Electra.
| 10/28/07 | To further reduce Electra's height on the trailer, I lowered the trailer cross-members, with much help from Ron Karcher, to lower the boat about two inches. I then washed her hull, and took her up the hill to her winter home in the Heights. | ||||||
| 10/27/07 | Electra is a little tall for her winter berth, so I replaced the bow and stern canopy poles with winter versions that don't stick up above the canopy. This winter, I hope to modify the summer poles so that the portions above the canopy are removable.
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| 10/26/07 | A sad day. Electra came out of the water for the winter today, with great help from Ron Slonneger, in a light mist. She will spend the winter indoors again, at HTI Automotice Services in Peoria Heights.
The 162-day season encompassed 31 cruises that totalled 31 hours and 15 minutes. The battery was discharged by at least 10% 8 times (for the life of the boat: 38 times). The deepest discharge was something less than the 136.6 amp-hours recorded previously. Over the life of the boat, the average discharge between charges has been 73.9 amp-hours (14.5% of battery capacity). | ||||||
| 10/6/07 | A 45 minute evening cruise with our neice Maile Hirota, from Honolulu. Maile stopped to visit on her way to a conference in Washington, DC.
 Maile Hirota. | ||||||
| 10/3/07 | Out in the evening for a cool 45 minutes with Carolyn Coulter & Ken Black, Terry Glynn, Donna Kinne, Jean & Ron Slonneger, and Breck Thomas.
 Terry Glynn. | ||||||
| 9/27/07 | A 45 minute cruise under a harvest moon with Donna Kinne, Jean & Ron Slonneger, and Sally & Breck Thomas. We conducted a successful cushion-overboard drill. | ||||||
| 9/21/07 | Out for 45 minutes with Donna Kinne, and Carolyn & Ken Black. | ||||||
| 9/19/07 | An hour's cruise on a dark evening with Carolyn Coulter, Donna Kinne, Kay & Bill Mitchener, and Jean & Ron Slonneger. | ||||||
| 9/13/07 | A 90-minute cruise with a group, some of whom had bought the ride at the T.A.P.S. auction. With us were Julie Walz & Bill Scott, Vickie & Jim Foster, Mary Bagley, Marilyn Switzer, and Hilda Brinkman. We dipped into the lower lake, and made a pass along the east shore of the upper lake, on a beautiful cool evening.
 Bill Scott & Julie Walz
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| 9/7/07 | Out for a pleasant hour's cruise at sunset with Inge & David Brown, Donna Kinne, and Jane & Mike Miles. Mike at the helm the whole way. The cruise served as a planning meeting for the Pirates' Ball.
 Mike & Jane Miles. | ||||||
| 8/29/07 | Out for 50 minutes after supper with Donna Kinne, Kay & Bill Mitchener, and Jean & Ron Slonneger on a windy, wavey, moonless evening. | ||||||
| 8/25/07 | A 90 minute evening cruise with a group from the Bloomington-Normal area. Holly & Gary Anderson bought the cruise at a PARC auction, and brought along Nancy & Kent Deffenbaugh, Lana & Charles Bohmer, and Sandy & Gary Pearl.
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| 8/20/07 | Out for an hour on a calm evening with a bit of fog, with George Ray & Kaylene Francis, visitors from Streaky Bay, South Australia. George and Kaylene have travelled further than anyone else for a ride on Electra.
 George Ray & Kaylene Francis. | ||||||
| 8/17/07 | Out for 25 minutes in the evening with Donna and Kevin Kinne, to test the modified searchlight. The improvements are deemed successful, as the beam now pierces the night in a satisfying manner. | ||||||
| 8/11/07 | While the refurbished searchlight looks good, it doesn't put out much light, so I today bought a handheld spotlight and transferred its bulb and other internal parts into the old searchlight. Will try it on the first dark night.
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| 8/8/07 | Out for 85 minutes, with a short excursion into the lower lake, with Anne Haas & Gary Rafool, Sue & Phil McGill, and Sherry & Rick Semonis. Gary bought this cruise in an IVY Club silent auction, and invited fellow Eastport-dwellers Semonises and McGills. Some of the group used to live in southern Tazwell County, but have since moved north and cleaned up their acts.
 Gary Rafool & Anne Haas
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| 8/1/07 | Out after supper for twenty minutes in a brisk breeze with Carolyn Coulter and Donna Kinne. | ||||||
| 7/28/07 | Tonight we took part in "Venetian Night," a parade of lighted boats to celebrate the IVY Club's Centennial. We festooned the boat with Japanese lanterns and rope lights, and led the parade as Grand Marshal (which earned a trophy). We also depicted the Club's first decade, 1907-16 (which earned another trophy). The crew, which included Carolyn Coulter, Donna Kinne, and Kay & Bill Mitchener, were in 1907 costumes.
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| 7/27/07 | An hour's cruise in the evening with Donna Kinne, Ashley Enter & Kevin Kinne. | ||||||
| 7/25/07 | Out for 50 minutes in the evening with Carolyn Coulter, Donna Kinne, Kay & Bill Mitchener, Ron Slonneger, and Sally & Breck Thomas. | ||||||
| 7/24/07 | The long-awaited searchlight returned last week from English Custom Polishing, in Belfast, Maine, has now been coated with Everbrite protective finish, and was installed today.
The searchlight was bought on e-bay. It was originally intended for mounting on the cabintop of a wheelhouse, with control shafts extending down through the cabintop. I modified it for deck mounting. Now we'll find out whether it provides sufficient light. If not, the guts will be replaced with the innards of a modern searchlight.
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| 7/18/07 | I was out for 55 minutes after supper on a very dark night with Donna Kinne, Jean & Ron Slonneger, and Sally & Breck Thomas. We shadowed the Spirit of Peoria for a while. | ||||||
| 7/11/07 | An hour's evening cruise with Donna Kinne, Kay & Bill Mitchener, Jean & Ron Slonneger, and Breck Thomas, on a pleasantly cool evening. | ||||||
| 7/7/07 | Out for an hour after supper with Ashley Enter, Donna and Kevin Kinne, and Cindy Macmillan. A circuit of the upper lake on a very fine summer evening. | ||||||
| 7/5/07 | Out for five minutes to test the new prop, with Maria & Doug Ervin and Ron Karcher. It passed. I am determined to keep it away from rocks.
Ron wanted to hear the horns, so he would know how horns are supposed to sound.
 Maria & Doug Ervin.
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| 7/3/07 | The propeller (S/N 23497) has been singing slightly at one particular speed, so I replaced it with a new prop (S/N 311612). | ||||||
| 7/1/07 | Cara Keplar, who is an IVY Club employee and student, started cleaning Electra and polishing the brass this week.
 Cara Keplar
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| 6/27/07 | Out for 50 minutes after supper with Donna Kinne, Jean & Ron Slonneger, and Sally & Breck Thomas. A brisk run into the lower lake, and back before the rain came. | ||||||
| 6/24/07 | A 90 minute cruise on a cool and foggy evening with Mary & George Bickelhaupt, Donna Kinne, and Carol & Bob Madison. The Bickelhaupts, Kinnes, and Madisons lived and worked in Hong Kong at the same time.
 Carol Madison
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| 6/17/07 | Out for 90 minutes in the evening (and 45 more at the dock) with Clare Howard & David Zalaznik, and Jean & Ron Slonneger. Clare and David work for the Peoria Journal Star, as Jean once did. David is also compiling a book of river photographs, a few of which may have been taken tonight.
 Clare Howard & David Zalaznik.
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| 6/15/07 | A 40 minute ride to Rainbow Cove and back, with Norm Astwood, Donna and Mike Kinne, and Tim Ward.
Incidentally, I have probably misused the terms "Rainbow Cove" and Dolphin Cove" in this log. I have now learned that Rainbow Cove is the name of the marina, and has been since time immemorial. Dolphin Cove is a more recent label for the bar located at Rainbow Cove. | ||||||
| 6/13/07 | An two-hour cruise after supper with Mary & George Bickelhaupt, Donna Kinne, and Sally & Breck Thomas. Stopped a while at the Dolphin Cove bar, located at Rainbow Cove marina. | ||||||
| 6/10/07 | Out for two hours after supper with Donna Kinne, Jean & Ron Slonneger, and Janice & Jim Zinser. Jim is Jean's brother. He and Janice are in the peri-retirment stage of teaching careers at Oberlin College (his in economics; hers in French). They are in town for Jim's highschool reunion.
Jim steered the boat well and truly for almost the entire voyage.
 Jim & Janice Zinser. The evening ended with a grand sunset.
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| 6/8/07 | After a number of unsuccessful tries at recovering the dropped propeller from the river, the job was done by IVY Club Manager Todd Ricca, in SCUBA gear. That prop will now be sent off for reconditioning at Pitch Perfect Propellers, in Stamford, Connecticut. | ||||||
| 6/6/07 evening | Out for a windy hour after supper with Carolyn Coulter, Donna Kinne, Kay & Bill Mitchener, Jean & Ron Slonneger, and Sally & Breck Thomas. The new (reconditioned) propeller seems to be performing quietly, as we want it to. | ||||||
| 6/6/07 morning | The new IVY Log (club yearbook) arrived today, with Electra on the cover.
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| 6/4/07 | To cure the propeller noise, I removed the damaged prop (S/N 311610) and replaced it with the original prop (S/N 23497), which had been removed and reconditioned in 2005 (see log entry for 7/16/05).
Swapping propellers is always educational. This time, I remembered to tether both the wrench and the propeller-puller. But I forgot to leave the propeller nut on the shaft until the prop was loosened. So the damanged prop now resides on the bottom of the river, under the boat. | ||||||
| 6/1/07 | We were out for 75 minutes in the evening, with Inge & David Brown, Donna Kinne, and Sally & Breck Thomas. The river was very low, and the skipper was very careless, so we allowed the prop to grind up some rocks near Rainbow Cove. After this incident, the prop began to sing. Apparently, these boats are so quiet that any irregularity in the prop produces (unpleasant) noise. | ||||||
| 5/30/07 | Out for an evening hour with Donna Kinne, and Jean & Ron Slonneger. A little fog, which cleared quickly when we sounded the horns. | ||||||
| 5/23/07 evening | Out for an hour after supper with Carolyn Coulter, Donna Kinne, and Jean & Ron Slonneger. A crisp, windy evening, with a little fog. | ||||||
| 5/23/07 morning | Finished up the refurbishing of the slip finger and steps. The steps were covered with fiberglass step covers with grit for traction, manufactured by Safeguard Technology. The finger got new treated plywood sealed with Thompson's Water Seal Advanced Protector, topped with Shaw Succession carpet.
The plywood was installed late last season, the step covers yesterday, and the carpet today. George Knight assisted with the carpet installation. He did the simpler tasks, which included planning the job, spreading the mastic, and cutting the carpet. I did the more demanding tasks, which consisted of handing things to George.
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| 5/20/07 | Out for 40 minutes with Norm Astwood, to practice docking. Found the rocky bottom at the entrance to the East Peoria Boat Club harbor. | ||||||
| 5/17/07 |
On the road again!Electra came out of winter storage today, and returned to her slip at the IVY Club. | ||||||
| The past | Click to see log entries from 2004 and 2005 or 2006. |
