Farewell PPPD

Pleasant Prairie is Sweet Escape's official hailing port.  No matter where we go,
Pleasant Prairie will be with us.

Originally Posted at www.svsweetescape.com

I wanted to write this yesterday but I could not.  

As exciting as it is for us to be fulfilling this dream of cruising it is truly bittersweet as the reality of saying goodbye to friends, family and coworkers and a great community that I have served in various capacities for the past 31 years begins to take hold.

I write this on Saturday June 30, 2012 - my last day as a sworn police officer and Chief of Police for the Village of Pleasant Prairie.  I will officially retire tomorrow, July 1st.

Yesterday, we all attended a retirement luncheon put on by the Village and the Police Department.  It was an emotional event for me personally and one that I’ll never forget.

Being the Chief of Police and leading this group of amazing law enforcement professionals has been the honor of a lifetime.  Once again thanks for all you have done for me and for what you do everyday.  Please stay safe and be proud of who you are and what you represent.

Thanks again to the staff of the Village of Pleasant Prairie it has been a privilege to know and work alongside such a dedicated team of public employees.  

And finally to the best boss I have ever had - thanks to Village Administrator Mike Pollocoff for all you’ve done.

We’ll post some photos of the retirement luncheon on our albums page when they become available.

Grunting and Groaning

Blarney's Island

Originally Posted at www.svsweetescape.com

So what do you do when your boat is at the spa?  Waxing, buffing, putting on numbers, letters, an antenna, sacrificial zincs and trying to stay out of the way of the guys doing the real work are just some of the things that are keeping us busy while Sweet Escape is on the hard.

Another thing you do when your boat is out of the water is hang out on other people’s boats.  On father’s day Daughter Erin and her friend Ryan took us to a great German Restaurant and for a boat ride on the chain of lakes in Lake County Illinois with a stop at the famous Blarney’s Island bar and restaurant.  

Blarney’s is an interesting place that you can only get to by boat or helicopter.  Yes, they have a small heliport.  It is a large bar and restaurant complex in the middle of Fox Lake.  Just as interesting as the concept of this bar being out in the middle of the lake are the patrons.  We were there late in the day on Sunday and the place was still crowded.  There was a band playing and it was readily apparent that many of these people had been there all day.   We are hoping to be able to someday compare Blarney’s Island to Foxy’s at Jost Van Dyke in the BVI.  It was a great time and a great way to spend father’s day.  Thanks Erin and Ryan.

We are also celebrating our Grandson Cameron’s 7th birthday.  Despite the fact that he is currently in Wisconsin Dells with his parents, we are certain that the highlight of his week will be when his parents drop him off at Grandma and Grandpa’s (us) on Saturday. 

Progress is being made.  Brian is finishing his final week of work.  With a retirement party on Friday and making plans for the 4th of July and finishing up some odds and ends on the boat, we are keeping busy.

We are also planning a three day shakedown cruise from Racine to Grand Haven and Whitehall Michigan and then returning to Racine a week from this Friday with Daughter Erin and Ryan. 

We have a little more than a month before we begin our new lives.  During that time there is much to do including disposing of the rest of our furniture, moving out of our apartment and finally moving aboard Sweet Escape.  We’re almost there! 

Check our album page for some additional photos.

A Beehive of Activity

Service Manager Marc and Technician Scott in the aft locker

Bottom Painting Underway

Originally Posted at www.svsweetescape.com

If you have ever had a house built or participated in any major building project you know that contractors are like everyone else - they tend to procrastinate.  They seem to enjoy flirting with deadlines until the last minute and then all hell breaks loose and there is a beehive of activity and the project is completed at the deadline.

So it has been with Sweet Escape.  She was hauled at Racine Riverside on the 13th and the boat sat for almost two weeks before much of anything was done.  We had set a deadline of July 1st to have the boat back in the water so in order to meet that deadline Riverside has kicked up the activity level the past week.

Today, Tuesday we arrived at the boat at 2:00 P.M. to find Technician Scott aboard installing the new chartplotter, wiring our WiFi device and installing a cockpit stereo we are adding.  Painter Mike was busy adding the third coat of epoxy barrier coat after having removed the old bottom.  There will be one additional coat of the epoxy and then three coats of bottom paint will be applied.

Service Manager Marc Elsmo tells us that our batteries are in and will be installed in the next couple of days.  Technician Ryan will also complete our dripless shaft seal and replace a leaking seal in the transmission cooler along with the offending fuel solenoid.

We expect the boat to be back floating by Tuesday of next week.

On the Hard

New Name Added

Originally Posted at www.svsweetescape.com

Sweet Escape is back on the hard at Racine Riverside Marine.  She was hauled out on June 13th to complete a long list of upgrades and maintenance in preparation for our cruise later this summer.

If you will recall, the boat was put in the water in April for our sea trial and has been in ever since save for a brief haul out necessary to replace a cracked seacock.  We did not have a chance to do any topsides exterior cleaning as is the norm after a winter lay up and boy did it show.  This was one dirty girl.  

The list of upgrades includes the complete replacement of the bottom -  this involves the removal of all the old bottom paint down to the gelcoat and the application of several barrier coats along with multiple coats of new bottom paint.  

Other upgrades include the installation of a new Raymarine chart plotter, AIS, a masthead digital TV antenna, and Spurs line cutters.  We will also replace the traditional stuffing box with a dripless type that will keep the saltwater and the microorganisms that live in it out of our bilge and the replacement/expansion of our house battery bank.  We currently have two 12 volt 4D house batteries with a total capacity of about 400 amp hours.  To reach the level of self sufficiency we are seeking to achieve we need to raise this capacity to up over 1200 amp hours which will involve installing eight six volt batteries wired in series and in parallel.

On the maintenance side of the ledger is the return (finally) of our tank level monitor, an investigation of some oil seepage from the transmission and the repair of the notorious fuel delivery solenoid that abruptly put the brakes on a day sail two weeks ago.  

We are also having the diesel fuel tank scrubbed.  Diesel fuel is prone to bio-organic contamination.  There are microorganisms that live in diesel fuel and when they die they create a black tar like substance that settles on the bottom of the tank.  When the boat is sailed in conditions where there is a lot of movement due to wind and waves the fuel is sloshed around inside the tank which results in this contamination becoming suspended in the fuel.  This can lead to plugged fuel filters and eventual fuel starvation of the engine, shutting it down often when you need it most.

We also intend to replace our forward head and are using this opportunity to finally add the new name to her hull as well as the aforementioned badly needed cleaning and waxing.

By Friday, Riverside had removed more than half of the old bottom.  We need the boat back in the water and ready to go by the first week of July.  We intend to do a quick sail across Lake Michigan with daughter Erin and her boyfriend Ryan, leaving on a Friday and returning on Sunday.   This will be a good opportunity to sea trial Sweet Escape following these upgrades.

We will post additional photos on our Albums page.

We Can't Get Right

Do you remember that scene from National Lampoon’s European Vacation where Chevy Chase was stuck in a roundabout in London and kept going around in circles for an entire day?  Big Ben! Parliament!

Since we have been sailing out of Racine - we’re on our second year now, we have wanted to take a day and just sail for as long as we want without weather, darkness or work getting in the way.  We started out with grand plans of going to Chicago or at least Milwaukee but for various combinations of the aforementioned and other reasons it just hasn’t worked out. Consequently,  we have been limited to sailing from Racine to Wind Point and parts in between.

So it was that on Friday Judy was off, Brian used some remaining compensatory time from work and with a beautiful weather forecast we set out to “just sail”.  The plan was modest, we would leave Racine and sail to Kenosha where we would do a “touch and go” before sailing back.  An easy beam reach of just over 20 miles and about 3 to 4 hours depending on the winds.

We left Racine at about 10:30 AM with nothing else on our plate for the day.  The weather was beautiful with southwest winds at 14 to 18 knots and temperatures near 80 degrees.  We motored out of the Root River into Lake Michigan where we found the lake that turquoise color that it sometimes assumes on sunny summer days.  Caribbean like, but not quite as warm. 

We decided to motor further out into the lake to give ourselves some room before turning into the wind to raise the sails due to the offshore breeze.  We motored around the west end of the Racine Reef and then about a mile out into the lake.  Judy then turned Sweet Escape into the wind, cut back on the power, engaged the auto pilot and we raised the main and the jib, got everything trimmed properly and then fell off to the south towards Kenosha.

Brian then put the engine in neutral and pushed the kill switch.  The engine did not die.  He pushed it again - still running in idle.  He then fiddled with the ignition switch thinking that it must have gotten turned off thereby deactivating the kill switch.  Nope, the ignition switch was in the on position.  Turn the switch off and back on - the engine still won’t die.

What to do?  Down below into the engine space to kill the engine with the on-engine kill switch.  No luck.  The Yanmar diesel continues to run, despite our best efforts to shut it down.

Back to the cockpit and a discussion about what to do next.  We decide to return to our slip.  Obviously we have a problem that we do not understand and not wanting to risk finally getting the engine shut down and then being unable to start it or worse, some kind of electronic gremlin in the system that could cause further damage or start a fire, we elect to throw our blissful day of sailing overboard - yet again.

Back at the slip, after docking, Sweet Escape continues idling as Brian makes contact with Service Manager Marc from Racine Riverside Marine.  He dispatched a mechanic who determines that the fuel delivery solenoid has come off the engine and fallen down and become almost inaccessible.  He was able to just reach and manually work the solenoid with a long screw driver and the engine finally quit.

One more item to add to our growing list for haul out work to begin on Monday when Sweet Escape comes out of the water.

Judy’s last day at work will be June 15th.  Brian’s last day is June 29th.  After that, we hope to have more time to sail including a planned family trip across Lake Michigan in early July. 

Until then though, we just can’t get right.