Is it Spring yet?

We had another long cold winter in the Midwest this year. It was not so much snowy, but bitter cold; the kind of cold that freezes your nose hairs and stops engines from running properly. We made a trek up to Knife River Marina on New Year's Day to check on our fall winter wrap job of Mystic, our Alberg 35. She was fine, tucked in between all the other boats, waiting on the arrival of spring and launch day. She was covered tightly with the tarps, held down with shrink wrap we'd painstakingly applied in October.

Knife River was quiet. Lake Superior was frozen over, smooth as glass. There was a magical scene of ice houses, ice skaters and frolicking families along the North Shore.

Winter has always been exciting and fun-filled for us. In spite of the cold, there is always something to do; snowboarding, x-country skiing, endless winter festivals. It was the Ice Project which brought us back up to Knife River to check on Mystic again at the end of February. Roger Hanson brought joy and delight to everyone who visited Barker's Island Marina for the light show and fireworks celebrating his latest ice sculpture.

The-Ice-Project Facebook Page

Spring surprised us with warm temps in April. By May, we had already experienced lovely days in the 80's. Excited to get the season started, we scheduled Mystic's launch for May 21st; early for Lake Superior waters. The launch went smoothly but Dave was worried about the engine starting. It took a few cranks and we were on our way to slip #68.

Once we were settled, Dave noticed that the water just wasn't flowing correctly out of the exhaust port. The first thing he checked was the raw water strainer to see if it needed to be cleaned. It was fine, so the next step was the water pump impeller.

Dave replaced the impeller but still no water flow. It was apparent that several blades off the impeller were missing and now somewhere in our engine. After a lot of research and a day of pulling hoses and checking for blockages, he back-flushed the heat exchanger and found the missing impeller blades. Lesson learned, replace that impeller annually, before starting the engine. were back in business and ready to start our 2015 season.