It's Groundhog Day

Welcome to our first post of 2026. It's Groundhog Day! I am anticipating 6 more weeks of winter. It has been a COLD ONE! BTW....... Back in college I ran projectors at a local movie theater. The movie Groundhog Day was one of them that I ran. Good memories

We are midway through the winter layup. We have quite a bit going on boatwise. We are having the bottom paint redone. And when we say "redone" we mean "REDONE". Sand it down to the fiberglass, repair the blistering which was significant in 2 places and then 2 coats of epoxy barrier coat and then 2 hard finish coats. This will be the last time we do a bottom job this big. In addition we are having the hullsides and top sides buffed and waxed. This will be a big job also as this will be the 4 step process that will remove the chalking and make her look nice and new. We bought a dinghy. Yes a dinghy. We already have a kayak and paddle board but the Highfield 310 with the console upgrade and 20hp outboard will give us added flexibility. We could anchor in a bay and go to shore easily or we might even be able to pull a tube for some fun. Anyhow we will need to learn and practice the procedure for launching and retrieving the dinghy with our boom crane and get it placed on the boat deck up top.

I am also on the board of directors for the Yacht Club. We had a successful Cleveland Boatshow as we got 21 new members to sign up. Incidentally, that is where we bought the Dinghy.

We visited the boat last week and all looks good. We plugged the boat back in to power and have the battery chargers doing their thing.

I spent some time out in the driveway yesterday as the wind was not blowing and the sun was actually shining. That gave me the chance to scrape up some of the compacted snow and expose the concrete driveway so the sun could warm it and melt the smaller areas of ice.

We have about 2.5 - 3 months left in the winter layup so we are getting geared up for the season. We are planning a summer Trip up to Mackinaw again but we will take a different route to try out some other marinas and check the Lake Huron crossing for future trips up to Lake Superior. Since I can work from the boat, thank you Starlink, we have some flexibility to roam around a bit and spend a week or two out at the Yacht Club.

Stay tuned for our Summer Escapades!