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.
