Wednesday, January 30, 2019

Winter Tug Dreams

Each Fall Jack Robert 37VT17 gets decommissioned, hauled from the water, placed on a cradle and shrink wrapped essentially putting him to “sleep” for the winter.  He is in the boat yard near his home waters of Lake Pepin on the Mississippi in Minnesota.  My wife Dee and I mourn the passing of another boating season dreading the long time it will be before the next season starts.  We have packed up all the boat stuff into storage tubs and put the tubs up in the attic to sit there until the next season when we drag them out to load back up on the tug to make it home again.

The mourning lasts until after the holidays and then the dreams start.  Today, the temperature in our home town is a balmy -22 degrees and you would think we would be hunkered down to try and stay warm,  You would be wrong.  We are dreaming about the next season.  This is the time we go through the tubs pulling out what didn’t use and inventorying the things we want to keep on board.  We are purchasing the things that have to be replenished and working up our project plans for system upgrades and repairs.  Funny but when we are dreaming about our next season we don’t seem to notice the cold.

This year is a particularly special year as we both retire April 1st and we are making plans to begin our first extended cruise.  In September we start on the loop following the inland waterways.  I blame Dave and Bicki for this as they have encouraged us at every gathering we have shared, every email sent and every blog entry they have made during their own cruise.  We finally believe there is never any perfect time, there is only now.  So, now it shall be.

Monday, January 28, 2019

Meet the Bishops, Highland Mary 37VT18


Kristin and Kenny Bishop

We are both Navy vets who have been sailboat owners since the early 90s. Although we enjoy our Cal 27 sailboat and plan to keep her, we had decided that a trawler would be more suitable for when we do the Great Loop in retirement. In [September 2018] Kenny saw the Craigslist ad for Oneida and noticed that she happened to be located in Stafford, VA, which intrigued us. We inquired further, and discovered that not only was Oneida located in Stafford, but had been berthed at our neighborhood marina for the past 19 years! We are very happy to be her new owners and Kenny is beginning to work on his 5 year improvement plan, to coincide with our planned retirement date. Fortunately for our budget, he is very handy and able to do all the work himself.

Kristin Bishop, November 2017
Highland Mary 37VT18

Update from Perseverance 37VT32


Last year, the Perseverance underwent more maintenance time than cruising time - the result of 30+ years in a rainforest!  The [LNVT Forum] information  has been helpful a number of times.

Helen Mehrkens
Juneau, Alaska

Announcing the Tug Map...

Do you want to know where all the LNVTs are?Well, there's an app for that!  


The map pictured above is available by mousing on the Tug Map hot link which is located at the top of the LNVT.org web page.  Once you have the map up you can zoom in and get the specific details for each tug.  For most tugs the pin is placed at the owners home address.  If you'd prefer your tug's pin at her actual location, let me know the address and I'll take care of it.

Lee Anderson
anderson.lee.50@gmail.com

  





John William 37VT68 Wheelhouse Varnish

John Mackie is doing a ton of varnish work in John Williams' wheelhouse.  





Thursday, January 3, 2019

Cielito in the News

This just in from Tom Backwood, Thistle Dew 37VT46:


From the picture it appears that Cielito 37VT51 survived Cap Sante's storm unscathed.