LABOR DAY AND THE SWITCH

 Usually I never leave  home port mooning on a holiday weekend here in the US. This year I decided to sail the three nautical miles sell to a nearby Harbor rent a mooring and just stay there for four days. I left a few days early to avoid the crowds.  It was a nice 3 hour sail despite the wind on the nose one tack got me to the next harbors entrance.

I had a mooring reservation through Dockwa for Friday through Tuesday. Since this was late in the afternoon on Thursday I decided to use one of the open moorings in the north west Mooring field  which is usually only used by the owners on the weekends. There are hundreds of empty moorings available during the week. Usually I maybe only one of three or four boats in the area.  This time there were at least 15 on moorings and at anchor nearby.  Seems like many more boaters want to get their last sails in before their unofficial summer ends.

In the morning I moved BIANKA to the mooring I rented for the weekend at the Yacht Club.

I enjoyed my stay on the Yacht Club mooring watching the other boats come and go. Listening to the VHF which had it's share of drama to report. An unfortunate fellow had a heart attack. But, there were medical personal including a Doctor and Nurse on other boats that helped render assistance. A Bayliner started taking on water outside the harbor and the six people on board had to be rescued. A disabled boat with no radio sent up a red flare in the harbor which caused quite a stir with the authorities. Then on Monday most of the boats started to leave by Monday night things
were very quiet.

I left on Tuesday morning and it was like a switch had been turned off. I passed no other boats leaving the harbor and only one or two on my journey back to BIANKA's home port. For many summer has ended but, it is still summer. Though the early sunsets and the chill in the evening are signs that Fall is knocking.

SPRING TAKING OFF

Got back to BIANKA for a quick check after doing some traveling. The sailing season is getting closer from the signs in the harbor. The moorings including BIANKA's have been dropped onto the harbor bottom:

Power boats are also starting to fill up the docks:

All signs it's time to start to get a move on getting BIANKA ready for the upcoming season. I'm starting off with removing some of the items that are no longer needed to have on board. These include the snow shovel I used to clear the deck of snow and ice over the winter and also the spare anti freeze that can be put away until next fall. I'm also taking off the rigging lines that will be washed at home before being rigged  :

Small steps but, at least it's a start.

LITTLE THINGS

The brutal winter is finally behind us and I've been spending more and more days on the boat. The electric propulsion system requires so little maintenance that I can concentrate on other areas that need a little more attention. Things like touching up some of the bright work. Such as putting fresh coat of CETOL on the grab rails. As I poke around I keep finding little things that I forgot were on board. For example I went into the storage locker to get some paint brushes for the touch up work and I came upon this:

It's a can of some red spray paint. This was bought and last used years ago to