Currently we are suffering the fate of all sailors who call the 'northern climes' home. Our lovely lady is presently cowering under some mighty ugly looking tarps to keep off the majority of snow and ice until spring arrives and she can emerge from this makeshift cocoon. In the past we used shrink- wrap (a white plastic that is heated to adhere to contours and forms a watertight seal) on our boat during the winter but this has become extremely expensive. With our departure growing near, we are watching our expenditures like a hawk and so this year we decided to try to save some money by using tarps and cover the boat ourselves. While we managed to sufficiently protect her, our efforts produced a visual effect that certainly left a lot to be desired.

Although we continue to grouse about the weather (as all land-locked sailors will), we actually can't complain too much because its mid-January as we write this entry and we're currently enjoying rather balmy weather in the Toronto area with temperatures around 0 degrees Celsius and no snow. But, it's still not sailing weather so we continue to wait it out until spring pokes its head out which we hope will be sooner rather than later. Let's hope the current unseasonably warm weather isn't delaying winter's arrival for a time when it should be vanishing - as it did a few years ago.

We had a wonderful fall and because of the good weather we were able to work on boat projects until mid-December before being forced to put on the tarps. As a result, we got several projects completed that were scheduled for spring 2010, including:
• New dedicated thru-hull & water-intake for the refrigeration
• New dedicated thru-hull & water-intake for the deck wash
• Inspection plate installed in head for better access to area under the toilet
• Changed sacrificial anode on propeller shaft
• 2 additional sacrificial anodes on rudder hinge plates
• Dynaplate installed on hull for SSB radio
• Port toe-rail lifted, repair to hull/deck joint completed, toe-rail re-bedded & refinished
• Cabin top hand-rails lifted, re-bedded and re-bolted
• 2 new stanchions in life-line system
• All thru-hulls serviced
• All Micron DSC ablative paint stripped from hull using chemical stripper and high-pressure water

Four years ago we had the hull sandblasted down to the gel-coat, applied 7 layers of InterProtect® Epoxy and 3 coats of Micron DSC® in anticipation of going south. And, while we thought we were smart in getting this large chore out of the way early, fate had another agenda. The Micron paint failed and started to flake off in large chunks and since then we have been working with Interlux® Paint Co. to solve the problem. Generally, Interlux has been good in standing behind their product and this year committed to supply all the stripper, epoxy and paint to remedy the situation and we're grateful for their support. However, that still left us with a huge project to strip the paint down to the epoxy. We started stripping paint in the traditional manner with scrappers and sweat, and boy was it slow going! Then our friend John came up with the idea of using chemical stripper with a high-pressure washer and in two rather long days we had all the paint off and ready to paint in the spring. Thanks John.

As you all know, the 'to-do' list on a boat is never done and we're no exception to that rule. Here's a list of things we want to accomplish this spring before the boat launches in mid-April:
• Sand hull in preparation for epoxy and paint
• Apply 1 additional coat of InterProtect epoxy over the current base
• Paint 2 coats of new anti-fouling paint on hull
• Wash and wax hull
• Final sand and oiling of toe-rail/exterior teak
and, projects that will be contracted out because we have neither the tools nor skills necessary
• Install locking hardware on cabin sole
• Re-face some interior cabinetry
• Install SSB radio, counterpoise and antenna

And, that's just the items to finish before launch. Stay tuned during the season to follow the last minute boat projects.

Until we can get back to boat chores, we are busying ourselves with getting all our electronic navigation programs up-and-running, scanning and sorting all our family pictures onto the computer, creating this blog, slowly purging items in the condo and a host of other seemingly endless tasks that we need to complete to get away on our dream. It'll all be worth it, but occasionally after some rather long days we sometimes wonder.

Stay tuned. We'll post again when things start to heat up - both literally and figuratively.