The Top 10 Best Things About Winter in a Marina

This morning I woke up to find a very heavy frost coating everything in the marina.  It was so thick I almost thought it had snowed.  It was incredibly beautiful, the sort of sparkly, twinkly beauty that my two granddaughters love to have stuck to every single thing they wear / touch / play with,  but it was unfortunately one of those things that you just can't catch the beauty of with the lens of a camera. This is what the dock box looked like:

I can't say as I'm exactly looking forward to the next two and a half months, but I can say that I've managed to find quite a few good things about the cold weather, and in the spirit of a few other blogs that I frequent, I'll add my own "Top 10" list - The top ten best things about winter in a marina.

1. The ice and frost are incredibly beautiful on a sunny morning.
2. There is much more wildlife in the marina to enjoy.  The Great Blue Herons are much more approachable, letting you get within a few feet before they utter that horrific prehistoric screech and take off.  The mink are not so approachable which I'm pretty sure is a good thing.
3. The hot shower in the bath house is almost as good as sex.
4. Sex is better in a pile of warm quilts :)
5. It's cool enough to do a lot of baking in the boat.
6. The inside of the boat is really cozy with the smell of cinnamon bread wafting out of the oven.
7. There's no rush to get up and get to the list of activities so we almost always get 8 glorious hours of sleep.
8. The Boat Chore List is not quite as pressing.
9. You get pretty close to the few other crazy people staying through the winter.
10. Let's face it - Hot Buttered Rum tastes much better when it's miserably cold outside.

A Lot of Cruisers wish they had ice..

...and I would love to give them some.

And the white stuff that looks like snow on the ground?  Not.  It's an inch and a half of sleet that looks and feels for all the world like someone dumped the contents of a glass bead blaster on our street.

Time to look at my favorite picture again so I don't lose hope.

Closer every day

...the season, that is. The Boulder Marina "No Boat" party was last Saturday at a hotel far from the docks. It was a good time for seeing everyone we have missed seeing at the marina over the winter. Lots of laughs, lots of stories, lots of cheer and maybe (just maybe mind you) some small indulgences in a bit of alcoholic beverage filled the evening.

Sunday morning I made the run out to the boat. As it turns out I was the first official "customer" of the new boating season which, (so I was told) starts on March Uno each year. March or not I was dressed in 5 layers and it was still a bit too cold to spend a lot of time on the dock. As usual I checked the dock lines, charged the batteries, fired up the heater to drive out a little moisture, checked the bilge, and generally poked around while listening to a little Eric Clapton on the CD player. Though it was too cold, it was kind of nice to be on the boat without having to brush away spider webs, dodge dive-bombing wasps, or slap away hungry mosquitoes. Warm(er) weather is promised by the end of the week and it can't get here to soon for me.

When we first bought Nomad she seemed small inside. As the season went on, our little boat grew a bit bigger each time we were on her, finally growing to just the right size. Back on her last Sunday she seemed a little small again. My guess is in a few weeks she will be just the right size once more. Last season we only did two "nights out" on the boat, both raft-ups. This year I hope to make it a regular habit of sailing away from the dock Friday night or Saturday morning and not tying back in until Sunday afternoon. I also hope to do our first solo night sail this year. Just for learning's sake Deb and I also want to take a turn at "single handing" the boat; forcing the other to sit and watch while we try to sail Nomad by ourselves. (Deb may have to lock me in the head!) It should be a fun year.

Gearing up

Except for a test ride (a bit chilly this morning around here) Deb's bike is done. The floor is done. The TV shouldn't be that big of a deal so the house is done for the season. Projects have gone into the "completed" file and its nice to have things a little bit under control again. And with the weather warming up in fits and starts I am getting ready to have the major projects center around Nomad once again. Engine, electrical, water and instrument systems all have items I hope to get squared away before too much of the season has passed. The engine in particular has become a kind of personal crusade. As mentioned before, 2 cylinders, 9 HP, an alternator, starter, cooling loop and (supposedly) supporting a water heater, how can such a simple lump be such a constant source of problems? I am determined to beat that thing into submission this year.

Short visit

I had a few hours after getting the truck estimate done so I headed out to the lake to check on little Nomad. (One bad thing about living in the city, the truck got broken into for the second time in about six months.) As the pictures in the previous post show, the lake looks like the frozen tundra; ice locked, snow covered, windswept and really cold! But in the marina, even with a cockpit full of snow, Nomad was nodding contently in her slip. The ice shelf was being held at bay just a few feet from her stern by the various bubblers around her.

As before, I checked the lines and the water line in the bilge, put a top charge on the batteries and just generally looked around to be sure there was no water where water shouldn't be. While the batteries were getting the last of the added electrons stuffed in them I stretched out on the port side settee. For a little while I just enjoyed being on the water, feeling the boat's gentle motions as she noodled between the bow and stern lines. Lying there I began to wonder if Nomad could be an ocean boat. After all, people uncounted had sailed boats as small and even smaller around the world. She would need new sails of course, and something would have to be done with the bitch of a engine she carries. (How can a tiny motor of two cylinders and 9 HP be such a constant pain in the ass?) All in all it could be done.

Of course it came time to head home and as I got ready to leave I had to admit that I could live on Nomad, in fact I would live on Nomad if the choice was between that and not making it to a boat at all. But I doubt that will be the path we take. The economy is a bad as most of us alive have ever seen. But the land isn't going anywhere, or the water, lakes and sea. People still need to live and we will figure out a way. The sun keeps rising, the moon goes though its phases, already there are hints that the birds know spring is near so they are getting ready to head north. This time of trouble shall pass like they all do. Then we will be onto the next thing, the next crisis, the next war. And maybe, someday, we will learn to build the next peace, the next bit of prosperity, take the next step toward a society that is good for the many and not just the few. One thing the future is sure to bring is warmer days and sailboats being on the wind yet again.

Some Winter Pictures

Just some pictures of the lake this past week for you.

 The lake as viewed from the boat launch parking lot across from the marina.

The bubblers are keeping the ice at bay (pun intended).

 

Just a little snow in the cockpit.

Winter blues

The winter blues have arrived along with temperatures in single digits last night and the wind howling today. So I have been reading about boats. (I really want to get to work on Deb's bike but it is too freaking cold in the garage!) I'm in a "mono-hull" mood at the moment and reviewing some of my current favorites helps keep the chill away. (Prices are not a consideration when dreaming in the winter.) I'll list them here for anyone else who is looking to think of warm things on a cold day.

The Island Packet 485 tops my list at the moment; 48 feet long, center cockpit, and a tick over 1/2 mil. (Told you price was no object.) The build and interior make up for the less than jaunty exterior lines. The fore cabin is a bit blocky looking and I have no experience with the rigging of its foresail. But the interior is nearly perfect and she has a reputation for sea keeping, safety and toughness that is hard to pass. We saw one at the boat show and the impression of quality lingers.

Next is the Dufour 525. I just love the fore deck on that boat and the interior is pretty cool as well. Also about 1/2 mil. (No problem, I'll just sell the house three times!) It has a sleek look and though not a center cockpit boat it is not open transom either. A following sea would still seem a bit spooky, at least to my lake locked senses. Also, the reviews indicate that it needs a little systems work to be a true, blue water live aboard. On looks alone it is by far my favorite and I am becoming a fan of the clean deck, low cabin profile.

Then maybe the Gozzard 44CC, another center cockpit boat...and another 1/2 mill. They have a really nice, open interior with some innovative features. To my eye the outside lines are a bit more attractive than the Island Packet.

Anyway, its fun to compare features, put pictures up side by side, and mull over what it would be like to be night sailing in a building wind, the destination still days away and land nowhere to be seen. Sounds like a good time to me.

Looking Ahead

After a week in Indy getting to know new grandson Christopher, Deb and I had to bid a teary "good-by" to Kristin and Brian this morning and head back to St. Louis. (I'm getting better at good-byes. After dropping Amber, Mike, Catherine and Mary off at the Indy airport last week I stopped crying about the time I made Terre Haute. I hate saying good-by to my daughters.)

Anyway, on the way back from Indy we stopped by the marina to check on little Nomad. It has been several weeks since either of us have been on board and I was a bit curious as to how she was handling her first winter in the water in several years. I was also just missing being around the boat. She was floating contently in her slip, all covers secure, the normal amount of water in her bilge. I retied all the lines, reset a fender, put a charge on the batteries and generally poked around the boat for a while, but all appeared to be ship-shape.

We happened across Dennis (the owner of the marina) and good friend Barry (who even in the winter spends more than a few nights aboard his Albin 36) and ended up having an impromptu dinner party. The four of us sat around the clubhouse, enjoyed some really good food and conversation, with the boats rocking gently at the docks and the biggest full moon of the decade flooding the lake with light. It was a truly special way to bring an official end to our holiday / new grandson celebrations and travels. Truth be told, I'm looking forward to the new year settling down and getting under way. There is a list of projects to start tomorrow, new steering bearings for Deb's bike, a hardwood floor for the house, and a list of jobs to do on Nomad. Hopefully enough to do to make the remainder of the winter pass a bit quickly.

 

Global warming

Last week it didn't seem like global warming was having much of an impact on this winter; cold, cold and more cold! This week is a different story with temperatures near 70 degrees, rain, thunderstorms and even a tornado warning. (Within a week of New Year's day!) Today was warm enough for me to take the GSXR out for a romp. A short romp as the wind chill at speed sucked some of the warmth out of the day.

The bad news is, with at least 2 and a half months to go, I got to thinking of spring. I have been spending a lot of time reading about sailboats trying to get through this winter. One fun present for me this Christmas was a subscription to "Good Old Boat, The Sailing magazine for the REST of us!" You can read that as "those of us with little money." It is a good read with lots of boats older than Nomad that look in their prime. Good articles about servicing and replacing older systems fill the pages and somehow they make most of it sound like fun. (That's a pretty good trick if you have spent any time working on boats.) I've also found some good places on the web to read boat reviews and have run across a make or two that I hope to learn more about, maybe look at when we get to the next boat show.  

Also, if plans hold, I'll be in Ft. Lauderdale for a couple of days at the end of January. That would be a good time to find a boat or two to look at, maybe pretend that I can actually buy one of these days. Maybe I should just look for a job down there? One of those boat reviews was on the Island Packet 460, close to the 465 that Deb and I looked at while in Annapolis. It sparked warm memories of a very good trip, and that's just the kind of thing a person needs to get through a winter.

Christmas away from a frozen boat

It is getting pretty close to Christmas. There will be family get-togethers, lots of fun, laughter and celebrations. I'm not sure what my schedule will be since there is a flight hanging out there I will probably have to cover, but I will get a chance to be with all of my girls over the next few weeks. That is a pretty special thing.

In a way Christmas has gotten a bit harder. I can't be all the places I want to be. My parents are near Pittsburgh, as is Deb's Dad and Step-Mom. Brothers and sisters are also in Pittsburgh with one hanging out near Charlotte. Amber, Mike, Catherine and Mary are in Cape Cod, and though we will see them in a couple of days (Yeah!) next year their Christmas will be in Cape Cod. Kristin and Brian will have Christmas in Indy this year, Kristin way too close to being due to venture too far from home. (Yeah again!) My family is now three families which sounds pretty amazing until I realize that I can't even count how many families my parent's "family" has become: seven, eight, more? Hard to tell. Maybe one day Deb's and my Christmas will be celebrated rocking gently at anchor somewhere warm. (Please! The older I get the less I care for this "4-degree" stuff.)

Even though we haven't been to the boat in a couple of weeks thoughts of being back on Nomad and ghosting across the lake again help with the cold, short days of winter. Already today the sun shone one minute longer than it did yesterday, tomorrow will be a bit longer again. But if we ever make it to that warm beech on a Christmas morning, thoughts of family will surely fill that day as they do these.

Winter's cold

"Winter's cold," can be interpreted a couple of different ways. "Winter is cold," is one. "Winter's cold," is another, taken that the chilly temperatures that belong to winter are being shared with us. And then there is the "winter's cold" that includes a stuffed up head, sniffling and constant cough that just won't go away. Around the St. Louis branch of the Akey clan all three takes on "Winter's cold," are equally valid.

This morning Deb had to run up to spend some time with Melanie so I was free to clunk around the house, run out to the airport, or go visit little Nomad to see how she was doing. The first thought was the airport, it isn't that far away and there are folks there I like to see. But Nomad has been on her own for a couple of weeks now and temperatures in the teens have returned for night time lows. I convinced myself I was feeling pretty good this morning so I headed out to Boulder.

The marina was completely empty, as in not a single soul anywhere. The ice has crept back into the dock area and several boats are completely encased. Even surrounded by bubblers Nomad's stern has ice against it. The boats with bubblers have ice whiskers growing off the hulls right at the water line where cold water gets splashed. Fenders are growing frozen stalagmites that trail onto and hold in place perfectly round little ice islands. Bubbler and ice noises are the only sounds. With just enough of the cover open to gain entry and the heater on, Nomad's little interior warmed up pretty quickly. It also seemed like a good idea to put a top charge on the batteries and I turned on all the interior lights to chase the gloom away. There was a little ice in the bilge so I dumped in the last of our anti-freeze, checked all the dock lines and poked my head into both cockpit lockers looking for trouble. Everything looked shipshape so I retreated back into the warmth of the cabin.

Inside I managed a quick repair on the toilet seat (there is always something to fix). But once again I had overestimated my personal energy state. Though I was hoping to putter around the boat for a good part of the day it was clearly better to head for home. The drive was a long one. It isn't even officially winter yet but I will be glad when "Winter's cold" starts to give way to felling better and getting warmer.

Playing Hooky

Yesterday was spent getting the jet squared away for a long week of flying after the holiday. (For all you folks that are enjoying bashing corporate flying, I wish you would stop. Large, highly competitive corporations can no more do without airplanes than they can fax machines and computers.) Tomorrow will be spent doing a little more work on the airplane at the hangar. So today was spent working on Nomad. (I had my phone on me, they could call me if they needed me.)

There were just a few people at the marina today; the owner and his full-time mechanic / welder / engine and all-around-fix-anything guy...and me. Its going to be pretty cold during the nights and we will be away from the boat for about two weeks so I really needed to get the engine winterized. In addition the battery charging thing was just bugging me. (Airplanes, motorcycles or boats I have the same expectation, EVERYTHING needs to work.) Things got done. I understand a bit more about how the boat works and the wiring improvement is good.

The lake reflected blue sky, the seagulls were squawking, it was just cold enough to be comfortable working and the wind wasn't blowing too hard. Toward the end of the day I kind of ran out of steam, (this flu is a tough one) flopping down on the settee for a few minutes to keep from falling down. With the heater running Nomad's cabin was warm and the easy motion of the boat at rest rocked me just short of being asleep. I laid there gathering up enough energy to finish cleaning up tools and closing up the boat, fuzzy headed with aching body, and was maybe the most content person on the planet. Warm summer days and sandy beaches are the dream, but a cozy cabin after a day well spent was a pretty good reality. I have an idea. Instead of giving untold trillions of dollars to every corporation with their hand out, why not give every family in America a half a mill, step back, and let us see what we can do with it? I know what I would do with mine.

Ice in the Drink...

We drove to the marina yesterday (actually Tim drove and I rode the bike after picking it up at the shop where it had been for the last 2 weeks undergoing a major recall inspection) and when we crossed the bridge right before the entrance to the marina where you can look left off the bridge and down the creek all the way to the docks, we were a little shocked to see that the whole creek was frozen over. It's been uncharacteristically cold this November, hitting 17 degrees 2 nights in a row. This was a little discouraging since we hadn't had a chance to finish winterizing Nomad 2 weeks ago due to the family events and a rather unexpected date with the flu. We were greatly relieved to find that the head had not frozen but the batteries were dead so we weren't able to finish winterizing the engine fresh water circulating system. Fortunately it's warming up this week which will give us a few more days to tackle the problem.

After spending a few hours tending to all of this, hanging out in Nomad in the darkened cabin (the winter cover is over all the hatches) with the heater on, and traipsing back and forth from the dock to the clubhouse to retrieve things, I discovered that a marina in the winter is a very noisy place. A good bit of the water in and around the docks was frozen, not too thick but probably 3/4" or so, and it turns out that when you walk on floating docks that are surrounded by ice it puts pressure on the ice and makes this very eery high-frequency twang / crack noise that travels along the ice and then echoes into the air, reminiscent of some sci-fi flick. The wind was blowing at a pretty good clip as well, so the rigging of the few boats left in the water was clanging pretty good against the masts. 

Then there was the sailor trying to move his boat a little closer to the main dock who was grinding through the ice to make the slip of his choice. Some of the ice had managed to break free from the slips that open onto the channel, so those pieces of ice were banging against the boats on that side of the dock. Dominating everything though was the sound of the few bubblers that some had already installed. Noisy creatures they are. It was an unfamiliar place, one that Old Man Winter surely ruled, and I felt a little displaced. Since I was on the bike and needed to get home before the sun set and the thermometer dropped into unacceptable riding range (At 34 degrees I realize that's up to interpretation), I took off and left Tim to continue battling the charging issue. I rode the whole 67 miles home thinking of white sandy beaches, warm blue water, and ice in its proper place, floating in fruity drinks with little umbrellas, feeling quite resentful that Old Man Winter had kicked me out of my favorite place to be. It was my first experience with winter in a marina and I have to tell you, I'm not too impressed.

Things I like, (that normal people don't).

It turned out I was wrong about things not freezing on the boat. The fresh water side of the engine cooling loop was iced up and when the engine tuned over the impeller got damaged. The engine had not turned even a full revolution before the battery died, but it was enough. The battery problem became the focus of my troubleshooting. It was turning into a long day.

It had started out pretty well. We had swung by the shop to pick up Deb's bike from the shop and then headed off with me following her to the lake. Little Nomad sat content in her slip but large sheets of ice laid throughout the shallowest parts of the marina. Ice makes a weird noise, similar to that made if you strike a taught cable, a zinging rip of sound, when it is disturbed. The sound of ice gives the marina a whole new and somewhat alien feel. We treated the head, installed our big cabin cover for the first time, and pulled the Bimini cover. Then my engine struggles started. Even on shore power the batteries were dead, making it impossible to turn the engine over to suck anti-freeze into places it needs to be. The afternoon was fading and Deb still had a hour's ride to do. I finally talked her into heading off to get home before the sun and temperatures both fell, leaving me to play with the boat.

Marinas are a lot like airports deep into night: cold, often windy and mostly abandoned. This was suddenly a very familiar place, just me, a machine and a problem that needs fixed. I was having a blast. I do get a little frustrated working on the boat once in a while, mostly because I'm not always sure what I am doing. Airplanes I know; motorcycles are a long time hobby, but little Nomad's quirks often have me puzzling out systems that (if I do say so myself) are often poorly designed and badly executed.

With some troubleshooting it appeared that our shore powered battery charging system wasn't doing its thing. I borrowed a charger and eventually got enough juice into the starting battery to turn the engine over. But even then Nomad was not sucking water as she should which led to the damaged impeller. Changing that was quickly done but by then batteries were once again flat. It was time for a strategic retreat. The weather is supposed to get warmer for a while, I have a few days later in the week when I can take another crack at it, and fun or not, I was just about done in with an hour's drive home myself. Half way home, I figured out what I should have done to do to the engine. It will be a simple procedure and may become the preferred way to treat the engine. The electrical system I simply have to tackle one problem at a time until I get all of the issues resolved. It is going to take some work. In the morning the jet goes to the shop for some work. Deb's bike need steering head bearings. Nomad needs a new charging system, wiring, and engine work. I am a happy man.

Bodies and Boats and Woolly Buggers

So, about 48 hours after coming down with the flu that swept the family after our Indy get together, I decided to head off to the airport to check on some things. A little breakfast, a quick shower, dressed, shoes on...and right back into my chair. (I think it was picking up the shoes that did it.) The airport can wait until Monday. The boat however, can't. Last night the temperature dipped to something like 17 degrees around here. That, friends and neighbors, is FREAKING COLD for November. I am not worried about one night's winter blast. If the little pond in our back yard didn't freeze (it didn't) there is not much chance anything on the boat would have.

Still, it is time to admit that the sailing season is pretty much over for this year. I know that scientists are sure global warming is a reality and for the most part I believe them. But the woolly buggers around here are almost all black, suggesting they think Nomad will need a little bubble protection from ice before this winter is out. Who am I to argue with woolly buggers? So beat up body or not tomorrow we need to tend to little Nomad's engine, get her oriented into the winter wind and probably move her to the other side of the slip so she is in place to share a bubblier with Margaritaville. There is some other stuff to do as well but it may have to wait. And this will probably be the first weekend since Nomad joined the family that we will not spend a night on board when not off somewhere else. With only 4 to consider winter is still about #10 on my favorite seasons scale.