by Breakin Wind » Mon May 06, 2013 9:50 am
Thursday - May 2nd - 15" of snow in southern Minnesota - fortunately just rain for my cabin (lots of rain however)
Friday May 3rd - Ice out on Limestone Lake (I'm sure that rain helped push it over the edge)
Saturday - May 4th - Dock #1 and pontoon in the water (cold, a little blowy and drizzle)
Sunday - May 5th - Breakin Wind in the water (calm air, 60 degrees and sunny! yay! - spring is officially here!)
My launch went perfectly, other than the fact that the MN Dept of Nat Resources only has about 25-30% of the launch docks in the water yet, not including ours, but it still worked OK. Double lines to the shore just in case.
Since there was no wind and I still have some standing rigging hardware to finish, my grandson and I just motored out and about a bit on the trolling motor. I noticed I must've picked up a fair amount of rain absorbtion becuase my bilge pump was kicking on and off... and on and off... and on and off... Didn't think alot about it until we got back to the dock, tied up and started walking to the cabin for lunch, and then the bilge pulp kicked on again... ???
Forgot the bilge drain plug... (oops)! Thank goodness for the 1500 gph bilge pump with the recently installed high water auto-switch. Proved it's value in the first hour of this sailing season. Otherwise I would have had to find out how good my swim noodles worked.
Funny thing is, I commented to my grandson while driving to the landing, that I need to remember to put the bilge plug in before the boat goes into the water. He of course just looked at me like I was speaking chinese, but I thought verbalizing it would make me remember. I guess it's back to post it notes on the dashboard.
Never-the-less, spring is finally here in Minnesota, and the sailing season has begun (once I remember what else I forgot)!
Scott