That’s a lot of boat! At least that’s what I was thinking today as we began winter decommissioning of our “tiny house” with all of her on-board systems. It was going to take a bit more than last winter’s decommissioning of BETTY, our 26′ Landing School sloop.

The boatyard sent John over early in the morning to begin winterizing the main engine, generator and fresh water system. Being a fly-on-the-wall allowed observation of the procedures, knowing we’ll be down in the basement soon enough doing the same.

We ran out of daylight before we got HIPPOKAMPOS into her winter home so she was set on to jack stands and left in the travel lift for the night. The next day they finished the task and slowly took her down the road for indoor storage. Seems trawlers are destined to move slow whether on land or sea.

A couple more days were available before leaving to head back to Louisville so there was nothing to do but “mess about in boats”. The urge to do some kind of upgrade to the otherwise untouchable vessel was nagging so we decided to replace the galley faucet. Granted that’s not much, but there will be more in store down the road (or river) guaranteed. After all… it’s a boat.

Sunsets look good even when spending the night on the hard.

Down in the basement to pump antifreeze through the fresh water system.

There was enough antifreeze used for the main engine alone that would have lasted 3 years for BETTY.

John expertly brought HIPPOKAMPOS over for the haul out.

Up, up and away she goes, headed for winter storage.

The long, slow road to the boat shed seemed to go on for miles but was really a couple hundred yards.

It was a pretty tight fit with only inches to spare above the dinghy crane.

Ta da! We’ve modified the boat in a small way by upgrading the galley faucet.

Stuff coming off the boat that might not survive winter freezing.