Getting the boat ready for the trip

Well, we are just about ready to go. We decided to make a short 5 hour cruise with the boat last weekend to make sure all systems are a go for our Lake Michigan crossing. All seems to be good and the boat has been provisioned for the trip.

Here are some of the projects that we completed this spring:

--> Added a washdown pump (PAR-Max 8 Washdown Pump - 80 psi). This will allow us to do a freshwater washdown of the boat while we are on anchor in the North Channel.

--> Replaced the TV antenna. We added new TV antenna (Shakespeare SeaWatch 2025) to replace the non-working Shakespeare SeaWatch 2030). We went from receiving 2 channels (kindof) to receiving 9 channels in Sturgeon Bay.

--> Added a Wilson Truck Antenna and booster to help amplify the signal for our Verizon AirCard and our Verizon cell phone. Last year we where able to contect to the Internet approx. 10 miles off the shores of Lake Michigan -- we are hoping that the new antenna and booster will greatly increase this (maybe all the way across). We tested it last week by Green Island and our AirCard went from zero bars to 5 (full) bars.

--> We also added our own slip in Sturgeon Bay. In December of last year we purchased a lot in Sturgeon Bay that also came with a 38 ft slip on the channel. The Home Association that we bought into, was removing the old slips, dredging, and adding new 38' slips with electricity/water/cable. A few weeks ago, I brought the boat over from the mooring ball into our new slip. This is very very nice -- no more marina cost for us!