What a day

Well, I woke up at 5 am and the wheels started turning, so I was up for the day. I had a coffee meeting with Jonathan Pool, a new MHA member, who works as a strategic vision and planning consultant. He is a sailor as well and we spent 90 minutes talking about our organization, where we've been, and where we're headed. We'll get back together in a week or so to develop a plan.

I met Eric Clone from the Youth Corps and two kids at the shop to get them going on Champion. They went straight to work cleaning the green topsides and applying a coat of marine polish. They also finished up prepping the bottom for paint. We are going to use Aquagard, a water-based, inexpensive bottom paint. Given our cold, fresh water in the Lakes, it doesn't take much anti-fouling nastiness to keep the slime off the bottom. Next week, the Youth Corps kids will paint the bottom and get going on the San Pan dinghy that hangs on the davits.

A 2:45, Allison Beers and I met with Bryan and Colleen from the Downtown Development Authority to talk about promoting the Schooner Festival. They had some great ideas, including a possible display of our ship models in a downtown storefront. We will also have a table at several of the Friday Night Live events this summer. After the meeting, Allison and I worked on some Festival details and looked over the materials from the Port Washington Maritime Heritage Festival, planned for mid-August. Madeline will be one of the stars of this event.

Finally, tonight I presented my 20-slide Power Point presentation to the Grand Traverse Hotel/Motel Association at the Mercato in Building 50. They were very excited about our Schooner Festival plans and are eager to promote it to their guests all summer. As I often hear when doing these presentations, many had no idea all the cool stuff going on with the MHA, and were very enthusiastic about our new youth programs coming this year.

All for now, time to get some sleep before my next watch.