It is the middle of February as I write this, with snow turning to rain tonight and over fifteen inches of snow expected later in the week. Like many of you, I am looking forward to the coming warmer weather and getting out on our boat. We have been talking about some destinations over the horizon we would like to head off to, including cruising back up the Hudson River. I have a few projects to complete but I have been putting them off for various reasons.
A couple of things have caused this slowdown. The cold is one of them. And this winter seems to be a cold one. I have a shop, but it’s not heated, in fact even as the day warms up the shop is like a cooler and takes more than a day to warm up. I did manage to install the new oak flooring in our upstairs hallway. But because of uneven floor joists that took me about a month to finish, and that was the easy one. I still have the den to put down the same flooring in. That brings me to the second reason for putting off some projects.
At the end of February, our son and his wife are expecting a new baby boy. So, we do not want to be in the middle of something and get “the call” and leave the house in a state of disrepair. In the meantime, I have been creating a work list followed by a materials list and then ordering what I need to get the work done as quickly as possible when the spring thaw hits!
The two engine after-coolers are serviced and ready to install. I had to order a new oil pressure sensor for the port engine. That has to be installed before I put the after-cooler back in. I did have to order a new socket to fit the sensor, and I have that now, so I am ready for that.
Over the years I have tried a few ways to keep the running gear free of marine growth. In the late nineties, I used a clear anti-fouling spray paint that did an excellent job of virtually eliminating any growth. I’m not sure when, but that paint was banned, and I switched to zinc spray paint. That did a fairly good job as long as you used the boat often enough, and for over twenty years it did the job. Last year was a different story.
Maybe it was the slip I was in, right next to a bank loaded with muscles? Maybe the water was warmer? Probably the fact that we were not able to use the boat as often as we wanted along with all the previously mentioned possibilities contributed to a bunker crop of growth on the running gear. I will say this, the zinc spray made removing the growth that much easier. Not that I did any of the cleaning, but the crew at the marina did a great job with the pressure washer!
This year I am trying something new. The first thing I will do is clean the running gear including struts, rudders and trim tabs removing any leftover growth or paint. I do that every year anyway to repaint with the zinc spray. But this year I am trying a marine primer spray made for underwater metal parts and then I will spray it with black marine anti-fouling spray.
One thing that may help with that is our slip. When we got to our marina in August of twenty-three, they did not have a slip for us. So, they put us on a dock that was isolated from all other boats. And right next to that shoreline with the muscles. This season a slip opened up and now we will be able to back into a slip with floating docks on either side and no muscle beds next to us! Once the boat is in the water, I will make up docking lines with eye splices so there is minimal line adjusting when we are returning to the slip. My crew, all one of her, is greatly looking forward to having a better docking procedure! The last slip we docked starboard side with the port side facing the canal. Nothing there to secure the boat and if the wind was kicking out of the north it was very hard to get the boat secured.
Next up is the marine stereo. It still functions but has a few broken knobs and lacks some of the current features available. So, to remedy that I was able to find and purchase the exact same unit, new old stock. This will fit perfectly and with the addition of a Bluetooth adapter, we can stream music from our playlist. I could also hook up an antenna since it is satellite-ready, but I don’t think that is necessary.
One of the last things on the boat that needed attention was the cockpit cover. When we purchased the boat up in Alexandria Bay / The Thousand Islands the seat cushions and cockpit coaming pads were in terrible shape. On one of our trips up north over the winter and early spring, I removed them and had them recovered by Miller Place Auto Upholstery. I also had a cockpit cover made by a company in Syracuse. The cover did its job protecting the seats and padding but in two years it started unraveling. Almost every time we took it off it had threads hanging off and was coming undone. It was the worst job I have ever seen.
I took the cover home last fall and dropped it off at Miller Place Auto Upholstery asking them if they could basically save it. I let them know I did not need it until May and headed home. Two days later they called me saying it was done. I talked with Janiece who explained how poorly it was made and what steps she took to correct it. It looks great now and should last me many years.
So, we are looking forward to getting out on the water this season and really looking forward to our new grandson. A few years from now I hope to be out with him, snapper fishing just like my dad did with me. Does anyone remember Zebco fishing rods and reels?