10. Baghdad
9. Outbound Mid-town Tunnel, 5pm
8. The Mall, Obama’s Inauguration
7. Backseat of ric-shaw in Delhi
6. Your dentist’s chair
5. Floor of NYSE
4. Chair lift at Killington
3. Blagojevic’s trial
2. Girlfriend’s bathroom
1. Ben’s laundry room

The laundry room is dusty and linty… not a great choice for the indoor, winter varnish projects I’ve taken on. I’ve tried vacuuming horizontals, verticals, lamp shades; wiping down every surface; removing EVERYTHING in the room… but nothing will decrease the lint in the air. Comfort comes from knowing it’s only one coat deep. I’ve never been ultra picky about my varnish or paint, and this is no time to change that! Here’s the final coat of clear, complete with dust and lint.

Winter blues set in strong with week after week of sub freezing temps. It’s about this time in late January that I just get bored of wearing alot of clothes, like thick winter jackets in particular. I often try to encourage spring by dressing down…. but it never works. I always loved going out on my clam boat throughout the winter while growing up on Long Island. I figured if the clammers go out all winter, so can I. We used to get much pleasure from ice breaking in my 12′ aluminum skiff.

We did have a respite from the brutal cold of last week, got above freezing, so we took the opportunity to get out on the Fatty Knees 7′ dink for a short sail. It was cold, and you can tell my jaw is slightly numb by my slurred speech.

Beware the Ides of March… Don’t need a soothsayer to warn me that spring comes quicker with each passing year. Winter is no time for idle hands (varnish brushes). Each day is an important opportunity to make progress towards Elizabeth’s imminent launch. “June ’09″ the mantra rings out in my head over and over.

Beginning with a simple warm-up-project, the drop boards; it’s a good chance to get re-acquainted with Honey Teak. I wish I had done my bowsprit and boomkin with Honey Teak, instead of fooling around with traditional varnish week after week. Honey Teak offers the ability to go from bare wood to 6 coats in one day. It’s a two part acrylic urethane enamel, that allows you to hot coat 3 layers of “honey” followed by 3 layers of “clear” for a complete UV resistant teak treatment.

During this initial round, I took a pause after the three coats of honey, to double check my supply was still OK after two years of storage aboard my Nor’sea 27 through winter freezes and summer broils. Tom, owner of Signature Finishes assured me that the slow cure time I experienced was due to minimal airflow over the dropboards, not previously frozen product. In fact, Honey Teak is proven to set up in temperatures as low as 15ºF.

It’s up, it’s stout. It should last me a few years at least. Makes a nice shelter for work aboard, out of the wind, rain, sleet, snow etc. Kind of like having a cozy club house to go play in. Cookies and milk served at 1600 in the cockpit (Lactose free alternatives available). All Welcome. RSVP ASAP BYOB TTYL.

It’s no wonder I’m always broke. I’ve kept a Quicken file of all my BCC Elizabeth related expenses since purchase.  It, however, does not include flights, hotels, car rentals, meals etc, during my THREE trips to Texas to look at her, survey, wrap up the deal, and get her ready for the truck to MA. I can gratefully assume this year will be one of the most expensive years of boat ownership. She has been a very financially needy little girl. Next year, she’s going to Financial Resource Consumption Rehab… cuz Sugar Daddy can’t support this habit.

The big ticket items this year were trucking, and boat yards: 2 haulouts, 1 launch, 1 mast drop, and nearly 8 months on the hard. She’ll never see so many boat yards in one year again if I can help it. And of course I don’t ever expect to have to truck her anywhere again.

New rigging was 3rd most expensive item and despite my efforts to save a little by splicing my own rigging, I didn’t save anything. The price of new toggles the marry the splice to mast or turnbuckle were equivalent to the Sta-Lok or Norseman fittings. Plus, I wasted alot of time in the process. I don’t think I’ll ever splice my rigging again, unless I own a very traditional wooden boat that ‘requires’ it. It’s cute and I’m proud of my work and the time I took to learn it and do it, but if sailing is the goal, then time spent splicing is time wasted.

My ‘Other’ expenses include categories like: Books, Caulk, Dinghy, Epoxy, Ground Tackle, Fuel, Head, Maintenance, Navigation, Plumbing, Safety, Yanmar, Zinc.