Leamington and the Bass Islands - July 2-7, 2008

After a lazy morning, we got a late start at noon for our 5 day trip living aboard Kelly IV.  Our crew this trip were Bob Zimmerman and Keith Otto.  Although the forecast included a threat of thunderstorms (so what’s new on Lake Erie?) they were not expected until midnight.

With this favorable forecast we headed north out of Sandusky Bay for Leamington, Ontario, 45 miles away.  This is very much the same distance that Bob and I sailed on our first trans-Erie sail in 1992 on Kelly I, my Catalina 25.  At that time we wanted to see if it was reasonable to take the family across the lake.  To test the possibility, Bob, another friend, Dick Beamer, and I sailed our 25 footer across from Erie, PA to Port Dover, Ontario.  It turned out to be such a great trip that Kelly I, then Kelly III sailed to Port Dover about 20 times over the past 15 years.

Photo by Bob Zimmerman

This sail proved to be a terrific example of just how wonderful sailing can be.  With a comfortable breeze of about 15 knots out of the southwest, Kelly IV bounded across the nearly flat green waters at a brisk 7 knots.  Keith, Bob and I took turns at the helm enjoying the superior sailing experience.  As we cruised north of Kelley’s Island, the steady breeze brought on gradually building waves, but they were still well under 3 feet.  The sky was just cloudy enough to dull the sunshine, yet bright enough to require us to wear our sunglasses.  It was warm enough to encourage short sleeves and cut offs, but cool enough to make the trip oh so comfortable.  As we passed Pelee Island the sky was showing some darker grays to the far west of us and the waves were a little steeper and maybe even a little higher.

Freighter in Pelee Passage. Photo by Bob Zimmerman

We crossed paths with a commercial freighter as she sailed across Pelee Passage between Pelee Island and the long, flat point that juts several miles into Lake Erie, like a smaller cousin of Long Point in the central lake.

Storm clouds bearing down on Keith, Murph and Kelly IV in Leamington.
Photo by Bob Zimmerman

By this time the wind had gradually shifted into the west, even hinting at becoming northwesterly and the approach into Leamington required a beam or close reach.  As we were sighting the Leamington harbor lights and preparing to drop sail, the waves became short, steep, rollers that, while not breaking, still hit Kelly IV on her beam and rocked her from gunnel to gunnel.  Thankfully, the experienced crew had properly tied down our gear before leaving Sandusky and the motion was merely bothersome, not dangerous.  We did test the autopilot and the poor machine found itself reduced to going in circles by the rock and roll!
Our timing couldn’t have been better as we tied up in the Leamington Municipal Marina with just enough time to build a tarp cover around the bimini in an effort to keep the impending storm from dousing the cockpit.  Yes, the storm hit us only 30 minutes after we tied up about 8:00pm.  It is a good thing Kelly IV made such good time sailing across the lake!

Photo courtesy of Bob Zimmerman

Given the storm and forecast for a lousy Thursday, we signed up for 2 nights and had a relaxing day in port.  We enjoyed a walk through town to discover the “World’s Largest Tomato”, Gilligan’s Bar (Where’s the Skipper & Mary Ann?), and suddenly found ourselves with a déjà vu experience when we sighted a Heinz plant so familiar we thought we were walking the North Side of Pittsburgh!  It turns out that Leamington has a huge Heinz food plant of its own and has a nifty tourist welcome center built like a very large tomato.  The day cleared up, became warm and sunny as the afternoon turned into evening.

Keith and Murph at Heinz Plant, Leamington, ON
Photo by Bob Zimmerman

With bright golden sunshine bursting through the portlights it was easy to wake up and take off for another terrific sail.  This time we made tracks for Middle Bass Island, passing on the western side of Pelee Island.  The breeze had clocked around to the Northeast and held strong with an easy 10 to 12 knots pushing Kelly IV at a smooth, consistent 5 to 6 knots.  We passed the Leamington ferry port to port as it was headed back north from Pelee Island to its home port.  We set our course to proceed almost due south until we hit the latitude to cut cleanly between Middle Bass Island (MBI) and South Bass Island (SBI).

Our next turn was to the south, carefully clearing the shoals west of Sugar Island, then Keith tacked Kelly IV smoothly into the anchorage at the southeast of MBI, just north and clearly in sight of the Perry Monument on SBI.
Although we discussed the assembling of our Port-a-Bote dinghy, it never happened.  We relaxed aboard, observed the various and varied neighbors including several other blue hulled vessels, a very long and sleek racing sailboat, a beautiful green hulled yacht with a clipper bow and a small assortment of powerboats, all but 2 of whom departed the anchorage before nightfall.  Many sailboats but only 2 trawlers spent the night in the calm, peaceful anchorage.

Middle Bass Island anchorage
Photo by Bob Zimmerman

We decided to put into Put-In-Bay (PIB) to replenish our ice, get a hot shower, dump our garbage and generally play the role of sailors in port.  Since PIB was only a mile or so away, we felt we needed to make a real sailing event of the trip by circumnavigating Rattlesnake Island to our west.  Given the very exclusive appearance of the island, we joked and made up stories about James Bond characters, villains and deceitful government operators.  Even the name “Rattlesnake Island” invoked connotations of strange and wild goings-on.  Bob took the helm for the pleasant and wonderful sail going first northwest, then west, then southeast and finally northeast before turning west again into PIB.  Given the July 4th Holiday, we anchored in the busiest situation I’ve experienced.  Fortunately, Bob and Keith are both experienced and we snagged our hook on the bottom for a safe and uneventful anchoring.
After a water taxi ride and shower, we walked around town to get the lay of the land and visit the Perry Victory and International Peace Museum.  As the orchestra was warming up on the museum steps for a summer evening concert, we made our way to “The Longest Bar in the World”, a must-see while in PIB.  A couple beers later and we were on our way as another terrific dinner waited for us on board.  As you might guess, Bob and Keith took turns with our dinners, so each one was a most wonderful repast.  Our dinners included shrimp, steak, chicken, pasta, and other mouth-watering delicacies.

No Hands!  The autopilot has control!  Murph and Keith
Photo by Bob Zimmerman

This brings us to Sunday morning, our last day on the water.  The day dawned bright and clear, but with very little wind.  We plotted a course between SBI and MBI, keeping Ballast Island to our port.  As we went by it seemed there was a small channel we might have taken, but we stayed the course we charted the night before.  Without much breeze, we motored merrily along until about 3 hours out, midway across the northern side of Kelley’s Island (KI), the motor began struggling, as if getting no fuel, and gave up the ghost.  Since the breeze was trying to build, we decided to give the sails another try and although the speed was slow (1 – 2 knots) it was much more fun sailing than motoring.  A tricky bit of tacking by Keith enabled us to safely cruise past the green can to the northwest of KI.  The light northeasterly puffs kept us going south along the eastern shore of KI.  Given the light wind and sometimes easterly headers, our track was inching gradually westwards towards Kelley Island’s shallow water off the easternmost point.  As we slid over the thin water back into deeper, safer, more comfortable H2O, we saw that our ETA would make for a very late drive home.  Conservative thoughts prevailed (all of us had to work in the morning) so we called for the towboat to get us back to port.  We cruised quickly behind the skilled towboat operator and found ourselves back in our slip by 6pm.

Kelley's Island Storm - June 21, 2008

Last weekend Jack vanArsdale, Adam Bartos, and my 18 year old son, Paul, sailed Kelly IV with me. The weekend proved quite different from our plans.

The weather, as always, dictates our plans as we try to go places where the weather, wind, and waves enhance rather than challenge the experience. Last weekend NOAA called for the same forecast all weekend: winds from 5 - 10 knots from the west through the day, shifting to the NW and North overnight, with a chance of scattered thunderstorms. With this forecast it seemed we could sail north on a beam reach up the east coast of Kelley's Island, then steer northwest on a close reach to the anchorage on the southeast of Middle Bass Island. That anchorage looked like it would provide great protection from the SW, W, NW, N, and possibly NNE. In other words, from all winds forecasted. Although thunderstorms were forecast, it has been my experience that these scattered storms are usually relatively light and few and far between. I expected that we were most likely to miss any storms altogether and at worst maybe catch 30 minutes of higher winds and some rain, then it would be quickly over. Based on this, we sailed from Sandusky Harbor Marina with a wonderful SW breeze.

Adam was enjoying his first sailing experience and it was a terrific example of what we all look for when sailing. The sun was bright, the green trees on the island were glowing, the golden beaches were glistening, the small, medium and large fishing boats were all scattered across the beautiful waterscape. The waves were minimal so the sailing was a smooth and comfortable glide across the water. Once we turned the “corner” and headed northwest towards the Middle Bass Island anchorage we noticed that the clouds to the west were building to a darker and more ominous appearance than we’d prefer. Of course, we still thought that the worse we’d encounter was a brief windy, possibly rainy encounter with one of the scattered storms. As we crossed the northern shore of Kelley’s Island, we considered pulling into the anchorage to our port, but the forecasted NW to northerly wind forbade an anchorage on a lee shore, something to be avoided. The clouds went from a frowning gray to a formidable black as we continued westward. By the time Jack had steered us to the northwest corner of Kelley’s Island, the storm was upon us in earnest. Winds were gusting to a high, blustery degree, waves were beginning to build and the black sky was fully covering our destination to the northwest. We decided to run away from the storm and head due west to clear the island, then turn south to further the distance between us and the building thunderstorm.

Jack steered Kelly IV steadily through the rolling waves and pointed her south toward the still clear skies over Catawba Island and Port Clinton. As we approached the southwestern corner of Kelleys Island, we first thought we could make for the small marina on the southwestern bay in the only town on Kelley’s Island. As it turns out, the wind kept building, the black clouds kept moving further south until they were totally over Kelly IV. By this time we had furled the jib entirely and put both reefs into the mainsail. Even so, we were sailing at 9 knots on a clear run directly downwind. We turned the corner at the southwest of Kelley’s Island, jibed the main without breaking anything, and continued our downwind run. As we raced past the marina entrance it was clear we were better off just running before the storm and enjoying the brisk, if rolling, ride before the wind. Occasionally the wind would try to broach the boat or ignore our steering effort, but the only time it caught us, the boom brake did its job and the unwelcome jibe was easily handled without anything bending or breaking. Otherwise it was just a bouncy, rolling ride over small but very steep and choppy waves. We rarely saw waves more than 3 feet high (I know, Jim and Troy are already saying the waves had to be fifteen feet!) but constant rolling made life a little edgy. First Paul went below to build a PB&J, then Jack became the “Hero of Kelly IV” by volunteering to go below and create a lunch to sustain the crew through the rough weather. Jack put together cold cuts, cheese, mayonnaise, even bubbly hot chocolate so the crew was able to continue to fight the cold wind, wet blowing rain, and bouncing, rolling sailboat. Jack’s lunch did the trick as Adam and I were both beginning to get a little green around the gills. With a hot chocolate and solid sandwich, all of us were back on track and ready to sail Kelly IV wherever she needed to go.

As Kelly IV passed Cedar Point on our starboard beam, the wind abated, the sky cleared and we made plans to turn back to the marina on Kelley’s Island. Unfortunately, we were too confidant of the end of the storm. Within 15 minutes it came roaring back, winds quickly built to over 25 knots (my estimate) and we were rapidly getting blown southwest of Cedar Point. As skipper, it seemed like the brief, scattered thunderstorm of our forecast was turning into the all day storm of a frontal change. Later it turned out that a front did plow through, and it felt like it was lasting much longer than I had predicted as we worked our way through the wind and waves. With the wind back to its earlier fury and the marina on Kelley’s Island looking like a serious fight upwind, we behaved like gentlemen (gentleman NEVER sail to weather) and we decided to sail a beam reach into Sandusky Harbor and return to our home marina, southwest of our position.

Paul had taken the helm by this time and was doing well, but the leeway from the stiff breeze prevented us from making good toward the entry buoys at Sandusky Bay. We decided to turn on the trusty “iron genny” and fired up the recently commissioned diesel engine. Unfortunately, no matter what Paul did, we continued our leeward slip towards Vermilion, OH, to the southeast. I took over the helm and for 10 minutes could do no better than Paul. Finally, I decided to shut off the motor, it was doing us no good anyway, and just run before the wind as we had done before. The bother to this plan was that we might really end up in Huron or Vermilion, OH, 20 miles downwind from our home harbor. When I grabbed the lever to put the motor into neutral in preparation of shutting her down, I sheepishly discovered that we had never put the motor into forward gear! With this revelation, I called out to the crew that I thought we might motor into port after all, and shifted the diesel into forward gear. As hoped, she jumped forward and began the relentless onslaught towards Sandusky Bay’s entrance. The wind still forced a significant leeway, but by steering more westerly than the compass bearing to the entrance, we easily made the sea buoys. Within the hour we were entering Battery Park Marina. Why Battery Park Marina, you ask? Well, halfway into Sandusky Bay it dawned upon me that we had run the motor quite a bit with the windward effort two weeks ago and the fight with the thunderstorm this weekend. It occurred to me that we might be running low on fuel. Jack crawled back into the quarterberth to read the fuel tank gauge, but the bouncing, rolling boat prevented a clear reading. The tank was something between almost empty to overflowing. Not knowing the correct tank level, we decided to pull into the first fuel dock, Battery Park Marina.

Murphy’s law being what it is, the wind died just as we pulled into the marina, which made the docking procedure quite easy. After a brief respite to clean up our wet foul weather gear, we warped Kelly IV past another sailboat. They needed the gas pump we were tied up to, we needed the diesel pump they were next to. The warping completed, we topped our fuel tanks, emptied our personal “tanks”, and returned to Sandusky Harbor Marina.

Although we had only been sailing for 8 hours, we were rather bushed and decided to give Jack, our chef, the night off. We bought dinner in town and relaxed over soft drinks (for the boys) and adult beverages (for the adults).

Sunday’s forecast called for more of the same, so we stayed in the marina and completed several jobs including installation of a handrail in the main cabin (that would have been nice 24 hours earlier!), inspected & repaired the primary CQR anchor and line, and installed a new cleat for the jib furling line. It turns out that Adam and Paul joined Jack as very important and helpful crew accomplishing both difficult and valuable boat jobs.

South Bass Island Sail - June 6-8, 2008

What a terrific Weekend!

We found that Kelly IV sails great with a bit of breeze. Bill Paviol drove to Sandusky for the entire weekend of sailing, arriving Friday evening, June 6. After getting the gear on board, including the Port-a-Bote dinghy, we left the marina for a burger and beer at a local fishing pub, Terry's, near the causeway. The food and camaraderie were great, and the storm passed by while we were indoors. Later we found that the storm had clobbered the Mills Trophy Sailing Race from Toledo to Put-In-Bay.  Bill cooked a great breakfast of bacon, eggs, bagels, and OJ, then we secured everything below for a great day of sailing.

It was only the two of us, so we took turns at the helm, Bill proving once again that he is terrific at handling the helm, even when the breeze is blowing up to 20 knots. We gradually reduced sail as the morning progressed, eventually ending up with a double reef in the main and a heavily furled roller-furling Genny. Even so, the GPS put us at a quick-paced rate of 9 knots! There were at least 3 major fishing fleets, but Bill successfully managed to weave through the fleets without even a close call. He accomplished all this while also turning into the wind as we made multiple sail changes to reduce sail as the breeze picked up through the day. One of the great things about Lake Erie sailing is that once we set the sails, the only reason to change was the increase in wind strength. The wind direction stayed consistently out of the SW, even when a rather large dark cloud passed over. It brought the heaviest winds of the days, possibly gusting to over 20 knots, but the wind direction stayed locked into the SW. Finally, well after we passed the ship - now house ashore, we lost our breeze and motored the final half mile into Put-In-Bay. Yes, you read that correctly, someone has taken a foundered ship of at least 4 decks, and cut her in half. They have mounted the bow half over the western cliffs of South Bass Island, pointing out over Lake Erie and live on the half ship as their home ashore. If that ship's lights are displayed at night it could easily confuse boaters that they are facing a large freighter westbound from the cliffs of South Bass Island!

In less than 5 hours we were picking up a mooring at Put-In-Bay harbor in South Bass Island, Ohio. Our mooring fee included shower and toilet facilities ashore, so we took advantage of them. There was a nice town museum and a brewery pub that we visited before getting our showers. After rinsing off the grime and sweat of a hard sail in a full breeze, we returned to the beautiful, but one of the smaller yachts in the harbor, Kelly IV, to have a relaxing afternoon before heading out for a night on the town. We wandered around the small, but possibly wild village of Put-In-Bay to find at least 6 different bachelorette parties underway. It is best if we leave the details of the male inflatable doll carried by one bride-to-be to your imagination.

Kelly IV on her mooring

Since both of us were on the elder side of 40, we left the "The World's Longest Bar", a long, winding, undulating bar at the Beer Barrel Bar, about 11pm. Given the warm evening, we both slept under Kelly IV's bimini for a quiet and comfortable sleep on the mooring. Breakfast on Sunday was pancakes with bacon, bagels, strawberry jam, and OJ. Having a full galley makes cooking almost as easy as it is at home. We built the Port-a-bote across the lifelines at the bow, then rowed into shore on our own, even though the water taxi was already making his rounds. After a visit in our quaint little 12 foot rowboat of a dinghy, to a large, 4 decker, 70 foot motor yacht asking for some "Grey Poupon", we got our morning showers and visited the museum and visitor center of the Perry Memorial and Peace Monument.

Bill at the top of the Perry Monument

The 15 minute video was well worth it as it was very informative about the details of the Battle of Lake Erie on September 10, 1913. Since it included significant footage of the reincarnated Sailing Brig "Niagara", our frequent sailing companion when we were based in Erie, PA, we felt very much at home in Put-In-Bay. We were also inspired to make the 352 ascent to the observation deck near the top of the monument. On a clear day, they say you can see Canada. Even though it was hazy, we were able to Pelee Island the largest of the Erie Islands and the southernmost populated land in Canada.

We went to the clean, bustling little depot to pick up John and Brianna Murphy, my brother and niece. They had taken the Miller ferry from Catawba Island to South Bass Island, the bus to Put-In-Bay village. Bill rowed the dinghy back to Kelly IV, while John, Brianna, and I took the water taxi to Kelly IV. It didn't take long with the full 4 person crew to make ready for the return sail back to Sandusky Bay.

Brianna, Murph, John sailing Kelly IV, photo by Bill Paviol

The wind was every bit as strong on Sunday as it was for the sail on Saturday, except that we had to motor into the waves for the exit from Put-In-Bay and later for the transit from the entrance to Sandusky Bay all the way to our slip in Sandusky Harbor Marina. In between, we had a beam reach to close reach for the return sail with strong breezes again pushing us to 9 knots, per the GPS. Although the 2 to 4 foot chop and waves west of South Bass Island made all but Bill a bit queasy, no one got sick and once we settled on the reach back east, all was well. Especially if you like being doused regularly by fresh water spray as we sliced through the green water and took significant water over the foredeck and side decks. John liked the forward starboard seat in the cockpit and held his ground even though his position meant he took the brunt of the water splashing onto the boat from the stiff breeze.  In fact, John looked like a competitor in a wet t-shirt contest!

Once again we sailed with the double reefed sails, but still sailed consistently in the 6-8 knot range with a few spurts up to 9 knots.

We discovered that Kelly IV loves a strong breeze as she cut through the waves cleanly and romped with speed smoothly without pounding for a wonderful and enjoyable sail both coming and going.

Now we can go Sailing! May 19, 2008

Keith Otto spent his Sunday and Monday helping with a number of jobs, but especially the job of launching Kelly IV! We double-checked all the thru-hulls and it must have worked as Kelly IV floats on her lines! In addition, Keith did most of the work as we bent on the mainsail, installed the boom brake, re-rigged the running rigging to the cockpit, removed the plastic shroud covers, cleaned and inspected shrouds, recovered the shrouds, Installed wires on all shackles for anchor, chain, boom brake, etc., Inspected all the standing rigging, located & placed plugs by each thru-hull, cleaned fuel from engine sump, Replaced bilge sock, bought and installed wall clamps for stowing both table legs. The only glitch was when we discovered we were missing two large clevis pins and shackles required to bend the genoa onto the roller furler. I've been perusing the web tonight trying to locate replacements, but at worst, I can attach the sail with other hardware.

Kelly IV Officially Named - May 10, 2008

Now Kelly IV is Officially KELLY IV! Keith Otto and Jack vanArsdale spent 11 hours (8am until 7pm) on Saturday, May 10, cleaning all the old glue off the transom. They completely washed, then waxed the entire transom, measured meticulously, carefully placed the new name and hailing port and finally pulled away the last paper to expose the grand new name of "Kelly IV, Erie, PA". The new name is Kelly Green with a gold border (Packer colors according to Wisconsinite Otto!). She wears her new name beautifully, Thanks to a terrific effort by Jack and Keith.

Keith poses with Kelly IV's new name on her transom

In addition, Jack spent hours in the small starboard lazarette replacing a drain hose and securing a loose hose and wire. Now the new propane tank (filled after an arduous effort by Keith to locate someone open on a Saturday) is safely located in its own locker in the cockpit.

Another big job was centering the wheel over the rudder. Somehow the wheel was off center by about 120 degrees. After an hour or so of fiddling with the binnacle (compass housing) and quadrant (below-deck rudder-turning mechanism) the three of us figured out that a chain and sprocket drive the turning of the rudder. Once we determined that detail (buried under six layers of compass and binnacle parts!) we were able to lift the chain off the sprocket like a bicycle chain off its gears. Once off the sprocket, Keith and Jack were able to move the wheel to a centered position over the amidships rudder so the fancy weaving on the wheel properly centered the wheel over the rudder. We are now able to enjoy a truly ship-shape wheel!

How Shiny!! Jack and Keith's handiwork is brightly evident.

In addition to these major activities, First Class crew Otto and vanArsdale accomplished numerous tasks to prepare Kelly IV for her launch on May 19. They removed, inspected & replaced the water pump impeller, planned several jobs with the marina Service Manager including a new engine instrument panel, a high water bilge alarm and pump, and a hot water heater and LPG system repair. They also rinsed out the bilge, checked and confirmed the oil level, installed the batteries, confirmed proper operation of the primary bilge pump, located the US Coast Guard documentation number, replaced the nuts on the battery terminals with wing nuts, and inspected the numerous through hulls and located emergency stopper plugs at each one.

Not Bad for an 11 hour day with no lunch break! Seriously, Jack and Keith were terrific crew more than measuring up to their colleagues and the tasks at hand!

My heartfelt "Thanks!" to Keith and Jack for many very important jobs "Well Done"!

Terrific Work Weekend! April 20, 2008

What a terrific Work Weekend! April 18-20, 2008

Jack vanArsdale, Whitney Stewart and Warren "Guy" Stewart worked non-stop this Saturday and Sunday to accomplish many important tasks for preparing Kelly IV for the new Season. After a great breakfast at "The Better Half", our new breakfast standard in Sandusky, this great crew draped plastic sheeting around the entire boat, stem to stern, so the dust from sanding wouldn't foul the neighboring boats. Then they sanded the entire bottom below the water line and pressure washed the dust of the entire hull. Jack loaned his pressure washer to make this happen!

Once sanded, Warren filled in the cracks on the rudder and the entire crew painted the bottom with 3 coats of Petit Hydrocoat Ablative Paint. The first coat was blue, followed by 2 coats of black. The purpose of the different colors is that if/when we see the blue bottom paint, then we know we need more paint!

There is a ton of exposed wood on the outside of this beautiful sailboat. That didn't intimidate this terrific crew! Warren and Jack coated every square inch of wood surface with teak oil while Whitney followed to clean the area so no drips or spills could be seen. Please understand the work this involved:

Dirty Teak

Oiled Teak

A band of teak 3 to 6 inches wide surrounds the entire cockpit, the handrails across the cabin top from foredeck to cockpit are all teak, the cockpit stowage bins in the coamings have teak surrounds, there is a teak highlight about 1/2" high that surrounds the cabintop, the companionway drop boards are teak, the three cabintop hatches are all mounted on teak, the winches, rope clutches, anchor roller and cleats are all mounted on teak pads. I've probably missed several other exposed teak areas, but this crew coated all of it with teak oil! The good news is that the canvas covers do keep the sun and weather from damaging the wood after the great effort of Jack, Whitney and Warren.

As if this wasn't enough for a Saturday, this team also replaced a cracked portlight in the forward starboard cabin, lead by Whitney. The new portlight was tested immediately by a rainstorm and proved to be entirely weatherproof!

"Guy" models the new "Kelly IV Crew" T-shirt 

Once the crew cleaned up and showered, they donned the Inaugural Release of the Brand new "Kelly IV Crew" T-Shirts! With all four of us looking like Smurfs (the Original Blue Man Group - to help the younger crowd) we headed into town to pick up some hardware and tools for the Sunday work. After a fun and relaxing dinner at Max & Erma's with the most beautiful and attentive waitress, Jenna, we retired to Kelly IV for a well-deserved rest.

On Sunday we enjoyed our breakfast at "The Better Half" again and began our work for more preparation of Kelly IV. Warren applied the heat gun and removed the venerable and wonderful name of "Raconteur". It was the sad end of an era, but none of us is the "Raconteur" that Mr. Don Slessman, prior owner is. Kelly IV's new name will be added in a few weeks so she enters the water with her new appellation. While "Guy" prepped Kelly IV for her new moniker, Whitney and Jack completely cleaned and cleared the dust and cobwebs of 3 seasons on the hard.  "Raconteur" was last on the water (ignoring her delivery) in September 2005.  Jack, Whitney and Guy all pulled out the carpet, emptied the drawers, cleared out duplicate tools and hardware, and possibly most important: served as Kelly IV's conscious for keeping the boat clean and open. The new Lifesling and old boom were rigged, while the mainsail was wrapped in her sail cover and stored on deck, opening the cabin for further work. In fact, they even reorganized the entire tool bag and all the screws, blocks, bins, clevis and cotter pins, engine parts, emergency equipment, cabin carpet, every drawer, locker, and surface in our now-clean sloop! Warren lead a team effort to mount the old Loran, new GPS, and a small compass in a very cool cockpit mounting that enables the helmsman to steer from the side as well as the stern.

Close-up of Kelly IV T-shirt logo

After a relaxing dinner and farewell at Chili's, the Stewart's headed for Erie and St. Mary's while Jack & I drove off to Zelienople.

At this point, Kelly IV only needs her new handle on the transom and she can be splashed. There is much more work to be done, but almost all of it can be done after she is in her slip.

Here's a GREAT BIG THANK YOU to Jack, Warren, and Whitney for a superhuman effort to accomplish more than could ever be expected. You can be certain you more than earned your new Kelly IV T-Shirts this weekend!

Cruising World Recognizes Kelly III - February 20, 2008

Cruising World Recognizes Kelly III Cruising Lake Erie!

Cruising World magazine published a link to my online log posted on their website.  Unfortunately, they have rebuilt their website and their post about the log entry has gone missing.  A copy of the paper issue is Posted Here.

For the log post that caught the eye of Cruising World, Click Here.