Spring Cleaning
 

Finally with some nice weather I couldn't resist spending a day getting the boat ready for the season. Focused mainly on the outside of the boat and will spend a day (or 2) getting the interior ready next week.
Decided to acid wash both drives and then polish up the stainless steel (attached a before pic which shows how badly hard water and grime had built up). Also washed and buffed in a fresh coat of wax on the hull.
Can't wait to put her back in the water in 2 weeks.

It's finally that time........looks Nice

Looks nice. One thing about living where you can't use your boat but 3~4 months is one of my years here is like 4 of your years. I can't imagine paying for a boat that I can only use 3 months per year...but that's me.

I'm sure we would all love to live somewhere where year round boating is a possibility. However, here at Lake of the Ozarks boating season has become a April through October season (given that depending how late into October you go it gets a little chilly on the water). And in fact April, May, September, and October are some of the best months to be in the water...no crowds and cruiser wakes everywhere like June-Aug on the weekends. My favorite days on the water last year were in October boating around the lake with all the fall colors in full effect and 60 degree weather.

I read somewhere that your area has a "Micro Climate" that keeps it several degrees warmer in the winter than that area as a whole...any truth to that?

Southern Missouri is typically a little warmer as a whole. Not quite sure about the "micro climate" though. Very few performance or pleasure boaters do any boating in the actual winter months (almost all boating during the winter months is by fishermen in bass boats).
I can say that it was 65 degrees yesterday and I was out working in a tee-shirt and shorts (very comfortable) and watched at least 200-250 performance/pleasure boats go by while I was cleaning the boat. Typically April 1st many boaters will "summerize" their boats and boat traffic constantly pics up throughout the month with almost everyone rearing to go early to middle May.
Last October it was warm enough to boat with just a light jacket and with all the leaves changing on the lake it was an AMAZING couple weeks worth of boating.

My wife is from NW Alabama near Muscle Shoals on the Tennessee River. Pickwick Reservoir and Pier 57 are about 20 miles down river from there. We have been at our families homes on the river during the holidays and been out on my brother in law's 382 Fastech on Christmas Eve enjoying the decorated homes in 25 deg weather. I was surprised to see a bunch of boats out of Pier 57 running the river that time of year. With closed cooling and a boathouse he doesn't do anything special to his...pulls it in hoists it out of the water and all is well. I suspect he is the exception to the rule.

Try living in Seattle! Our boating season is really short! July-September and even then we only average 75 degrees! Last weekend was nice...68 degrees and sunny. This weekend its 38 degrees and raining. Im jealous of anyone who lives in Florida!

This video was taken in June a few years ago but thats what June looks like here every year (the weather people call it "Juneuary"...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnTsfjUIeas

DANG!!! That's horrible. I def won't be complaining about our 6-7 month boating season anymore. You guys up there are die-hards to put up with such bad and quickly changing conditions. Good luck this year!!

nice job, what did you use on the drives and the stainless?