Like my launch date, seems my winter cover completion date has been rescheduled by the god’s Gods for ’09. Better late than never, I suppose. This will probably be the last snowfall of the winter. Happy New Year!

Practice makes perfect – one of my favorite mantra’s, I repeat it daily about one thing or another… usually about something like eating cake. With each frame constructed, my execution, accuracy and speed improved. The third frame is indeed stout… pretty? well, not so much. The design is a near replica of the frame I had on my Nor’sea 27. I  “lofted” this frame design out in 1/2 scale on a piece of plywood. It seems to do the trick, my measurements are close enough, and it looks like with just a few alterations, my frame should work really well.

When I removed the turtle, aka the sea cover from my main hatch, I found a lovely surprise. It’s a throw-back to an earlier time aboard BCC Elizabeth; back to a time when she was known as Dee Dee Ann. A beautiful few inches of varnish, safely hidden beneath the turtle, untouched by the Texas sun’s harsh rays. It’s the past and it’s the future…

Christmas is over, the days are growing longer and June is nearly upon me. Three moons from now I’ll be knee deep in bottom paint, thinner and other tasty toxins. But this week, I’m making the winter cover frame for me beloved. Grateful to the boatyard for use of tools and space.

Removing the old name was never high on my priority list, my boat will be ‘Elizabeth’ no matter what it says on the transom. But when it came time to launch the boat back in October, fully three months later than planned, and I still had yet to remove the old name – Crystal Swan II – from the transom! I realized there are some priorities that may not be high on the list, however, they still need to get done. So in the midst of a winter heat wave here – with temperatures in the low 60′s, while I should have been working on my winter cover frame, I took some of my precious daylight hours to work on the “high-priority” task of removing the old name from the transom. Kinda looks like she’s dropped her drawers, to show off her pure and sweet, innocent, little derriere.

After setting up the winter cover in a “half-assed” way to see how it set, I took it to the sail maker to have some holes patched, some threads restitched, and a zipper installed. This cover is custom designed for the BCC to be set with the rig in place. Of course, my rig is down, but no worries. I’m planning to build a frame, similar to the one I had on my Nor’sea 27, Chamois. More on the cover design later…

Elizabeth was hauled out the other day. I’m storing down the road a bit. So Elizabeth got to go for another short ride on wheels. She’s quite the traffic stopper. Total cost for haul, wash, delivery and  winter storage is $1344.

Unfortunately, it looks as though I have some electrical issues aboard Elizabeth. She has been in the water for only 5 or 6 weeks, but her shaft zincs are in frighteningly horrible condition after such a short time. This, together with my unexplained battery voltage decrease over the course of a few days points heavily towards some stray current, a live wire, a poor ground somewhere it shouldn’t be. I’m by no means ‘clue-full’ with regard to electrics, so this will be a fun learning experience for me. Necessity is the mother of learning.

A possibly related issue: when my lower bilge pump is in the manual position, the pump works much better. When in the auto position, the pump runs slower and doesn’t have the power to suck and push the water up and out. Perhaps a leak at the float switch…

On a lighter note (pun intended), I picked up a Sensibulb to give it a try in one of my bunk lights. I have the old Edison style socket, and Sailor Solutions had the adapter for that socket, so it was all too easy. I’m in agreement with every review I’ve ever read of these bulbs… they provide bright, warm light. I suppose you get what you pay for, however much that hurts.

Clear brisk nights, the smell of wood smoke in the air, brilliant stars and Boötes (Bow-owe-teez). Commonly known as a Herdsman, I think of him more as an old friend. Boötes shows up in early December and warmly ushers in the Christmas season. He’s one of the most obvious, well known, and ancient of constellations. Residing between the Big Dipper and Hercules, he is the keeper of the brightest star in the Northern Hemisphere, Arcturus. Following the arc of the Big Dipper’s handle, one can, “Arc to Arcturus, and speed on to Spica”. Arcturus is another great celestial friend who’s SHA often shows up in my star sight reductions. I love Boötes!