On Sun, 25 Mar 2007 13:55:16 -0600, "KLC Lewis"
wrote:

Intending to start my spring work, I went up to Marinette WI were I keep
Essie, about a 40 minute drive up the western shore of Green Bay. Had lunch,
went to the marina, found that during the past few weeks in which we
actually had winter snow, someone has been shoveling the snow and piling it
up in several places -- most inconveniently, under the port buttocks of
Escapade. Did my best to clear through the remaining snow and ice so that I
could place my ladder for boarding, but couldn't get through the four inches
or so located just exactly where I needed to put the ladder legs to get
through the door in my winter shrink-wrap cover.

Bugger it all.

On the bright side, it appears that I'm the only one who thinks that it's
time to be getting the boat ready for spring. Not another living soul at the
marina.

Karin

Hi Karin,
In New Zealand, being more temperate, the only time we take our boats
out of the water is to antifoul and we sail all year, even though the
weather in winter can be a little too stormy and colder. In Malaysia,
the only difference in the two seasons is that one rains more often -
apart from the typhoons on the South China Sea side.

Out of curiosity (this damned rain is a good excuse), I looked up
Green Bay on Google Earth and in Cmap. It seems a wonderful place to
sail or just potter about in a boat. There are a lot of good protected
and shallow anchorages, especially about the islands to the north
where one could seek shelter from all weathers. I had not realised
that Lake Michigan had such a protected arm.

Question: With the aforesaid, why do you not leave your boat in the
water all year? Does the bay freeze over? I honestly have no idea. The
only place I have experienced winters cold enough to freeze large
bodies of water is in China. In New Zealand or Australia, if we want
snow we have to travel to the mountains in winter time.

Oh, we once camped in central Turkey in our mountain tent (essential
part of cruising gear) where it got - 20 degrees celcius, but there
were no lakes there, just snow on the ground. I always envied you
North Americans your white Christmas, making snowmen, ice skating and
cutting holes in the ice to go fishing.

cheers
Peter Hendra