Time for the trailer.

The trailer makes it so that I don't have to keep the boat at a marina.  But the trailer needs to be maintained and cared for as well. So it was time for it to get some love and care!

Time for a new tire!

It is hard to believe that we have had this little boat for several years now! It is crazy how fast time slips by.

When we got the boat we where told that the one tire was recently replaced. But one tire had been on there for a couple of years. It was news to me that tires where only good for about 5 years! I always thought you just replaced them when they wore out. With a trailer or an RV that does a lot of time sitting and does not get a lot of miles put on them. The rubber will actually deteriorate as they sit and wait to be used.

So the one that was not replaced was getting cracks in the sidewalls. Even though there was a lot of tread still left on it, I didn't want it to blow out while driving down the freeway! So off to the Les Schwab that I have been going to for years.

Interesting company!

Luckily we have standard trailer tires on the trailer. Luckily no repeat of the RV tire problem! So they had the tire I needed in stock. They told me they would be able to swap the tire out with the boat on the trailer. It was nice not trying to deal with that!

Got the old tire swapped out for a fresh new one. It is good to go for at least 5 more years!

The other little change I did was swapped out the old trailer lights. They had a couple of issues. The light bulbs where not very bright and hard to see in the day. Also I kept forgetting to unplug the trailer before we launched the boat. So  I would heat up the light bulbs by using the brakes moving the boat to the water. Then dunk them in the cold water, and the glass bulb would brake. So I had to keep replacing them. Each time reminding myself to remember to unplug the trailer when we started setting up the boat for the water. The new LED trailer lights should help with both those issues!

Heading home and ready for more trips to the water!

Back on the water!

Back on the water!

Sailing down wind!

Got to take our little boat out on the lack again! The sun was out and the weather was perfect! A good amount of wind to sail. It was just a great weekend to spend out on the water. There is just so many reasons that it brings me so much joy and pleasure being on our little sail boat.

I sure wish that I was one of those amazing, quick, and funny blog writers. What some people have shared in their blogs, posts, and videos have really helped me out. Some of them have been so witty and funny as well has helpful and inspirational. I am hoping I would be able to do that as well.

Enjoying the water

I know the work is not done. There are still several things we need to do to get the boat totally finished. There is still many hours that I have to spend ripping out the old wiring and putting in new wiring. Then when I am done running all the new wires where I need them. Then I can put the wood on over the bare fiberglass. I am also working on making my first cushions to make her more comfortable.

At least we can continue to put her in the water to enjoy this sailing thing! It is funny how the feeling of happiness and joy I feel out on the water fades after being away from it for awhile. Getting back out on the water just brings back all those wonderful feelings. It helps me be motivated again to keep working on this big project.

Not only did we have a lot of fun. Got to enjoy some nice easy sailing, we also got to practice and learn quit a bit on this trip. So the first fun thing we got to work on was a man overboard drill. Shortly after we got started my new hat got blown off my head. So we got to practice with the making sure one crew member kept sight of the hat and pointing to it. We actually missed it on our first pass and had to make another pass to be able to get it out of the water.

The next thing is that I am so glad I fell in love with a sailboat, not a power boat. We where going to meet up with a friend who has a power boat. Shortly after they left their slip the motor kept cutting out. So with motor problems they headed back in. Luckily they got back in without any problems. It sure seems like those motor boats are a lot of trouble!

The other thing we got to practice was heave to. It was something he have not done before. It was hot and we wanted to cool off and jump in the lake. Lake Washington is really deep in many areas and we don't have enough rode to anchor. So we gave it a try. It worked pretty well. Started to do a slow tack. Did not release the head sail. Then lashed the rudder all the way over. It worked pretty well. Then I let them jump off and play in the water until they where happy.

Boat dog!

We went up to Kenmore where they have a pretty large dock that you can use for awhile for free. A perfect place to take the dog out for his potty brake. After a bit we fired up the bar-b-que and made dinner. Cleaned everything up, then headed back out on the lake again.

We found a nice place to be able to drop anchor. I checked to make sure it was set very well. We where able to relax and hang out for a bit. We got a bottle of cherry wine that we opened up. Unfortunately it didn't taste as good as we imagined cherry wine to taste!

We crawled into the v-birth and settled down for the night. It was a good and calm night. The boat rocked back and forth just the perfect amount. I feel asleep pretty quickly. I love the sound of the water against the hull of the boat. The feeling of it rocking.

Got woken up pretty early as a wake it the boat and we got rocked pretty good. Luckily we had some cold brew for coffee. Supper simple there! Plus we had a simple breakfast. It was so beautiful being out on the water. The fact that I started out my day on the water and didn't have to do anything to get to the water, besides taking a few steps, was so awesome!

After spending the day working on sailing skills. We are getting better at working together as a team. We are getting better at all this sailing stuff! We had to pack it all in. It is a sad feeling putting her back on the trailer to take her home. We just have to work hard at getting her back out soon!

Getting back to work

Getting back to work!

It feels so good to get back to it. There is still many things that I want to work on and learn. I thrive on new things. On learning new information. On learning new skills and putting them to good use. Of coarse, as a newbie that just jumped into this sailing thing, I had absolutely no clue how much I can learn! I thought I was just going to learn to sail and a few things about a trailer!

I never imagined that I would be learning about so many new and different things. Being able to put old knowledge back to work.  I didn't think I would be learning about fiberglass, epoxy, cutting foam, making cushions along with the wind!

The main project I am working on right now is the cushions. It would be so nice to have nice soft places to sit. We are not going to let little imperfections and lack of some creature comforts keep us from taking her out on the water! 

Getting ready to get wet!

We got to check out these cool little remote control hydroplanes that were racing! The detail that people are able to get onto models is so impressive!

How can you not stop and check out the little ducks that are growing up? I sure can't. Had to grab some pictures of them too!

So back to the work portion of the program!

I have been checking out YouTube videos, reading blogs, and websites. I just want to say thank you Sailrite! The instructions seem pretty straight forward. Get the right foam. Cut the foam to size. Sew a cover, boom all set and ready to go! My big hang up is worrying about screwing it up and wasting a lot of money. Then I am just worried about screwing it up and it looks really bad.

Well I found a sale on foam and fabric at 60% off! So I figured if I totally messed it up really bad and lost all the money put in to it, it should not be very much. So once again I jumped in with both feet and figured that I should be able to learn this and do it at least close enough. Any way it is a good way for me to learn and to figure it out. So here is what I have done so far.

I measured the area. Then measured and marked the foam. I found that the soft foam lets the tape measure move around a lot more then on wood! I didn't even think about that. As you can see I marked one side almost an inch off of what it should have been.

Measure and mark carefully!

I have learned that using an electric carving knife is a good way to cut the foam. Use that or a hot knife. I was able to get my hands on an electric carving knife. It worked out pretty good. Definitely not perfect. I found not moving the knife up and down like you would normally do to cut with a regular knife makes the cleanest edges. But my knife kept getting caught in the foam and would not keep cutting. So I had to saw up and down to cut through the soft foam.

The long cut.

After cutting it down to size I checked the fit. I used the factory edge to face out toward the cockpit. It looks like a pretty good fit!

Test fit.

I wanted to see what it would look like with the cover on it. So I placed the fabric over it to see what it should look like. I am thinking this looks pretty good. At least a little bit better then just bare boat. It sure is a lot more comfortable to sit on.

Looks better then just foam.

So far looks like I have not messed it up completely. Now to learn how to sew together a cover so that it can be beautiful all the time. So time to move inside and start working with the sewing machine. Luckily I was able to find an older machine on Craigslist for very little money. It is recommended to find an older machine with metal gears. I was able to find one that fit the bill.

Old school sewing machine!

So now I have to spend some time working on the sewing part. Hopefully I can figure that out pretty quickly! I think I have all the gear and stuff I need to put it all together. Do a few practice seems and then give it a try.