationals and then a bunch of days to make 3 and 4 day weekends.

So for Saturday through Monday Nat, Will and I relaxed at the boat. Monday afternoon we had to head home to get Will ready for his trip to Rimouski Quebec for a 4 day 6 stage road race. This involved a 3:00am start on Tuesday to get him to the team pick-up point in Toronto for 6:00am……
Then back home, pick up Nat and back up to the boat. We cast off around noon and headed down river to Mac Ray Harbor on Lake St Clair. We headed down to Harsens Island and then took what is known as the North Channel west through to the north part of Lake St Clair. There is a lot to look at as you travel by the homes, cottages and boats. The North Channel has a twisty buoyed channel out into the lake which gets progressively shallower as you follow it. By the time we were out of the channel completely we were in 6 ft of water – more than a little worrying when we are not used to it. I had a way point in the GPS for the entrance to Mac Ray so we set off in that direction, slowly at first and then the depth increased to about 12 ft so we went up to cruising speed. As we neared the harbour we were having trouble identifying the entrance channel. We could see the well buoyed channel to Belle Maer Harbor which is right next to Mac Ray. We finally saw the much smaller buoys marking the Mac Ray channel it and altered course towards it. But it was extremely shallow here – showing less than 4 ft of water and we need over 3 ft just to not touch bottom. We crept along until we got into the channel – which was a whole 4 – 5 ft deep – but at least it was a channel. Damn – that was a bit stressful to say the least. But we got secured in our slip – 111 Evergreen – very close to the pool and restaurant. Nat – Or Sea Ray Girl as I started calling her since she is getting good at this boating thing with just the 2 of us – steering, navigating and mooring up, helmed us all through the North Channel and then took on the navigating with the flip charts to keep track with the GPS – and remained calm when I was stressing about the bath-tub shallow water depth……..

A couple of maps to show the route.

En Route down the St Clair River.

We did have a great relaxing time together – just the two of us for a change. The pool at Mac Ray was warm and quite empty – it is a large Olympic size pool. We enjoyed the restaurant on site – called Mac and Rays. We highly recommend it – excellent food and reasonable prices. We had 2 very good meals there. We walked around the marina in the evenings – there are a lot of boats there and without exaggeration 70% are Sea Rays and a lot of big ones – 46, 48. 52, 63ft. Wow.

Sea Ray Girl

Transiant slip at Mac Ray. You can just see Emma pearing out the back.

This sign says it all - this is Sea Ray Country!

Cheers from Mac & Ray's


Thursday morning we cast off at 7:50 AM. I had asked about the depth and entrance/ exit channel and been advised to follow the Mac Ray channel out until the last Belle Mar buoy was abeam and then alter course for the North Channel mark. We did that and the depth was less heart stopping. Once in the North Channel it was flat calm and just a stunning morning – clear and cool. Even on the St Clair River it was calm until we got to about Stag Island. It was like we were the first boat down the river. The trip tool 2 hrs- 20 mins – pretty good time to get some where quite different.

Sea Ray girl had to get back to London for studying, class and some hospice volunteer work she is doing. I stayed at the boat to get some jobs done.


Friday I did a good cleaning of the boat. Mac Ray was very ‘buggy” and they were stuck everywhere- so a thorough wash was in order.

Saturday morning Mary and 3 of her friends came up to stay on the boat for the week-end and go to one of the Bay-Fest concerts Saturday night to see Lady Antebellum. Once I got them all aboard and walked them through the systems I headed home and left them to it.

All in all a very relaxing week off.

Mary, Tamra, Kelsey and Laura - Girls week-end on Plan B. The Lady Antebellum concert they are going to explains the hats.

July Long Week-end

Well, the July 1st / 4th long weekend has come and gone and it was a nice one. Our plans changed quite a bit as we went along. Will was away at Road Nationals and Mary was working all through the week-end. The original plan was to have our next door neighbors (Terry and Patti) up for the Friday and Saturday and overnight on the US side since they have Nexus also. But Patti put her back out and they cancelled earlier that week. Then we ask my brother Wayne and Marc to come up for the week-end. That then changed to just the Friday and then they cancelled since Marc had a migraine. So, it was just Nat and I for the Friday and Saturday. Friday was beautiful weather – hot but no humidity. We anchored out on the lake off the beach a couple of miles up from the bridge and swam, relaxed. On the way back to the marina we went into the Sarnia yacht club basin – just to be nosey. Friday evening we watched the Sarnia fireworks that they set off in Sarnia Bay. We had an excellent view from the foredeck of our boat in our slip. But a lot of boats headed out to watch from the river – an excellent display. Saturday we headed for the pool in the morning as it was getting really hot and humid. We had to head home that evening since we were going to Burlington Sunday to watch Will in the National Road Race.

After his racing we brought Will home and then the 3 of us headed back up to the boat since I had Monday and Tuesday off as vacation days. Monday was another fantastic day – sunny and hot but with a breeze and no humidity again. Early afternoon we cast off and headed down river to the St Clair Harbour Marina. It is only about 11 miles down the river. It was a relaxing trip. The marina is on the Pine River and there is a bridge that has to be opened right at the mouth of the river to allow larger boats to pass. It opens every half hour. We got there early and puttered around on the river. At just before the opening time we hailed the bridge master on channel 9. Note that this is known as the Pine River Bridge – not the River Street Bridge. The bridge master does not respond to being radioed as the River Street Bridge-master…….I know. Anyway, once we heard an upstream boat hail him correctly we figured it out. Also to note is that the traffic outbound from the Pine River has right-of-way over boats heading in from the St Clair River. The bridge-master made sure we knew that. I would assume that since we did not know the name of his bridge we may not be locals and know the rules.

The marina staff guided us to our slip on dock 4 (they monitor channel 9 also) – the bright red shirts help pick them out. This is a state run marina – part of the state parks and seems the docks are very new – nice and wide and big wells. And all for $44 a night to boot. That evening we were treated to the 4th July fireworks that they set off from a barge out by the shoal in the St Clair River. Again we had a great view from our cockpit.

Emma, the Sea Ray Puppy enjoying the good life in St. Clair

Tuesday morning, after a relaxing start we dingied up the river to the next small marina. Then it was time to start to pack things up and load the dingy back onto the davits. We had decided to pick up some fuel while on the US side. I did not want the tanks to get too low as that is just a shock to the wallet to have to fill from empty. As luck would have it, the marina has discount Tuesdays where they discount the fuel by 25 cents per gallon (4.26/gal). OK, it’s not huge but we were getting around 120 gallons so it all helps. Anyway, we left the fuel dock with the tanks at about ¾ full. By comparison at our marina it is about $6.00/gal. So we bought 117 gals for $500. That same 117 gal would have cost us $667 at our marina – that’s $167 savings on a small top-up……..

Smiling with my fuel savings we radioed the bridge-master and although it was just past the ½ hour he agreed to open the bridge if we left the fuel dock and got going. It was a great couple of days – only a few miles away but it felt like a mini vacation.

This is avery short video I shot in St Clair Harbor. Two issues:

1) The audio part of my camera has had a complete melt-down and refuses to record anything but intermitant blasts of static so I have resorted to adding music.

2) The song should be St Clair, not Kokomo but I don't think anyone has written an nice summery song about St Clair and it is only a snipit of music because of issue #1 above........

The Last days of Spring

June 17th & 18th.

Got up to the boat Friday evening. Nat was already there. Mary was working. William was in Detroit for a bike race. The weather was beautiful – sunny and a nice temperature. Got the boat all washed down and enjoyed the evening. Will got to the boat about 11:00pm.

Saturday the weather was as good or better than Friday’s – just perfect. Since we had an engagement Sunday, we had my Fathers Day breakfast Saturday – sadly without Mary. We took the boat round to Sarnia Bay and took a transient slip for a couple of hours to visit the restaurant there. George and Jen came around with Iron Jenny. We tied up at the end of Y dock – stern to stern with a Post sport fisher. Thankfully, despite the lack of practice this season I managed a clean, near perfect docking much to the relief of the owner of the Post who stood protectively on his swim platform. After breakfast we enjoyed the pool there and just relaxed. Finally we cast off about 1:30 PM and ran down to Stag Island, looped around the island and back to Bridgeview. We had a full throttle run – hit a solid 30 knots so Plan B seems to be running strong.

Sunday June 19th

June 19th we attended the memorial for my younger cousin, Stephen Lawrence, who passed away May 31st after a courageous battle with cancer at age 47. Steve found out about a year before that he has the insidious disease that had already taken our grandfather and his dad. He lived that last year large – hella-skiing, visiting the British open in Scotland, Mayan ruins etc. He always had a zest for life but his courage, and optimism as he dealt with this disease is inspiring. He has left us far too soon.

Taken early April this year - Steven is in black shirt and jeans.



The memorial was fitting and touching and as up-beat as a loss like this can be. Kim, his lovely wife was strong and courageous throughout the event. I am sure he is up there now enjoying awesome rounds of golf and deep powder snow-mobiling.

We are told his favorite song was Born Free by Kid Rock. Well, something like this can't help but make you think about living for the day - there is no promise of a tomorrow. So I have below the words of one of my favorite songs by Nickleback – “If today was your last day”

"If Today Was Your Last Day"

My best friend gave me the best advice
He said each day's a gift and not a given right
Leave no stone unturned, leave your fears behind
And try to take the path less traveled by
That first step you take is the longest stride

If today was your last day
And tomorrow was too late
Could you say goodbye to yesterday?
Would you live each moment like your last?
Leave old pictures in the past
Donate every dime you have?
If today was your last day

Against the grain should be a way of life
What's worth the prize is always worth the fight
Every second counts 'cause there's no second try
So live like you'll never live it twice
Don't take the free ride in your own life

If today was your last day
And tomorrow was too late
Could you say goodbye to yesterday?
Would you live each moment like your last?
Leave old pictures in the past
Donate every dime you have?
Would you call old friends you never see?
Reminisce old memories
Would you forgive your enemies?
Would you find that one you're dreamin' of?
Swear up and down to God above
That you finally fall in love
If today was your last day

If today was your last day
Would you make your mark by mending a broken heart?
You know it's never too late to shoot for the stars
Regardless of who you are
So do whatever it takes
'Cause you can't rewind a moment in this life
Let nothin' stand in your way
Cause the hands of time are never on your side

If today was your last day
And tomorrow was too late
Could you say goodbye to yesterday?

Would you live each moment like your last?
Leave old pictures in the past
Donate every dime you have?
Would you call old friends you never see?
Reminisce old memories
Would you forgive your enemies?
Would you find that one you're dreamin' of?
Swear up and down to God above
That you finally fall in love
If today was your last day

Link below is to the song / video on YouTube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCZCfOygt_w

Stephen, you will be truly missed and the huge gathering at you memorial is proof of that………………………..

Raining Black Soot and some Project Pictures

A couple of weeks ago we had an issue with a big laker that was tied up by the marina entrance for a refit – it was there all winter. Apparently part of this refit was new diesel engine(s). Anyway, a week or so prior to leaving they had the engine running and every hour or so a huge puff of black smoke belched from the stack and drifted over the marina with the SW wind. Now, the smoke in itself was not a big issue, but the sooty ash and particulate it rained down certainly was. It covered the boats, the water, us, everything with this ash. And it was so fine it got into the cockpit, all over the white seating, the dash, into the engine room – everywhere. If you tried to just wipe it up it left an oily sooty black smear. It really took some cleaning up once the ship left and I still have some marks on the swim platform that have not shifted yet despite a lot of heavy scrubbing. Were we ever glad to see the back of that ship – what a mess. It was so bad that it was in the grass and when the dog went to do her business she came back with black paws (on a white dog). It really makes you wonder why we have to have emissions tests on our cars every year when these guys can spew this kind of crap into the air..............

View from our boat looking south at the freighter - I think the black haze is pretty clear to see. I took this about 10 seconds after it belched out before the wind brought it over us....again.

This is some of the sooty oily ash sitting on the upper dash by the cabin door. It went everywhere!

This is actually a picture of the water behind our boat with the dock reflecting. You can see the crap floating on the water,

On to nicer things.

Well – a lot of rain so far this season and wild temperature swings. Last Wednesday it was 33ºC and Friday it was 13º! We have only managed to get the boat out for a quick 20 min run down the river – seemed to running really nice.

However, this year schedule with Mary’s work and Will’s road race schedule is getting challenging to say the least and we have not had many proper week-ends at the boat – in fact none so far in June. I get there Friday night, clean the boat Saturday and get some work done and then head home to deal with the non-boat stuff Sunday………I am hoping it gets better soon.


Below are some interior pictures showing the main salon so far and our master cabin with the bed completed. Still to do are the some new blinds and a new TV for our cabin with the necessary woodwork to finish that off properly.

Main Salon Before picture

Main salon after with the new wood panel and the mirror replacing the tacky picture.

I don't have a great shot of our cabin before but I think you get an idea from this what it was like.

A couple of shots showing the cabin with the new bolster pads and the newly completed bead spread - thanks Nat for the great sewing job on that!



And below a few more before and after shots. It is really difficult to photograph this cabin but I think these show the new wood colour, refinished switch plates etc. As I said, the TV still has to be replaced this season yet.

Memories of the Summer of 2010

This spring has been a complete wash -out. Cold, dull and rain, rain , rain. I am looking at the forecast for the May 2-4 weekend and 70% chance of rain and thunderstorms on Sunday and Monday - gee, thanks, I am beginning to loose hope for the summer too. So, I thought it would be fun to look back at the summer of 2010 when it actually was bright, sunny and hot - aahhh......

I have always loved the cool videos of boats taken from helicopters as they streak through the water to some exotic port. Well, lacking the helecopter, the funds to rent one and for that matter the exotic port, I have the next best thing. On vaction last year Josh shot some footage of our boat while we were running together including when we turned around on Lake Erie in the 8 footers. Shame he did not get any of us punching into those waves but what we have is way cool.......at least to me. So I put together a short video. It would be nice to have some unique sound-track but again, lacking that I used one of my favorite TV themes - Hawaii 5-0.

For those who may be interested, for the most part we are travelong at abour 20 knots (23mph) at around 3200 RPM and burning somewhere in the neighbourhood of 28 GPH. In the rough stuff we had slowed a bit to about 17 knots. She will top out at 30 knots at 4400 RPM - don't what to know how much fuel is being inhailed......

So here it is - Plan B doing what she does best in the summer time.

And the season begins

May 6th at 10:10am we splashed and the season officially began for 2011. The marina staff were great – they were efficient, polite and careful. Oh, and on time which I something we are not used to from the last marina.

We sat in the slings for about 10 mins to ensure there was no water coming from where it shouldn’t – all seemed in order. My biggest concern every spring is the start up – will the batteries have enough juice and will the big boys turn over. No issue on both counts. I had charged the batteries and they seemed to have plenty of punch. The engines started up right away and settled into a nice smooth idle.

We moved Plan B to our slip and by 10:40 we were all tied up. The weather was not great and it was just starting to rain lightly as we launched. After we got tied up it came down good so we packed up and went home.

OK - this is my first attempt at putting a video together and getting it onto the blog.

May 7th

We needed a van to get the new mattress to the boat since we were told that folding it to fit in our vehicles would damage it. So we rented a cargo van and while we were making the trip brought all the totes of boat stuff from home at the same time. So, while Nat put things in their proper home William organized the cockpit and I scrubbed the decks down – a lot of dirt and grit had accumulated from the high winds the last couple of weeks.

Nat had also bought the new bead spread in a much more up-to-date design and wanted to confirm it would fit. She is then going to modify it to the pattern of the original one with my Moms help. The new bedspread fit great so the scissors will be flying shortly.

Nat's pride and joy - her new mattress

It was clear blue skies all day (although a cool breeze). By mid afternoon we had had the planned work done and relaxed a bit – it feels so good to be back on the water.

Next day was Mothers Day so after taking Nat and my parents to brunch we all headed up to the boat for the afternoon. Again – clear blue skies but a cool north wind. It was very warm in the cockpit with the canvas up and the sun coming in – just a relaxing afternoon. All the projects can wait until next week-end.

Relaxing in the cockpit on Mothers Day. If there was any doubt we are on a Sea Ray it is written in 4 places - Wills T shirt, my hoody, my hat and the seat back !!

Even Emma is getting into the "relax in the sun" state of mind. Well, not that she does much else but anyway.............................

More progress towards the 2011 launch

April 9th

Back top the boat and better progress all around. Got the bolster adjusted through the week and it now fits great. The marina called Friday to let me know the power would be on all week-end so I was able to get the vacuum going and clean the cabin up proper. I also got the mirror fitted the salon bulkhead and the wood panel behind the settee installed.

I fitted new ‘O’ rings to the water tank outlet hose – hopefully it is sealed when we pressurize the system. I think overall the interior is basically done – I do have to finish the wood trim piece that goes above the new panel – I will take photos of this once the cover is off and the cabin is not a funny blue colour!

Out in the cockpit I vacuumed and washed the floors and seats and generally cleaned up. Radio is now re-installed and seems to be working fine.

In the engine room I fitted new ‘O’ rings to the water tank in and out lines and checked the main engine strainer measurements to order the Perko seal kits.




April 17th:

Weather report – freakin’ cold, windy and snowy – will it ever turn nice? We are less than 3 weeks away from my launch date and the weather has been crappy – so much so that the cover is still on and thus I can not wax or touch-up the bottom. OK – mini rant over for today!

The middle of April and still snow coming down

Will and I went up to knock off a few more jobs. I had hoped to get the bilges in the cabin painted but with no power at the marina and a very overcast dull day meant that it was too dark down below to do a decent job.

However, we did get things ready to take the cover off – Cleaned and waxed the radar arch, and Glomex antenna, replaced the fitting on the steaming / anchor light and sealed the gap in the moulding that holds the zippers in place on the arch. There was one gap that dripped every time it rained – hopefully this fixed that. William also replaced the cabin entry door handles with the factory correct set.

Lastly we set about to remove the ice maker in the cockpit. We have never used this contraption and frankly can’t understand the need to have that much ice – especially ice that will taste like “boat ice”. Yuck! I picked up a small mini-bar fridge last fall that according to my measurements will fit……………. We would rather have cold drinks on hand – especially when people are dripping wet from swimming at anchor.

Well, getting the ice box out went OK. Disconnect the water in, remove about a dozen screws from the surround frame, remove the lower door latches and with 2 people at it we soon had the beast in the cockpit. Getting out of the small “Hobbit” door in the shrink wrap was a challenge and we ended up heaving it out of the door onto the parking lot below – quite satisfying really. Thankfully the ice box plugged in to a normal 2 outlet plug so getting power to the new fridge should be easy. We took the frame surround home to start the modifications. I also need to get the right fittings to plug the water line.

Next job should be to get the cover off – assuming the weather will cooperate. Better stop now – I feel another weather rant coming on.

The old ice maker ready to be tossed - literally

April 21st

Booked the day off work – forecasting a reasonable weather day at last. Natalie and I went up to the boat to get the cover off. All went well – cut the cover away, put together all the electronics on the arch, got the canvas bows up and the canvas back on. It did flurry for a few minutes but finally the sun came out. Starting to feel like a boat again. I was very pleased how clean the shrink wrap kept the boat – even the second year.

The Admiral (aka - Nat). You will notice a lack of pictures of her in this blog. She hates having pictures taken and starts moaning and complaining every time she sees the camera. In fact Nat will not be well pleased to see this picture but I had to add one of her helping get the cover off.

Cover off and the frame being dis-assembled. Sping is finally here...I think!

April 23rd

Forecast to be a nice day and the marina confirmed power / water are now on - so Will and I were back to the boat for wash and wax and whatever else we can get done. Temperatures soured to 22°C! Got the hull washed down and applied the wax with a power buffer, took it off with a second buffer and then went back and hand polished. It feels like a big boat to wax this way and challenging in the tight quarters trying to squeeze the ladder between boats but the results were worth it. However, by the end of the waxing Will and I were thinking a 20 footer was a great way to go!

Anyway, we got the waxing done and I got the bottom touched up. I think next year we need to do a full bottom coat but this year we can get away with it. While I was doing this Will put the cockpit together – carpets and cushions. So, a good hard days work but she is looking good and almost ready to launch. Need one more day and then we should be ready. What a difference a nice day makes in making progress.

Start with a good wash and towel dry





This is what I refer to as tight quarters. They really pack 'em in. It is too narrow to get the ladder down this area.






Now that is what I call a shine. Will is applying the wax with the power buffer. Plan B really shines - hard to telll she is 14 years old!









Ah, the joy of laying under the boat applying anti-fouling. And you can tell by the puddles in the background that this is not a really dry place to be laying. However, it needed to be done.















Spring prep on a warm sunny day. It really feels good at the marina at this time of year.

Progress Update

Master cabin wood trim has been refinished. I do plan too do something with that old TV but later this year.

So, I got up to the boat again on Sunday April 3rd. First order of business was to tackle the re-installation of the bolster pads. As I predicted a few weeks ago, they came off easy but the install…….. I got the port one on no problem. Then when I went to fit the starboard one, it would not fit – it seemed to be too long. I tried fitting one end first, then the other. I took the port one off and tried fitting them together but there was no way they would both fit. I think what happened is that with covering over the existing material and all the tucks and folds each end of the bolster “grew” about 1 /4”. Add that in 4 places and we don’t fit by close to an inch. So I think we are going to have to remove the coverings at both ends of the starboard bolster (which is now back at home) trim the wood ½” on each end and re-attach the coverings.

This mess is our cabin with the newly covered (and yet unfited when this was taken) bolsters, the cockpit cushions and no mattress. At the top of the picture is one of the broken hatch struts hanging down that has to be replaced.

So, an hour later and I moved on to installing all the galley doors with the new push knobs in. That actually went well. I finally removed the ugly picture off the bulkhead – mostly to see how it was attached. I want to try to use the same holes and make some attachment brackets to allow that.

Then it was down into the engine room. First item was to undo a water line coupling to get the “o” ring off. This will be the sample to buy new ones – specifically for the water tank fitting where the “o” ring had disappeared into the bilge for ever. But I think I will put new ones on all the fittings I undid for winterizing. Then I checked the raw water strainers. I think the starboard one is leaking while we are underway since there is obvious water corrosion on the bronze and we get water in the bilge while running that is not there when we are moored up. I think the cork gasket is not sealing well any more and when underway the strainer builds up pressure and drips. Anyway, my plan was to get the model number and order new seals. It is a Perko unit and the markings were “FIG 493. Ok – that should be enough info. But back at home I found out that all the Perko strainers of that style are the same number – you have to know the physical dimensions to order the right parts. Great – I will have to measure next time I am at the boat.

So, overall progress is slow. But I have to say the interior is close for now.

The list as of today is:

Fix bolster and re-install Mattress – still waiting for it to be completed.

Hatch struts – I need the cover and frame off first to be able to open the hatch to replace them.

Install mirror on bulkhead

Finish salon wood trim and attach

I also would like to repaint the bilge storage in the cabin – a coat of light grey will certainly freshen those areas up. As always in those type of areas, it is tricky to do it well around bilge pumps, shower sumps etc. But with care it can be done without getting paint on everything else.

Once I get the cabin done for spring I have the cockpit and engine room lists to deal with…….more to come.