Where the Hell is Spring!!??

On a good year, there was a chance we could be in the water by now. But at the rate Winter is holding on this year, it looks like at least a couple of more weeks before the ice is off the water, which makes for a couple of crabby sailors. There's lots of things to update about since our last post. First off, I squeaked by passing the ASA 105 Coastal Navigation class. I still need to work on a few things, like set drift and a running fix. Some of that I will do in the coming months, or at least before I take the ASA 106 Advanced Coastal Cruising class, a three + day class on Lake Superior.

We've finalized on a location for the boat. In the St. Croix Valley, in Afton, Minnesota, we secured a park and launch space at the Windmill Marina. This will be a little bit further than some parts of Minnetonka for us, but I can leave the boat on the trailer, mast up, and ready to sail. We can be sailing quicker at this location, despite the longer mileage, since we won't have to spend time rigging the mast and sails. We can store the boat there during the Winter, as well. A park and launch space is considerably less cost than a slip directly in the water. And it's a nice location with lots of places to sail up and down the river, near Lake Pepin.

We are planning a number of sailing trips this Summer. The first one will be the second weekend in June on Lake Pepin, with the Northern Lights Sailing Club. I plan to take the Friday off of that week, and sail the boat from Afton to Lake City, about 43 miles, and one lock. I'm hoping to make the trip down the river in about 10 hours. Being that I'll have more than 10 hours of daylight, unlike the trip from Pepin to Mobile, as well as warmer temperatures, it should be easier. Then we plan to sail Saturday and Sunday that weekend on Lake Pepin, then load the boat on the trailer, and bring it back to Afton.

We got a dinghy from West Marine when they had a close out sale at their Bloomington location. It can roll up and be stored on board, or towed behind the boat, and even put a small motor on it if we wanted. Jane has declared it her boat, and is working on names for it. It should be useful for getting to shore when we anchor out, or can even take it to some of the local lakes here in town, and do some fishing.

Jane looks right at home in her dinghy, in the living room.

I've been working on A couple of things on the boat. I came across an inexpensive roller furling that was still new in the box, and found a place that would modify my existing sail very inexpensively. If I had to go out and purchase everything, it would have been thousands of dollars, instead of hundreds. The roller furling will make sailing a lot easier for everyone, and one of the last things I wanted to do, so I am able to single-handedly sail the boat. Before we decided on putting the boat at the Windmill Marina, I had built a trailer extension for easier launching of the boat. It allowed for 7 more feet. My guess is we won't need that because of the ramp available at the marina, but it may be useful at other locations. I've started my final punch list. Even though there's nearly 30 items on the list, most of them are small, and will take very little time to complete. I just need a couple of days above 32 degrees to wrap everything up, not the predicted snow and cold that will hit in the next couple of days.

One of the other things I was able to complete was replacing the decals and striping on the deck. It really cleans up the boat, in its look and feel.

Old Decals

New Deacals

New striping

Donovan Too

After hearing back from the previous boat owners about the story behind the name Donovan Too, we knew we couldn't change it. The story goes that there once was a little dog named Donovan who lived nearby the childhood home of the female-half of the couple who owned the boat. Her younger brother apparently noted on several occasions that he really liked the dog who was named Donovan. Because of this memory, into her adulthood and throughout their marriage, they would commonly refer to things that they liked as Donovans. The couple named their first boat Donovan, and when they sold it and got the Hunter 23, they decided it was a "Donovan Too."

I also have something that I like named Donavan. So I've begun to think of things as Donavans, as well. We really liked the story behind the name, and so Donovan Too it remains. We are grateful to the previous owners that they took the time to share the story with us, and we hope to take care of the boat as well as they did. The sailing community seems to be a friendly group so far.

First Mate joins this blog

After sharing my opinions last night with Donavan that sometimes the blog feels like a technical manual, he suggested that I become a contributing writer. So I took the hint, and here I am. I have enjoyed the two seasons of sailing that we've done, and hope to learn a lot more as time goes on, but I haven't taken any classes or sailed across the Gulf of Mexico like Donavan has. One of my favorite parts of sailing is the serene feeling I get laying on the boat deck near the front pointy part (there's a marine term for that, but I don't remember it) and listening to the water slap against the sides of the boat, and the wind against the sails. The other favorite part is the simple way we get to spend time together on the boat--no distractions, working together to make the boat go, watching the world go by.

My 9-year-old daughter likes sailing too, and I want to soak up every minute of time with her right now. I am acutely aware of how quickly she will probably prefer spending time with friends, to spending time on a boat in cramped quarters with us. Maybe we'll be lucky and she'll continue to want to join us, but regardless of her developmental stage, she will grow up and have her own life in a matter of years. And like every parent, I feel both excited and sad about that, all wrapped up together.

Back to the sailing blog, I won't be using technical words, because I don't know them. I've learned that ropes are lines, a toilet is a head, duck your head when someone says "coming about," and don't sit on the ropes that are laying all over the seats. I know how to steer the boat into the wind while the sails are being put up, and I can put up the sails when the boat is being steered into the wind. I have learned about myself that I have a hard time believing that the boat will not tip over, even when it's leaning veeeerrrryyy far over.  My inner ear is screaming at me that I will be falling over soon, and my stomach is all tense, but my brain is saying it's fine, relax, not going to tip, and even if it does just swim to shore. I hope this internal conflict resolves itself, because dealing with the tippy-ness is a big part of sailing. I'm confident I'll learn to handle it.

Thanks Donavan for letting me join your blog!  Any regrets yet???

Now this is how to get the job done fast 

First video shot with new GoPro Hero3 sailing video to come as soon as the water is not so hard, most call it ice.

Progress, Progress, Progress

I made a bunch of progress over this weekend. The bottom paint went on sale, reduced all the way down to 123$ a gallon. Luckily I only needed one gallon. So I was able to sand, and clean, and put two coats of bottom paint on the boat, so that part of the boat is ready for the water. Earlier this week I was able to find a company that will remanufacture the Hunter decals that originally came with the boat. I ordered new decals and striping. Some of the striping I had to take off when I did some of the gelcoat repair, so I'll be able to replace all of it with new. I was also able to make room and get the motor up on a stand to test it out. I cleaned the plugs, and on the third pull, it fired right up. There's a lot of smoke yet, but it seems to run well. Maybe later next week I can put it outside and let it run, and see if the smoke will stop.

I put an order in to West Marine this week for some of the final parts for mounting the grill, relocating the halyards to the cockpit, and some other parts. One of the things I finally did was to finalize the location of the grill, and the mounting system I'm going to be using. The mounts will be multipurpose. This week, I also picked up a GoPro camera, which is a very small waterproof camera that will make it easy to record the sailing that we do, and can be mounted on the same hardware as the grill. This particular camera can be used for things like skydiving, bungee jumping, surfing, and other high-action recordings (none of which, we'll be doing). I did record myself painting the second coat of the bottom paint. I am going to edit it, and may post it, in fast forward, so everyone can watch paint dry.

Fun with gelcoat

I am making progress on the gelcoat repairs. I have most of them done now. I need to touch up a couple of small spots. I've never worked with gelcoat before, and it's taken a little bit of learning to figure it out, but I think I've gotten it. I finished up the refinishing of the wood work for this year and there are a couple of spots I might strip down next winter. The only stuff left that I can finish before the boat goes back on the trailer is bottom paint and some of the lettering and decals. One of the things that is an open question is the motor. I don't have enough room in the garage right now to see if it runs or see if it needs work. Hopefully that will be soon.

When the boat is back outside and on the trailer I will have a about a day of work to be ready for the sailing season, or I hope that it will be ready anyway.  I have classes most Tuesdays and many Saturdays over the next couple of months. I am looking to do some racing this year also. 

Before and after sanding but no finish yet



old depth gauge

new Garmin 431s

repaired gelcoat splits

 more repairs

Captain level III

I graduated to the NauticEd sailing rank of Captain - Level III at http://www.nauticed.org/