BEAUTIFUL BIRDS, BIG TREES AND A GREAT SHOW!

Last weekend we had a show in Rockport and it turned out great. It was extremely hot and humid but we did well. We have another show lined up for this Saturday and another one the following weekend. We have six more shows total to do that are scheduled. It's been very busy to do this but it's very nice to make jewelry for a living. It's a lot of work but I love it.

We haven't had time to work on the boat much, we're at a point where we need to buy big items. Between the shows and other people's boat work, we've not been able to complete our own projects.

While at the show last weekend we saw some beautiful birds and a 1,000+ old Oak tree! wow! It didn't rain at our show till the night of our last day. It was perfect. We met some really nice people and not so nice people while at the show. The crew for the Sea Fair was fairly rude to Brett three different times but we had some great neighbors next to us during the show.

We met a sailor at the harbor who had, at one time, set gemstones into jewelry. He had many gems left and graciously sold them to us for almost nothing. I have a good start on beginning to set rings and earrings. It was exciting and very interesting. I greatly enjoy the interaction with people that we get around boats. People are almost always nice and friendly and very interesting. We hope to meet up again with the sailor and his wife and maybe someday sail together toward Guatamala!

The sno-birds are coming into the Park now. We ended up with one right next to us that is from New Mexico but resides in Alaska! We talked about Halibut on his first night here and how much I missed Halibut. He opened his freezer and pulled out two fillets for Brett and I! He said there was a lot more if we wanted more.

Our refrigerator had broke during our weekend at the show (it's been ROUGH without it) and so I babied the beautiful Halibut on the counter and then got some ice in the office to put in the broken fridge. I cooked it up the next day and it was WONDERFUL! SO nice to finally kill my 12 month Halibut craving.

Unfortunately when you have neighbors in an RV park, though, you get woken up every morning at 7am or so.

The winds have picked back up here just like clockwork. The temperature is a bearable 80 now instead of 90 and the breeze cuts the humidity.

Brett went up our mast for the first time last week. I have hauled him up a lot of masts around here but ours was actually the easiest even though it was one of the tallest! We have a winch drum that reels in the wire halyard. It has a brake on it so I can control the speed, etc. I didn't have to hardly pull him up like the other boats. He fixed a halyard and lubricated the mast.

After he came down, we ran up a mainsail and a storm jib. They looked rough but they had good shape to them. The mainsail was coming apart at a seam but it is repairable.

It was quite something to see the main up. The pictures don't do it justice!

We are continuing to be bombarded by the fire ants in our camper. Yesterday, I found them in my bike seat where a tear was!! It was awful. When we had come back from Rockport, I was helping Brett to park in our spot and discovered thousands of ants and three hills UNDER where our camper had been sitting! We sprayed a ton of chemical but they just move over a few feet and pop out again.

Being back for me has been good but strange. I don't feel quite right as I used to but I so love being with Brett, Benny, Jack and the boat. Knowing that Brett wants to sail toward Oregon eventually as much as I want to is a comforting feeling. We will head to the South Pacific from there but it will be so nice to see home again in our floating home.

We are planning a haul-out for the boat before we move on. We are hoping to haul it out by the end of November but it's all money. When we haul it out, we are hoping to inspect the strut for the prop, the prop itself, the keel structure and to replace the thru hull fittings. We are also going to bottom paint it. We are hoping to maybe even, possibly, paint the topsides (hull) while she is out her first time! The painting isn't the problem, but the sanding of the old, messed up paint will be challenging. It will take a lot of sandpaper as the paint on there is messed up and gummy. The fenders currently on the boat STILL stick to the paint after 2 years! The haulout will be between $300-$1000 depending on repairs. But we definitely want to haul her out before we move into so Brett can adjust the thru hull fitting and transducers before things are built in too much.

We may be able to get the starter next week. I found one for a little cheaper online and it only takes 30 days to get, not 90. We are anxious to have the engine running so our options become so much more open with the boat. Brett and I are becoming anxious; it is hard to sit still...

Well this has ended up a long one, I should post more often so you don't have so much to read.

Thanks for sharing our adventures with us!