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
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