Nothing to report. I have been working on my Kitchen for three weeks. A new fence is next. There is still a pile of snow by the boat and a good six inches of ice in my slip at the marina. I will get started in a few weeks. I planned on installing the new fridge compressor and cold plate in the yard but I may do it at the marina. That way I can get all the usual crap done and launch her. Here is a video on the Detroit river after a long slog against the current coming back from Put-in-Bay. It was over 90 degrees that day. Hard to imagine.

Not much to report. I just picked up this Garmin 421. They are discontinuing this model soon so I got a good deal.. I cleared the snow off the poor frozen boat on the weekend and took a few measurements concerning the refrigerator project. Not much else going on as winter grinds on.

A day out at Point Pelee on Lake Erie. This winter is brutal, there is not one day listed in the next ten days above freezing.
Working on the boat is impossible. The garage has a gas heater but is not insulated so I don't run it unless the temp is at least near freezing. I usually pump the water off the pool cover twice a winter but it is frozen solid. It is going to overflow soon, Crikey! On the upside the lake levels are going up.
Waiting for the weather to break...waiting...waiting.

The new fridge cooling unit is here!
 It's a Nova Cool with 3 evaporator plates.
This has been something I wanted to get to since I bought the boat. It got kicked down the list again and again. We used a plug in unit to get by. The cooler on this boat is huge. almost 7 square feet. It will be great to get it operational. 

I built an aluminum bracket to mount the
compressor unit on. It will have plastic
UHMW insert below and above the hold 
down screws. This is to reduce vibration.

 This aluminum arm is sticking out at the bottom is to receive a section of angle that will support the two copper lines before the fittings.

 Something like this

 I have to rebuild the shelf that it sits on- located on top of the hot water tank.  It was somebodies shop project in grade school I think. The evaporator plates need some thinking too.  Top loaders are a hassle when you need something at the bottom. I want to build some kind of insert that pulls everything out from part of the box. This also means I need more battery power but that was a problem last year when we sat on the hook.
Lots to do. January is half over. Got that going for me.

 Started on the fridge project. The space is huge for a boat this size. 7 cubic feet! I chiseled out the wood trim surrounding the cover. It is cracked in two places. I might use aluminum to replace it. The ledge supporting the top is too small. The current unit is a Adler Barbour 50. It runs off 12 volts and has a large power draw. The replacement unit is the same. I came across a NorCold replacement that I like. The SCQT-4408F. 12 /120 volt. looking into it.

 A few shots from the boat.  On the advice of a fellow boater I left the cover off this year. Downstairs is bone dry. I had some water last year which occurred because of the tarp. Snow blew under it and jammed up over the sliding hatch. It just wicked in. If you don't have one of these elongated 'tents' that you see in the photo then it ain't worth it.

Remember to visit your boat in winter. It misses you!

Nice little Christmas gift. Can't wait to use it. The Shards are giving a presentation locally through our Sail Squadron in a few weeks. looking forward to that. They sail a 49 Southerly yacht and do a TV show about their travels. Come on spring. Life is too short for Winter.  Happy 2014 all!

Well, not much going on till spring. I am trying to gather info on using a tablet as a map GPS. I bought a Bad Elf and tried it on my wife's I-Pad. It worked great but some of the sites I watch recommend the Google unit which has a built in GPS. If I can make this work then the existing unit I have (an old Garmin) will go downstairs by the nav table. If it is warm over the holidays I will size up a few projects but right now I am working on some home projects.
Merry Christmas to all.