Looking ahead

Well, it's really cold, but I'm lookng ahead now to the new season. As far as I'm concerned the best use of winter is waiting for it to end. But I guess I can also do some preparation.

I took the boat to another marina to get some work done on it. There were some damp spots in the core of the fiberglass in a couple of places and some other minor things. At least I hope they are minor, price-wise.

I'm trying to decide on a marina for the coming season. I don't much like where I was. They were completely unresponsive to my needs for service. Plus, they are more expensive than most others in the area. I'm interested in a few other places. One marina in Sandusky never responded to my messages. Well, if they're not interested in my business, I guess I'm not going there.

The other two are 1. the place doing the work for me. They have been very good at the maintenance and repairs so far. They were able to fix my unusual 30-year-old engine and transmission. Assuming they do well on the current work, then it would be nice to have them right there. On the other hand, they are farther away from home and one has to pass through a drawbridge to get out to the lake and back again. It opens every half hour but makes me a little nervous.

The final place is in Sandusky, which is closer to home. It is farther from downtown than the one that didn't respond but is pretty close. It is easy to get out into Sandusky Bay and from there into the lake. They claim to also have good engine maintenance facilities and people, but I haven't used them. I believe the two would cost about the same. Oh, and this one has a guy who advertised sailing lessons, I've been wondering about paying someone for a half day or even a day to show me how to dock the boat and a few other things that I still feel nervous about.

Decisions, decisions.

I'm also thinking about an autopilot. I have a lot of trouble controlling it on my own. The boat is very responsive in its steering, which is great for sailing, but if I let go of the tiller for a second, the boat heads off in unpredictable directions. I could try a "Tiller Tamer," but I haven't been able to balance it well enough to make that likely to work. I'd really like a wind vane self-steering mechanism, but they cost thousands. The least expensive one I've seen is $1500 plus installation. They look salty, and they work well, but I don't do enough of the kind of sailing (e.g. across the lake) to justify that at this point. An autopilot would be more like $600 plus simpler installation. It would use battery power, but I could recharge whenever I returned to the marina. Basically, it would keep the boat on course while I did other things. I need to talk to people who might install it.

I'm also considering a dinghy, perhaps with a small outboard. Or maybe I could have an outboard bracket put on the stern of the boat for a second engine as a backup.

On the other hand, I did just get a waterproof digital camera. I hope to be able to post some pix this year.