Spring has Sprung

Today it was above 70 degrees and partly sunny and it was still light at 0830. I guess summer is coming afterall.

Sunday I was up bright and early to go to Holland, MI to observe the survey of the Watkins 36 I made an offer on. The results were not good because the deck was seperated from the core and there was a lot of water in the wood core. This would cost about $15K to fix and is a significant % of the boat so it may not be worth it to the owner to fix it up. As for me, I love the layout but do not want to mess around with the problem only to find more problems.

I called about another boat, a Tartan, and plan on going over to see it tomorrow after work. It is a pretty boat but lacks some of the electronics the other one had. It does have hot/cold running water with both engine and electric heat. The layout does have a aft berth ( which is one of my criteria) and will berth 7 people in somewhat tight quarters. For me this is probably a maximum I would ever have aboard and then only for a weekend at most. We shall see – maybe I will not like it at all.

Ann Arbor, MI

I have been in Ann Arbor most of the week. Since I like the field “they” assigned me to do some traffic counts and basic site surveys in the U of M campus structure. The days have been pretty long and with the time change, I have had jet lag a bit and am over tired. One day was at the Medical Center and one day at the baseball stadium on State & Hoosier.

I have been using my trusty USB GPS and MS Street n Trips to navigate around the town. For about $100 you never need to be lost. If I do get lost on some of my famous shortcuts, I can fire up the Thinkpad and plug in the GPS and in 30 seconds or so I am found again. This fact has made travel to unknown areas fun – no hassels finding the way to the hotel or food or work sites.

The boat surveyor called today and Sunday is D-Day for the inspection so I need to be on site at 1300 hrs to help the proceedings and to learn something. It promises to be interesting and informative no matter what the outcome.

The hotel is loud tonight – I guess spring break is in full swing here in AA. On the plus side good wireless is here at “g” speeds.