and......depression sets in....

[OllieC]

Well.....We had a great Summer with the 'Sara Belle'. We went places on Lake Superior that she has never seen before. Plus, we did a little fishing and had a record year of Lake Trout, Steelhead and Brown Trout. (for us anyway)

I'm sad to say that my Service Manager called yesterday afternoon and asked if she is ready to be Winterized. Reluctantly, I said yes.

Four months of boating (Sept and June are spotty) in MN/WI is too short........plus, with our short season, the Admiral is stifling my "Four-Foot-itus".

However, I will continue reading CSR for the next 8 months - not in envy (that's a sin) , but rejoice, that others in the community can still enjoy their Sea Rays.

Ollie

 

[Boater420]

I thought there was plenty of other fun stuff to do in the freezing cold? :huh:

 

[Tonka Boater]

Depressing for sure. I'm going to try to squeak out one more trip this Friday then she's scheduled to be bundled up on Oct. 17th.

This season was lame -- I only got out 9 times compared to the 25 outings last season.

 

[northshore]

I thought there was plenty of other fun stuff to do in the freezing cold? :huh:

There is! We all get together, hop a plane to St. Pete and hunt down the first guy in Clearwater we can find with a 97 330 Sundancer and string him up! :grin:

Seriously, the Admiral and I went down to the boat last night (77 and sunny) knowing it was going to be one of the last warm days.
On the way home she recommended stopping at a place we never go to except in winter.

And then, depression set in....

 

[Gofirstclass]

Sorry to hear about your depression. I have found that boat shows and walking the docks are partial cures for that. Of course, we all know the only REAL cure is springtime.

I consider myself VERY lucky to live in an area where the boat can stay in the water all winter. To winterize it I just drain the fresh water tank and water heater and blow out the lines. After 40 years here I don't see myself moving anywhere else.

Life is good.

 

[BurgundyS24]

There is! We all get together, hop a plane to St. Pete and hunt down the first guy in Clearwater we can find with a 97 330 Sundancer and string him up! :grin:

Seriously, the Admiral and I went down to the boat last night (77 and sunny) knowing it was going to be one of the last warm days.
On the way home she recommended stopping at a place we never go to except in winter.

And then, depression set in....

Ahhh you can't string him up, he has to guide you to the anclote sandbar. Camp there until the north thaws.


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[Boater420]

Ahhh you can't string him up, he has to guide you to the anclote sandbar. Camp there until the north thaws.


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You got that right, I'll be there this weekend!

 

[northshore]

Ahhh you can't string him up, he has to guide you to the anclote sandbar. Camp there until the north thaws.


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Sounds much better than what we will have here:

The 'Anclote Iceberg'.......:smt013

 

[magstang1]

In all seriousness, bigger boats extend your season to a certain extent. When I had a smaller boat I only went out in perfect conditions. Now we use the boat all weekend, every weekend unless it's a total washout.

Itis away!

 

[FootballFan]

At least you can go down to the yard and see your boat... I am boatless...

Mark

 

[BurgundyS24]

You got that right, I'll be there this weekend!

I'm coming "home" to visit in November. Might be too chilly to visit the sandbar. I went right before I moved cross country.

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[wrvond]

In the winter we don't go boating or camping, but I keep them both in my driveway, on shore power, heated, with refreshments in the fridge so I can putter around in them on "nice" days.

 

[OllieC]

There are things to do. I occasionally walk on water to catch a fish with some friends. We also do an annual snowmobile trip...but what do you do for the other 4 months? :grin:

 

[OllieC]

Depressing for sure. I'm going to try to squeak out one more trip this Friday then she's scheduled to be bundled up on Oct. 17th.

This season was lame -- I only got out 9 times compared to the 25 outings last season.

It should be okay this weekend, but next week looks like Fall is here.

I store the Sara Belle at Watergate Marina in St. Paul during the Winter. We only had it on the River twice - once in June and the second time I towed it to Prescott to float on the St. Croix. The rains made the rivers a mess this year. So I would agree with the lame season - but my secondary location on Lake Superior was good.

Enjoy your last weekend - hopefully the Ryder Cup will keep the traffic down on Tonka.

 

[northshore]

Yes. Depressing. But.....



The Admirals b-day is the 2nd of November. Then Thanksgiving, Christmas, New years and the perenial thaw out vacation in late January/early February to someplace where its warm.

Then a couple months worth of weekends doing boat chores (heated-indoor) and splash early to mid April. Not all that bad. We have actually had a few Browns football watch parties in the storage facility. These are usually muuuuuch more depressing than the end of boating season.

Go Tribe
Go Bucks
C'mon Spring!

 

[Billfletcher]

Boating year round is nice.

However, I would say many of you in the cold climates get more boating in than most of my dock mates here in so cal.

We are out almost every week in the summer, and often 2 x per month off season.

I would estimate 10 percent of the boats at our dock, leave the dock and maybe 25% of the boats hqve someone sitting on them with a cocktail but never leave. I.e., it is often very quiet. I don't see how people who don't use them, justify the expense.

 

[JimmyDubai]

Same over here!! I am one of the most active marina members going out two-three times a month including in summer with 110 deg outside, but I see boats that never leave.... small and big yachts. Can't understand.
The issue that I have is that my hobbies are all weather related.... boating, playing golf and fly model airplanes; they require nice weather outside, not too windy, not too cold, not too hot. Back in Scotland I used to work on my winter projects assembling model airplanes, now in the Persian Gulf the boat is consuming all my time.....

 

[northshore]

Boating year round is nice.

However, I would say many of you in the cold climates get more boating in than most of my dock mates here in so cal.

We are out almost every week in the summer, and often 2 x per month off season.

I would estimate 10 percent of the boats at our dock, leave the dock and maybe 25% of the boats have someone sitting on them with a cocktail but never leave. I.e., it is often very quiet. I don't see how people who don't use them, justify the expense.

The Admiral and I have visited San Diego / Coronado on vacation and business quite a few times. It's beautiful, and If I had a boat there, I be living aboard it.

When we bought our boat, we decided to keep it in downtown Cleveland so we could use it. We had the option to join up with friends at the Lake Erie Islands just a little over and hour away but a conversation that the wife and I have all the time during the summer is "Meet you at the boat after work?" That could never happen unless we were in the close proximity that we are to the boat. Coming from opposite sides of town, we can both be there in about 15 minutes.

 

[OllieC]

I would estimate 10 percent of the boats at our dock, leave the dock and maybe 25% of the boats hqve someone sitting on them with a cocktail but never leave. I.e., it is often very quiet. I don't see how people who don't use them, justify the expense.

There are a lot of boaters like that in our marina on the Mississippi. The marina I rent a space from on Lake Superior a couple weeks during the Summer, has only a couple of boaters that do that.

I spoke to one owner who hadn't had is out all Summer. Basically from the gist of the conversation, that is his cabin or camper.

 

[highslice]

I'm going to winterize this weekend. Supposed to be in the 80s, so hopefully we will have some time on the water before we have to shut her down for the season. Very depressing...