The Lottery

Well, last Saturday was the lottery and less than 116 people were wanting spots, so I have a "slip" at the park, this should be a much better sailing year!

New Blog

I've decided to start another blog for non-nautical topics. One that will have pictures and more random topics. So check out A Day In The Life.

Video Test

Well, here is a video test:

Kung Fu Fighting

We enrolled my son in a local karate school. He seems to like it. I hope he can stay with it for years and learn karate, become a blackbelt, etc. Seems like a gift that would last a lifetime. Probably worth more than a High School diploma ultimately.

I had to post a picture of him in his outfit.

Funny thing is, he's going to be a Power Ranger for Halloween, this photo from just the day before:

Harsens Island (in pictures)

Freighter south bound in the South Channel (Sans Souci).












Old Victorian that I stayed at as a kid on Harsens Island. It's changed hands from the people who owned it when I was a kid.










Car Ferry to Harsens Island, always a lot of fun.













At the southern end of the island, a gigantic fleet of boats just hanging out on Labor Day.












A little more to the south, in the distance you can see the Old Channel Lights.

Harsens Island

I made a couple of trips to Harsens Island recently. What prompted these trips were a few things. Firstly, my 11 year old nephew had spent the weekend there with a friend of his. This reminded me of my own childhood when I was around the same age. One of my best friends in my neighborhood took me there for the weekend a couple of his times. His grandparents owned a beautiful, stately Victorian-era home on the South Channel. This information actually prompted a phone call to this fellow, whom I've only seen twice in the last 3 decades. I found his information on the Internet, cold called him and sure enough it was the right guy. He only lives a few miles from me and we spoke for probably 45 minutes, but I don't think he wants to get together anytime soon, but he was polite and we chatted and reminisced for a few minutes which was very nice. The other reason was as a kid my father used to talk about taking our boat across the lake to Harsens Island. We of course never made it by boat. I would have to be an adult to do that on The Cat's Pajamas. When I did that, we actually went to Gull Island, rather than Harsens Island but we were close enough for me at the time. So, I went twice to Harsens Island. The first time I went with my brother and his oldest son who had never been to the island or on a car ferry for that matter. We couldn't stay long because he had to work, but there really isn't that much on the island to keep you. The second time I took my wife and son and we spent a few hours on the island. We played at a public park for a while in two different episodes and we toured the island, going to places I remembered going to as a kid. Over all, I think everyone enjoyed the trip (it was only a couple of hours) and it made me want to get a place on the island. That of course is a huge ambition. Houses on the island go for big $$$ and right now, there is simply no room in the budget for that, but perhaps in the future. Who knows, maybe just renting a place once or twice a season is the ticket.

I'll post some pictures later.

Sombra/Marine City Ferry

We were in Canada yesterday at Story Book Gardens. The Blue Water Bridge was backed up with a TON of traffic so we went down to a little town called Sombra and took the car ferry over to Marine City.

It was very cool.

Other Boating Adventures

Often times I forget that I allow myself to post anything here. So, anything remotely related to boating will due. Looking over my digital camera I discovered a few of nice boating pictures with which I am connected.

Blog Template Whacked!

Somehow my blog template was damaged and because of that, I lost my link list. So it will have to be rebuilt. I think I can remember most of what was there but man am I pissed!

If anyone remembers a link that has vanished, post a comment here and I'll get it back online.

Thanks.

Don't Forget Your Old Shipmates

Master and Commander the Far Side Of The World is one of my favorite movies of late. There is a scene later in the movie in the officer's mess where the Sailing Master starts to sing a tune called Don't forget Your Old Shipmates, it's cool, I like it. I need to find out where I can get tunes like these.

Stony Creek

And here is my home base, Stony Creek Lake.

Gull Island

Here is a nice sailing destination on Lake St. Clair called Gull Island.

Refitting

Well, I just replaced the hawse vent on The Cat's Pajamas. What a vast improvement! I replaced it with an OEM vent so it looks the same as always, just clean and functional. It's a vent made by the Sea-Dog company. Here it is.

Update:

Replaced the lightbulb on the port side of the trailer.

Log Entry In Pictures

Here are some shots from the trip.

Preparing the boat for sail.

Sailing to the dock to pick up the rest of the crew.

Some of the crew waiting.

The Skipper

Helmsman in training.

Forward shot.

Log Entry

For the first time in nearly four years, The Cat's Pajamas has set sail! We sailed upon Stony Creek Lake for about two and a half hours, with a full compliment. For the first time since I've owned this boat, I launched and retrieved it by myself. This in and of itself was important. The new winch proved itself out as well. At any rate I was able to run under power long enough to empty the tank of the stale fuel and to add fresh fuel to my "iron wind". It was a maiden voyage for a member of my crew as well, my 3 year old son, who seemed pretty excited about it and overall was a pretty good sport. After motoring around for a bit, we finally hoisted up just one sail, the Genoa. There was enough wind that we were able to manuever without a lot of trouble on just one sail. I was very pleased.

Some items that came out of this shakedown: I didn't have all my usual ropes but fortunately I had some other ones that came in handy. The electrical connection from the outboard to the deep cycle battery needs to be repaired. One of the bunks on the trailer needs to be refastened to the trailer. A brake light is out on the left side of the trailer. I need to get that hawse vent too, the cabin was too hot and stuffy.

New Bike

Last weekend I went into the local bike shop looking for parts and accessories for my existing fleet of bicycles. I am always amazed when I look at bikes in REAL bike stores because they are so hi-tech. This summer I've been able to get into bicycles again so I needed to replace the pedals on my very nice, second-hand department store ten speed. I bought this bike from my brother about 16 years ago. It was in great shape, almost new in fact, but still second-hand. One of the people in the store approached me and we began talking. I've always been a fan of three speed bikes because they are so rugged and low maintenance I even remember the name of the shifter on my brother's purple Schwinn three speed when I was a kid. Little did I realize what a legendary name "Sturmey Archer" was even then. At any rate, the guy in the store turned me on to a bike called a Townie 21. What a beautiful bike. I think that I will buy one of these bikes, that way I can say that I had at least one new bike before I shuffled off this mortal coil. The 21 is not an internally geared bike (like a three speed), but derailleur technology is so much better in the last several years (even my 16 year old ten speed is pretty reliable).

In related news, I had about a 27 year old three speed that was given to me last year by a relative, I had put new tires and tubes on it and used it as my neighborhood 'beater' but I decided to get rid of it. Well, my ex-neighbor's grandson was walking by the other day, a young man of about 18 who hasn't had an easy life thus far. At any rate, I gave him the bike. Just told him to take it and, he did. He seemd pretty appreciative of it, I've felt great about that decision, ever since.

Testing, Testing, One, Two, Three...

I tested my outboard today. With stale fuel from last year, she fired right up and purred like a kitten. I might even take a shake-down cruise tomorrow or Sunday.

I can taste the lake air.

Trip Down Memory Lane

Just thinking about boats in general always takes me back to my first one, an O'day Javelin. What a great boat!

New Com-Pac Sloop Design

Com-Pac Yachts (Hutchins Company) has on their news page an item about their new sloop to replace the old Com-Pac 16, they call it the Legacy

Picnic Cat Dilemma

I've been thinking about getting rid of my boat lately. I'm simply too busy with other things and the Com-pac 16 is just a bit more work than I want some days. I'm thinking about "downgrading" to a Picnic Cat.

Comments? Suggestions?