Weekends Adventure..changing anchorages at night

[Larry DeMers]

This past weekend, we had our daughter and granddaughter (6) up for the weekend. The weather was superior! Friday as we all drove north 3 1/2 hrs. to Bayfield, Wisc., the start of the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore (Nat. Park Service runs it), the cold and wet day started to break up, with the north horizon looking positively blue!
We got to the boat around 5pm, and after unloading the car, and getting everyone settled into their 'space', Jan and I went to a "Big Top Chatauqua", a series of stories, songs, great music etc. centered on a topic, this time about the 7 lighthouses in the Apostles, and their lightkeepers, wives and families.
Saturday, I just had to do this one small thing..swap out the old alternator and wiring for my new high output alt and regulator. Simple while pondering the problems at 2am during a sleepless weeknight, but after 4 hours, it was apparent that the new alternator would not mount on the arched tension adjustment due to a triangular steel projection just under the alternator..so I need to order another Balmar part..so next weekend will be a working one too... In went the old alt, and rehooked up the old harness..and now we are 6 hours into the whole job! Time to go sailing~! Off we push..set all sail and found a great East wind at about 15kts. solid. We flew..broadreaching up to Oak Islands northern tip, then gybing downwind to Raspberry Island, then broadreaching the final 5 miles or so to our anchorage, Eagle Bay.

Eagle Bay is a cool little indent in the NE point of land that forms Redcliff Point, just about perfect for 3 boats on 100 ft. scope, a nice neat little sand beach, a rippled sand bottom, with the best holding in the islands, since it is rarely used for anchoring..and is thus less disturbed, but still easy to set a hook in deep. We slowly arc our boats path towards shore, watching the depth gauge, noting how fast it shoals from 30 ft. to 10 ft., where we turn parallel with shore and ride the 10 ft. curve to see if it holds to the shore contours, or if there is a sandbar in the area to watch out for while anchored. There are a couple places where this happens..at the end of a creek or river. Then we turn to right angles from the shore with power from the engine, creating a large swirl in the water, which is easily seen while we motor out 150 ft. We round up into the wind and kill all way, and I yell DROP!, for Jan to drop the 25# CQR, and pay out the 35 ft. of chain, as I reverse slowly. Occasionally a snort of wind gusts into the anchorage, and the bow starts to fall off a bit. Jan sees it and snubs the rode, bringing us back into the wind, while we continue to backdown. Finally, after setting the hook with full reverse and feeling for the rodes telltale dragging vibrations, we are anchor down, riding sail hoisted, engine quiet and the BBQ lit.
The evening was stupendously warm, clear, calm as glass and moonless. The stars are better than in the deepest of Africa, one visitor told us (more stars by far in the northern hemisphere). We watch the skies and count the fireballs, meteors, and falling stars..satellites, and some not so satellite like lights that had a few zigzags too many in it's trajectory.

Sleep hit at midnight.

The North Easter hit at 2Am.

The rigging woke me. I usually tie the rigging back to minimize halyards slapping and wifey grumping! But if they slap, we have 20 kts anyway, so it might be interesting enough to go up topside and take a peek. I hit the switch for my telltale compass in the vberth before heading up topside. S..T! NE..we're on a lee shore and the waves are white caps arouns us, as I can hear the gurgle as they go past the bow. I ambled on up to the cockpit, turning on the instrument breakers on the way up. Well now, what has happened to the 5-10 variables turning SE, then S 10-15? I watched the white horses come marching past..3-4 fters in the patterns, but mostly 2 fters. But the trouble is two fold: A NE'ter has about 300 miles fetch to build up to 10-15 ft tall waves, in 2-3 hrs...and even after the wind dies off, the swells will continue for a half day. We have seen it several times, and almost lost DLM in that very situation back in 1991, our first year. These can be forecast, but in our experience, it is usually not forecast.

So I turned on the Wx radio in the cockpit, and listened as the funny Swedish guy told me that they were now admitting reluctantly that yes indeed, we did have 3-5 fters out there, and that it was blowing a NE'er at 15kts..no big deal ordinarily, except that the bow was describing a 10 ft. arc thru the air as the big ones pass under us. I had put a 15 lb. rider on the anchor rode earlier, and that helped with the sailing at anchor, as did the riding sail. So we took everything bow on, with no rolling gunnel to gunnel.

After thinking and listening to my intuition a bit, we decided to boggie out of there. This is a rather high adrenaline-level moment for us all..Danielle continues to sleep the sleep of the dry and warm, while my daughter Amy sees we have it all under control, and rolls the loose stuff that just rolled onto her out of the way, and went back to sleep. Jan gets behind the wheel with a flashlight..a 4 cell high intensity, focusable Kellight. She waits for me to get the chain hawse pipe opened and clear to accept the rode, and then I signal with my right arm, hand extended over my head, in a chopping motion for straight forward, and aimed to follow the anchor rodes path underwater. The flashlight and deck spotlight make the movement easy to catch. She engages forward, and bursts the engine forward into the waves. It is an easy retrieval, as the boats vertical climb and fall bring in more rode than I can handle at once. Finally, anchor pegged down and rode stowed, we get under the rain tent over the cockpit, light up the radar, and scan out to see York Islands south edge (3 miles away), Raspberry Islands south edge (5 miles away) and dock, as well as Raspberrey Bay ahead. The rain squalls make this near impossible, and this complication overloads my head momentarily, as I am trying to check for other traffic out in front, get off a lee shore that was shallow to start with..now we had some prodigious troughs coming through..etc. Total confusion for about 2 sec...then I broke it up into two priorities..direction of travel, depth, and speed first, then resolve why the radars display is suddenly blank. I have a SD-GPS (WAAS GPS) fix on the anchorage we are headed for, but we need to round a few headlands 5 miles away, then we can vector directly into the anchorage in the lee of Oak Islands mighty 400 ft. tall bluff.

So I quickly setup a route in the gps, wiping the blowing rain water off my glasses..they steamed up so bad that I could not clean them of the steam. Then they cleared on their own, and I can see again...amazing how things just work sometimes!

We have 10 miles to motor and sail bare poles..across the wavetrain, No moon..Plenty rain and wind. It's hitting 30 in the big gusts on the lake, but predominantly 20 or so.. then in the lee of Oak losing some of the wind, then straight into the refracted wave train that bends around the land. That's the plan anyway.

An hour passes. I have the Autohelm setup on the wheel, and the remote control I made sitting next to me on the forwardbench under the dodger. Radar is working now..and linked to the GPS and ships instruments cluster. I screwed up and made a mistake setting up the radar..I had set the range inside the shorelines of the area, and the rain filter was too high, so nothing showed up..tired minds can sure screw up easily.

GPS is dead accurate, showing 4.8 miles to go. Apparently all the interwiring I did between the radar, the GPS and the Tri-Data instrument pod is all working fine now. I have rewired these two networks twice to allow better noise immunity and versatility. It works! The GPS paints a "Lollipop" symbol on the screen of the radar, with a circle where the GPS waypoint is going to, and the lollipop's stick originating at the boat. neat..

We are in 30 ft. of water now, and it is pouring out. The wind is howling in the rigging, and a thunderstrom is approaching from the north for some reason. Jan is up front again, and we go thru the same exact pattern of anchoring that we do everyother time we anchor. This time, there is one boat in this little bay, so we slide off to his port side, giving about 300 ft. between us, according to radar. We anchor in 15 ft., set the hook, set the anchor rider (Home made from a 15 lb mushroom anchor, a caribiner, and 40 ft. of three-strand rode.)

We set the anchor sail, turn on the anchor light, and wearily go to sleep as the sky lightens up for morning. It's 4am.

6 hrs. later, we all wake, and find a beautiful blue sky, sun galore, and another 4 boats in the anchorage after we went in here at 4 am. The swells must have been enormous to chase this many out of their anchorages..and have them all end up here. Today, we had a great 15 kt SE wind with no gusts at all.Set all sail, and off we went. Danielle didn't get seasick this trip..even in the mess last night. Jan and I worked well as a team again, and this just reinforces my resolve to sail the Canadian Islands during our trip north to Isle Royal in a few weeks. It is foggy, and rock strewn worse than Maine even dreamed of being (Whoever heard of a pass that requires 4 -45 deg. turns, and a 90 deg. turn to travel a linear 100 ft. This includes hugging the shoreline at 3 ft. offshore to get around a boulder the size of a volkswagon). Sounds like a 3 gulper to me..I usually think a few extra hours on a 2 gulper..

Home now, as I type this, I am still with my sealegs, and my chair seems to be alternately a little off to port, then to starboard. I feel like the rain is dripping on my head for some strange reason.... (it's not raining here).

Everyone had a great time, and we are all ready to hit the bed soon.

Goodnight All..

Cheers!

Larry DeMers
s/v DeLaMer
Cape Dory 30 ~~~Sailing Lake Superior~~~





demers@sgi.com

[Warren Kaplan]

Larry,
GREAT STORY! I'd submit it to one of the sailing magazines as one of them is sure to publish it! Alas, I don't think I'll let my wife Julie read it as she is first getting "comfortable" with the idea of anchoring out and sleeping on the boat. I fear your experience my set my efforts in that regard back two years!
Warren



Setsail728@aol.com

[Sean]

I agree....excellent story. I look forward to gathering again around the warm glow of my monitor for more harrowing sea tales.

Thanks for writing it....



seanuiterwyk@msn.com

[Larry DeMers]

Hi Warren,

Well, make sure she understands that we have been spending a lot of time sailing the Apostles..over 17,000 miles logged so far in DLM alone. In that time, and because we go out regardless of forecast weather, unless it is truly thundiferous of course. We just look for shelter at an appropriate island if it is snotty out. So, we are bound to get into it with nature occasionally, and she wins automatically of course.
But night sailing (on purpose) has taught us how exciting sailing can be. So night reanchoring is not as wierd as it sounds. But it is totally different than day time sailing, for certain. This was not the worst situation we have ever encountered..more of a normal situation where the anchorage deteriorated. We end up moving at night perhaps 4 times a year, so that is not too bad, given our anchoring out three times a week (Friday, Sat. and Sun. as I take off Mondays during the summer). Normally, we sleep thru the night without a worry.

Hope that helps a little,

Larry

Larry,
GREAT STORY! I'd submit it to one of the sailing magazines as one of them is sure to publish it! Alas, I don't think I'll let my wife Julie read it as she is first getting "comfortable" with the idea of anchoring out and sleeping on the boat. I fear your experience my set my efforts in that regard back two years!
Warren

demers@sgi.com

[FrankV]

Larry,

Great sea story!! Replete with suspense, characters brave in the face of a tempest, others sleeping through it, and a happy ending. Just one suggestion for all you future raconteurs -- all "true" sea stories MUST begin with this line:

"Now, this is a no-pooper..." (enter more appropriate salty language as your audience demands).

All sailors know that when they hear the above preamble, a real yarn invariably follows.

Cheers

Frank Vernet
CO s/v Sirius
CD33 #84

[John s]

Very good writing & story-telling. I anchor off Dunes National Lakeshore near Michigan City,Indiana at S. end of Lake Michigan.
Please tell of your trip to Isle Royal. I have always wanted to go there. John Serrano p.s. Larry you gave me opinions on CD 31.

Hi Warren,

Well, make sure she understands that we have been spending a lot of time sailing the Apostles..over 17,000 miles logged so far in DLM alone. In that time, and because we go out regardless of forecast weather, unless it is truly thundiferous of course. We just look for shelter at an appropriate island if it is snotty out. So, we are bound to get into it with nature occasionally, and she wins automatically of course.
But night sailing (on purpose) has taught us how exciting sailing can be. So night reanchoring is not as wierd as it sounds. But it is totally different than day time sailing, for certain. This was not the worst situation we have ever encountered..more of a normal situation where the anchorage deteriorated. We end up moving at night perhaps 4 times a year, so that is not too bad, given our anchoring out three times a week (Friday, Sat. and Sun. as I take off Mondays during the summer). Normally, we sleep thru the night without a worry.

Hope that helps a little,

Larry

Larry,
GREAT STORY! I'd submit it to one of the sailing magazines as one of them is sure to publish it! Alas, I don't think I'll let my wife Julie read it as she is first getting "comfortable" with the idea of anchoring out and sleeping on the boat. I fear your experience my set my efforts in that regard back two years!
Warren

sidney777@hotmail.com

[Larry DeMers]

Hi John,

I will write up a description of our trip to Isle Royale and post it in Sept. We leave in three weeks, and right now, we are trying hard to finish the "spring boat projects" (been sneaking off and sailing instead of working). Currently, we are installing a Balmar 80Amp alternator and 3 stage regulator. This completes our two year long electrical refit, extending our period between recharges to 6 days. With occasional use of the engine to get in and out of bays, and anchorages, we should have no problem with DC power.

Cheers!

Larry DeMers
s/v DeLaMer
Cape Dory 30 ~~Sailing Lake Superior~~~

Very good writing & story-telling. I anchor off Dunes National Lakeshore near Michigan City,Indiana at S. end of Lake Michigan.
Please tell of your trip to Isle Royal. I have always wanted to go there. John Serrano p.s. Larry you gave me opinions on CD 31.

Hi Warren,

Well, make sure she understands that we have been spending a lot of time sailing the Apostles..over 17,000 miles logged so far in DLM alone. In that time, and because we go out regardless of forecast weather, unless it is truly thundiferous of course. We just look for shelter at an appropriate island if it is snotty out. So, we are bound to get into it with nature occasionally, and she wins automatically of course.
But night sailing (on purpose) has taught us how exciting sailing can be. So night reanchoring is not as wierd as it sounds. But it is totally different than day time sailing, for certain. This was not the worst situation we have ever encountered..more of a normal situation where the anchorage deteriorated. We end up moving at night perhaps 4 times a year, so that is not too bad, given our anchoring out three times a week (Friday, Sat. and Sun. as I take off Mondays during the summer). Normally, we sleep thru the night without a worry.

Hope that helps a little,

Larry

Larry,
GREAT STORY! I'd submit it to one of the sailing magazines as one of them is sure to publish it! Alas, I don't think I'll let my wife Julie read it as she is first getting "comfortable" with the idea of anchoring out and sleeping on the boat. I fear your experience my set my efforts in that regard back two years!
Warren

demers@sgi.com

[Warren Kaplan]

Hi John,

I will write up a description of our trip to Isle Royale and post it in Sept. We leave in three weeks, and right now, we are trying hard to finish the "spring boat projects" (been sneaking off and sailing instead of working). Currently, we are installing a Balmar 80Amp alternator and 3 stage regulator. This completes our two year long electrical refit, extending our period between recharges to 6 days. With occasional use of the engine to get in and out of bays, and anchorages, we should have no problem with DC power.

Cheers!

Larry DeMers
s/v DeLaMer
Cape Dory 30 ~~Sailing Lake Superior~~~

Larry,
Reading your posts over the past year, and especially in preparation for this trip, it sounds as if you've "gutted" DLM over the years and replaced (via upgrade mostly) most of her parts. I know in just the year+ that I have Sine Qua Non, I've made quite a few improvements. I'll bet that the improvements you've made to DLM probably add up to at least (and probably more) that the cost of originally buying her. As I said, I've only had my CD27 a little over a year and I'm fast approaching that figure already.



Setsail728@aol.com

[Larry DeMers]

Warren,

It might seem that we have invested a lot on DLM, but actually, the figure is around 1/4 of what we paid for her 11 years ago, so it is not that bad. Last total was around $10k for everything including new sails, rewiring, reinstrumenting, replacing the breaker panel, adding an inverter/charger and battery combiner, new alternator/regulator..and there is a lot more including many items that I built myself, but those are the big ticket items. We figure that we are now set for 10 years at least..and that will take us into retirement easily. The purpose for the upgrades was to provide a boat capable of what we want to do in the future..travel. After we get a bit further on into retirement and have our restaurant running well, we will be heading across to the Azores and Norway, France, England, Spain, the Med., Canaries, then back to the Caribbean. This is just a dream right now, but the first thing that has to be made capable is the boat. We will see how capable we are on the Isle Royale trip in a few weeks, heh.

The other side of the coin is that we have neglected our house except for the major stuff. We do not work on our yard much, we don't do a lot of beautifying of the grounds etc. We just are not around all summer long, as we sail every weekend, Friday thru Monday. Winters we just survive! heh. Last winter we burned 6 full cords of oak in that pursuit.

Point is that we all make our choices as far as priorities go. DLM is our top priority, and has been for 11 years. When I lost a 25 year long job with Control Data Corp., we sold the house, kept the boat. Priority was the boat, as it was a constant while my entire life was upside down. Turned out it saved my life I believe.

She has come thru for us in difficult times, difficult weather and in difficult financial straits, and is now in top shape mechanically and physically, with all systems refurbished or replaced.

But spred over a long period of time, the money becomes less of a load on the budget.

Just some thoughts..

Cheers,

larry

Hi John,

I will write up a description of our trip to Isle Royale and post it in Sept. We leave in three weeks, and right now, we are trying hard to finish the "spring boat projects" (been sneaking off and sailing instead of working). Currently, we are installing a Balmar 80Amp alternator and 3 stage regulator. This completes our two year long electrical refit, extending our period between recharges to 6 days. With occasional use of the engine to get in and out of bays, and anchorages, we should have no problem with DC power.

Cheers!

Larry DeMers
s/v DeLaMer
Cape Dory 30 ~~Sailing Lake Superior~~~

Larry,
Reading your posts over the past year, and especially in preparation for this trip, it sounds as if you've "gutted" DLM over the years and replaced (via upgrade mostly) most of her parts. I know in just the year+ that I have Sine Qua Non, I've made quite a few improvements. I'll bet that the improvements you've made to DLM probably add up to at least (and probably more) that the cost of originally buying her. As I said, I've only had my CD27 a little over a year and I'm fast approaching that figure already.

demers@sgi.com

[Warren Kaplan]

Warren,

It might seem that we have invested a lot on DLM, but actually, the figure is around 1/4 of what we paid for her 11 years ago, so it is not that bad. Last total was around $10k for everything including new sails, rewiring, reinstrumenting, replacing the breaker panel, adding an inverter/charger and battery combiner, new alternator/regulator..and there is a lot more including many items that I built myself, but those are the big ticket items. We figure that we are now set for 10 years at least..and that will take us into retirement easily. The purpose for the upgrades was to provide a boat capable of what we want to do in the future..travel. After we get a bit further on into retirement and have our restaurant running well, we will be heading across to the Azores and Norway, France, England, Spain, the Med., Canaries, then back to the Caribbean. This is just a dream right now, but the first thing that has to be made capable is the boat. We will see how capable we are on the Isle Royale trip in a few weeks, heh.

The other side of the coin is that we have neglected our house except for the major stuff. We do not work on our yard much, we don't do a lot of beautifying of the grounds etc. We just are not around all summer long, as we sail every weekend, Friday thru Monday. Winters we just survive! heh. Last winter we burned 6 full cords of oak in that pursuit.

Point is that we all make our choices as far as priorities go. DLM is our top priority, and has been for 11 years. When I lost a 25 year long job with Control Data Corp., we sold the house, kept the boat. Priority was the boat, as it was a constant while my entire life was upside down. Turned out it saved my life I believe.

She has come thru for us in difficult times, difficult weather and in difficult financial straits, and is now in top shape mechanically and physically, with all systems refurbished or replaced.

But spred over a long period of time, the money becomes less of a load on the budget.

Just some thoughts..

Cheers,

larry

Larry,
I hope you do not think I was questioning your motives. Hardly! I know how much DLM means to Jan and you because I feel the same way about Sine Qua Non and I've only had her for a little over a year. Its just that in most cases the old adage proves true, "A boat is a hole in the ocean that you keep on throwing money into." I must say that I think you've done extremely well in "refitting" DLM. To spend about 10K for all you've done is remarkable. The only guys around here that could offer deals good enough for me to do as well as you run an outfit called "Midnight Marine". An eclectic group that bunch. Their business practices include an "unorthodox" supply chain while their business hours seem geared more toward the the insomniac than the average sailor. Even the decor of their showroom is unusal, as it resembles the back of a truck. I don't like their customer service either. They subscribe to a strict policy of "no returns". HAHA! In any event, it seems that DLM passed her "shake down" cruise to the Apostles with flying colors. Makes it all worth while.
Warren




Setsail728@aol.com

[Steve Alarcon]

Larry,
I'm stuck in Oklahoma City for two weeks, wishin' I was home on "Tenacity". This was a great "second".

Steve Alarcon
CD36 Tenacity
Seattle



alarcon3@prodigy.net

[Larry DeMers]

Steve,
Thanks, sometimes a bit of virtual sailin's better than no sailin'.
If you feel like driving up to Superior, I could offer a weekend aboard with us..this weekend or next weekend. I realize that it is a way to drive, but hey, the scenery gets better as you come north! [shameless plug for Wisconsin]

Cheers,

Larry DeMers
s/v DeLaMer

Larry,
I'm stuck in Oklahoma City for two weeks, wishin' I was home on "Tenacity". This was a great "second".

Steve Alarcon
CD36 Tenacity
Seattle

demers@sgi.com

[Larry DeMers]

No Problem..I have to sort of justify the expenses to Jan all the time, and to some extent, the dockmates in the marina are kinda curious why we are at dock so much this year, and the router and saw noises seem to never stop. Heh, so the conversation usually ends up being "what are you adding today?". In reality, there are very few things we have added that were not already on the boat in another form, when bought 11 years ago. I suspect that when we finally do sell DLM, the new owner will look at the antiquated gear we offer with the boat and do about the same thing as we did..replace and rejuvenate.

I rationalize it this way. Some people spend time and money on their houses and yards. We chose to spend our time and money on our boat, as it is our home. Our house is where we live during the non-sailing periods. ;^)

Cheers!

Larry
Frankly, it's kinda fun doing it too. I like working with "systems

Warren,

It might seem that we have invested a lot on DLM, but actually, the figure is around 1/4 of what we paid for her 11 years ago, so it is not that bad. Last total was around $10k for everything including new sails, rewiring, reinstrumenting, replacing the breaker panel, adding an inverter/charger and battery combiner, new alternator/regulator..and there is a lot more including many items that I built myself, but those are the big ticket items. We figure that we are now set for 10 years at least..and that will take us into retirement easily. The purpose for the upgrades was to provide a boat capable of what we want to do in the future..travel. After we get a bit further on into retirement and have our restaurant running well, we will be heading across to the Azores and Norway, France, England, Spain, the Med., Canaries, then back to the Caribbean. This is just a dream right now, but the first thing that has to be made capable is the boat. We will see how capable we are on the Isle Royale trip in a few weeks, heh.

The other side of the coin is that we have neglected our house except for the major stuff. We do not work on our yard much, we don't do a lot of beautifying of the grounds etc. We just are not around all summer long, as we sail every weekend, Friday thru Monday. Winters we just survive! heh. Last winter we burned 6 full cords of oak in that pursuit.

Point is that we all make our choices as far as priorities go. DLM is our top priority, and has been for 11 years. When I lost a 25 year long job with Control Data Corp., we sold the house, kept the boat. Priority was the boat, as it was a constant while my entire life was upside down. Turned out it saved my life I believe.

She has come thru for us in difficult times, difficult weather and in difficult financial straits, and is now in top shape mechanically and physically, with all systems refurbished or replaced.

But spred over a long period of time, the money becomes less of a load on the budget.

Just some thoughts..

Cheers,

larry

Larry,
I hope you do not think I was questioning your motives. Hardly! I know how much DLM means to Jan and you because I feel the same way about Sine Qua Non and I've only had her for a little over a year. Its just that in most cases the old adage proves true, "A boat is a hole in the ocean that you keep on throwing money into." I must say that I think you've done extremely well in "refitting" DLM. To spend about 10K for all you've done is remarkable. The only guys around here that could offer deals good enough for me to do as well as you run an outfit called "Midnight Marine". An eclectic group that bunch. Their business practices include an "unorthodox" supply chain while their business hours seem geared more toward the the insomniac than the average sailor. Even the decor of their showroom is unusal, as it resembles the back of a truck. I don't like their customer service either. They subscribe to a strict policy of "no returns". HAHA! In any event, it seems that DLM passed her "shake down" cruise to the Apostles with flying colors. Makes it all worth while.
Warren

demers@sgi.com

[Steve Alarcon]

I appreciate the offer, but am working through the weekend. Allow me to reciprocate the offer if you are ever in Seattle.



alarcon3@prodigy.net

[Chris Scheck]

Larry -

enjoyed your comments about spending money on a boat ... "a hole in the water into which you pour money" ... "you can't afford it if you have to ask how much it costs" and my favorite - "how do you practice to be an ocean racer? Stand in a cold shower and stuff $100 bills down the drain!"

Practical Sailor says a lot of those $30 and $40 a quart cleaners and polishes are really just relabeled home and shop products for twice the price. I prefer to believe that there really are magic potions in there that are worth $10 for an 4-oz tube! And remember, if they save you 20 minutes of manual labor, they'll pay for themselves many times over. That argument would make a lot more sense if I were a brain surgeon ... or a plumber!

Ever notice how teenage girls never finish using a bottle of shampoo ... there's always something new on the market that will REALLY make their hair look terrific! Suckers, right? Hmmm, I wonder how many barely-used bottles of miracle fiberglass restorer I have in my lazarette?

I think there's a fundamental difference between regular money and boat money ... like the difference between human years and dog years. If you need a screw for the lamppost down the driveway, it costs 12 cents. If you need a screw for the rudder post, it costs $1.75! I KNOW it's stainless ... but how much can 1/8-ounce of stainless steel cost? Some people must be getting very rich off those stainless mines.

In Newport where we keep Ragtime, the International Yacht Restoration Society picks up old derelict yachts that cost $50,000 to build back in 1910, and spends $1 million to bring them back to bristol condition. So what is $5,000 or even $10,000 to keep your Cape Dory looking nice? A bargain!





cscheck@aol.com