Spring launch has finally arrived!!

Well it's been a very long winter but spring has finally sprung, and with it comes one of the most exciting day's of the year...spring launch!! After weeks of prepping and polishing our beloved Seapickle II, she's looking great and ready for another wonderful boating season.

After stopping on the way to have a nice breakfast at Cafe 339 in Hobart, we made it to the marina just in time to see the guys coming around the corner with the tractor.



Dana keeping an eye on the situation





SPLASH!!!!






Ready to go to Boater's Beach?

 



At home in her slip and looking good!



Well it's going to be tough to top last summer...new boat, perfect weather, and an incredible 16 day trip that we will never forget! We hope to take another long trip like that again, but unfortunately it doesn't look like it will happen this year. With high gas prices and a heavy work load for both of us we have decided to spend the summer exploring the southern half of Lake Michigan. With so many great ports to visit like Chicago, South Haven, New Buffalo, Grand Haven, Milwaukee, and more I'm sure we will have plenty to share with you! Lets make this a great summer and we hope to see you out there!! Ben & Dana

Winter Boat Projects - Interior Remodel

One of the things we love about the newer boats out there today is the materials used in the interior. The Teak and Holly floors with softer feeling earth tone vinyls has really appealed to us. Since our boat has proven herself to us on our big trip, and we see no need to upgrade in size at this time, we have decided to remodel our beloved Seapickle II!

First order of business was to have the V berth cushions recovered in a new vinyl material called  Naugasoft. This vinyl has been tested for excellent abrasion resistance, ease of maintenance, and a -20 deg. cold crack resistance! It will be replacing a brown fabric material that in my opinion has kind of a course feel to it. We had a local upholsterer at NWI Upholstery recover the cushions, and they turned out excellent! The floors are Teak and Holly flooring by Plasteak. They were surprisingly easy to cut to fit based on patterns I made using the old carpets. I still need to glue them down, but at least I got all the cutting/trimming out of the way now.


 
Before:

After:

Recovered cushions piled up ready to be put in the boat!

There is still a lot more work to be done but it sure has been nice to fight cabin fever, slip under the winter covers and get some work done.

Strictly Sail, Chicago

No we do not have a sailboat... but... you never know! We might want to retire on one in the Caribbean someday, so we're trying to learn a bit about them now! We had a great time at the Strictly Sail show at Navy Pier with Ben's parents, Bill & Kathy.

We found one boat that we really liked, even though it's a bit smaller than our boat. It's a Seaward 26 by Hake Yachts (pictured above & below). Small enough to learn on, and still enough space to trailer and spend a week or so on comfortably. It's a possibility for the future, since there's a lot of areas we want to explore, and it would be easier in some cases to trailer a boat. Not for awhile though... we're having way too much fun with Seapickle II for now!

Chicago Boat Show

The Chicago Boat Show at McCormick Place is becoming an annual tradition for us, and something we really look forward to as winter begins to drag on. These are our friends Bill & Mina on a decked out pontoon boat that I think they should buy as use as the party boat at Boaters Beach! We enjoyed the boat show even more than usual this year... because we're not actually looking for a boat this time, and could just hang out, drink beer, and browse around for ideas to add to our Seapickle II.

We were also able to meet up with some boating friends - Joe & Miranda and Joe & Pat - and start to make plans for summer get-togethers. I think we're looking forward to this summer more than any summer ever before, if that's possible!! We had such a great time with our cruiser last year, and this year we hope to make it even better! Just a few more months :-)

GO BEARS!!!

Merry Christmas from Ben & Dana

Ok...in the spirit of full disclosure I have to be honest and tell you the cat on the left was photo shopped. He is our cat, and can pull a nasty back flip with ease, but getting them both out there at the same time is not easy. 

Merry Christmas and  Happy New Year!!

Here Comes Winter

With Seapickle II wrapped up and ready for her winter slumber, we braced ourselves for the first big winter storm. With forecasted 50+ knot winds and 25-30ft waves we had to drive out to the lake to see for ourselves. As we pulled up to Portage Park on the lakefront we were pleasantly suprised to see some of our G-dock friends... which only confirmed that they are as crazy about boating as we are.

The wind was blowing so hard it was actually hard to keep a good footing while trying to walk. The picture below shows waves in the 15ft range...they continued to grow to 30ft after we left!!! 

Below is a picture of waves crashing over a 10ft breakwall like it wasn't even there. This storm did significant damage to the southern lakeshore of Lake Michigan. A report in the Post Tribune stated it will take years to repair the erosion caused by this storm. We just hope boaters beach is still there next spring.

The Transhield cover we are trying this year held up in the 50+ knot winds! This cover went on so easy, has a nice soft inner liner, and is reusable...so far seems to be money well spent! Did I mention it was a 1/4 of the price of shrink wrapping!