Long Cold Winter

It's definitely been a long, cold winter. I can't add "lonely" to match the song due to my great family and weekly visits to my mom. It looks like spring has finally sprung though and we're ready for it. Ruth and I have just finished our spring cleaning chores including the following:

• Wash windows and bring out the screens
• Get the small fish pond up and running
• Full cleaning inside the house
• Detailing the cars, winter takes a pretty hard toll on both the interior and exterior

And finally, my favorite chore, getting the boat ready for another year on the lake. There wasn't too much to do to the Turtle this year but I changed oil on the outboard, put the new docking lines in the boat, replaced a fair lead for the port jib sheet, and did a little touch up on the bottom paint. Since we cleaned the bottom pretty well after taking the boat out last fall there wasn't much to do and we're ready to launch the boat.

My wife is having her high school anniversary next Saturday so the boat launch is scheduled for 4/29. We are ready to go and just need the weather to cooperate. The plan will be to take the boat out in the morning, do a little sailing, and then put her in the slip. Since it's been so cold, I doubt there are many boats that have launched yet. Our slip-mate usually doesn't put his boat in until after Memorial Day.

We do have a few fun trips planned this year that we will include pictures in future blogs. We're chartering the middle Chesapeake with our friends Bruce & Karen in June and then have our rescheduled BVI trip in November. The rest of the year will be spent sailing on the Lake.

Fair Winds!