When we first looked at our new Islander 28 we were happy to see it had what I call an old school clinometer. Unhappily, when we closed it had been taken out. Dang. Anyway, now I am on a quest to find a replacement and I’m not having much luck. Here is a picture of the one that was in the boat when we first saw her.

If if anyone out there knows where we can find one of these or where we should be looking we would greatly appreciate it if you could let us know.

Winter continues to drag on here in the northland. Though we are having great snow for cross-country skiing this year, it is but a poor replacement for sailing. I must admit that we did have wonderful skiing conditions on Saturday, new four inches of powder, freshly groomed that morning. In fact, Honey Bunny and I were the first to ski on the trails that morning. Very nice! I took this picture yesterday skiing across the bridge which traverses the stream which has the name Dry Creek. In ten years I have never seen it dry. Just around the bend it enters the St. Croix River, one of the original 8 rivers in the Wild and Scenic River Act established back in 1968.

Pretty soon though we can start contemplating what will be necessary to get Aurion ready for launch day come spring. This will be another new experience for us as this is our first “big” boat which we can’t launch ourselves off of the trailer. Yikes! Seems like a lot to learn and know at this point, but we will take one at a time. Fortunately, there are no big projects anticipated that need to be done other than the usual spring launch items.

Next weekend is the annual Minneapolis Boat Show, so we are looking forward to that. This year we are planning on taking in a couple of seminars. Namely, a seminar put on by Capt. Tony Green concerning Marine Weather, and a topic that we hope to make use of some time in the not too distant future, Caribbean Sailing by Capt. Tom Burns. Of course there will be some new sailboats to compare to our own. I don’t think they will stack up very well against our lovely Islander 28, designed by Robert Perry. Have I mentioned that?

Don’t forget to let us know about that old-school clinometer if you know about them.