Water We Thinking

The weather has certainly improved over the last couple months, it seems nearly impossible to think it was snowy and frigid just 60 days ago.  We've planted a few flowers and plants on our "dashboard" and they are thriving.  We've done a bit of spring cleaning and are excited for summer.  We're in that part of the boating season that can best be described as a first kiss.  For boaters who store their vessel in the winter there is planning and work and dreaming about what the summer will be like.  Now is that time that the barn doors are opening, the trailer tires are being filled, the cranes are lifting boats in the water, and the engines are being fired up.  It's that anticipation of summer, not knowing how great it's going to be, not knowing if the weather is going to be warm and sunny or stormy and unfair.  Just like that first kiss, hoping for the spark, but unsure if it'll actually happen. Green For those of you who read our last post we hav...

We've been on WGN TV twice ( Original and Followup links) and Your Chicago Podcast  and now this Saturday we'll be on the Outside the Loop program with Mike Stephen on WGN Radio!  We don't see this attention as any sort of reflection on us, but more the situation.  People seem to be in two camps about us (and the others in the marina) living aboard a boat year round in Chicago.  Either you think we are just crazy and can't understand it, or you love it.  Our one year anniversary of living aboard is fast approaching and as the weather heats up it's becoming clear as to why we are doing this.  It's just awesome!  Yes it sucked for two months in the winter but that's over, at least for the next nine months, and it's been great living on the water in this mild spring we've had in Chicago. So What's New? We are still in the process of getting the stereo and entertainment system up and running.  We've been talking about it for a while but i...

Goodbye winter! The time finally came to come out of hibernation and let the light in.  Cygnet has be unwrapped and is ready for the warmer months ahead!  This past Saturday was sunny and warm so it seemed like a great day to get the job done.  Kevin devised a plan to cut the wrap in half vertically so that we could pull it off in two more manageable pieces.  Colette cut out the "door" for use next winter and then climbed up on the roof to slice the plastic in two with a box cutter.  Kevin pulled the plastic off from the swim platform and dragged it onto land.  The front piece was much larger and took some wrangling to ball it up and drag it onto the lawn by our dock and then to the dumpster.  Overall it wasn't too difficult a task and we are very happy to see our boat again! Hello Sunshine! Now the the wrap is off we can run the engines again.  Kevin recently changed the oil and distributor caps but hadn't been able to test his w...

It's finally in!  It's amazing, although not on the scale of a double rainbow or manned space flight, but on the scale of the day to day we couldn't be happier.  Many of you know that we've had some plumbing issues on Cygnet since we got her last May and it's been a challenge.  We've even had a couple weeks of "bucket" usage.  Yes it was terrible, but that's not going to be an issue anymore. At the beginning of our season last year we had one toilet that worked just OK and another that didn't really work at all.  We did some maintenance and got both working temporarily but that lasted only a brief time until one day while we had friends aboard the rear head stopped working normally.  It simply wouldn't flush the waste out of the bowl at a rate faster than the new water coming in.  We decided that the front toilet would have to be our first choice in waste elimination.  Well that worked until we realized that the waste line had a hole in i...