If you follow our blog, you know that it's all about the fun we have on our boat. However, we also have a day job, running our small marketing and communications company, Large & Page Communications.
We are lucky enough to have a long-term client, the Town of Windsor, Connecticut. While we didn't devise or produce the event shown here, we were asked by the folks at Windsor Town Hall to shoot some photos and video.
This event was covered by the newspapers and the local NBC station and got the front page of our biggest daily newspaper, The Hartford Courant the next day.
The following is the press alert we distributed for this event:
"To show their support for
20-month old Hailey, the daughter of a member of the Windsor Volunteer Fire
Department, Windsor
town employees decided to arrange themselves in the shape of a huge heart on
the Windsor Town Green, where they would be photographed from the top of the
giant aerial ladder on the Fire Department’s “Ladder 1.”
Hailey is afflicted with Neuroblastoma,
a form of cancer most often found in very young children.
Those participating in this
event are asked to donate a minimum of $10 each."
The person who did all the legwork to make this work is the Town of Windsor official to whom we report. If we used her name, she'd be very unhappy, since she doesn't want to take credit for what turned out to be an event that really reflects how government and the citizens of Windsor work together.
At 10:30 AM on Friday, May 20, we started the engines and headed out for another season at our summer marina in Norwich, Connecticut. We chose to leave on Friday because it promised the best weather after a week of wind and cold and Small Craft Warnings in Long Island Sound.
We have a lot of experience and faith in our boat, but Long Island Sound isn't to be trifled with. Just 362 days ago, on the same trip, we trashed the inside of the boat over about 3 miles of the Sound. But not this year. The sea conditions were great.
The trip down the river (33 miles) was uneventful and even relaxing. There was little or no boat traffic on the upper river and only about several dozen boats out on the lower part. The engines ran perfectly as did everything else. Frances put things away down below and visited the bridge every once in a while to check out the scenery.
In about 2.5 hours, we were at Old Saybrook Light, where we entered the Sound. The sun came out and the visibility was about 10 miles. We could see the water tower on Plum Island across the Sound. We powered up to about 17 mph and turned east. What a wonderful ride. This is what boating is all about!
The 14.6 miles to New London seemed to pass quickly and that was because we were going faster than conditions normally permit for a boat like ours with older engines.
Once we were on the final leg into New London harbor, we noticed the Orient Point ferry also entering on our starboard side. Not a big deal; we see these ferries all the time. But this time, there was also a large number of small sailboats practicing just west of the channel entrance. We needed to pass that sailboat class, leaving it our port side and get into the harbor channel.
The ferry isn't small. It's a 300 ft. car carrier moving at about the same speed we were. We considered calling the ferry on VHF and then decided, WTF, let's just get in there! Anything is better than slowing way down and letting the ferry and it's wake bounce us around.
We pushed the throttles up and watched our speed increase. At about 3400 rpm we were flying (for us, at least) and we have to admit that the old boat really got up and went. Frances was sitting up on the bridge and the smile on her face was wonderful as she watched to speed increase on the GPS screen .
It wasn't a big deal. The ferry captain saw that we intended to pass the sailboats and enter the channel before him and he slowed down.
We ran up the Thames and soon were backing into our slip at the Marina at American Wharf in Norwich. Let's hope that this summer, every time we back into a slip, it goes as well as this one did.
We spent the first night of our summer season on the boat with its sparkling clean and refurbished interior. The outside of the boat, however, really needs cleaning and we'll do that next weekend.
The next morning, a couple of other boats arrived and, instead of working, we spent some time sitting on someone's dock box for a chat.
Some things never change, luckily for us.
The guys did want to see our new Sirius Electronic Flare, a device that eliminates the need for pyrotechnic flares (the ones that always seem to be expired when you check them in the spring).
The four-legged dock mate in the picture is Bailey. She is friendly, playful and doesn't give a damn about electronic flares.
On May 13, after a busy work week, we took some time on Friday to start the engines on our old boat for the first time this season. Luckily, there were no issues. The old girls (our engines) started right up after they each got a few tablespoons of gas poured into their carbs. Nice to hear them idle with lots of water coming out of their exhaust pipes.
We now have 50 gallons of fresh water in our water tank and all the faucets and the fresh water pump work just as they did last fall. We'll pump most of that water overboard before we leave or while underway. No sense hauling all that extra weight for nothing.
We're glad that we have a reliable way to winterize the engines and our water system, despite many of the postings on internet forums to the contrary. No compressed air or special fittings needed, just common sense.
Once we got the engines going and the batteries charged, we shut things down and checked the fluids in the transmissions and the v-drives. The port transmission took about half a cup of fluid but everything else was where it was supposed to be.
On Saturday, it was time to bring lots of our stuff back to the boat. That included bedding, linens, etc. It's all still packed in those vacuum bags we love so much. Now someone needs to unpack it all and put everything away. Can you guess who we hope that will be?
There is more to do here than in previous years because this winter we removed just about everything in order to paint and rewire.
We must have made a dozen trips from the car to the boat. No dock carts here at Portland Riverside, unfortunately.
On Sunday, we brought down a few more things, checked the electronics on the bridge and made a very half-hearted attempt to wash the front of the boat. We finally gave up because it was cold and the wind on the river was gusting to about 25 mph. We rarely see whitecaps on the river but we did today.
The weather forecast for the next couple of days is lousy but if we get a good day, we'll make the run to Norwich and begin setting up Frances' summer home.
It has now rained on and off for a week. The boat is cold and since we took the electric heater home several weeks ago, we'll have to just deal with it. With any luck, next weekend the boat will be in the water and we'll be planning our cruise to Norwich where we'll be for the summer.
Our first task for this weekend was to install the zincs. We could probably have gotten away with using the old ones for another season, but why? To save the $72 cost of the zincs? Not worth it for us.
While we were down there, we inspected the shafts, props and struts. Everything looked good so we can cross them off of our list.
Next came the fun job of applying bottom paint anywhere that we saw the barrier coat showing though. The barrier coat is bright blue so it's easy to see where the yard crew blasted through the black bottom paint last fall. Not a lot this year, thankfully.
Applying bottom paint at the water line means that we had to mask that line first and that went fairly easily. Once the bottom paint was dry, we pulled off the tape.
Not very exciting pics, but with launching only days away, it's the best we could do.
The top for our bridge enclosure has become a problem. We usually take that home and clean it just before the boat goes in the water. When we took it down last week, we discovered that it was littered with bird shit. Not the usual splotch or two but lots of birdie BMs from one side of the top to another.
We tried scrubbing with lots of water and a stiff brush and while lots of it came off, the stains remained. Luckily you can only see it from above.
On Sunday, we applied the 303 waterproofing spray that we always use to the top but had to allow drying time so nothing was done on the boat on Sunday. Feels funny to be sitting at the desk writing a blog post this early.
We shot some video in which Frances shows off our stained top. Hope you enjoy it.
After a lot of negotiating and finally settling on a price, the Stanley Steemer folks arrived on Saturday morning.
The two Steemer representatives that visited the boat on Thursday to provide an estimate were obviously interested in signing us up for as much as they could. Not much to love with that pair, but after making some deductions, we agreed on a price and on Saturday morning as the time when they would do the job.
On Saturday morning, the truck pulled up and to our surprise, it wasn't the two guys who did the estimate, but this pair.
These two people are what makes a company like Stanley Steemer really work. He is friendly and interested in doing a good job. She is not only very cute but also interested where we keep the boat, how old it was, etc. In other words, the kind of post-sale customer experience that we all expect but rarely ever get.
He even showed us around the truck, which is not only super clean but a neat piece of technology.
Since the Stanley Steemer folks were going to occupy the boat while cleaning it, we drove to Norwich to put out our lines and fenders for the summer.
How did the Stanley Steemer treatment work out?
We have to say that we couldn't be more pleased with the Stanley Steemer cleaning. The carpets are free from 30+ years of grime and stains. The "fur" on our walls look like new. Yes, there were a couple of stains that couldn't be steamed out but in all, it was a good experience.We would recommend them to any boat owner, provided you are careful about the estimate.
The cleaning that we did cost about $200. We think that's money well spent on our boat.
While Stanley Steemed, we went for a cruise
With nothing to do on the boat while it was being cleaned, we drove to Norwich to put out our docklines, fenders and boat steps.
While we were there, we met our summer dockmates, Bob and Diane. They were about to bring their boat upriver from Gales Ferry and they invited us along for the ride.
Do we ever say no to a cruise on the river? Or a cruise anywhere? We were at the car in no time.
We drove to Gales Ferry and waited until Bob declared that the river was at its lowest point and then he fired up the engines and off we went though a very, very narrow passage out of the river.
Did we scrape on either side? Nope. Testament to a boating couple who know what they are doing.
After that, it was a warm, sunny ride to our marina. What a great way to begin our boating season.
With the last of the interior painting and trim refinishing complete, Frances came up with the idea of having the carpeting and our furry walls cleaned professionally. That would mean, Stanley Steemer, a company that Frances has had good luck with in the past.
One call and we found that yes, they do boats and could begin after visiting the boat and giving us an estimate. We also found out, when we asked in the marina office, that Stanley has been there to clean boat carpets in the past and that we seemed to be the first this year. Good to know that they have never has a complaint. But, then again, they don't know Frances.
If we were to invite Stanley over next week, we needed to take everything out of the boat. These people will move furniture but we're not sure they have ever encountered anything like the inside of our boat. We have nick-knacks, people. We have good sized rocks collected from various beaches over the years. We have books... lots of them. Want a bird book? We have many. Want something on flowers? Just let us know.
So, on Saturday, we moved all nine chairs, the rock collection, the Henderson Library and lots of other things to the cockpit or to the fly bridge for temporary storage. If the boat were in the water right now, it would tip over and sink.
Everything is covered so all we have to do now is wait and meet Stanley.
On Sunday, Frances moved even more stuff out of the boat's interior while Bill masked and painted the boot top stripe.
Painting this stripe isn't something we do every year but it had become somewhat beaten-up from fenders rubbing on it. Time to make it look good again and when we left on Sunday afternoon, it looked good.
How long has this project taken? Six weekends? Maybe eight? We hesitate to count. Bringing the interior of our old boat up to date was more of a project than we thought it would be and, like many of our boat projects, most visitors won't ever notice what we've done. It just looks nice, and isn't that what visitors expect?
On Saturday, we pulled off all the masking tape that protected our trim and reversed the process. That enabled us to complete painting the walls.
It was interesting to really dig down deep into all the corners and little trim pieces. There were some trim areas that we never knew existed but now that we know they are there, we'll be more careful to hit every little corner when we vacuum.
Anyway, both the guest berth and our v-berth look great. The mahogany trim glows and the walls (after three coats in some places) are now a new, brighter color with all of the old holes plugged, sanded and now invisible.
As you can see from the photo above, Frances joined us on Sunday afternoon to help and to do something that in the video, she calls "Torquing."
What she means it that we wanted to tighten the four new portholes that we installed earlier in the winter. There are 12 bolts holding each porthole in and we needed someone to hold a wrench on the inside nut while someone else (Bill) went up the ladder and tightened the bolts. It went perfectly and we now have tight portholes. We are "torqued!"
We have three weekends left before we are supposed to launch. We have no idea if that will happen according to schedule but in the meantime, we have lots to do.
