Well, the boat is out of the water, being hauled on October 29th. I spent this past Saturday afternoon winterizing the engines and removing the outdrives. These events mark the official end of the 2007 'in water' boating season.
I took the drives off so I could bring them home to change the water pumps and impellers, as well as the drive fluid. Also, when the boat came out of the water, I discovered that the drives had a major infestation of zebra mussels. So, I did a bit of research and found that Inturlux paints makes a drive paint that is supposed to repel the little buggers. Once I have chnges the pumps and put the lower units back together, I will clean, prep and paint them with this stuff. Hopefully, that will work.
Alll in all, I'd have to say that 2007 was one of the better seasons for boating we've had. Not only was the weather good - mainly sunny & hot - but we were also able to enjoy visits to a few new places. Plus, the biggest event was finding our new home port. That was far and away the biggest event of the year. The move has also been really inspirational, with my wife & I planning new adventures for next season.
One of the new things we are looking forward to is anchoring out over night! Believe it or not, but we've never done that (I'll have to qualify that statement by saying that I have spent the night at anchor once, when I was about 13 years old, with my family on the houseboat we had back in the day). In fact, we have only ever set the anchor once in the three seasons we've had our current boat. The extended Christmas wish list includes a new Delta anchor. And an inverter. And a DSC VHF radio.
Hey Santa - you listening???
