The excitement is building...

We took a road trip to Minneapolis last weekend and on the way, stopped and visited our seasonal slip at Mackinaw City (because it's on the way from Detroit to Minneapolis, you know).  I wanted to verify that the winter damage was repaired and they were taking boats, and to get a look at the slip to see if I needed anything special when I arrive with the boat.

There it is!  Slip #31 just waiting for a boat.

The water level is up at least a foot from when I was there last September.

I'm promised the boat is being launched on Thursday so we'll head west to Manistee this weekend and hopefully cruise north to Mackinaw City on Saturday morning.  At least that's the plan.

Stay tuned for the report next week.

The season begins...FINALLY!

I drove up to Manistee this morning to visit the boat.  Some boats have been moved so we were able to get to the portion of the hull with a polishing wheel that wasn't possible during the winter.  So the hull sides are totally polished and the whole thing got another coat of paste wax.  In addition, the new bottom is finished.  That involved a soda blast stripping, three coats of epoxy barrier coat, and two coats of VC17 high performance paint.  It looks awesome!

In addition, the new port location is now on the transom.

Only problem is, I may never get there.  There's still a bit of ice from Leland to White Shoal.  Doesn't look like much from the satellite, but some of those floes are the size of a small city.

The good news is that is much less ice than a few days ago.  The bad news is, it's still winter like cold along the Lake Michigan coast.  Therefore, launch is now looking like May 29th.  About a month later than usual.

Of course that is subject to change.

Well, I'm getting closer...to finishing the dresser, not to launching the boat.  The last clear satellite image of northern Lake Michigan still showed several ice "cubes" in the lake from Leland to Mackinac.  Lots of rain and wind this week may have taken care of that, so on the next clear day, I'll get another read on the lake conditions and plan from there.

In the meantime, progress on the dresser.  Closing in on the final stages.

Construction is complete and finishing is underway with the staining done this weekend.

Need to let this dry for a day or so before applying the first coat of urethane.