Updates

Hello from HOT Texas!

I gave my notice at ACE for June 3rd on Wednesday but some changes happened so I might stay longer. Brett and I discussed me traveling in the car to stores in Austin, Galveston, Corpus Christi to sell my jewelry to them and to maybe do shows.

I got my passport in the mail yesterday. The first passport I've ever had. It was VERY cool!! Brett's will be hopefully be here in about a month.

We have decided to get the stove finally hooked up. YAY!!!! FinAlLy!! I am ordering a hose and regulator today. WHew. It has been SO expensive to eat out like we do!

We got our VHF hooked up finally. We had gotten a new antenna, new cable and Brett went up the mast to install it. Our friend, Eddie, had given us his old VHF when he bought a new one so that was great! It works great! We get the weather on there, too, which is nice. Brett had me test the VHF on Channel 16. "This is S/V Benevolence, requesting a radio check". We got a response right back of, "yup". LOL It was cool. I was the first one ever to call out our boat. hee hee.

We had driven down to Rockport to the Nautical Flea Market (that I had mentioned last week) and I forgot to mention that we ran into the guy on his boat that had sold me my gemstones! We were looking at boats and there Mike was, sitting on the bow of S/V Carol Ann, with his new puppy. We reintroduced ourselves and chatted for awhile. He is still planning on heading out a couple months after we do. So we may run into him one of these days! I enjoyed our visit with him and was glad to see he was doing so well. I hope so much we will someday run into these great sailors we meet here in Texas down in Isla Mujeres or Roatan or Panama.

Yesterday, I put up our white tarps to help keep the sun off the boat. It makes a huge difference. About 20 degrees! And it helps flow the wind into the boat. It was blistering hot yesterday at 92 with a lot of humidity but today it is raining and in the 60's. It feels nice actually. The rain always reminds me of Oregon. (sigh) The tarps are helping keep the rain out so we can leave the hatches open, too.


Last week, we spotted a 6ft alligator hanging out in the marina. I spent most the day watching it. I ended up with a horrendous sun burn on my back. Ack. I went out and bought Aloe Vera gel with medicine as well as Copperguard spf 50 for UVB/UVA rays so that BETTER work.

I have another meeting with our new South Texas Coastal Beading Society tonight. I hope so much everyone comes back and keeps up with it.

We are discussing an a/c finally. It didn't take Brett long. LOL. He didn't really want one but as it gets hotter, he is rethinking that. He really wants a marine a/c ($1200-2500) but I reminded him we still need a generator to use it when we aren't hooked up to shore power. For now, we're borrowing a unit from Dennis that will sit on our main hatch above the salon. There is a hood with it that will help direct the flow of air down to the inside of the boat. It will make going sailing a real pain but so do the tarps. Staying cool and sailing are a hard mixture.

I haven't done much with the clay this week but I made some more pieces for the websites yesterday. I wasn't thrilled with them but hopefully someone will love them.

Hope y'all are doin' well.

Love- Kyla (and Brett)

Lots of Sailing

Even with SPF 45, I fried after this 2 hour sailing trip...

Benny loves Latitudes & Attitudes too.
The pet article of course.


We're determined to leave Palacios by Sept 25th (the same day we left Oregon in 2006).

Our goals rely on our haulout, installing water tanks and a propane tank for the stove and to stock up a cruising 'kitty' before we leave for 3 months of cruising.


We went to the Rockport Nautical Flea Market last Saturday. The car drove there well. The market was not very good, there was mostly crafts and antique stuff and fishing gear. But it was nice to get out of town and have a Starbucks coffee. :) We did end up getting a 12v fan to install in the salon (main cabin). We need at least 2 to 3 more.


I am part of the South Texas Coastal Beading Society with Ann and Rebecca. Last weekend, I built a website for us and a local couple donated an apartment for the guild to use for beading and crafts. We have our first meeting on Friday and are excited to finally have everyone get together to bead, do clay and craft. The new website I built is http://www.sotxcbs.weebly.com/


I have been continuing to create with polymer clay. I have made some jewelry and am really enjoying this new media!































Ann, Rebecca and I had a contest for making clay Love Bugs (A HUGE pest here in Texas). This was my entry. None of could decide who's was best, they were all SO cute!!















I went into Victoria with Rebecca and her daughter, Emily, last week. That was fun. It is always nice to get out of town. We went to the mall but it didn't feel right being in a mall. I felt very out of place. But we had a lot of fun there and at Hobby Lobby which is a huge craft store, similar to Michaels but bigger.

We have taken the boat out a couple times since our last post. S/V (sailing vessel) Sparrow was also out and we tracked her down and sailed back to the marina with her in wonderful winds. She is a 38 Morgan, beautiful. The owner is selling her and he had taken our friend, John, out with him to try her out. It was a blast to sail with another boat and we both got great pics of each other!



I LOVE this picture!

The weekend before, we also went sailing and had a pod of 5 dolphins swim with us!!! It was awesome! We were cruising at 7.2 mph, and even hit 7.8 mph which is her hull speed. We were pleased that she averaged 6.5 easily. Benevolence is a smooth, fast S/V!































Brett has been getting the canvas done. He has the dodger and bimini up and almost completed. Next, he'll build the weather cloths for the cockpit to protect us from spray. We will need to buy more fabric to finish a new mainsail cover and a forsail cover.

It's Been Awhile...

Sorry it's been so long since I've written updates. As you can see, Benny is settling in puuuurrrrrfectly...












































We have ended up with a car for me to drive around. It seems to run really good and it is so nice to have something to drive around!


We have discovered a windvane to purchase from another boat friend that we are so excited about.



Brett has gotten the dodger built (the windshield for the cockpit). The sunbrella we ended up with is light purple. He is building a bimini right now- We have one (the blue canvas in all the pictures) but it is old and has micro holes in it. We are redoing all the canvas in this light purple sunbrella. It's not pretty but very functional and very inexpensive due to the color of it. Once we repaint the hull white have all the canvas purple, it will look much better than it does now. We laugh so much as we have a blue hull, yellow windows, a red wind generator and purple canvas. LOL We've already been named "The Palacios Plum" which I will draw a picture of on her bow when we are done.














Brett has done a lot more mini projects to make our cruising more pleasant. He has installed a paper plate dispenser, 12v fan, kerosene lantern and many other small items. I stained our basket weave plates to match our boat. That was fun. Except I got stain splatter all over the cockpit!! OOPS!!! I also had wrapped the compression post with ropework.


















We have made the decision to head toward the Yucatan rather than the Bahamas. We will go up to Galveston and then cut South down to the Yucatan. We are hoping to start cruising the end of this year, Sept/Oct/Nov, after the hurricane season.
























































































We were also able to purchase and install our binnacle compass.



I went to a gem show Sunday before last with some coworkers of mine (Ann and Rebecca) and their three daughters. It was a lot of fun. We ate at two nice restaurants (La Madeline for breakfast and Cheesecake Factory for dinner). We went to Michael's before the show and bought a bunch of beads and clay before the gem show. I had never tried polymer clay jewelry and with the sale, I picked up several blocks and the tools needed to get me started. I have since done three different batches of jewelry and pens. I LOVE it. Very artsy and fun. I also plan on making a plaque for the head to match the handpainted Mexican sink to hang over the towel bar. I only use a toaster oven to bake the clay. Since we aren't getting a microwave, I justified a small toaster oven. :) I had to really play it up that I could make toast to get my oven but it worked. HEE HEE ;0) The clay is much cheaper than gemstones and a lot more work but I like it a lot. I still bought a ton of pearls from the gem show and can't wait to make more jewelry with it.

































I am trying to gear up my jewelry online again. We will not be showing anymore due to lack of space on the boat.

We have only sailed two times since my last post. We tried out the genoa and then the second time was just the main with a lot of chop out there on the water. The boat handles well in those conditions so far. We haven't tried her in heavier weather yet. Living aboard makes it difficult to properly store everthing when underway while we are still so unfinished (no drawers, cabinet doors, etc).

Hope everyone is well.