So here we are...boating season 2016!!!  or is it?

I've spent several weeks, since returning north from Florida, expanding my workshop.  The addition of a surface planer, a drum sander, a new router table, a miter saw and a woodworking bench necessitated the need for more floor space.  I more than doubled the size so it's nice a roomy with ample room around the machinery.

This is the part that was added.

And a nice wood storage area with racks to get all the stock off the floor.

It was a big job with some new wiring and constructing some walls to contain the dust.  I also installed an air filtration system to get the dust out of the air when I'm working in there

That's all finished now so I'm chomping at the bit to get the Sea Ray wet.

I traveled to my winter storage facility, Cheboygan Village Marina, last week to put a shine on the hull.

The process is to apply a cleaner and wipe that off, then apply a paste wax.  After about six hours, I had nice shiny hull sides.

I polished the deck just before it went into storage so the top side should just need a good washing to get the storage dust off.

Service this winter included a hull inspection for structural soundness and the replacement of a leaky drain plug.  The drain plug issue made me wonder about the condition of the transom so that is why I had the hull inspected.  Fortunately, all is in excellent condition and the drain fitting has been repaired.

I also had a new bottom coating applied this year.

The paint goes on as a bronze color.  Once it's exposed to the water, it will turn black.

So, I'm all ready for launch.

Cheboygan Village Marina is an awesome facility.  I don't expect to be in the area at the end of the season so will store elsewhere next year.  It's bittersweet.  These guys are fantastic to work with and the facility is second to none.

So here I am, with the weather improving and number one son just rubs it in by going out on Saginaw Bay and finding a few fish of his own.

Those are the kind of perch that were common in the bay back in the 1960's.  Its been a while since I've seen perch like that.

Anyway, after checking the northern webcams, reality set in.

Those are midge flies on the camera lens.  Word from the north land is that the flies are nasty at the moment.  It's probably better the boat is still in storage.

That's a lot of the reason for moving the boat back south this fall.  In the far north, it doesn't warm up until sometime in May, then once it does, the midge flies swarm for another few weeks.  When its all said and done, the boating season is four to six weeks shorter than the central lake area.  Of course the absence of any fish outside of lake trout also is chasing me away.

So there you have it.  Ready to go, just need conditions to improve a little.  Target is to launch in about two weeks.

Well, well...

The second week of March already and time for a brief update.

Since the last post, we did another lap of Cuba in the Caribbean on Allure of the Seas.

It's a ship the size of a small village and the population to match.  Some don't like the big ship but after two cruises on this class of ship, it's hard not to like all the activities that are offered on a ship of that size.

This was a family cruise with 8 of us in adjacent balcony cabins.

The kids were pretty active all week.  I spent the week in a more relaxed mode.

The ladies found the water in Haiti to be just a tad refreshing.

It was really quite warm, but Kathy was more in tune to the water temperature in the hot tub.

Wimp.

It was a quick week and enjoyed by all.

Only about 320 days to the cruise.

So the migration back north is on the horizon.  There's only a few weeks left to enjoy the Sunshine State then back to the Winter Water Wonderland and get the boat ready for another season of Great Lakes play.

Can't wait for that fun to begin.

Work Island is beginning to shape up.  It's been a busy month of rehab at the southern estate.

I finished up the bath rebuild and all is back to normal there.  The new cabinetry turned out real nice considering it was built 1200 miles from here.

Then it was on to the rest of the trailer to replace the flooring.  After replacing some more sub-flooring and spending a couple days scraping up 30 year old vinyl, I put down a new luan surface and installed the same vinyl that I used in the bathroom for the kitchen area.

The project stalled at that point while we waited for a carpet order to arrive so what should we do?

Well, how about a little boating?

We led a cruise group from our park aboard Royal Caribbean's Freedom of the Seas.  It was a real nice week and with the weather so-so in Florida, a nice escape to summer weather.

The first stop was RCCL's private beach at Coco Cay, Bahamas.

It was still a little cool there but we weren't going to let a little chill keep us out of the water.  So we donned our snorkel gear and swam for a couple hours over some structure they have placed off the beach.

We also made landfall at St. Thomas.

There were a few nice yachts there.  Not too many of this class running around the Great Lakes.

Then it was on to St. Maarten,

We did a little browsing at both ports but spent most of our time aboard the ship on this trip.  The weather was perfect and the week went by in a flash.

Meanwhile back at the ranch, the carpeting came in and we prepared for installation.  We moved everything into the Florida room or the porch.

I looked forward to having something other than plywood under my feet.  In a couple hours, the carpeting was installed.

We moved the furniture back in and can finally call this project over.

With the construction zone over, Kathy even got out the good bedding and a quilt she made for here.

She's been waiting awhile to get that on the bed.

So it's finished and just in the nick of time.  Brian and Shanna arrive a week from today for the family cruise aboard Royal Caribbean's Allure of the Seas.

Time for the fun to begin.

How time flies when you're having fun.

After a enduring a mid November 12" snowstorm in beautiful metropolitan Oxford, MI, I packed up the minivan...

...and headed to the southern estate for the month of December.  I quickly discovered travel on the Sunday after Thanksgiving wasn't the best idea.

Pouring rain through three states didn't help the matter either.  But after a day and a half of driving, I arrived to find our trailer surrounded by the summer overgrowth.

Amazing how much stuff grows over a few months.  That "tree" half way down the side of the trailer wasn't there the 1st of April.  So I spent a couple days and got the grounds cleaned up a little.

The cable TV service in the park was removed so I was forced into satellite service if we were going to watch anything beyond a couple local stations.  It has worked out well.

Since I was there in December, I decided to put up the Christmas tree that was left here.

There was even a Christmas parade through the park.

The real reason for the December trip south was a rehab of the bathroom.  There was a little water damage to the floor so I had to put in a new subfloor.

Cleaned up the wall with a little paint.

and put down new flooring.

That's as far as I got in December because while traveling south through Kentucky, I discovered I left the bath cabinet and countertop that I made at the house in Michigan.  So with the bath project on hold, I kept busy with other activities.

I wandered through a park sale one morning, went to the driving range, and took care of some cruise business.

Although the bath cabinetry didn't make the trip south, I did get Kathy's new (used) sewing cabinet hauled down.

So after a trip back north via Virginia and a visit with Mom, Kathy and I returned to Florida and enjoyed our traditional "welcome to Florida" meal at Sonny's.

After settling in for the season, I got back at the bathroom project and tore out the sink and countertop.

Today I got the new countertop installed with china bowl sink and dry fitted the cabinet framing.

Another couple days of staining, finishing and installation and this project will be history.  Then it will be on to new flooring in the rest of the place.

It's called "Work Island".

So it's already been two months since I pulled out of the Mackinaw City Marina for the last time this season...

...and left the boat at Cheboygan Village Marina.

After a trip out east for a week, I got busy in the woodshop and threw together a chimney cupboard to entertain myself for a couple weeks.

I used an antique glaze over an enamel finish.  It really turned out well.  It was a tedious process that included 6 coats in the finishing process.

I treated myself to a few new tools.  First, is a sharpening system.  I've always struggled with sharpening tools.  The machine I got seems to get the job done.  I started with a 20 year old abused set of chisels that all look something like this...

...and end up with a razor sharp edge.

Pretty sweet.

The big purchase is a drum sander.

This will allow me to sand out panels and frames up to 38" wide.  It's a big machine.  Unfortunately, my workshop runneth over so I'm in the construction phase of a workshop expansion.

I'm adding about 300 sq. ft. of shop space to handle the new machinery.  There's a new router/shaper too.  I haven't had a chance to get that out of the boxes yet.  Too many days of collecting leaves.

Florida is on the horizon with two trips in the Caribbean on the schedule.  It's going to be a busy winter.

Stay tuned.