It's A Good Day! ! ! !

SHIP'S LOG:

     Even though the weather started out crappy, it has turned into a rather nice day. Hoping it would, I made a trek up to see ABISHAG. Truth be told, I wanted to d a little straightening up as the broker is going to go see her sometime soon and she did need at least a little bit of "pre-cleaning lady" cleaning.  It wasn't much, sort of "re-arranging the deck chairs on the TITANIC" sort of stuff and, anyway, it was nice to be on board on what turned out to be a nice day.

    I wasn't the only person with what friend John Plante refers to as "flange foot." This particular malady afflicts boat owners who stay to long off their craft and can only be cure, if only temporarily, by contact with fiberglass of the marine variety. Another lost soul was on his boat across the yard and he stopped by as I was getting off. He started asking all sorts of questions about how I liked the center-cockpit style vs the aft cockpit style and about ABISHAG in particular. So I gave him the Cook's Tour and found out that even though he has a nice Hunter Cherubini 33, he is looking to move up! Now before you get too excited, I doubt that he is a candidate to purchase ABISHAG though he is looking at a Bristol 41 currently. He is at least a year away from make a move  . . .  though he did buy his current craft totally on the spur of the moment.  It would be nice though, so to keep the pot boiling, I told him if he ever wanted to go out for a sail on "a center-cockpit," to stop by TYC and  we'll go for a spin. He keep his boat over in Noank and knows several TYC members and seemed interested in the offer.  Maybe, maybe not. I'll just wait and see.

And Now For A Bit Of Fun ! ! ! !

SHIP'S LOG:

     I had reason to take Pequot Avenue along the Thames this morning and, down at Osprey Beach, waves were breaking over the sea wall! It is really honking out there! Ledge Light is recording a steady wind of 45mph with gusts to 56!! It is quite the storm! When I parked my car along Pequot, the wind was shaking rather briskly.  'Tain't a Noreaster because the wind seems to coming out of the Southeast but if you are out in it, who cares?  Even a trip on one of the Cross Sound ferries today would be rather rollicking!

     I finally tracked down the partner of my former broker and got assurances that I am free and clear from any obligation to his firm.  It turns out that they still have a picture of ABISHAG in the window of their office but the boat has not been active for awhile. The partner couldn't say how long exactly but seemed embarrassed by the screw-up. I also got the idea he was more than happy for me to take ABISHAG to someone else.  My whole experience with them was far less gracious and satisfying that I was led to believe it would be.  The efforts they made on my behalf were poor, so it was a mutually acceptable  and amicable "divorce."

   On to the next broker who works for Eastern Yacht Sales at Hellier just down the street from TYC. The broker, John Zomermaand, wants to go up and see ABISHAG and we'll go up together in the next few days. May need a day or so after the storm to let the mud dry up around her. The snow should be gone after all the rain, but the weather has been  well above freezing for the last few days, so the ground is not frozen anymore. this means that the rain will sort of sink in and make a nice muddy mess. Better to let things dry a bit.

     Of course, the "ridiculous" price I was asking for ABISHAG, $80,000, is going to have to come down, and a lot I am afraid. But at this point, one has to do what one has to do. If I can get a decent amount, perhaps I will be able to pay off the mortgage on the condo, and the real estate broker ( God Bless her long suffering heart) and then the condo income will do more than come into my checking account and then going right out the door HSBC. And perhaps, if I am really, Really lucky,  I'll even have enough for another new(old) boat. I have already found 2 or three candidates, 27 - 30feet,  for under $10,000 but that is jumping the gun a bit. Odds are, I am sad and happy to say, that ABISHAG will probably sell as well now as she did when she was off the market. Such is the boating industry. Now, if I had a a really obscene yacht, 50or 60 foot long with all the toys and electronics, and was asking an outrageous price, I would have little problems selling it. Such are the vagaries of the boating industry today.

I've Been Screwed! ! !

SHIP'S LOG:

     I found out something rather distress today.  As you know, ABISHAG has been up for sail since before I went up and down the ICW. I talked with a broker in the spring/summer of 2010 and he put the boat on the market at what I thought was a fair price. Well, with the economy and all the other financial things, lots of what people consider "toys" were not selling.  I didn't want to drop the price less I unload her for less than she is worth. And I waited.

     Since I am in the process of selling, or trying to sell my condo, and have been for even longer than I've been trying to sell ABISHAG, I knew that I wasn't going to hear much if anything from the broker unless he a a nibble. But after three years, I heard nothing so I decided to bite the bullet and make a serious drop in asking price. Since this would entail some paper work, I headed over to the broker's office this morning  . . . . only to find that it was closed. And not only closed, but a brand new business now occupies the spot!

    I got back home and dashed of an email to the broker only to get a demon-mailer response that the email address was no longer any good. I went on several online boats-for-sale sites and look for ABISHAG thinking to contact the broker at whatever number was listed. Surprise, she wasn't listed anywhere! I have no idea how long the business has been closed and I have no idea how long they have not been trying to sell my boat.  Now, I've got to find a new broker and go through all the nonsense again.  O well, maybe it will work this time!

Maintenance Begins! ! ! !

SHIP'S LOG:

     Since I had to go up to the Portland area, I took the time to swing by Yankee and take a look at ABISHAG. She looks rather forlorn in the snow. Hike through the snow and got aboard. The cockpit was full of snow so I took some time to clean the cockpit scuppers as best I could, which was only fair. Enough snow had melted so that I was able to find the screw that backed out of the base of one of the support legs of the Bimini frame.  Took less than a minute to put it back in place and so finish the first maintenance project of the season. The rip in the Bimini cover is no worse than it was which is a good thing and I should be able to fix it with "rescue tape." This stuff is marvelous. Applied to, in this case, the vinyl cover it will literally become "one with the vinyl" and the will seal the breach.

     The inside of the boat is a freezer, so much colder than the temperature outside. It is a good thing in the summer buck it is rather nasty during the winter, hence the reticence to trying to attempt maintenance before the weather turns. I am hoping that it will not be too long before it happens. Yet as all sailors know, you deal with what you get. The weather in Florida though ain't much better though it will break a lot more quickly there than here.!

Just Like Old Times!

SHIP'S LOG:

     Wherever it is you might be, I hope you are warmer than it is here. Here along the south-eastern coast of Connecticut, it is brutally cold and the gusting winds don't help a great deal. The wind chill  is driving the "apparent" temperature into the "minus" range, making it hard to believe that spring is anything but a distant dream.

     Then again, there is Florida.  According to the weather reports, the "Sunshine State" is once again the state with sunlight but no heat. Northern parts of the state saw temperatures fall to the "low 20's!" The southern half of the state wasn't all that much better, bottoming out in the low 30's. Ah, does that bring back memories.  When I was in Jacksonville two years ago and it got that cold, NOAA was beginning its quarterly broadcast describing how to recognize the signs of frostbite and warning the locals not to put their space heaters too close to the drapes or the bed covers and the water temperature drop sufficiently to cause a massive fish kill in the ICW. It seems that four of the last five years, the deep south has gotten smacked with a short, say month long, cold snap that has been quite severe. Is it climate change or just an aberration of weather phenomenon. Whatever it is, it is COLD!

     The cold doesn't bother me as much as the wind worries me.  With the blizzard a week ago, we had winds that gusted to 60mph. This weekend, with the cold we had winds that gusted to 45mph.  And I haven't had the chance to get up to ABISHAG to see how she is fairing. As I mentioned, a bimini support leg has come askew and the worn spot in the bimini itself has begun to "part" in a serious manner.  With finances the way they are, I have to plan the expenditure of gas carefully. I now have a couple of reasons to head up toward the Portland area tomorrow and so I will stop by and check things out. hopefully, the yard did some plow because my P.O.S. is really, really, REALLY terrible in snow over 1/8 of an inch deep. If the hard ain't plowed, it means a trudge through the snow.

     It's approximately 77 days until launching. In spite of the weather presently, it is creeping up rather fast. Hopeful, "Punxsutawney Phil" got it right and it will  be an early spring and work on ABISHAG can begin soon . . . .  though the last 10 days or so don't seem to offer much in the way of support for that hope!

Nothing Like A Little Snow! ! ! ! ! !

SHIP'S LOG:

     I have been basically house-bound since the height of the storm. True, we only got a little over 2 feet here in New London, but the blowing and drifting snow piled up in many place to a considerable height, making travel difficult. Add to that the fact that while the plows were able to cut paths for two very thin lanes on major streets, the side streets got one lane, if that, and a very thin one a best. The plows also did not get down to the road surface in most places, or did and it was later covered by more falling snow, and as a result, most roads, major or minor, were alleys of ice. It made for interesting and hazardous motor travel, even for plows. The TV showed a surprising number of plows, state. municipal and private, stuck in snow banks that they tried to clear. The big question, once they get them out, is what to do with snow that gets plowed. After all, it can no longer simply be dumped into the river or the Sound, and you can only pile it so high before you can't get it up any higher, plus there are on so many open spaces where you can put and wait for it to melt away. All the monies towns and cities saved the last two years on snow removal is likely to be spent, and then some, before we see the last flake this year.

     i have a disturbing feeling that the Bimini  on ABISHAG has torn. It is rather old, made of vinyl  and had several wear-points where it contacted the frame supports. The heavy, wet snow would surly stress it. The only thing that might save it is the face that the frame is "a kilter!" On of the screws hold one of the supports had backed out once I got her on the hard and the screw was hidden under the "first snow." As a result, I did not put everything back in place and perhaps, just perhaps, the canted angle of the Bimini has caused the snow to slide off rather than gather and , like "mayhem" in the ALLSTATE commercials, fall through. I am not sure how to find out as I am certain that the yard hasn't cleaned out the boat storage areas yet and just might be waiting for the melt. Normally, they would do plowing and snow removal but there is just no place to put the stuff.  I'll try to cruise by in a day or so and check things out.

Snow Indeed - Part Two! ! ! !

SHIP'S LOG:

     I don't know about where you are, but down here on the coast our 2+ feet is like a layer cake. The top couple of inches is ice, followed by succeeding alternate layers of fluffy snow, then ice, then fluffy snow, then ice, then fluffy snow . . .  you get the idea. 

    Freeing my car was a trip, buried as it had been by the snow plow as well as by the drifting snow. It took a good hour to clear enough so that the P.O.S. - awful in anything by the warmest and driest of weather - could wriggle itself out of its grave. It is also brutally cold and will remain so over night, getting even colder.

     To get past the cold and the snow and the howling wind, I went on all sorts of Caribbean sailboat charter sites just to get warm. Would that I had had the money, say Wednesday last, I would have been gone in a shot!!