Here are the ducks that come by and visit every evening hoping for some stale crackers, which we always seem to have some of.
Imagine that! I've posted two days in a row!
Take care.
Brian
Sunday, June 28, 2015
Minor Victories
Before the day was out yesterday we did manage to get the outboard motor off the dinghy and on to the new mounting plate on the rail. This little project has followed the rule that all things done on a boat take eight times longer than you expect. But here's a picture of what it looks like with the dinghy hanging from the davits as well. Once we get granny's rocking chair on top, we'll be set.
Here are the ducks that come by and visit every evening hoping for some stale crackers, which we always seem to have some of.
Imagine that! I've posted two days in a row!
Take care.
Brian
Here are the ducks that come by and visit every evening hoping for some stale crackers, which we always seem to have some of.
Imagine that! I've posted two days in a row!
Take care.
Brian
Saturday, June 27, 2015
Man plans and God laughs
The short story is we aren't leaving tomorrow. Tomorrow is Susan's birthday and we were hoping we could cast off the lines and head off into the sunrise (not sunset since we're heading east).
Number one is we don't have our new mainsail, can't go anywhere without that. We did get our dinghy back, all patched up, and we're still debating whether to keep it or sell it and buy a bigger one. What we have will do for now. We're pretty sure when we get to the Bahamas we're going to want a longer one with more engine as the water is very shallow there and we will have to anchor a fair piece off shore. Trips to shore will be a lot more comfortable in a dinghy that can plane and will have enough horsepower to get you there and back quickly if the weather is less than ideal.
A new problem popped up this past week with the forward air conditioning. It has a freon leak and was not keeping the salon and forward cabin cool. For two nights we slept in the aft cabin. Somehow we got lucky and had a service guy come out the next day to look at it and he put some freon in it but we also ordered a new unit. Our thinking was the aft a/c was replaced last year and the forward one is 15 years old. If we go with the quick and inexpensive option it might take several weeks to find that we need a new unit and then we'd be somewhere where we might have to take whatever we could get at whatever price. For any boaters following along, we highly recommend Yacht Equipment Services in Kemah. Those guys have helped us a lot over the last couple of months and surely have on the a/c. Current schedule is we'll have the new one installed by the end of the coming week. Just thinking through this… If this new plan (God, please don't laugh any more) comes together, we could cast off our lines on Independence Day. How appropriate is that?
Believe it or not, we have not been sitting around twiddling our thumbs since our last post. We measured several times and figured out what water maker will fit our boat and needs. I'll place the order for it on Monday with the Ship To address to be provided later. We hope to be gone from here before it would ship so we'll see if we can find someplace along our route to have it shipped. The water here in Galveston Bay is so dirty we wouldn't want to run it here anyway. Once we get farther east the gulf water will be much cleaner and we should be able to start making our own fresh water.
Other things accomplished are the installation of two DC powered fans in the forward cabin, replaced many of the cabin lights with LED lights to use less power and generate almost no heat. We cleaned all the raw water strainers (AGAIN). With all the rain the water around here has a lot of stuff in it. Cleaning the strainers once a week doesn't seem to be often enough. We also had the boat cleaned and compounded. It's so pretty! Fishing reels have been serviced and have new line and a start on some tackle has been accumulated. The spear gun is in the shop to get the trigger mechanism worked on. We built a mounting plate so we can hang the dinghy outboard motor on the rail of the sailboat. Today's task is to get the motor on that plate to make sure it all works as designed.
We are now down to one vehicle with wheels. Susan's truck is parked in Gun Barrel City. Texas. When we're a few days away from leaving my truck will be sold and we'll be
In the "fun" department my friend Michael came to visit for a few days as did my brother and sister-in-law. My niece and her family were in town for her son Cooper's baseball tournament so we got to watch some little league baseball. We've also been out twice on Wednesday nights to watch the weekly sail boat races on Clear Lake on Austintatious with our friends Bryan and Cindy Austin (get it?). Friday night means fireworks at the Kemah Boardwalk so we've gone out the last two Friday nights to watch them, once on our boat with my brother, sister-in-law, niece and her family and once on Austintatious. With the departure of our friends on Another Life another live aboard couple moved in from a couple of piers down (they heard we were a lot more fun on pier 16). Brad and Tori on Never Again joined us on Austinatious for the fireworks show last night. A good time was definitely had by all.
Perhaps the biggest news is yesterday Susan passed a test! She thinks that was the last step in the process to be able to practice medicine in Texas. It'll be a few months before she gets her license but now it's just a matter of waiting. Congratulations Susan!
That's it for now. I know I said I'd update this more often once I was retired but that isn't working out, I'm busy!
Take care.
Brian
Number one is we don't have our new mainsail, can't go anywhere without that. We did get our dinghy back, all patched up, and we're still debating whether to keep it or sell it and buy a bigger one. What we have will do for now. We're pretty sure when we get to the Bahamas we're going to want a longer one with more engine as the water is very shallow there and we will have to anchor a fair piece off shore. Trips to shore will be a lot more comfortable in a dinghy that can plane and will have enough horsepower to get you there and back quickly if the weather is less than ideal.
A new problem popped up this past week with the forward air conditioning. It has a freon leak and was not keeping the salon and forward cabin cool. For two nights we slept in the aft cabin. Somehow we got lucky and had a service guy come out the next day to look at it and he put some freon in it but we also ordered a new unit. Our thinking was the aft a/c was replaced last year and the forward one is 15 years old. If we go with the quick and inexpensive option it might take several weeks to find that we need a new unit and then we'd be somewhere where we might have to take whatever we could get at whatever price. For any boaters following along, we highly recommend Yacht Equipment Services in Kemah. Those guys have helped us a lot over the last couple of months and surely have on the a/c. Current schedule is we'll have the new one installed by the end of the coming week. Just thinking through this… If this new plan (God, please don't laugh any more) comes together, we could cast off our lines on Independence Day. How appropriate is that?
Believe it or not, we have not been sitting around twiddling our thumbs since our last post. We measured several times and figured out what water maker will fit our boat and needs. I'll place the order for it on Monday with the Ship To address to be provided later. We hope to be gone from here before it would ship so we'll see if we can find someplace along our route to have it shipped. The water here in Galveston Bay is so dirty we wouldn't want to run it here anyway. Once we get farther east the gulf water will be much cleaner and we should be able to start making our own fresh water.
Other things accomplished are the installation of two DC powered fans in the forward cabin, replaced many of the cabin lights with LED lights to use less power and generate almost no heat. We cleaned all the raw water strainers (AGAIN). With all the rain the water around here has a lot of stuff in it. Cleaning the strainers once a week doesn't seem to be often enough. We also had the boat cleaned and compounded. It's so pretty! Fishing reels have been serviced and have new line and a start on some tackle has been accumulated. The spear gun is in the shop to get the trigger mechanism worked on. We built a mounting plate so we can hang the dinghy outboard motor on the rail of the sailboat. Today's task is to get the motor on that plate to make sure it all works as designed.
We are now down to one vehicle with wheels. Susan's truck is parked in Gun Barrel City. Texas. When we're a few days away from leaving my truck will be sold and we'll be
In the "fun" department my friend Michael came to visit for a few days as did my brother and sister-in-law. My niece and her family were in town for her son Cooper's baseball tournament so we got to watch some little league baseball. We've also been out twice on Wednesday nights to watch the weekly sail boat races on Clear Lake on Austintatious with our friends Bryan and Cindy Austin (get it?). Friday night means fireworks at the Kemah Boardwalk so we've gone out the last two Friday nights to watch them, once on our boat with my brother, sister-in-law, niece and her family and once on Austintatious. With the departure of our friends on Another Life another live aboard couple moved in from a couple of piers down (they heard we were a lot more fun on pier 16). Brad and Tori on Never Again joined us on Austinatious for the fireworks show last night. A good time was definitely had by all.
Perhaps the biggest news is yesterday Susan passed a test! She thinks that was the last step in the process to be able to practice medicine in Texas. It'll be a few months before she gets her license but now it's just a matter of waiting. Congratulations Susan!
That's it for now. I know I said I'd update this more often once I was retired but that isn't working out, I'm busy!
Take care.
Brian
Wednesday, June 17, 2015
Tropical Storm Bill
Hi All,
You may have heard about Tropical Storm Bill that made landfall on the Texas coast yesterday. Fortunately it came ashore about 150 miles southwest of us. We had no real wind to speak of but had and are still getting a fair amount of rain. Over the last couple of days both Susan and I have received multiple texts and phone calls checking on us. Thank all of you for your concern. The nice thing about being in a boat when there is a lot of rain is as the water rises, so does the boat.
Just a side note, we have insurance but any damage done by a National Weather Service "named" storm has a higher deductible.
It's only Wednesday but we've still accomplished a fair bit so far this week. Monday we took our inflatable dinghy to Triad Marine to have them find and fix a slow leak. We've tried twice to find it with no luck so we decided to let them do it. Unfortunately they are saying it will take two weeks as they are backed up. We also removed the leaky water pump for our generator and took it in to have it rebuilt.
Tuesday we got the water pump back and today it is back on. The generator is hard to start and it only has 283 hours on it so I spent a fair bit of time today trouble shooting it with the help of my friend Jim over the phone. Still haven't solved the hard starting problem but it's all back together and running with no leaks, water or fuel.
Tuesday evening we had a visitor from the east. Jay, a good friend of ours from Baltimore, by way of Richmond, was in town on business. We had a nice time showing him our boat and having dinner at one of the local hangouts. Jay has sailed most if not all of his life. We hope to have him and his wife Carol on our boat at some point during our travels.
Our evenings have been spent mostly with me on the internet researching some task or ordering parts while Susan is sewing and sewing. The new canvas winch covers are just about done but more importantly the zipper in mosquito netting for the companion way is ready once we find an appropriate length of chain to be used for weight.
Tomorrow my brother and sister-in-law are arriving for a visit. Hopefully the rain will stop long enough for us to take them out for a sail.
Take care.
Brian
You may have heard about Tropical Storm Bill that made landfall on the Texas coast yesterday. Fortunately it came ashore about 150 miles southwest of us. We had no real wind to speak of but had and are still getting a fair amount of rain. Over the last couple of days both Susan and I have received multiple texts and phone calls checking on us. Thank all of you for your concern. The nice thing about being in a boat when there is a lot of rain is as the water rises, so does the boat.
Just a side note, we have insurance but any damage done by a National Weather Service "named" storm has a higher deductible.
It's only Wednesday but we've still accomplished a fair bit so far this week. Monday we took our inflatable dinghy to Triad Marine to have them find and fix a slow leak. We've tried twice to find it with no luck so we decided to let them do it. Unfortunately they are saying it will take two weeks as they are backed up. We also removed the leaky water pump for our generator and took it in to have it rebuilt.
Tuesday we got the water pump back and today it is back on. The generator is hard to start and it only has 283 hours on it so I spent a fair bit of time today trouble shooting it with the help of my friend Jim over the phone. Still haven't solved the hard starting problem but it's all back together and running with no leaks, water or fuel.
Tuesday evening we had a visitor from the east. Jay, a good friend of ours from Baltimore, by way of Richmond, was in town on business. We had a nice time showing him our boat and having dinner at one of the local hangouts. Jay has sailed most if not all of his life. We hope to have him and his wife Carol on our boat at some point during our travels.
Our evenings have been spent mostly with me on the internet researching some task or ordering parts while Susan is sewing and sewing. The new canvas winch covers are just about done but more importantly the zipper in mosquito netting for the companion way is ready once we find an appropriate length of chain to be used for weight.
Tomorrow my brother and sister-in-law are arriving for a visit. Hopefully the rain will stop long enough for us to take them out for a sail.
Take care.
Brian
Sunday, June 14, 2015
Retirement is not for the lazy
How did I ever get anything done when I had a job? Not that I'm getting near enough done every day now.
Since my last post a lot has happened. I left an HDS office for the last time. Boy did that seem strange.
Susan and I made a trip to Green Bay for one of Susan's friend's wedding. It was nice to meet more of Susan's friends.
We had denaming and renaming ceremony for our boat.
Which also incorporated a Bon Voyage party for our friends Ted and Claire who left out on Sunday. We hope to catch up with them soon.
Sunday, just after noon, Another Life cast off the lines and headed for it's big adventure. It was both exciting and scary. Hopefully not too long from now we'll be doing the same thing.
Our friends Jeff and Heather were here for the weekend festivities. They brought us a nice bottle of wine for our boat naming gift. We enjoyed it later in the week with a steak dinner. It was all yummy. Thanks for the pairing recommendation Jeff!
Also during the last couple of weeks we got our jib back with its new sacrificial canvas. I was doing some learning before putting the sail back up and managed to drop a critical part over the side. I called our rigger and had him come out to look at it and he proceeded to drop another critical part over the side. He ordered the parts we needed, expedited, and left his screwdriver as collateral and a placeholder.
The Saturday Jeff and Heather were here the rigger came out with the parts, installed them and helped us get the jib up. We were then able to take Jeff and Heather out into Galveston Bay but the serious lack of wind and with only the jib, the new mainsail is due June 26, we had a brief moment where we hit 2.8 kts but most of the time struggled to make 2. It didn't make for exciting sailing. But Jeff got to smoke a cigar, on a sailboat, on Galveston Bay.
Since then we have torn down and done maintenance on one of our winches that had a broken piece. This was the first (and only) maintenance task that has gone without a single hitch. Thank you youtube. We also replaced a solenoid / anti-siphon breaker for one of the heads that was running a bit.
For a few days this past week our friend Michael was here visiting. We didn't really treat him much like a guest, mostly doing normal day to day stuff though we did take a day off and do the tour at the Johnson Space Center. Pretty cool stuff there. Working for a few hours every day we also got the AIS installed and working. One last thing to do is mount the dedicated GPS antennae for the AIS. It appears to work mounted inside so I may stay with that rather than drilling holes in the boat. Something about putting holes in your boat just doesn't seem right.
Oh, two more things. Replaced a breaker for the aft air conditioner with an appropriately sized one. This has unfortunately only moved the problem. I'll have to delve into that one some more. I also had to add a new breaker to the panel so I can individually power the AIS.
See, I told you this retirement stuff isn't for the lazy. Just writing about it has made me tired.
That's all for now.
Brian
Since my last post a lot has happened. I left an HDS office for the last time. Boy did that seem strange.
Susan and I made a trip to Green Bay for one of Susan's friend's wedding. It was nice to meet more of Susan's friends.
We had denaming and renaming ceremony for our boat.
Which also incorporated a Bon Voyage party for our friends Ted and Claire who left out on Sunday. We hope to catch up with them soon.
Sunday, just after noon, Another Life cast off the lines and headed for it's big adventure. It was both exciting and scary. Hopefully not too long from now we'll be doing the same thing.
Our friends Jeff and Heather were here for the weekend festivities. They brought us a nice bottle of wine for our boat naming gift. We enjoyed it later in the week with a steak dinner. It was all yummy. Thanks for the pairing recommendation Jeff!
Also during the last couple of weeks we got our jib back with its new sacrificial canvas. I was doing some learning before putting the sail back up and managed to drop a critical part over the side. I called our rigger and had him come out to look at it and he proceeded to drop another critical part over the side. He ordered the parts we needed, expedited, and left his screwdriver as collateral and a placeholder.
The Saturday Jeff and Heather were here the rigger came out with the parts, installed them and helped us get the jib up. We were then able to take Jeff and Heather out into Galveston Bay but the serious lack of wind and with only the jib, the new mainsail is due June 26, we had a brief moment where we hit 2.8 kts but most of the time struggled to make 2. It didn't make for exciting sailing. But Jeff got to smoke a cigar, on a sailboat, on Galveston Bay.
Since then we have torn down and done maintenance on one of our winches that had a broken piece. This was the first (and only) maintenance task that has gone without a single hitch. Thank you youtube. We also replaced a solenoid / anti-siphon breaker for one of the heads that was running a bit.
For a few days this past week our friend Michael was here visiting. We didn't really treat him much like a guest, mostly doing normal day to day stuff though we did take a day off and do the tour at the Johnson Space Center. Pretty cool stuff there. Working for a few hours every day we also got the AIS installed and working. One last thing to do is mount the dedicated GPS antennae for the AIS. It appears to work mounted inside so I may stay with that rather than drilling holes in the boat. Something about putting holes in your boat just doesn't seem right.
Oh, two more things. Replaced a breaker for the aft air conditioner with an appropriately sized one. This has unfortunately only moved the problem. I'll have to delve into that one some more. I also had to add a new breaker to the panel so I can individually power the AIS.
See, I told you this retirement stuff isn't for the lazy. Just writing about it has made me tired.
That's all for now.
Brian
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