Winter is Coming

The mad rush. I have been so busy doing things that don't matter, that I have neglected the things that do.

The boat had not yet been winterized, and the weather man was calling for an overnight of -5 deg C. Probably not cold enough to do any damage, but if by some freak chance the weather man was wrong (never happens), and it dipped to  -10, then things could be a bit dicey, and I don't relish the thought of spending eight grand on a new engine along with all the other things that are getting done.

So we went down to the boat, or at least tried. Our boat is kept at the Yacht Club on Canadian Forces Base Trenton. Which means for security reasons, we don't always have access. Yesterday for about 4 hours, was a good example. They had found a suspicious package, which turned out to be someone's lunch from what I hear.

I had to be home 45 mins away for 6:00, because I had to come back to the yacht club for a weather course I was enrolled in. So the absolute latest I could get to the boat would be a about 3:00 and still get the engine winterized. Luckily after a three hour wait, we got to the boat, right at 3:00. Having never changed the oil in a boat, or flushed the engine with antifreeze, presented us with no problems. There had been one of those suction type oil extraction devices on board when we bought the boat, and although it wasn't in the best of shape, it seemed to work. The hard part was getting the damn engine started. At +5 deg C, it wasn't cooperating very well. Thank god for lots of battery power. Makes me wonder about cranking amps and cranking reserve, hmmm, going to need some more thought in the matter. Of course, if I had of increased the throttle a little, then maybe it would have been a bit quicker. Oops.

Long story short, managed to get the everything done, and home by 5:15, which means I get a shower before the course. Now the weather man is calling for a nice week ahead. With any luck I will get the galley gutted, the head removed, hull cleaned, settees torn apart, windlass location figured out, remove a small piece of the deck where there has been a crack and some water has infiltrated, remove the lifelines, and cover the boat. Just a short list. I'll have pictures of the galley destruction next week. Hopefully.