Galveston Trip A Boat Success and a Great Thanksgiving!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving? Brett smoked one of the four turkeys that the park was having for their potluck dinner. He got up at 130am and then at 530am! It turned out fabulous! All the food was really good. We sat next to some great Canadians and Dennis sat with us, too. Brett worked on the boat almost all day and I worked on organizing my boat pictures in the computer and working on jewelry. A Northerly front blew in the night before so it was very windy and very cold on Thanksgiving. I did manage to bundle myself up and brave the cold to go for a great row in the marina and part of the bay. The sun was shining sunbeams through all the clouds, it was heavenly.

I row past the Pelicans every time I go out to the "markers" and watch them as they sit on the pilings. I watch the shrimp boats come and go and the palm trees sway in the wind. I row by the fishing station and my friends wave and sing "row row row your boat" to me. When I row, I am reminded how beautiful it is here and how blessed Brett and I are to be able to be here working on our boat. It makes me almost cry every time.

Last weekend we had a show in Galveston. On our way to Galveston we stopped in Lake Jackson to get a fold-away dolly cart we'd read about online through Lowes. It was one that we could use for shows, the boat and tools. It only weight 9 lbs and folds to 2"! Perfect for our boat! We did find that the majority of the frame was STEEL not Aluminum so it will probably rust. We also decided to purchase another shop vac. The one we have has been dunked in the water, used and abused with water and fiberglass dust and has a hole cut in the top to allow ventilation so it doesn't get too hot! LOL- I guess it WAS time for a new one. We also stopped at "Hobby Lobby" so I could look at decorations for the upcoming Victorian show. I had never been in a Hobby Lobby and thought it must be like Michael's. Well, it was overwhelming as soon as I walked in. There was 10x the amount of everything than Michaels! Rows and rows of Christmas deocrations. Rows and rows of scrapbooking, of home decor, of jewelry! It was incredible! I could have stayed in there for hours! Definitely my kind of store! LOL I finally found the copper ornaments I'd been looking for everywhere. And they were 50% off that day! What luck!

After our stop in Lake Jackson, we made our way to Seabrook, on the east side of Houston to the resale boat shop. Brett was hoping to find an altenator and other engine parts while there. It took forever to get there but we made it. After we looked around for about an hour, we didn't find anything to take home. We had glanced at a range that had not been priced yet sitting on a cart in the middle of an aisle. It was in gorgeous condition and had 3 burners and an oven. We started looking at the other ranges, because we knew that one would be at least $400 for sure. The other ranges had a lot of wear on them and were only two burners or the wrong fuel type. We decided to ask the owner of the store how much the newer one was. He looked it up and found that it was on consignment for $299.99! It was a compressed gas model but had a new conversion kit for propane inside the oven that had not been opened. After a lot of discussion, we decided to use the card and get it. We had seen many many ovens come and go from here that were a good deal and we didnt want to miss out on this one. It was a Seaward, too, which are really good ranges. So we went ahead and got it! Later, I found out it was a Seward Hillerange, which is very very popular and a good working model. It is not common to see them with three burners though. It doesn't even look like it was used except the oven. New, they are $800-$1200. So we did good. I can't seem to find a picture of it though and it is locked up in a storage shed right now. I'll get pictures soon of it.

We shoved into the camper with all the show gear and headed toward Galveston. We stopped at Starbucks and enjoyed our rare mochas together while searching for our range in the West Marine catalog. Starbucks has become a special treat for me when we go to the big cities. It always reminds me of the busy life in Eugene/Springfield. It feels a little like the familiar civilization we left behind. But our wallets soon remind us why we are glad we don't have a Starbucks in Palacios after $8.00 leaves the pocket!

We thought we'd stay at the Galveston Island State Park, but I called and the lady said they were "closed" so we parked at the Walmart in Galveston. It was so noisy with people but it worked. Later, we found out that it was the reservation office that was closed, not the park! I was upset about that. It was not great but it paid the bills. We had about the worse spot in the show, upstairs in a room in the far corner. ick. But it was fun and I met a fantastic lady who also sold jewelry. We had gotten to the church and were getting ready to check in and she mentioned she needed help unloading, that she had cancer and could not lift anything. I snagged her equipment out of her truck for her, admiring her pretty nail polish and we talked about her cancer and the show. I helped her truck her things to the church and up the elevator to her spot. We thought that we were in the same room together but come to find out we were on opposite ends of the upstairs in seperate rooms. Brett ended up using our new fold-away dolly to truck everything upstairs by himself. She told me of her 5 year struggle with the cancer, first being colon and then moving to her liver. She does shows nearly every day as her income! She was so sweet and so strong and meeting her was definitely the hi-light of my show.

This week, Brett got part of the galley built in where the engine is at. He was also able to put in the electric panels and they are on hinges so he has easy access to them! He also got the toilet completely hooked up so it works now. He worked on installing the shower sump as well. Last night, as a treat for Thanksgiving, he strung the wires for the nav lights forward and the stern light aft. He hooked them to his battery charger and ran up here to the camper to get me to look. I opened the door to tell him I had to go to the bathroom first but I glanced over his shoulder at a bright green light, glowing from the boat! How cool! I went ahead and walked down to the boat with him and we marveled at the brightness of our new nav lights. The stern light also shone so brightly, it hurt to look at! So that was fun. He also has been installing the LED lights we purchased last week. He has to mount each one and string the wires through the boat, and rewire them too, as they are wired to plug in right now. He then took spare switches he had and installed two of them near two of the LED lights so we can turn each light on individually. The wiring of the boat is being completely redone and it requires a lot of brainwork from Brett. We are down to a lot of time consuming work (Brett is, I should say) of wiring and trim work. But it's coming along. We've been short on money and racking up the cards but we're still healthfully plugging away at it.

Today he is working on other people's boats. Last week, he was hired to reglass the casing for a keel of a 25 foot Catalina sailboat. The keel wire had broke and when the keel swung down, it cracked the fiberglass! oops! So Brett spent 3 days and reglassed the casing to make it extra strong. But when the splashed the boat (put it in the water), the calking for the keel bolts did not dry fast enough and they ended up with a small leak. Brett has spent the last 7 days getting the leak to stop without pulling it out of the water. He was finally able to get it to stop and is now putting the inside of the boat back together. He still has work to do on that Ginseng boat he's been working on for a year as well as Dennis' boat. Always busy. Always.

I'm getting us ready for our huge show next weekend in Galveston. I finally got my costume all together thanks to the thrift shop and thread. It looks great I think, we'll take pictures at the show. I have Brett's costume mostly ready as well. I am a "lady" and he is my "clerk".

A couple days ago, I painted a watercolor picture of a pelican. It actually turned out ok. I have not painted for 2-3 years. Anything I did try to paint, I threw out. I find that I have to REALLY want to paint something for it to turn out.

Charl graciously offered us his solar panel that he used to go around the world with at a very cheap price. He also gave us his old altenator that just needs rebuilt. We're not sure if it will be big enough for what we need but it will work for now. The solar panel is very expensive new, so this will be a great addition to our power supply!

Well, I think that is about it for what's been going on with us. Please make sure you go check out new pictures through MY FAVORITES link- I have been reorganizing my pictures and will probably be reorganizing them soon with Picassa Web Album but for now I'll just add another album for today.

Fun Stuff Begins

We participated in the Rosenberg Rangerette Market Days show that we did last year before finding our boat. We didn't do as well though. Hopefully we'll do better in Galveston this weekend...

We're getting a lot done on the boat (I should say BRETT is getting a lot done). After 3 straight days in the bilge, he got the engine installed and aligned. He put in a lot of plumbing to run water to the water pump of the engine.

We found some LED lights from Walmart that we'll use as our salon lights. They were cheap and take almost no power. Brett will wire them into the inverter.

I washed the boat last week and boy was it dirty!! It looks fantastic now! What a difference!

I pulled out the winch pockets and cowling vents to wash and paint. A job I can do. They are usually white, hard plastic. Ours were BLACK with mold and dirt inside and out. I scrubbed them and soaked them. I now am going to go get some bleach and soak again. Then, I'll sand and paint them. They are quite expensive so saving the three winch pockets is invaluable. We are desperate for some solar vents because we have openings that leak. But they are about $160 each. Ouch. We'll get them eventually though. We have one window lense for our opening ports that needs replacing already too. Jose had put in two opening ports (Brett has to reinstall them properly) and one of them has a broken hinge already. So we have to do that before we use the boat. Things here and there. There is a lot of odd and end stuff that most people would get overwhelmed at. But we are definitely coming along. Brett still feels confident we can be ready to leave by March 27th.

A few months ago, I ordered a small RV bathroom faucet that has a shower adapter on it so we can just attach a shower hose to the faucet instead of plumbing a shower in.

Last night, I ordered a used stainless steel sink off of Ebay for only $9.62 and $10 for shipping! Pretty cheap and it's an industrial sink. Sinks average $70 to $300. We haven't decided if it's going in the head or the galley yet.

The other sink will be a hand-painted ceramic sink from Mexico off of Ebay. They are beautiful and will really give a special touch to the boat.

I just ordered a beautiful stainless steel faucet off of Ebay this morning. It's amazing how much cheaper stuff is when it does NOT say Marine on it!

This faucet for the galley has everything we both want. I wanted two handles instead of one swivel handle, we both wanted a curved faucet and stainless/brass and Brett wanted a sprayer. I also got it with a soap dispenser which I think is invaluable on a boat so we don't have a bottle floating around on the counter all the time. So now all we need for the plumbing is (of course, the hoses/valves) the ceramic sink and 2 hand/foot manual pumps (1 for salt water at the galley, 1 for manual fresh at the galley. Those are spendy so I am not sure when we'll get those. But the running faucets will get us moved in anyway.

Brett started on the galley yesterday. He put in the sub-

flooring. It's great, now I can really see the outline of the galley! We still have enough teak/holly scrap to lay in there so we only need to buy one sheet of $150 teak/holly for the salon. It's great how we keep getting blessed with these kinds of things... It's really exciting to see the galley getting started.

We are also taking a look at building a cockpit table that folds down on the binnacle. My grandfather sent us a beautiful piece of Mahogany that will probably work beautifully for it but we have to do some more designing so it fits properly. A cockpit table is very important for us as this will be where we spend a lot of our time. Brett can build a beautiful wooden one. Online, they range from $250-$700!

Brett got asked to do a big boat job yesterday. So he is over at the boat yard now working on it. A swing keel broke the fiberglass of the bottom of the boat!! Ouch! So Brett has to squeeze into the casing with his grinder and grind a lot and then re-glass the casing where the keel goes. HUGE job. The owner is so happy to find someone who can do it around here though. So that will help with the money we didn't make in Rosenberg. Whew. God always takes care of us....

I have been really anxious, stressed and worried lately. I think there is so much going on with the boat, money, jewelry shows, holidays, etc that I am letting it get to me. I need to find a way to relax and not worry so much... I was doing pretty good until I ran into bank problems and now I am wound up tight again... I need to learn to trust God again, that He'll take care of us like he always has.

I am gearing up for our huge show in December, the Dickens on the Strand- Victorian themed. Brett made me buy blue fabric for the skirt so I'd be happier with the color choice. I had Mom get me a green skirt at Goodwill but worried about the colors. But I found some blue China Silk for $1.97 a yard so I will sew that to the green skirt. It's thin, so the green skirt will give it form and warmth. (Sorry, Mom). I had some dark blue material already I was going to use for my cape but it's not wide enough. This costume thing has been SO stressful for me because it needs to look NICE since my jewelry is nice but I can't stand the thought of paying $250 for a nice costume... It's been very stressful. I have been actually having nightmares about this show! LOL I still need to make a bonnet too. Hopefully I can pull this blue material together into a pretty costume. We'll see...

The weather is still HOT and humid down here. I actually have the air conditioner on today!!! OMG! Isn't that crazy? It's not usually this hot I guess. Nothing has been normal for weather here this year.

Well, I'd better go get to cleaning up the boat again while Brett is away. Go to clean his mess. It's my specialty now adays. LOL

Love y'all and pray you are all doing well! I know a lot of my family and friends have been sick in that nasty weather you're all having in Oregon. Please get better and stay healthy. Love you all.

A lot has happened this week!

For Halloween, Brett carved my pumpkin. It was so cute and I think he had fun doing it, whether he admits or not. LOL The pumpkin sat on our picnic table for two nights, lighting up the marina. Very cute.

On Halloween, we received our starter in the mail! Brett took it over to the engine and put it on. IT FIT!!! YAY!! We tried to start the engine but the batteries were not charged enough to turn over the huge engine. So the next day, on Thursday morning, Brett set to work to start the engine while I made jewelry. about 10am, he rode his bike to the camper and waved frantically at me to come see. So I went over and he started the motor for me. It started on the first turn and ran beautifully! It purred like a kitten! Definitely rebuilt! Hardly any vibration to her either. When he first started it that morning, he had gotten Dennis to go over and "hold his hand", he was so nervous about it. So we were walking on clouds with this great engine running beautifully. We set to work that day prepping the boat and the engine to be installed. That night, we watched the weather report and prayed the wind would blow from the North in the morning and South in the evening like it did that day. The weather report confirmed this would happen.

On Friday morning, about 8am, Dennis met us at the boat and we sailed the boat over to the pump out station with the storm jib. There was really no wind, but what there was, was coming out of the North. PERFECT. We made it around the corner of the docks and lost our wind as we made that turn. The storm jib was actually to small to lug around our 8 ton boat. LOL
Brett and Dennis "sculled" with our windsurfer mast in the mud and I steered. She steers WONDERFULLY. I have NO qualms handling our boat, it's like she was built for me. I added a video of the engine starting below.

Finally we looked behind us and here comes Tommy in his row boat at 830 in the morning to give us a tow. It was so sweet! So we threw him a line and made a lot of funny jokes and he pulled us over to the pump out station before we drifted off into the bay. My hero! LOL

It was getting HOT. Brett and Dennis went to the engine to strap her to the backhoe while I visited with Fred and Larry. Brett and Dennis decided to put the engine in the back of Dennis' truck, thinking the boom of the boat would reach it better than the ground. Brett picked the pump out station area because it was the closest spot from the water to land where we could set the engine. They drove over there and found the truck too high so they put it on the ground with the backhoe. For about an hour, Brett and Dennis worked on swinging it over onto the boat while I took pictures and video. Soon, Brian came up and helped them heave her to the boat and into the companionway. Then, Brett asked me to run the winch to lowering her into the boat.

We set her in with only one minor break that Brett has already fixed. Everything went really well. A lot of people in the park and marina did not believe Brett could use the boat's boom to swing the 350 lb engine. Brett said that if that boom couldn't lift and swing that engine, how would it take the force of a main sail in the wind? It was a really good test for our equipment, the lines and boom and blocks. And they performed beautifully. We truly are blessed with this boat.

I was DYING to take the boat out even though the engine wasn't hooked up. But soon we will. Brett tinkered with the engine and I put the lifelines and sheetlines back where they needed to be. In the afternoon, the wind shifted to the South, just like we wanted! We made plans to sail her out. It was breezier than we wanted and we tried to figure out how to sail her out without being blown into the piling to the SW of us. The channel right there is extremely narrow and extremely shallow. In fact, when we turned the boat around and pulled her further down the dock, she grounded in the mud. It was shallow!

Charl showed up and pulled/pushed us along with a new Canadian friend so we could get momentum to swing around the pilings. Charl jumped aboard. Brett took the wheel and I took control of the jib sheet for the storm jib. Charl schulled a little bit with the windsurfer mast but Brett eased us around the pilings with the sail. It went well. We sailed around the dock and scooted to our slip. He had me drop the jib as we neared the slip. Dennis and the Canadian were at our slip to fend off and catch our lines. Everything went well.

The help we've received at Serendipity has been amazing. We've made some great friends and met some great people!

So our engine is in! Brett worked on it most the day yesterday after helping Dan at the boatyard with his packing gland. Brett thought he would have to rebuild the transmission but the cleaning he gave it this summer seemed to have done the trick! It resealed itself! So we are going to try the tranny as is.

Today, Brett got into the water (ick!) to mess with the prop shaft. After aligning the engine yesterday, he found that he needs to push the shaft forward about 3 inches to align with the engine.

This pelican is our ol' "BROKEN WING". We saw him months ago and tried to help him but the Texas Park and Wildlife wouldnt find him to help him. He is STILL here and has adapted to his broken wing! He hangs out with the other pelicans on the breakwater in front of the fisherman's cleaning station.

The "CannonBall Jellyfish" are here, also called CabbageHeads. They are all over in the marina. We have been told by the locals (our friends, Bill and Mary Lou) that it means the water is back to normal. The jellyfish migration is late this year but they are here. Apparantely they don't sting. Very interesting. They range from the size of a golf ball to a little larger than a softball. We have seen a man o war jellyfish while we had the boat by the pumpout station too! These are not normal in here and they DO sting!

I have been working on getting my inventory back up for jewelry shows. I was down almost 5 trays of jewelry! I have slowly but surely made a lot more and even got some new pieces posted to my website. I can't wait for our show next weekend! It's funny, though, because I don't recognize any of this new jewelry. It isn't familiar and feels like strangers in my trays. LOL

I also got my new shoes finally. I wore my Tevas till they literally rotted off my feet! I wanted more Tevas but I knew boat shoes would be more logical. Brett discovered that Teva makes boat shoes in our Latitudes & Attitudes magazine! I found them through Cabalas for a great price and now have Teva Boat Shoes! I am so excited and they are SO comfortable!!

I thought would catch everyone up on our big news of the week! What a huge obstacle we've just completed!! Very very exciting. Not only that, but the engine runs great. Yay!

I am hoping to post more pictures onto my picasa web album under MY PICTURES link. Be sure to go check it out soon!