Home Again

I am finally back in Texas with my animals, my boat and, best of all, my husband. I have been diving right into wood work on our boat since I got back. We have begun the staining/sealing process on the bulkheads inside the boat. After going around and around with stains and sealant choices for the last 9 months, we have come to the original conclusion of our old favorite, Bombay Mahogany. With a little Cherry mixed into it, it is turning out beautiful. The rich dark wood is stunning. The red hue glows under the light. I have started the vee-berth and will work my way forward.

We have decided to stain the Birch bulkheads the Bombay mahogany/Cherry mix and do the Teak trim in a clear polyurethane. This will give the different shades of woods we used. I think it will be really pretty. We'll see... I will be working on the third coat in the vee-berth today for the stain.


Brett was able to finish and paint the head this week. It looks fabulous! He is working on the shelving that pops into place. We are working to get our plumbing for the head installed next so we can start using the shower in there! LOL

BEFORE WORKING ON IT...

NOW...

We had a major setback with the starter for the engine. Come to find out, the only one that fits takes 90 days to get and costs $1000. oops. So it's , AGAIN, on the backburner.

Brett called the Coast Guard yesterday after 2 months of no response. They are running two months behind and should be getting to it in about 3 days. But at least we know now that they received it in any case.

Our visit with mom and Dave was great. We ran them ragged through Galveston and then to the USS Lexington in Corpus Christi. They got to go sailing twice on two different boats. Dave even took the helm on Charl's boat for most the sail. It was great. They were exhausted but I am glad they made it down to see our boat. I wish we had had more time with them here. I spent too much time running them around the coast that we didn't get enough time here with the boat. But at least they got to see it in person. We were swarmed with our famous "Love Bugs" while out on the first boat but we still had fun.

The day they left, Brett and I discovered a huge yellow moth that had landed on our dark blue chair and laid eggs. It was so strange! The body of the moth was the size of my thumb, it's wing span about 6 inches.

A couple hours after it had landed, I found two of its four wings about 20 feet from the chair. Apparantely the birds had gotten to it. We were sad. I looked it up and discovered it to be an Imperial Moth, common around this area this time of year.

The other day, we were talking with Dennis next to our camper and an orange cat (we later determined to be one of the park cats, Darryl) circled us, checking everything out. Then he mosied onto the docks and proceeded to stroll down the dock, stopping at each boat and sniffing at it and then moving on. It was the funniest scene of this cat "dock-walking", looking at the boats. Then, he came back up the other gangway at the end of the dock and continued on his "rounds". It was hilarious.

I need to go get to work on that wood, but thought I would drop a line on here since I knew so many people were waiting to hear back from me. Take a look at my newest pictures under my link "MY PICTURES".