Rebedding the mast plate on Enee Marie 

Winterizing...

We officially put Enee away for the winter today. The yard has taken the mast off and she sure looks funny without her stick! This gave me a chance to rebed the mast plate. We get water in there during a hard rain. I took the plate off and cleaned up all the old goo and put in new goo...buytl tape, my favorite stuff. We'll see if this helps.

We also did our routine winterizing jobs: pump antifreeze through the engine, into holding tank and into fresh water tank. I leave the batteries on board. If they have a good charge they should be alright. Worked last winter. I may go up and throw another charge into them mid winter just to make sure. We threw a tarp over the main saloon area and over the companionway. This worked last year as well. Its much easier with no mast, boom nor main sheet to get in the way!

We ran into our friends Brian and Deborah (Northern Crown) and Chuck and Mary Beth (new cat 30!) Fun to see summer friends!

222 days to go before we head south...but who's counting?

Scott at the helm sailing Enee back to Winthrop Harbor 

back on the hard!

Enee Marie is back in her cradle at Skipper Bud's in Winthrop Harbor. We had a great sail up there a couple of week ago. Saturday was wild with west gales and then sunday it settled down. We headed out Sunday with Ken T. and Admiral Nelson aboard as has become a tradition. We sailed on a beam/close reach nearly all the way there making 5-6 knots most of the way. Wind finally pooped out around Waukegan so the last couple of hours was mostly engine. Found a slip in the dark by skipper bud's and got the sails and dodger off so she's ready to have her mast un-stepped.

Always sad to be out of the water but this is an exciting off season as the final projects must be completed before we head south. We got the new dodger built by Sterling in Chicago and we love it. The sail to Skipper Bud was the first time we got to sail with it. It is higher than the old one so Sue can see under it while Scott now has a view of the bar while standing. Oh well, Sue is a better driver than I am anyway.

While she is on the hard, besides normal winterizing I need to build some cabinetry. We are going to build shelves in the hanging locker as we don't expect to have any haning clothes. Also, under the new stove I need to build a cabinet for pots and pans and so forth. The old water tank needs to get ripped out creating more storage. Finally (but probably not) I'm going to drop the rudder and try to take much of the vertical and rotational play out of it. This will be a largish job. I'll try to update with pics as the jobs continue.

Here's my Dad and Georgia in sunny Florida! 

Yeah...that's me NOT my dad but at my dad's house.