Sitting in quiet contemplation on the deck of my sailboat, I came up with a list of projects. Some old, some new, but all things that would improve our days on Odyssey.

Here are the things that I'm realistically going to get done this winter:

• Clean the cockpit.
• Clean the cabin.
• Swab the decks.
• Clean the green scum off the mast and mast fittings.
• Put the new winch in.
• Clean, sand and oil the hatch slides.
• Clean, sand and oil the door slides.
• Clean, sand and oil the cabin-top grab rails
• Fill the holes on the sides of the cockpit where fittings have been removed.
• Build a new door for the companionway.

Here are the things that I'd like to do, but really, what're the chances that I'll actually get them done?

• Get a new main sheet.
• Replace the other lines on the boom (outhaul, downhaul).
• Get the line I need for a jib downhaul.
• Replace the old, ugly cleats with new, shiny stainless steel cleats.
• Replace the lifelines.
• Put on a real stern ladder.
• Sew new cushions for the cabin.
• Put in an electrical system that actually works.

I'm sure that there's more. There always is.

Time to get started on this project. The new back door of the barn is down, the new lights in the barn are on, and the football game is on the radio (the Seahawks are getting beat by Arizona). It's time to get to work.

The first thing I want to do is get the mast off the deck so that I can raise the poptop and generally work on deck without worrying about slipping on the stays. So out come the cotter pins holding the stays and Dana and I lift the mast off the boat and slide it under the boat onto the trailer for storage. It's a bit of a bother slipping it in and getting it to lay so that the spreaders aren't tripping hazards, but under the boat is the only place I can keep the mast inside the barn where it won't be even more in the way.

Once the mast was off the boat I dug out the poptop supports and raised the roof on the boat. It's pretty gunky under the edges, but with the top up I have almost standing head room. The only place I bump my head is on the support loops -- that means I'm bound to give myself a good crack at least once during this project.

That's all I got done today, I spent a good long time just looking around deciding on what I want to get done. But I'll leave that list to another post.

We finished putting the new roll-up barn door on the back end of the barn, so I am finally free to move Odyssey to the barn and go to work on her. It only took a few minutes work to hook her up to the truck and back her down into the barn.

So now she's nestled down under cover this winter, tucked into the barn in the only position that works: We can get into the tool stall and the storage stall by slipping past the bow, and the rabbit's stall is accessible past the stern.

The best part is that we can slip the tractor our the back of the barn if we need to, which means I'll be able to store Odyssey in the barn all winter and get some real work done on her.

Unfortunately, it's late on a busy day and I'm not up for much more than moving her over here. But tomorrow is free...

Today I took my tools to the boat and tore into the old winch in a difficult yet ultimately successful effort to remove it.

I removed the fuse and switch block from the aft bulkhead so I could remove the bulkhead. Once the bulkhead was down I had a clear view of the winch and the two honking big bolts that hold it in place.

I'd purchased a large screwdriver a couple of weeks ago just for this purpose. Between the screwdriver and a socket wrench with a wobbly I backed the nuts off the bolts, the factory bolts were aircraft nuts so they gripped tightly the entire way.

After the winch was free I needed to get the cable off the drum, and that meant finding a way to turn the drum. And since the drum freezing up and not turning was why I was in here removing the winch in the first place I needed to put a little thought into the process.

Eventually I took the whole face of the winch apart and took the gears out of the winch. When the last one came free the drum started moving and I was able to remove the cable with only a small fight from the nut and bolt holding the cable to the drum.

Next up, putting the new winch back into the boat.

For your viewing pleasure here's the old winch and the new winch side-by-side:

So I was right when I wrote in my last entry "I think that's it for the year."

Building the house, moving, and the fair took a lot of time, and Odyssey didn't make it into the water last year at all. That's the bad side, the good side is that's why I have a trailerable sailboat, a whole year of sitting around didn't cost me a dime in slip fees.

This summer I not only cleaned Odyssey up but I took her out for a day on the water. Unfortunately not a sail, but a day on the water.

Spring was very late in the Puget Sound region this year, it stayed wet and raining into late June. I managed to get out on a couple of the nice days to wash Odyssey down and drain the water from the bilges, but that was all for the early part of the year. Getting the green off was a big win, but this year I was determined to sail, so we started looking for a day.

Late in June (the weekend of the 21st) it looked like we'd have a chance, so I sent Dana out to get the license for the boat and trailer renewed. But because it was still the 2007 sticker year, if she bought the $25.00 license sticker it would only have been good until the 30th, and then I would need a 2008 sticker. We decided to put off the first sail into July.

The first weekend in July we were on vacation (Hawaii!), so that meant sailing was off until the second weekend. And gosh darn it I was going to go out.

Saturday I did chores around the house so that I would have Sunday to sail. Then Sunday early I started loading up the boat with all required gear: anchor, sails, lines, cushions, towels, it just goes on and on. However, the motor started, I found new flares at the local hardware store, the brake lights worked after a little fiddling, and the trailer tires weren't too flat. We were off.

The drive to the launch ramp in Everett was a bit scary, the boat and trailer seemed to be a bit squirly. Turned out I'd forgotten to strap the back of the boat down, so Odyssey was bouncing on the trailer a bit. But we got safely to the launch ramp and putting the mast up went smoothly, even though I'd also forgotten my new mast-raising stick. Faster than we thought possible we were in the water and motoring away from the dock into a fairly fresh, and welcome, sailing breeze.

It was a fairly standard run down to the mouth of the Snohomish -- lots of boats, dodging the Jetty Island ferry, etc. Joey was at the helm with Dana giving him lessons in steering. Katie and I did the foredeck work getting the genoa ready to go. So far, so good.

And then, we hit the first of our two major snags of the day.

I'd forgotten to lower the swing keel. Usually I do that first thing coming out of the launch but I'd been distracted by avoiding a wind surfer and the ferry. I remembered, though, just before we hit the washing machine at the mouth of the river, so I went below to lower the keel.

It wouldn't go down.

So I hit it with a winch handle to knock the rust loose.

The whole winch gave a good impression of disintegrating. But the keel stayed up. Which is a good thing at this point.

Sailing was out of the question, so we decided to run up the river for a while and back. We had a lovely motor (except for a couple of idjits on PWCs that were kicking up wakes in a no-wake zone) up the river to the I-5 bridge.

That's when we hit the second snag of the day.

Katie asked "Why do those PWCs have those jets of water shooting up into the air?"

"To show that cooling water is getting to the motor," I replied. "Ours has one too, it just points down. See?"

Only I didn't see. No cooling water jet. No cooling water in the motor. Trouble.

We turned and headed for home, and with the exception of one other power boat cutting our bow and tossing us around with his wake, we made it back to the dock with no problems. I spent the entire time thinking "if the motor fails here, I'll be able to get to there." I didn't need any of those plans, but I was ready. Later when I told Dana she said she was wondering what I'd do if there was a problem with the motor.

It seemed like bringing the boat out was a lot quicker than usual too. Maybe that's just 'cause it's been so long.

Anyway, now it's off to the forums to find a vendor for a keel winch for Odyssey. This may be our only trip this year. But at least we made it out onto the water once.

I didn't get Odyssey completely clean on Wednesday, so I went out this afternoon to finish up.

First I bailed and vacuumed about 10 gallons of water out of the bilges, then I spend an hour or so washing the rest of the hull.

Dana came over for a while and helped out, so we got to spend some time together.

Unfortunately, I think that might be it for the boat work I'm gonna get done this year.

It has been a majorly weird year this year. Since last August we've been working on getting our new house built. That's a whole other kettle of fish that someday I might write about but not now while it's still raw.

In any case, it's highly unlikely that I'm going to get to go sailing this year. Between the new house, being behind on the farm work because of the new house, needing to get the landscaping in around the new house, and not having any money because I need to pay off the new house -- I don't have a lot of time left for the finer things in life.

However, there are some things that I refuse to do, and one of them is to leave my boat sitting out there under two years of grunge. (The most important, of course, is to never get in a land war with China.)

I managed to carve out some time today to get out and wash on Odyssey. It's not much, but at least the front half of the boat looks better.

Sometime in June, 2006¹

Headed out for a day sail with Dana and the kids.

Seemed like it was easy to get started, but it still took an hour to get off the dock.

Once we were out in the river we had a small problem with the keel winch: it refused to roll down. I ended up crawling under the cockpit to spin it down by hand. The winch is pretty rusted up; it needs some TLC.

Once we were out on the Sound we had a great time chasing the wind. Dana tried reading the wind fly but couldn't seem to get the hang of it. After a while she gave me the tiller; I actually got to sail my boat this time.

The wind was fairly strong all day, although a couple of times it did manage to blow out at the least opportune moment, usually just as a big powerboat went across our bow. Why -- with all that ocean out there -- they have to cross right of our bow I'll never know.

Dana, Katie, and Joey ended up sleeping below for most of the day while I single-handed.

By 6-ish everyone was cold and tired, so we headed in. We tied up in the dock at 12th street for an hour or so to eat dinner. It was quite cozy in the cabin -- we enjoyed the protection from the wind.

¹Not sure of the date on this. It's in a log file called "Odyssey-606" which means it was written in June of 2006, but the actual date on the entry is March 1, 2006, which is clearly wrong. It was probably after the 11th, considering the last entry was made on that date, but I'm not sure when.

I'm not sure anybody reads this site. Heck, I don't pay that much attention to it anymore. Occasionally I'll spend some time looking over my old entries, but for the most part it just goes by the wayside.

I spent a couple of days this week getting Odyssey ready for sailing. Who knows if I'm even going to get her in the water this year. Sailing seems like a low priority for the family, and I'm not strong enough to go without them.

Last year I built a crutch to use when stepping the mast, I used it when Rich and I went sailing in September. This year I tried stepping the mast by myself, and it went up smoothly, the second time. The first time was a bit of a fiasco, but Katie was able to help me get the mast back down before I dropped it.

I also set up the poptop, and made a boom tent out of a tarp. The hatch is getting old and warped, I'd like to make a fancy replacement with a plexiglass window. Maybe sometime this summer.

I'll haul the seat cushions, sails and halyards over on Monday night, and then Odyssey will be ready for a sailing season.

I wonder if I will?

Darned if the leaves didn't clog up the drain in Odyssey's cockpit again. Only about 2 inches of water this time. Gave the drain a poke with a stick to clear it out.