Coughing, sneezing

Maybe a shot of rum, and some tylenol will help me get through this lousy cold. I've read a book, watched the Bills lose, watched Miami win, spent too much time in the cruisers forum, and nodded off from time to time. What a day. Oh yea, we lost power too, and I was sent a photo of my boat cover blowing off :(

Looks like my retractable tarp failed to close properly. This will give me something to do for the rest of the week, while on vacation. Good thing my energetic daughter is here to help. I've been surfing the web for last few days, when not reading and sleeping off this cold. I came across this video of two brothers, who crossed the Atlantic, and made a short video of their trip. Enjoy.

And then there were three

Nice and quiet here, after the holiday. Well, until my daughter wakes up :0 Our empty nest in now a little crowded, but I don't mind. It's good to have Nicole here, after being away for 5 yrs. I wore myself out over the last few days, with all the driving through the bad weather. Driving 700 miles in a noisy, shaking 16 foot truck, towing a mini-van on a carrier, through a blizzard was not fun. It only took 13 hours, ugh. But now I pay the price with a cold. First one in 3 years, and it comes over the holiday. I need a laugh. This works...

Peace on Earth

Off to see the Blizzard

Graduation day in Indiana. Yee Haw. Should be quite the happy day, as B2 gets her degree in Engineering. Purdue Engineering that is :)

Boiler Up Baby!

Poppa's proud.

I would puke

Not sure if I could make it to the head on a ride like this. Pee your pants? Imagine the cleanup after arriving in port, right after you kissed the ground.

Shipwreck

Rare ship found in Lake Ontario

Shipwreck enthusiasts have discovered a rare dagger-board schooner in the very deep water off the southern shore of Lake Ontario near Oak Orchard, New York. Jim Kennard and Dan Scoville of Shipwreck World located the ship using deep scan sonar equipment. Vessels of this type were used for a short period of time in the early 1800’s. This ship is the only dagger-board known to have been found in the Great Lakes. Kennard and Scoville also what they call the “Holy Grail” of shipwrecks in the Great Lakes in June. Read story

Give them the money!

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Autoerotic Explanation

Barack Obama Interview John McCain Interview

Sarah Palin Video Funny Election Video

Hey, I drove a Pinto. It wasn't that bad a car! Really. I did fine with the ladies...(awkward pause) The mileage was good.

When will these show up at the marina?

A fully portable, lightweight, compact, floating hot tub designed with the space and power limitations of boats in mind. TugTub™ uses water from the ocean, the lake, or your dockside hose. Takes only about an hour to fill and heat to 104° F. Then it’s time to go Float and Soak!

How does it heat the water? 12v 40 watt heater. Uh, well, I guess floating off the back of the boat at night could be fun, under the stars, with the bugs, draining the battery. Maybe not.

Just the four of us

It was good to be together again. Both the girls were here for dinner, and Nicole got her turkey. There was plenty to eat, and the veggie pot pies were pretty good, except for the number of pearl onions, which seemed to be in the hundreds. It was a lazy weekend, and Nicole flew out early this morning back to Indiana. The house is pretty quiet now, and kind of boring, but I'm enjoying it now while it lasts. I should have raked up what's left of the leaves, and I should have fired up the blower, and I should have put up some decorations. All of this would have required me to leave the couch. I very rarely get to veg out for a weekend, so I took advantage. Tomorrow is more engineering, then gym time, then pantry painting. When can we sail? Six months? Ugh. At least this time, the girls did not argue, and pretty much got along great. Holy crap, I think they've grown up!

Cruising and Taxes

Found this article on cruising, in a Myrtle Beach newspaper. It's interesting to me, as the Davenport's used to have a slip in our marina.

Marinas say taxes, economy take toll

By Jenn Parker - jparker@thesunnews.com

The weak economy hasn't changed Dick and Lynne Davenport's annual tradition of cruising from Rochester, N.Y., down to Florida in Ladyhawke, their trawler boat - part of the annual migration south for many boaters. "Actually, it's better because the price of fuel went down," said Dick Davenport, who was docked this week at Osprey Marina in Myrtle Beach.

Area marinas reported steady, if slightly lower, business this migration season - blaming the drop at least in part on customers' dissatisfaction with S.C. laws regarding boat property tax.

Dick Davenport carries his laptop to the Osprey Marina store to use their wi-fi, Thursday afternoon. Davenport and his wife, Lynne live full-time on the 42-foot Krogen trawler,

Marinas charge boaters for dock spaces and indoor storage, and offer fuel, food and ship supplies.

"I'm so upset," said Joe Polidore, one of the owners of Crickett Cove Marina in Little River. "It's not the economy that's messing us up; it's the taxation for boat owners in this area. What really hurt our business was losing 70 boaters from North Carolina who didn't want to pay taxes here."

Boaters who are in South Carolina for 60 consecutive days or a total of 90 days a year are required to pay property taxes - in addition to property taxes they owe in their home states.

A new state law lets counties decide whether to allow boaters to stay 180 days a year without paying taxes. The Horry County Council this week approved the first of three required readings of the law.

Ricky Ferdon, the operations manager at Georgetown Landing Marina, said he's lost about four boaters, saying he's heard other out-of-state customers complain about the tax.

To better accommodate folks who have felt financial strain, local marinas have made some adjustments.

"Up until this economic crunch, we only took one payment a year, and they paid for that up front," said Polidore, who has been at Crickett Cove Marina for about three years.

"We've gone to a separate payment plan where if they pay in advance, they get a free month. If they can't afford to pay it all up front, we let them pay quarterly. If they want to do it monthly, it's still a yearly contract, but we allow them to pay with a credit card on file."

The 57-year-old said out of the 292 boats stored inside the marina, about 25 percent to 30 percent have opted to use a payment plan.

Sherry Harrelson, general manager at Osprey Marina, said the marina has lost a few yearly tenants because of the economy, but not many.

"I think they're probably just trying to maintain the boat," Harrelson said.

John Wood, a partner at Ocean Isle Marina & Yacht Club in Ocean Isle Beach, N.C., says he's seen a consistent flow of customers in spite of the poor economy.

"They're boaters, and that's an important part of their lifestyle," he said.

Wood, who often takes his children out with him on boating trips, says he's seen boaters adapt their excursions in more budget-friendly ways.

"We've seen where historically you might have a person go out and take a friend to go fishing," said Wood, who also said he's seen folks boating more closely to shore.

"Now, we're seeing that guy round up three friends and they split the gas to go fishing."

Happy Thanksgiving

All is well, and all are home! Full house when Kelly drifts in sometime today. Hope she brings more candy. I ate all the stuff she brought over yesterday :) Lot of cooking and baking to do today, maybe a few refreshments too! To all my relatives out there, we do not eat Tofurky!! Geez. I'll post our menu, after we figure it out, so you can rest assured that we didn't just nibble celery sticks all day. More winter photos, that should be fall photos. Going to be a long winter. This is Oak Park Marina, North Rose, NY

Looks a lot like winter

Well I guess I've got to settle into the winter season, unless we get some warmer weather, like we did last December. It's tough to get out to the boat and work, when you have to walk through a foot of snow. My cover has a few holes already, but I expect that. Those cheap blue tarps really don't last long. I hope to remove the old water tanks, and install new. One of the tanks being a holding tank. That should be fun. There's no way I will do this when it's warm out, as it will stink to high heaven. Wonder if Deb will help with this job? I also need to add DC refrigeration. The AC unit is pretty old and noisy. Looks like it came out of an old Frigidaire. It's a Crosby unit that works pretty good, but sucks the life out of the batteries. Not good for anchoring out, which we will do more of. I will add batteries just for the refer, as I'm pretty anal about energy usage. With other things I'm just oral. I talk about it, but never actually do it :) We need to clean and paint some more, but we can do that in the water. The bottom paint is peeling off, and I have to decide whether I should strip it all off (work), or chip off the loose stuff, and re-paint (easy). Hmm If we do get a warm up in December, I'm going to splash the Kayak in Irondeqoit creek, and paddle my ass off. Been itching to paddle some H2O. Need more time in the gym first, so when I squeeze into a wet suit, I don't push all the blood to my head and pass out. Irondequoit Creek View Larger Map Indian Landing which was located on Irondequoit Creek, for many years was used by the indigenous Iroquois as the beginning of the portage route which stretched along Ellison Park.

The Lost City of Tryon, originally founded in hopes of creating a commercial settlement, used the Irondequoit Creek for trade. A store was built that bartered with the Seneca Indians, beginning its trading roots. Rumors are the park is haunted. We've heard some strange things deep in the park, while floating along through the woods. Not someplace I would want to paddle at night. Might be a few Indian graves about. :0

Al's Great Escape

A friend at the marina has retired, and I guess we don't have to be concerned about what he'll be doing with his time, as he jumped on a boat to Bermuda recently. Not sure where he is now, but what a great thing to do. Someday I would like to do this, but with my luck, halfway there, the crew would announce they were all gay, and would play "In the Navy" repeatedly, forcing me to jump overboard. It could happen. Here's a video of Al's great adventure. And, just for fun.. Muppets. We need more Muppets!

Annapolis Boat Show

What a great two weekends we had. We got to see our daughter in Indiana, and had a great time visiting. Big Ten Football was a plus, but mainly it was a nice time having the four of us together again. Kelly was there too! After the family gathering, we took time for ourselves, and headed to Annapolis. It's a great town, as many of you know, and we enjoy walking around town, and seeing all the new and insanely priced sailboats. How do people afford these things? Anyhow, the food was good, though the veggies were scarce. Felt bad eating that crab. He was good though. The beer was good, and we spent some quality time in McGarveys(?) People watching is pretty cool there. Lots of folks from everywhere. Saw Don Street, but didn't get to say hello. Missed Suzanne Giesemann, see Libertysails blog to the right. Saw some friends from the home port, and heard some others were there, but never bumped into them. Chic, I know you were there. Kind of cool recognizing some of the folks seen in magazines. They look taller in print. We roamed the tents, and managed to find a mattress we liked. Even got to lay on it. I always feel awkward laying on the bed in front of everyone. I should have curled up in a fetal position, and stuck my thumb in my mouth, but I didn't have any hand sanitizer. We also found a "Mack Pack" to make it easier to put away the mainsail, before I kill myself climbing the mast to get the cover on. The pack will stay on the boom, the sail will fall into it, and I will zipper it up. Neat. Hope it works. I'm tired of my dock mates sipping wine, while I climb like a monkey all over the deck trying to stow the main. Kind of looks like this: I took a look at some of the LED lighting at the show, and Imtra had the nicest. I would like to replace all the lights with LED before we shove off. Deb knows I'm a watt watcher, and battery monitor, so to keep her sane, I should upgrade the lighting. Speaking of battery's, does everyone remove their batts from the boat in the winter? I left mine on board, and just maintained a charge all winter, but I'm hearing that removal and storage in a warm dry place is better. I have 2 8D batts, and I would have to have emergency hernia surgery if I lifted those out. So unless it's crucial that I get those out, I think I'll save my groin instead. I'll have to take pictures of the frame I assembled on top of the boat for the cover. People are calling it an ark. I figured that if the economy continues to slide, and it all falls down, I still have the boat, and can live on it. So I better build a good cover to keep out the elements. Hmm, water could be a problem at 10 below. Better re-think the boat as a home at latitude 43. Well, I better get ready for bed. Got to build those emission controls for the new Chevy Camaro coming soon. Buy one, save an engineer. They are rated at 25 MPG! When I got out of junior college, I was on my way to Boston to finish school, and party my ass off in between Bruins games, and classes, but I never made it past Rochester. Worked out great, but if I could do it again, I would go south to to Annapolis. Great town. Now if they could just get a hockey team.

Politics

I try to keep this blog just about sailing, but sometimes the political season creates some great stuff, like these videos, which are one sided for sure, but funny, and poignant. Remember the Waaz Up commercials for Bud? Here's a remake... Remember this guy?

See more Ron Howard videos at Funny or Die

Boilermakers

We hit the road again, for Indiana to visit the little engineer. We did manage to tailgate too :) That trip gets longer every time. One thing we did notice along the way, was the traffic volume was very low. A bad sign for our economy. The highway between Columbus, and Indianapolis is usually clogged with trucks, but this year I could relax, and cruise right through. Good for me, not for the economy. We will make ONE more trip to West Lafayette, and that's for graduation. Yee Ha. I will miss the tailgating, as we've met some great students, and parents over the years. Enough to know that this red state, blue state crap, as far as I can tell, is just that. We're all Americans. A liberal New Yorker can have a beer with a conservative Midwesterner, and laugh and have a good time. We all want the same thing, peace, prosperity, and freedom. We have differences, but so what. If we were all the same, we wouldn't be America.

Will Purdue ever win another game this year? Yikes. Maybe Nic is a jinx, and needs to graduate, for the sake of the team.

The trip would have been a bit shorter, if we didn't have to wait for "Bladder Boy" all the time.

Last sail?

Well, the tradition continues. We had a nice sail. No speed records broken, and the wind did calm down to about 5 knots in the end, but it was a flat water day with plenty of sunshine. A few complained that it wasn't good sailing at all, but I disagree. What is good sailing? High wind, wild ride? Moderate breeze, flat water? The thing about sailing is, you never know what you'll get. Suppose in soccer, or hockey, you score a goal every other time you have the ball, or puck. Wouldn't that take away the thrill of scoring a goal? If every day was a perfect sail, we'd get bored pretty quickly, and eventually find something else to occupy our time with. Part of the fun is finding, discovering that perfect sail. The thrill, and challenge of handling the boat in different, or changing conditions is what makes sailing such a great sport. You never know what you'll get. So, if you're out there in 5 knots, or 25 knots, enjoy it. It's better than sitting in your cubicle! We spied another center cockpit boat out near the bluffs, and I decided to tack away and check it out. Not sure of the make, but the nice folks on board were snapping photos of our boat, while we were getting shots of theirs. More of us should do this, so we can have photos of our boats under sail. We yelled out "Latitude43.com", and now we hope they connect, and we can exchange photos. Smile! We may try to get another sail in this next weekend. Trying to avoid the inevitable. I'm not ready yet, and neither is Deb. We'll keep an eye on the weather, and maybe, just maybe we'll get another "perfect sail" in.

Big Blow

We had the big blow Sunday night, remnants of a hurricane, and we made it through OK. The dock we are tied to, did not do so well. I guess 60 mph winds blowing a 30,000 lb boat against the floating finger was a bit too much. The finger has quite a lean to it now. There was a shredded headsail on one of the smaller boats on B dock, and our resident catamaran parted with it's stern line, and was slamming into the dock. I saw all this as I was at the marina in the morning at 6am. Worried about my future home, I spent a few hrs at the marina before heading into work. Thanks for the coffee Al! And thanks for watching the boats all that night. It's nice having a retired guy at the marina :) Well, I wish I was retired, because work sucks. Delphi is trimming it's work force, and there is an air of desperation to the place. I need about 5 more years. I'll probably get arthritis from crossing my fingers all that time. Going to get one more weekend of sailing in before hauling out. The last one is usually the best. Not sure why, but every last sail in WhisperIII was perfect. I'm hoping the tradition continues with Alert. I'm reading 8-10 knots from the south. Not bad. 15 to 20 would be better. Roy, the new owner of WhisperIII apears to be having a great time with his new toy. He offered a video of the old girl under sail, and she looks good. Roy, remember to loosen the mainsheet, and vang before you raise the sail. It'll take those scallops out of the luff :) Sorry, couldn't resist. I'm already stressing over the haulout, and covering. I'm debating wether to store the mast on or off the boat. I have to work on it, but the mast rack at the marina is a piece of junk. Hopefully I'll come to some arrangement that will work. Maybe storing it near the boat on saw horses. This image is the GPS tracks from our cruise, exported to Google Earth. We seem to make this triangle quite a bit. We need to alter course next year.

Back Home

Well the wind was on the nose, like we thought it would be. We motor sailed until about five miles off Sodus Point, where we killed the motor, and slooowly sailed into the bay. What was amazing, was a C&C 35 on the same tack, and we ghosted right by him in the light air. Go figure!  A hulking 30,000 pound cruiser, towing a dinghy floats past a 12,000 pound racing machine. Maybe he should invest in some new sails, cause that's not supposed to happen.

The Yanmar diesel ran fine, so now I think I have some bad fuel in the port tank. Guess I will have to attempt some fuel polishing, and tank cleaning. Coincidentally, there was an article in one of the sailing mags about this process. Sounds like a dry dock job to me.

 

The black flies came out to play, and bit us up a bit. We learned that black flies can't handle glass plus spray cleaner. Give em a spritz, and they get goofy enough where you can swat them. Deb had a mosquito net ready for herself. I was on my own. We really lucked out on the weather on our cruise, and I'm glad we went. There's nothing like living on the boat for a few weeks to really get you to relax. My only regret is that we didn't anchor out, but I need to get a little more energy independent before we attempt that. The fridge is AC, and runs off the inverter. I think 8-12 hrs on the hook would be pushing it. 

 

Confederation Basin only had about a dozen sailboats for the holiday weekend. I remember the place used to be filled with sticks, and now hardly any make the trip. There were quite a lot of trawlers, and heard many say they were loopers. These trawlers were huge, and looked to be well stocked with electronic goodies, and other nice stuff. Another thing we noticed were most of the sailboats were Canadian. There were only 2 other sailboats from the states, besides us. Beneteau seems to be selling quite a few boats in Canada, as that was the popular brand, followed by Catalina. The Basin hasn't changed much, and the kids are still there to help when the wind is blowing. After 5pm, most of the dock help is gone, and you have to rely on fellow boaters. From about 3 to 5pm you grab a drink, sit in the cockpit, and watch the docking dance. We have seen some of the most bizarre docking acts in this marina when the wind is blowing. Nothing can top the French Canadian sailboat that had no dock lines ready, motoring slowly into the slip, while having wine and cheese at the cockpit table. They never got up, just drifted into the slip, and let everyone else stop and secure their boat. No thank you's, just more wine. Amazing.

 

I hate to say it, but I'm already configuring my mast supports for winter storage. :(

Last day in Kingston Town

Not sure what we'll do today. The morning fog just burned off, and the powerboat monster from Ottawa just left our side, letting in some sunshine. We leave at daybreak tomorrow, so an early night for us. I'm sure a band will start playing, or a dock party will break out before we hit the sack. Last night we ate at Chez Piggy, and had a great meal in the garden/patio. It was later than we usually go out, and the patio was lit up perfect. The setting is a courtyard patio, surrounded by stone buildings, with full grown trees, and vines around the tables. Pretty nice. We'll explore a little more today, then get her ready to cross to the USA. Supposed to be light winds tomorrow :( so we'll keep our fingers crossed for the engine to keep running smooth. Otherwise we'll be black fly bait. That would really suck.

Fay is in town

What a rollicking night! What's left of Fay came through last night, and it's still blowing here this morning. Not much rain, just wind. The Kingston Marina would have had us leaving today. No way. Glad we switched to the basin. This is the first "bad" weather we've had. What's a little wind. Took many walks yesterday to get the blood moving. It's amazing how lazy you can get on a cruise. After the morning walk, we went for an afternoon walk, which ended with my knee killing me (no ACL), and two ice cold margarita's to relieve the pain. A nap followed, of course. I took the time to polish all the stainless ports, and they look lot better. This gave me the opportunity to talk to the guy next to me, who has a Whitby 42 Ketch. A beautiful boat, which was on my short list of boats to look at. The guy is 82, and still cruising the great lakes. Good for him. He bought powered winches, furling main, powered everything, just to keep sailing. He also bought a new genny, which his wife replied "Why, you'll be dead before you use that". He said he will fly it all the way back home. No morning walk today, unless the weather breaks. I have plenty of chores to do, like finding cool stuff on the web....

Lazy Days in the basin

It's hard to believe, but there is no wind here in Kingston. The basin is usually howlin, all the time, but for the last few days just a slight breeze. This makes for boring dock follies between 3-5pm. This is when most people arrive and have to dock in the usually high wind. Fun to watch. I still have an open slip next to me, so I might not be laughing later. There was a couple last year that pointed their boat at the dock, throttled down, then opened up a bottle of wine, and had some cheese while the dock hands tried to land the boat. Amazing. Haven't seen anything like that yet, but there must be money in Montreal, as that's where all the new boats are coming from. I hope one of them hit me. I need a new paint job. We had dinner at the Sleepless Goat. Kelly would have liked it, all organic, all vegetarian, and everyone in there looked like they graduated from ESF(hippies). Good food. I had a great lasagna, Deb had plenty of penne. We'll post more pictures later, when I get a better wifi connection. The big ass boat next to me is blocking my signal. I'm going for a morning walk around town, maybe stop at PanChancho for some pastries, and bread. The weather is turning a bit cloudy, but still warm. Rain later, but Saturday looks great.

Kingston, Ontario, Canada

We left Sackets on a cold morning, with some mist still floating around in the Bay, and what little wind we had was right on the nose. The morning sun did not warm me up, and we continued to motor on into the wind, avoiding the shoals. Even though the depth is listed as 12-15ft, I still avoid them. Probably adds another 1/2 hr to the ride, but better to be cautious. As we turned to cut through the shallows, looking for the elusive KS2 buoy, the engine RPM dropped, then slowly came back up. It did this several more times, and now I started to get nervous. The wind kicked up to about 20, and we were in a shallow area marked by wrecks, and shoals. I didn't want to another wreck to the charts. If the engine dies, we would turn around, and unfurl the headsail to go downwind. I decided to switch to the other tank, and throttle down a bit, and see if that takes care of it. It did, and we continued on. Bad fuel? Dirt? Not sure, but will have to investigate. Just to be on the safe side, I had a knife ready to cut the anchor safety line, in case we lost the engine in the small basin and had to drop some chain. My fear was we'd lose the engine while approaching the dock. Imagine bouncing off all those million dollar yachts, and having everyone yelling at me in French. Not sure how I'd react to that, but it would not be pretty. Might be a good time to review my policy. The Kingston Marina would have to kick us out on Friday, so we went to Confederation Basin instead. We will be holed in here until Sunday morning. Not a very exploratory cruise, but at least we got away from Sodus this year. Dinner at the brew pub of course, then a pint at the bar, and we were ready for bed. Not too many folks here yet, so it's nice and quiet. This will change.

Another day in Sackets

Had a good lazy day yesterday, lounging around and helping others dock, and watching others do amazing tricks with their boats. A 44 foot Hunter was about a foot off our stern, with throttle maxed. Startled, I popped out, only to hear him say, "Just getting a look at your stern. Very nice". He proceeded to back his boat into the slip across from us. If it were me, I would have bounced off every boat here, and been dropped by my insurance company. It was hard enough squeezing in this slip... Heard some interesting stories coming from the boat next to us. They traveled the coast, and the islands for over ten years, and were back to hand their boat over to their kids. A nice Endeavour 43. Wow, now that's a big first boat. Their stories got louder with every glass of wine, so off to dinner we went. Good Fellos pizza has to be the best wood fired pizza I have ever had. We get back here every three years or so, and it is still the best. We walked the rain soaked streets, with lighting still flashing overhead on our way to the restaurant. Expecting a low turnout, we were surprised to see people standing in the doorway. We were seated quickly, and were sipping our first 1812 Ale, when the sky let loose. Made it just in time. We stopped at the brew pub for a pint before heading back. The lights were flickering from the storm, as we watched the closing ceremonies of the Olympics. As we walked down the wet and deserted streets, and passed the old battlefield, we joked about how Kelly would freak out over ghosts from 1812. The only noise was from our footsteps, the thunder in the distance, with lightning still flashing overhead. We heard a low growling noise coming from the old battlefield. Deb just looked at me, and picked up the pace. We got through the gates of the marina, but were looking behind us until we got to the dock. So now we are freaked out by the battlefield. Finally got my motor lift installed, at the last minute of course. Drilled my first hole into the boat. It was a special moment.

Life's a reach

With Kingston Ontario full up, because of the Blues Festival, we set off for Sackets Harbor, NY. After a perfect dock exit, not sure how that happened, we set off on a reach, east. A nice southern breeze of 8-15 knots propelled us towards Sackett's. We only ran the engine to leave Sodus Bay, then to dock at Navy Point. Amazing. This rarely happens, and only two flies came aboard, which were dispatched immediately, right after they bit Deb. Don't know how I did it, but we are wedged next to a trawler, with about a foot to spare. Got in, but have no idea how to get out. Spent most of my morning helping people dock. Really tight maneuvering in here. The brew pub is still fine, and we'll explore the town today (15 minutes) and settle in for the day. Maybe a nap, then dinner. Life is good.

Sailing again

It's about time we got back on the water for crying out loud. It's about time we got some really good weather too! We had some wind for a change, and too bad I had a hangover Saturday, because it would have been fun to stay in the 5 footers. We got back to the 4.5 footers on Sunday and had a ball. Saturday was a bay day, so I didn't hurl on Deb's shoes. Seriously, I can not drink anymore. Two for one beers, and the Guinness did me in. Imagine being in a dark boat, rocking back and forth in the wind, then waking up to blinding sunshine, feeling all sweaty, and pasty. A boat is no place for a hangover, and that was my last one. Word. Check out the video of the Queen Mary in San Fran. I saw this on sailinganarchy.com. Amazing how many boats were in the bay on Sunday. We got out into the lake with a bit of lumpiness, but the old tub handled it with ease. We were one of maybe 3 or 4 sailboats, and a few power. Upwind was a little slow into the waves, but off the air she was steady and quick. Eight miles out, and back, made for a nice ride, on a beautiful day. Felt good.

Corn country

Boiler Up! We're in West Lafayette, Indiana for the weekend. Home of the Purdue University Boilermakers. We're helping our little boilermaker move into a new apartment. Four moves in four years. Ugh. My sore back. No sailing going on here. I feel closed in without any coastline nearby. Nothing but corn and soy. Mmmmm soy.
We moved everything in one day, so Sunday we just goofed off, and cleaned up the apartment, then kind of explored a little.

Alright, not much exploring to do in Lafayette, but we got into town for a bit. I really like the Irish bar that I've never been to. Four years, and it was right around the corner. What the hell. My Daughter was holding out on me. O'Bryan's 9 Irish Brother's. O'Bryan's, how fitting. I will be there come October for the Penn State game. Maybe a few black and tans before the game I think. I should introduce them to a Black and Sam. Geez, I'm thirsty.

We got Nic moved in one day, then another to sit around and annoy her. Deb and I started kicking around a soccer ball in her apartment, and got yelled at. She took the ball away from us. We're growing older but not up, as you can see.

I think Deb has a drinking problem. Actually, they were lined up on the deck because I took them out of the cooler, for transport to the fridge. We had good weather for the move, and now I'm looking forward to the next, as it will be the post graduation move. Yee Ha!

It was good to see our far away daughter. We're pretty proud of our little girl moving so far away, and handling things all on her own. She's grown up so fast, and we miss her so much.

Working for the weekend

It's getting to the point where we flee the burbs, to get to the boat as quickly as possible. We even leave for work from the boat, at about 5AM. The summer is going by so fast, that we want to hang on to as much as we can, before we have to start raking leaves at home. Nothing like watching the moon setting on a foggy bay early in the morning. Friday we brought the office to the boat. Deb had her co-workers on the boat for a sail, and I had a co-worker from Poland visit. I believe we had ten engineers on board that day, so if anything went wrong, I think we would have figured it out. Actually fixing the problem would be another matter. The wind was blowing pretty good in the bay, but the lake had nothing but biting flies. It's getting to the point where if it's not blowing over eight, then avoid the lake and the flies. Too bad. We zipped around the bay, getting the heel over 20 degrees at times to the pleasure of the engineering crowd, with the help of barley and hops :) If I had two dogs, that's what I'd name them. My Polish friend Marcin was enjoying sailing for the first time, and America too. I'm glad he got to taste some real American ribs, and experience some of our natural surroundings. MacDonald's and the Mall is no way to spend a visit here, even though that is the way most Americans eat up their precious time, oh and cutting their grass. We discussed politics, religion, work, etc. and I have to say I learned quite a bit about Poland, and I can't wait to go there. Hopefully Marcin learned that our current government is not representative of most Americans. That's about all I have to say about that subject on this blog. Last week we had some friends visit. Part of our "old" gang stopped by for lunch, and a boat visit. We were missing a couple, so we can't call it a reunion, but it was good to see everyone. We seem to be getting busier as we get older. This is a good thing I think. We don't see each other often, but everyone looks great, and that's not from laying on the couch watching TV all day. One crappy thing I had to do was unplug the new toilet. What fun. There was a wad of toilet paper stuck in the hose to the tank. I only discovered this after I took most of the toilet apart. Glad I did though. I looked at the joker valve, and found it was in backwards, and that it was defective. ON A NEW TOILET! This pissed me off. I had to watch a one foot wad of toilet paper slowly eject out of a waste hose. Kind of like the old Play-Doh fun factory toys, where the stuff slowly oozed out before you cut it off. I took two showers, and rubbed hand sanitizer on my body. I sprayed so much chlorine around the area, that I couldn't breathe.