Tucked Away for Winter

Ariel is now ready for its final winter in the Northeast. It is a required ritual in the north to prepare for winter and of course in the spring to re-commission for another season. There is actually quite a list of tasks all of which are extremely important to avoid damage from freezing and severe weather. We had a custom cover made the first year we had Ariel. In addition to keeping the freezing rain and snow off, it also protects it from the sun and from boat yard hazards such as paint overspray. We remove all items that could freeze, many of these are items from the head and from the galley. We put antifreeze (pink pop) in all of the systems. The engine, generator and air conditioning units all use sea water for cooling. This seawater has to be replace with antifreeze. The water tank and the hot water heater are drained and the antifreeze is run through all of the fresh water lines. This antifreeze is non-toxic so in the spring the lines are flushed and are ready for normal use. All other systems are also winterized in the same fashion. These include the head, wash down system , and sump pumps. We then open compartments and place cushions on end to allow air circulation. On the exterior we get started on maintenance to the bottom. In the spring we will put on new coats of bottom paint. This is paint with a high copper content which helps prevent marine growth. The propeller (Autoprop) is greased to force out any water which may be inside the hub. We scrape the few barnacles that have accumulated. Barnacles attach to anything metal which means the prop will have several. Once all of this is done Ariel is pretty safe left alone. We check on things about once a month during the winter. This gives us a chance to see if any water has accumulated in the bilge and if not frozen it is removed. We also run the battery charger to keep the batteries, which are left aboard, topped off.

Those are the tedious details of putting Ariel away for another winter. But this year is very special for us as this is the last time we will go through this process. The alternative to all of the above is to take the boat to a warmer climate. So stayed tuned as next year we will do just that. Now we have the long winter to endure. We will turn our attention toward cruise planning and start putting some more details around the dream.