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!