Move from the marina to the boat yard for the winter

On Sunday my brother and I moved the boat from our slip at the Waukegan Harbor Marina to Larsen’s Boat Yard.

Thanks Dad waiting to leave the marina.

Larsen’s will be hauling the boat next week for winter storage.

It was a quick trip.

Short trip from the marina to the boat yard.

When we arrived at the boat yard they were waiting for us and had us dock at one of the launch ramps. We did have a “soft” touch of the bottom at we came in. Hopefully it didn’t scratch the keel too much. We’ll see next week after it has been hauled out of the water.

Docked at one of the launch ramps
waiting to get hauled out of the water.

 

Locking the cabin hatch prior to heading home.

 

The weather turned out to be pretty nice and if we hadn’t removed the sails last weekend we would have gone sailing.

Click here for- >Google Earth GPS Track 2013-10-27

Last sail of the season

On Saturday the forecast included rain so we didn't go sailing, but on Sunday my brother and I went out.

Before we headed out, we stopped at the fuel dock to top off the diesel tank.  It only took 7 gallons of fuel.  That is the amount of fuel we used for the entire season.  Not too bad considering we motored about 5 hours on our trip to Chicago back in July and we motored roughly an average of about 45 minutes each time we went out, going out of and back into the marina.

My brother at the helm

It was a bit on the chilly side with a temp of ~48 degrees when we left the marina. We had a couple sprinkles of rain with waves less than 1 foot that built to about 2-3 feet. The winds started out in the 5-8 knot range, but finished nicely in the 10-15 knot range.

I brought out my "Third Reef" foul weather jacket
when it started to sprinkle a little rain. 



Winds started in the 5-8 knot range

  

Winds finished nicely in the 10-15 knot range.
The rail was almost in the water.

We practiced the "heave to" maneuver a couple times. I was aware of it and had a basic understanding of what it meant, but had never done it before. Heaving to is a bit like "parking" the boat on idle speed in the middle of the lake (or ocean). It can bring the boat to a stop very fast (and calmly) and would be good in a man-overboard situation. It is also good if you just want to take a break to use the head or for eating lunch.

Since this was the last sail of the season and the weather forecast for the coming week includes temps below freezing and some snow, we removed the sails before we departed in preparation for having the boat hauled out of the water next weekend.

Removed the mainsail in preparation for winter storage

Click here for- >Google Earth GPS Track 2013-10-20

 

Great day for a fall sail.

My brother and I went sailing on Sunday. Winds were in the 5–12 knot range, waves were 1-3 feet, temps were around 60 degrees and the skies were sunny.

We had a brief period when we got to 6.1 knots, but spent most of the time in the 4-5 knot range.

I played around a little bit by hoisting the camera to the top of the mast and hanging it out in front of the boat.

Looking aft

Straight down

Looking forward

Coming at you

We were out for about 4.5 hours and had a great day.

 

 

Click here for- >Google Earth GPS Track 2013-10-13

 

Finished strong

Saturday was rained out, but Sunday was a good day for sailing.

On Sunday I went sailing with my wife, my brother and a couple friends.

Some enjoyed a "Bloody Mary"

Winds started in the 8 knot range and finished strong during the last hour of the sail with gusts to 18 knots. We were sailing right at 6.0 knots for a while towards the end of the day. Our max speed was 6.1 knots according to the iPad sailing GPS app I have been using for the past two seasons. The Garmin GPS 72, which I brought out for the first time, indicated the max speed was 6.3 knots.

We got the rail in the water for a short while, but a couple members of the crew didn’t appreciate that too much, so we eased out the main sheet to spill some wind and kept the rail out of the water.

Rail in the water

A couple of the crew members that didn't like the "rail-in-the-water"

The temp was 56 degrees when we left the dock at 11:45 and felt good for most of the day. Clouds came in and the winds picked up towards the end of the sail and everyone put their jackets on.

All in all a very good sail.

Click here for- >Google Earth GPS Track 2013-10-06