Visits Galore

We had a wonderful visit last week with Brett's daughter, Melody. They hadn't seen each other in 8-10 years. While waiting for her flight to come in, Brett and I stopped at the Boat Resale Shop in Kemah where we had bought our stove. We ended up finding a teak folding salon table!! We asked him to lower the price. Brett was going to build one of these days but the price was cheaper on this table than building one. It ended up being a little long but he spent a few hours and cut it down to a great fit! So we now have a table in the salon.

After we checked into the B&B, we had a few hours before Melody's flight so we walked along the Kemah Boardwalk. We had a great time and even spotted "The Wanderer" in a locked up marina. The Wanderer was the boat in the movie "Captain Ron". It was fun to see her in person.

Melody flew into Houston and we stayed the night at Clipper House Inn in Kemah. We ate at Joe's Crabshack on the boardwalk. Melody and I ended up having the bartender spike our cokes! It was weird! None of us drink so it made quite the scene. LOL I've never known diet coke to go down warm. LOL We got Melody a Crabshack tee shirt for a souvenier.

The next day, we visited NASA Johnson Space Center. We ended up driving through the security parking lot of the actual campus before being redirected to the Johnson Space Center, where the tourists are supposed to arrive at. We spent a few hours at NASA before heading back. We all had expected a little more out of NASA, but the space center had been built around touristy money making business and children for the space camp. But it was still really neat to see the campus on the tram tour. There was a shuttle that was in space, too, (STS-124) so that was really cool.

We drove back through Galveston and waded in the Gulf's 83 degree water. Melody couldn't believe how warm it was!

We spent Friday preparing our renaming ceremony for the boat at the yacht club. Brett got into a costume and played Neptune. He read a script we'd found online to do the proper ceremony of renaming a boat, including buying expensive champagne and wine. Mike, a friend of ours, donated two nice bottles of French Wine that we christened the boat with and shared with our friends.

I and Melody dressed up and we had about 30 friends gather with us at the yacht club for the celebration. We had a fantastic time, especially having Melody there.













On Saturday we drove to Matagorda Beach and played in the water and flew Brett's kite I had bought him for his Birthday in March. It was really a beautiful day.

After work on Sunday, I painted the name on the boat. Melody sat with me on the floating dock for the 2 hours it took. Both the floating dock and the boat were jumping up and down in the choppy water but the names turned out okay. I even ended up having some friends ask me to paint their name on their boat!

On Monday, we were finally able to take the boat out with Melody. We took an hour and really strapped everything down as the wind had been houling for the last week. Brett reefed the main but in the end, it wasn't windy, just choppy so we only averaged about 3 knots. But it was a beautiful sail and Melody really enjoyed it.

Her and Brett played some awesome Chess with each other. They were both very good and they loved having such a challenging opponent.

We drove her back up to Houston on Tuesday, using Ann's car that she had graciously let us borrow. Our car had a pulley come loose and we felt sure it wouldn't make another trip to Walmart let alone Houston.

She ended up being stuck on the plane in Houston for 2 hours while a nasty storm hit. She got home late but it worked out in the end as her friend was going to pick her up late in Sacramento.

Yesterday, Brett and I worked on the boat and attempted to free the windvane again. After purchasing the windvane from Bill, we discovered that the rotating part was completely frozen together, aluminum to aluminum. ack. Brett spent 4 weeks soaking it with commercial grade oil (thank you Dale at ACE!!) I suggested he work on it yesterday. We turned the boat around and mounted it. He strung up a pulley system with a winch, using the boat as leverage to free the frozen part. We had been very bummed this last month at the prospect of our expensive windvane being deemed useless... He pulled and pulled on it but it didn't budge. Then I suggested that he beat on it with a hammer while I pulled on the winch. After several tries, it finally came loose!!! We hooted and hollered in excitement. Then we spent an hour swinging it back and forth with ropes (him on one end on our dock and me across the slips with another rope). We seemed to have finally freed it up and it will be usable. WHEW. Huge relief for us...

Benny LOVES shoes.

Updates and Inner Thoughts

We have decided to hold an official renaming ceremony for our boat at the yacht club. Brett's daughter is coming for a visit for a week and we will hold the ceremony while she is here. We have invited all of our sailing friends to partake in this age old tradition. It should be a lot of fun. We're really excited to have Melody with us for a few days as well. We plan on staying in Kemah the night she flies in and visiting the Nasa Space Center the next day. We also hope to get a lot of sailing in while she is here.

We made a lot of small improvements on the boat this last weekend including a cockpit table and cup holder, repairing and replacing the main sail with the other one, deep cleaning, and other small projects. We plan to focus on the haul out again after Melody's visit.

Brett got the propane hooked up for the stove and oven! He rebuilt the propane locker to hold our larger tank and installed the hose to run the propane to the cooking stove. It's exciting to finally have the stove but we have yet to try it out. LOL One step closer to cruising!

My new computer's hard drive already crashed but Dell sent a new hard drive after some prodding under the warranty. Luckily I was able to backup most of the pictures and documents.

I have not done a lot with jewelry the last three weeks but I do still plan on visiting galleries to sell my pieces around the big cities.

Thinking out Loud on a Late Night....

I always tell ya about what we are doing but don't often share the insecurities. It's late and I probably should be in bed as I have an 11 hour day tomorrow...

I have been getting overwhelmed by the lack of security that cruising comes with, especially when finances are meager, and have struggled greatly the last couple weeks with it. I battle financial burden and feeling like a good partner in all aspects of Brett and I's life together.

The hardest part of choosing this new life is letting go of ALL securities and as we get closer to our date, I have been struggling more and more. I sometimes feel lost and separated from everyone in my life and that can be so hard sometimes. Money really still controls my feelings and attitude. I spent 4 years preparing for the financial insecurities that sailors face and recognize that I have to fight through them to make this a rewarding experience.

My emotions have been messing with me lately. I see a lot of the difficulties in this venture and sometimes forget to look at the wonders of it. Such as the beauty of the scenery, the simplicity, the people we meet. I tried to make drastic decisions that would change Brett and I's life but those decisions are a hard call for being the right or wrong decision. Fight or Flight is a real struggle for me right now and I hope that my loved ones continue to pray for Brett and I's strength and safety through God who has blessed us so incredibly.

It's late and I am rambling and will regret in the morning.

We are doing well, yes we are, and are so glad you keep up with our adventure.

Love you all and please keep us in your prayers.

Kyla