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.............................