Lorain, Ohio on Lake Erie

Weather did not improve until Friday when we were able to leave Put in Bay and headed for Lorain, Ohio.  Spitzer Lakeside Marine is huge- just to get to the bathrooms you need a pair of roller skates!   We met a lovely couple from South Padre Island, Texas, who have been living on their sailboat for six years and are doing the Great Loop.  We wish them the best and a safe trip. 

Put In Bay on Lake Erie

The crossing on Monday in Lake Erie to Put in Bay was a bit rough – heavy storms with thunder and lightning, 3 to 5 foot waves, and engine trouble.  What should have taken 6-7 hours, took us 11 ½ hours.  To top things off, our front hatch wasn’t completely closed, so all the bedding and mattress was soaked!  We had to re-group on Tuesday and hopefully fixed the stalling engine and washed and dried everything at the Laundromat.  We celebrated with drinks at the Blue Luna with live piano music and at the Longest Bar in the Guiness Records.  That evening the 31^st Annual Bartender Olympics were held at the Roundhouse Bar – fun and entertaining!  Wednesday’s forecast for Lake Erie – 20-25 knot winds and 3-5 foot waves with small craft warnings and water spouts on the lake.  Another day in Put in Bay!  All of our chores were done, so we relaxed and took the train tour of the island.  For those of you that don’t know, there are hundreds of golf carts and they are everywhere – this is how just about everyone gets around.

 

CRCA Cruise Weekend at DYC

Our sailing club, CRCA (Clinton River Catalina Association) held a weekend cruise event at the Detroit Yacht Club this past weekend.  The weather was perfect, the drinks were awesome (try a Mai Tai at the pool bar!), the food was good, and the CRCA friendships are the best.  The only part we didn’t like was having to say goodbye to our wonderful friends as we planned on leaving for Lake Erie on Monday.

 

Departure Day

Departure Day is finally here!  Ready or not here we come!  We left Markley Marine at 9 am, Friday, August 8, 2014 headed for the Detroit Yacht Club for a cruise weekend with our sailing club friends at CRCA.  Life is Good!

                     

Going Away Parties

In the last few weeks we have been busily preparing for our departure.  The To Do List was full and when we completed one task, we then added two more.  Although we seem to be busy from morning till night, we had plenty of time for a few Going Away Parties with our friends.

For the last 10 years since we moved here from Chicago, we have been members of a Catalina sailing club, CRCA (Clinton River Catalina Association).  We can’t say enough about these people, not only are they good sailors, but they are great friends, too.  Roy and Judi Schoenherr hosted an awesome Going Away Party for us at their home on Anchor Bay.  Almost everyone in the club came to the party bearing decorations, good food, drinks, music, presents, and the warmest and safest wishes for us on our journey.  One of the best moments of the party was the “Roasting of Chuck and Linda”.  Many people came forward to tell stories of us – the good, the bad and the ugly!  We love and treasure every one of them.  We are so glad we have been able to leave an impression.  We just can’t thank everyone enough for their friendship and support – just remember we are not leaving you, just starting a journey.  

Our very good friends, Tony and Michelle, gave us a Margaritaville Bon Voyage Party in Detroit on the same day Jimmy Buffet played at Comerica Park – how appropriate!  We dressed up in our finest pirate and wench attire and swigged several Painkillers!  We were a big hit as we swash buckled our way on a pub crawl through Detroit.  I wonder how many different Facebook pages expose our pirate qualities?

We Are Now Live Aboard's

The wait is over, our condo has been sold, we have moved out and we are now live-aboard's.  We moved aboard on Monday June 2nd, 2014.  The new Profurl roller furler is installed, the 195 watt solar panel is up and running,  We are still figuring out where to put everything.  We visited Roy and Judi via boat for a couple of days we went there as a power boat.  We added two more shelves in the boat and repaired another. Got the Sails on among several more items off of our to do list.  Thank goodness for the shop at Roy's it was great to use mounted tools to instead of all hand tools.  We left Roy and Judi's looking like a sail boat.  We are still working on different little items, but feel good we are about ready and could leave at almost any time if needed.   Our journey will begin on Aug 8th as we head south to the Detroit Yacht Club for a few days.

Sneak Peak

It has been quite awhile since I promised you the new interior pictures.  Here is a sneak peak at what has happened with Silent Dream.

New Cushions covers and foam.  The mirror was added last year.

Starboard Side

Now the best part of our updates.

New Corian counter tops with under mounted sink and new stove.

Our 13 year old Refrigerator was giving us problems so I replaced it this year.

I moved the thermostat controls outside of the box and installed a digital thermometer.

We will soon be living aboard and will have more pics coming soon.

Under Water Lighting

As we get ready to move aboard and with the weather finally breaking I have had a chance to play catch up.

You see the underwater lights and the lights on the swim platform, both are Blue in color.

When I finished  up the exterior wiring of the lights, this is what happened next.

We are in the Water!!!!

The Waterline Has Been Raised

The boot stripe is painted over and the bottom color has been changed.

Working on the underwater lights now.

New Rub Rail and Lifelines

The old tan Rub Rail is gone and replaced with the new Gray color.  Great improvement to the looks of the  boat.

The Lifelines have also been replaced from the old cracked white plastic coated to bare Stainless.  

I'm loving the new look.

I'm also in the process of raising the water line.  I know we will be in salt water and will float a little higher, but we have always had an issue with the water line in fresh water.  Now that this is our home and the boat will be loaded down even more I feel the need to raise it the width of the boot stripe.  We have read too many cruisers blogs that ended up raising their waterline while in the Caribbean. So that helped with the decision as well.

I will also be changing the bottom paint color to Black.  The Shark White showed too much of everything that was trying to grow on the bottom.

Linda will be back from Hungary soon and the new interior pictures will start appearing as soon as we get the inside clean.

The Old Silent Dream

As promised a few months ago the following are some of the pictures we took when we first bought this boat which had a different name.

The cockpit with the old instruments.

Oh yeah that lovely curved track with plastic sheaves that were all cracked and broken.

The Galley with the alcohol stove, we added the Microwave.

The Nav Station, notice the old dried out curtains, the Loran at the top right, we added the new VHF Radio.

Port side the original table and updated lighting we added.  

Notice the great Herculan Plaid Cushions.  They never wear out.

The Starboard side with the original lights.  

Looking at the Port side picture the light on the right has replaced these original lights.

The V-berth.

The Rear Berth entrance with vinyl accordion doors.

They look white in this photo they are brown.

So next year when the blue shrink wrap is off you will see the updates we have done this year.  You will see some of the updates in older postings.  Such as the Swim Platform, Wind Generator, Radar Pole, and Full Cockpit Enclosure just to mention a few of the upgrades.  

Until next spring when all this work is finally going to pay off.

We wish everyone reading this a Very Merry Christmas and a Safe, Happy, Prosperous New Year.

Wind Generator is Installed

 

The Wind Generator is installed and working.  I'm so happy.!!! I also have the frame for the Solar Panels installed.  Look hard just above the Bimini you can see the Stainless frame.

 

Linda and I have had some deep discussions about the boat, and we have made some expensive decisions.  The frig is 12 years old, drawing 7 amps and no longer freezing the whole box, we are lucky it is keeping it cold, we are Replacing it...

 

Our stove and oven, that we bought used from a friend that had a 1980 Catalina 30, is being replaced. This stove and oven is over 30 years old.  I guess it's time to replace it. 

 

We just replaced the Dodger as it bit the dust last season.  We also have to waterproof rest of the canvas.

 

I made a trip to Put n Bay, Ohio  this was a great little shack down cruise.  I found a few issues with the boat that I will be changing this year.

 

I'm still working on bring all the lines back to the cockpit for use in bad weather.

 

We have had several volunteers (friends) that want to join us on parts of our cruise to Florida. 

 

Wow, we have talked about this adventure for so many years and I have slowly made changes to the boat.  But now, it actually feels like I'm running out of time. Only 10 months left and no time to get done what I feel we like I'm running out of time.  This is a very strange feeling I'm experiencing.  We are about to change our lives forever, with a once in a live time experience that so many people only wish they could do.

 

I'm still Captaining the Clinton Friendship about twice a week, keeping a little pocket money coming in.  If your looking for a Captain Job you can take over my position. Talk to Capt. Paul.

This has been a great job. Two weeks ago Superior Ambulance my employer from the Chicago area had a party on board for the Detroit Hospital employees they work with.  It was great seeing a couple of friends from Chicago area..

 

Coming in the next post, photos of the interior of Silent Dream as she looked before all the changes that are coming.  Stay tuned.... and while you are waiting for more please visit, www.clrmarine.com for all you boating needs.

 

 

 

 

 

 





Batteries, Head, and More

 

Quick Update; New US Battery House batteries installed, we now have 502 amps for the house bank.  Upgraded battery cables to engine. 

New electric comfort size head installed.  While we were doing the bottom job I installed a thru hull for the macerator and Y valve.





 

 

 

The wind generator is now being installed. Support pole is in and being braced by the mounting kit that came with the tower and the solar panel mounting that is also going in at the same time.

It seems like there is so much to do in such a short time, but it is getting done.

 

We are also have a new Dodger being made using our existing frame..

Bottom Paint Work Breaks

My Thanks go out to Doug and Jean for the Gin & Tonic while I was putting on coat number 4 of the 5 coats of Interlux E2000 barrier paint.

Silent Dreams bottom paint had plenty of time to dry as we took a 14 day break and went on a Disney cruise to Alaska.

This Glacier has receded 475 feet in one year.

She is done and now in the water, we went with the Interlux Micron Extra in Shark Gray for the bottom paint.  We will see how this looks at the end of the season.  If I don't like it we will add a coat of  Dark Blue.

All mast lights have been tested and working or replaced.  We are ready to put up the stick.



Bottom Stripping and Preparation

Progress is finally being made and quickly. We decided to strip the bottom again. We have done this one other time ten years ago. Since then the Ablative paint has been chipping off instead of wearing off. So it is time to fix this issue once and for all. I started scraping and soon decided it was not worth my time and effort. What would have taken me 5 weeks, a lot of painful muscles and probably some blood was done in 5 hours. We hired a local company Yacht Z Marine to soda blast the bottom. 

Yacht Z Marine did a fantastic job from start to finish leaving the area cleaner than when they started. In the following pictures you will see the bottom is gray and white.  They explained the white areas you see is where the barrier coat we applied 10 years ago and did not adhere as well.  They also stated that we will not have that problem again. They told us to do a light sanding, wipe the boat down with 202 fiberglass wash and start applying the barrier coat.

Yacht Z Marine even called out another company to take a look at the bottom, do to some minor holes in the fiberglass when they were done.  This company did a thorough inspection of the bottom and stated that the holes we are seeing are not blisters but more like voids due to the fiberglass not being wet enough some 30 years ago when they built the boat.

Yacht Z Marine setting up

Notice the clear plastic turned blue immediately

Soda Blasting in Progress

 

Finished

Time for me to start working.