Is it mid-September already?

Boy, we blew through that summer quickly!

We sat down this weekend and looked through our log book, added up the engine hours and miles traveled and decided that next summer, we'll see if we can arrange our work schedule so we can go more places and enjoy our boat even more than we did this yesr.

No complaints, though. We had a great time being transient boaters on Block Island and Greenport. It's just that we'd like to get away more often, and we will. Maybe we can even sneak in another short cruise this fall.

Our marina

We and  many of our dock mates continue to be dismayed at how our marina is being managed. Damage to one set of docks from last winter's ice still hasn't been repaired. There are signs of wear and lack of maintenance. It appears that the company that now runs the marina simply didn't know how much work goes into making a successful marina in New England and is now minimizing expenses wherever they can. Too bad. It's a great facility and worth maintaining.

Despite all this, we're coming back next summer, mainly because we're on a dock where we like the people and enjoy being with them.

Our boat

Runs just fine, thank you. We spent a dozen weekends last winter replacing the cylinder heads and the exhaust manifolds on our troublesome starboard engine and that fixed all of our problems. Time and money well spent, although we'd like to never be that cold again.

We did spend some summer weekends this year on sprucing up the interior and we have plans to do more of that next winter. We'll paint all of the old wall covering in the v-berth and have the v-berth and guest berths recovered.  We'll also update the lighting in those areas. To us, that's "fun" work, and something that we can do together.

A few weeks ago, we investigated a bigger boat: a 41 ft. Silverton that has been for sale for some time and was priced quite low. We discussed it and came to the conclusion that our old 34 ft. boat was just fine. It's just big enough for the two of us and a couple of really good friends. Pooka, the boat cat, is happy there and we are to.

Winterizing

While we were looking at the log books, we noted how much engine oil and pink antifreeze we'll soon have to go buy at Tractor Supply.  Last year, we didn't buy enough "pink stuff" so this year, we vowed to make "Winterizing Checklist." Frances is great at capturing information like this and establishing a procedure to follow, so that's her assignment for this fall. Bill's assignment is to pump all those fluids in where they are supposed to be so next Spring, we're ready to go.

Now we enjoy Fall in New England. We love it and we hate it. If you're reading this blog, you know what we mean.