An Announcement and some Work

April Showers may bring May Flowers, but here on the Coast of Illinois, April brings the A to Z Challenge. I happened on this writing challenge a little late last year through a fellow blogger: Mary at Jingle Jangle Jungle

I am ready for 2017!

I even have a theme:

 Coast of Illinois's Rules for the Beach...well, not so much rules, as suggestions

As per usual, while I may have a theme, I have not pre-written anything but an idea list. Consequently, every post will be done on the fly, hopefully a day in advance, but one of the 'rules' has to do with just going with it so...updates, while daily, may appear at a variety of times.

Stay tuned!

(And stop laughing,  I know it has been a month since my last update. That's the whole evil point of this challenge!)

Now, back to my regularly unscheduled post...

I really enjoy Facebook's feature 'On This Day'. It allows you to look back on years worth of posts for each particular day. This past month's posts have been dominated by schizophrenic weather reports – snow, rain, snow, hot, snow – interspersed with Mardi Gras pictures and sailing.

Sailing.

It seems, in years past, the passing weekend has been our first sail of the new year.

But not this year.

Never mind that we now commandeer a fleet of boats.

We have yet to take even one of them out.

We have, however, been hard at work on the fixer upper.

Rob and I took a mad dash 3 hour drive to Ozark Yacht Club where we spent the day replacing the newly freshened cushions and restringing the halyards to the main and jib.

(It still cracks me up that I know what those terms mean...and for those that are slightly confused - the 'halyards' are the ropes that raise, lower and help control the big and little sails.)

Yes. this is a Sailboat Sewing Kit. My 4-H leaders would be proud.

end to end splice of old and new rope. only one serious needle stick

That's me. Splicing.

 

Freshly freshened cushions. Please ignore the floor dirt. That's the next project.

The beautifully refinished tiller.

Possibly my favorite picture. Rob hoisting the new lines. Nothing broke. Which was good as it all depended on my splicing...

After all this hard work, we treated ourselves to an al fresco pizza, live music and a sunset at Shawnee Bluff Winery.

I mean, seriously. Key West has nothing on this sunset. Except maybe warmer temps. And Palm trees.

And a pontoon breakfast at the Lakeside Cafe at OYC. 

Bacon, wrapped in a pillow of hash browns supporting two over easy eggs. Sourdough toast, house made jam and coffee. Fruit? Who needs fruit?

Stay tuned for more boat updates and A to Z craziness!