This week I didn't spend much time at the boat yard working on the O'day but I did sand the rudder down and fair it some. The pic's show the rudder after power washing and then after sanding and fairing (smoothing) it, it will get a new epoxy coating and bottom paint before launch.

Rudder for the O'day 272

I stayed off of the bicycle for the full week and rode 50 miles on Sunday and experienced no knee pain and had a great ride. I hope the rest was all I needed, it didn't hurt bad but after 40 miles or so it would hurt so I was pro active.

Michele had a good ride on Saturday when her and her friend Lugay went riding and had some excitement. Michele had a flat tire and had stopped to try and repair it, another cyclist stopped and helped her by changing the tube. Michele always carries a tube and supplies to make a roadside repair so the good Samaritan used them and all looked well. Shortly after taking off it went flat again and now She has no spare tube, another couple on a ride stopped and he repaired it with his spare tube and would take no money for his parts. I examined the tubes later and determined the first flat was a puncture and the first change went flat due to pinching the tube, the help was still greatly appreciated.

It has been my experience that fellow cyclist are some of the most generous and helpful people you will meet and even more so when dealing with fellow cyclists.

Dennis

Invitation to Sail

This week we went on several bicycle rides and I installed the new front chain rings on the Treck, I also put on some new tires with a red stripe. Saturday was the big ride of the week, it was only a little over 50 miles but we went on nice rural roads and climbed a lot of hills. This was a nice ride in part because I got to ride with some friends I seldom get to ride with like Gerald who let me stay in His motor home a the Hotter Than Hell Hundred. My right knee has been causing me pain toward the end of the longer rides so I think I will lay off the bike for about a week if I can, hopefully this will help the knee and at least keep it from getting worse.



We got a call from Mike and an invitation to go sailing on their Hunter 260 that is berthed on Lake Grapevine Sunday afternoon. Years ago we had kept our boat on this lake and it has really changed. The new Gaylord Texan Resort is open and looms large over the marina, in the photos you can see it in the background. We sailed by one of the areas with a patio on the water and we watched the people watch us sail by. It was a nice evening with a perfect 10mph breeze and low 80's temperature wise.

Michele looks like she is really suffering, but some body's got to do it. Man, I've got to get the O'day ready to go for a couple of long cruises.

The Fed spoke today and the market went crazy, as if a 1/2 point will stop all the foreclosures and inflation will go away if you exclude energy from the formula, please!. Don't get me wrong I liked the lift but I think when life looks like easy street there is danger at the door, and I don't want to go to work tomorrow.

I'm having to much fun, I don't want to grow up

Dennis

Boat Yard and Green Acres

With the O'day in the boat yard I have started to repair the bottom side, this is really a storage yard close to the house and nowhere near water, but while I am there refitting the boat it is a boat yard. After I started grinding the old paint off as I expected there are some blisters in the gel coat and this is not a good thing. The blisters seem to be very small and shallow and at this point have done no real damage to the fiberglass. For now I have to grind a significant amount of the gel coat off and let the hull dry out for months. It's going to take a while to get it all sanded and ground down and after that is done I will work on other project while it dries The O'Day 272 drying its blisters




Saturday Me and Michele rode our bikes to Richardson Bike Mart and bought some parts and a new set of front chain rings for the Treck, The old ones were very worn as they had about 10,000 miles on them. We had a great ride with a coffee shop stop and got in 45 miles. We left early and were back by 11:30 and decided to go to the farm for the rest of the weekend.

We had a nice evening and Sunday morning at the farm, after coffee Sunday morning I went scouting and found this buck rub that is really fresh as the broken limbs still have green leaves on them.

We trimmed the grass around the house and did other little projects and overall it was relaxing but I did a lot of walking in thick vegetation. Michele pitched in and helped do some of the hard work like hauling feed

On the way home my old truck started vibrating so I pulled over and found a good tire had developed a large hump in it. Since I was going to have to change a flat of course it started raining so hard you could barely see so I drove on the shoulder for about 5 miles and changed the tire under a bridge. The good thing is I paid very little for a new tire as It was considered a manufacturing defect.

Don't put it off

Dennis

Moving Day

Friday was the day to move the Sailboat, the travel lift was finally operational although he still had water over the long piers he drives out on to pick up the boat. Early in the morning I hooked up the home made trailer and headed out to the lake and dropped the rig off at the marina and Michele then took me to the boat and I moved it to the Marina.Once he had driven the lift out over the boat we lowered the slings under the boat, lifted the boat out of the water and then he drove it to the shop and power washed off an embarrassing amount of marine growth. I moved the trailer into position and he held the boat over the trailer while we adjusted the bunks to fit the boat.

It took a little longer than I had hoped for to get the trailer to fit but it finally worked out good and we got the boat home with no trouble.
The neighbors were nice about the beast parked in front of the house, we parked it there over the holiday weekend to clean it up a little and get it ready to go to the boat yard where I will start the re-fit of the O'day 272 Rising Star. Now that it's in the boat yard 1/2 mile from the house I am relieved that the trailer I built worked out well and I have all winter to work on it. I should still be able to get in some sailing on other yachts while we are dry docked.

I also had 2 nice bicycle rides with my club www.gdbclub.com on Tuesday and Saturday and plan on riding tonight weather permitting. The cooler weather has been nice to ride in and I have 2 weeks of much easier riding planned after several months of hard rides and then the Hotter Than Hell Hundred followed by 2 hard fast club rides.

Dennis