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