Last Thursday my bride and I sailed away from Essex for some “together time” to wrap up our boating season on Lake Champlain. Today Errant is on the hard, winterized, and covered for a long North Country fall-winter-spring. What a week!

As always, I’m super grateful to Paul, Tami, Andre, Michael, and everyone else that ensures smooth operations at Willsboro Bay Marina. What an incredible team. Always reliable, always friendly, always generous, always over-delivering. Launching and hauling has is such a positive experience each year. Thank you, Team WBM!

There’s a long-ish laundry list that we need to take care of during winter storage including:

• finding and fixing a fresh water leak
• repairing the bimini bracket that ripped its screws out of the deck
• troubleshoot ceiling light in head (one works; one doesn’t)
• repair broken ceiling light in salon near clock/barometer
• fix v-berth latch
• refinish companionway boards
• repair main and genoa
• install smart latch brackets for helm seat
• source new cockpit cushions and porthole blinds
• repair/reseal wiring in bilge (especially wind instrument connections)
• replace all running rigging, dock lines, etc.
• replace halyard/sheet/line pockets
• and various other projects…

But for now, it’s time to celebrate a memorable sailing season on Lake Champlain, and to breathe a sigh of relief that hauling and winterization are complete. And — it’s worth noting — de-rigging, winter storage cover, etc. took half the time of last year. Progress!