We Finally Got Our Chair Up!

We finally got the chair up! I dug it out of the boat and then went for a row in our dinghy. When I got back, I found Brett swinging in it. He had tied it to our spinnaker halyard and then tied that up so it would be up. It worked brilliantly! Yay! So relaxing!

We went for a small sail yesterday on Bill and Mary Lou's boat, Woodwind. We went last week, too, and Brett had me steer. This time we went out with Bill, Mary Lou, and our new friend, the Frenchman, Phillipe. Phillipe got here about 2-3 weeks ago- He bought Charlie's old boat a few months ago over the internet and just got here from France to work on it. It's his first time in America! We've been helping him with tools and taking him to dinner and of course, sailing! I also lent him my other laptop so he could order supplies and email back home. We took him to PMR (Palacios Mexican Restaurant) where he had his first Mexican food. He knows A LOT about sailing and boats and we've enjoyed spending time with him. He has some cool equipment that he uses for navigation. It's been really fun to talk with him about boats and France. He knows our design boat, Wauquiez, as it is French and he really likes our boat. He said it's a good boat.

Well, I'd better go make some jewelry. Love you all and hope you are doing well! I am posting pretty pictures I took last night of the bay and the shrimp boats.

A"head" In Progress

Hi y'all! We're still here, plugging away, slowly but surely. Brett worked for the park in exchange for rent which was really nice. We ordered a new head (toilet) and water heater. We received the head Tuesday and Brett has been installing it along with hoses. We decided to buy a new head instead of rebuilding the old one. It was only a little more money yet we have a new toilet now. It's exactly the same one, just new. He also installed the holding tank shelf and the water inlet fitting. Another hole in the deck! eek!


We haven't received our water heater yet, hopefully it's not lost! Yesterday, Brett installed the blocks we got to run the main sheet of the main sail. I think he was really glad to get that done. Even though it doesn't promote moving aboard, it does promote sailing which is also our main objective.

Last week, the Palacios Yacht Club (Mary Lee and Bill) invited Brett and I to use their kayaks. I had never kayaked before! I had always wanted to. Since we weren't getting a lot done, we went ahead and tried it. It was a lot easier than I had thought and fun!

Earlier this week, my grandmother ended up in the hospital with pains. No one really knows what is going on which is frustrating but they let her go home on Thursday because the anxiety at the hosptial was worse for her than being home. I am so worried about her stress level and her health.. I hate not being there for her...

We finally found and ordered a starter. A guy in Seabrook TX knew a lot about Westerbeke's and found us our starter! $800 ! ouch! but it should be here in about a week and a half and we'll have it. Unfortunately we had to use a credit card to get it but we'll have it. That is one of our biggest obstacles right now.

With that done, I am refocusing over to the haulout in Nov or Dec. This will entail taking the boat out of the water and checking/replacing all of the fittings that go through the boat's hull. We also need to check/replace the strut that holds the prop. We'll probably need to replace the prop as this engine is much bigger. We are going to paint the bottom and I am keeping my fingers crossed we'll be able to paint the topsides (hull). But it's an extra $300-$500 or so to do it so we'll see.. Depends what we have to do to the thru hull fittings, the strut, prop and the keel.

I am getting geared up for our next show in Rosenberg, Nov 10-11. I made 7 new necklaces yesterday and 3 the day before. I made 4 watches and am geared up to make 4 more when I get more clasps. I made a couple rings, too, but they aren't turning out as easily as before. I'll try again later.

The weather has finally cooled here, to the point we are using a heater and wearing fleeces. It'd probably be warm to you in Oregon! The Northerly blew in Monday and it's been colder ever since. It's so nice though, it is so fallish for here. I love it. Brings back memories of last year and of Oregon , too. There are tons of butterflies (Monarchs) and Dragonflies flying around everywhere!! In about a month, the black moths will be back.

Well, it's about time to go help Brett on Ginsing (I am putting tape on the teak for him). Hope you are all doing well, I haven't heard from a lot of you in awhile. Let me know how you are doing.

More pictures in my web album, please take a look under the link to the right MY PICTURES.

Miss you all!!

ANOTHER GOOD SHOW AND BOAT IS COMING ALONG

We had our show last weekend in Bastrop, TX. It was a pretty drive there and we stayed at Bauscher State Park near Bastrop. We asked for a quiet spot so they moved us to a different circle. We set up as the park volunteer ran the leaf blower in our circle for an hour.

It was nice to be in the forest again, even if it was a Texan forest.

Soon, other people surrounded our site. Before we knew it, there were literally dozens of kids screaming while racing around on their bicycles. We ended up in the middle of a multi- family camp out. Nice and quiet, eh?

We discovered these beautiful purple berries throughout the campground. Gorgeous.

We walked to the office where we had checked in so we could get sodas and look around. We found out there were very poisonous snakes around that area (The Coral snake? They have a saying-"Red and Yella, You're a Dead Fella"

We tip toed back to the campsite.

The next morning we got up early and drove to the Art on the Bridge in Bastrop. They had numbers picked out for us and we were one of the last ones and had about one and half hour wait. When we got there, they had instructed a little honda to cross over the pipe that had blocked traffic from entering the pedestrian bridge for the other 364 days of the year. She drove over it and proceeded to get stuck. Finally some guys lifted her car over the pipe but Brett said that damage had been done to her muffler. I felt so sorry for her.

After sitting around for about a half hour, Brett took a walk down to our booth on the bridge, about 800 feet down, and realized that we were too wide to make it down the aisle. So we parked and got out our heavy equipment and walked it all to the booth. Someone lent us a hand-truck to get our totes but we had already carried the heavy tables all the way.

We got setup just in time, luckily we had gotten in there an hour early.

The show ended up really good. Bastrop was beautiful and had a lot of nice people in it. Apparantely Julia Roberts had filmed a movie there and visited a little cafe where we got coffee. We weren't expecting to make even the booth fee there during the one day show but we ended up selling a ton of inventory.

We stopped in Columbus, TX for a milkshake. After waiting for awhile for 30 people to get through the line at McDonald's, we gave up and headed to Jack In The Box. We parked and as we got out of the car noticed the thousands of black birds over the restaurant! It was absolutely incredible! The pictures don't even start to show all of them. They lived in the huge oak across from the restaurant and were all over the electric lines.

We decided to drive all the way home after the show (3 hour drive). During our drive home, I realized I didn't have enough inventory or supplies to do the show this weekend coming up. I had ordered all the supplies under the sun except the one supply I couldn't do without- Crimp Beads....

Monday, we packed everything up in the camper again and headed to Bay City to go to the bead shop and get the crimp beads. It felt forever to get there and when we did, we discovered the shop was closed. I cried because it cost so much money to drive there and took up so much time and it meant I had no supplies to make the inventory...

We decided that we would forfeit our booth fee for this weekend so we could work and rebuild the inventory up when I got materials. It had become stressful to do a show every weekend and without the supplies, it was very difficult.

This week we worked on the boat a lot. We bolted on the mounts for the two poles on deck. Brett built blocks for the spinnaker pole mounts out of a beautiful hard wood. I helped him through-bolt them and cleaned the calking. On Tuesday, we got the washers for the engine's fuel injector and Brett spent most the day installing them.

Brett also got paid so we had a chunk of money- we paid our bills and bought as much boat stuff as we could. We ended up getting a new toilet and a water heater as well as other misc items needed. Unfortunately, we had decided not to buy the starter. We thought Brett would have been able to turn the motor without it but he was not able to. It's so hard making decisons on such a limited income but we can only do what we can do... That starter has been a thorn in our side for awhile but we are concentrating on getting moved onto the boat and to do that we needed the toilet and water heater before the starter...

We made the decision to go ahead and install the engine next week. He feels pretty confident that the engine is in excellent shape. We always look at our worst case scenario and our worst case for this would be to have to pull the engine out again. So we decided, so we could keep working on the boat, that we would go ahead and drop it in the boat and get the starter from our next show.

After we put the engine in, we'll be able to start building the galley and finish the nav table area. These last two days, we decided to put the part of the flooring in. I helped Brett yesterday- We bought two sheets of pressure treated plywood for the subflooring and we had a scrap of Teak & Holly ply for the forward part of the boat. Yesterday we were able to get the subflooring and teak into the forward part of the boat. Unfortunately part of the teak ripped as Brett was prying it up to place the glue. Unfortunately I walked in right when he did it. Whew, sparks were flyin! We had to use the piece though since it was all we had. We finished prying the piece out and then I left to give Brett space. He was able to put the Teak down and he glued up the torn section. Luckily it is in the locker area and will probably never be seen. We are also putting a rug down in that part of the boat, too. It was heartbreaking though because you can't just go buy another $150 Teak & Holly sheet of ply from the local lumberyard...

We need one more piece to finish the salon area. We have to travel to Houston to get it so we are thinking we might get one during our next show in Galveston in November. It's so expensive though. ugh. But it will look SO nice... We had gotten this other Teak&Holly ply from Charl as scrap for free. These scraps covered the forward part of the boat as well as most the galley area! Very nice. It saved us from having to buy 2 sheets.

Well I am having a lot of problems with the internet again so I need to post this before I lose connection again... Enjoy!

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!