Christmas Parade Weekend at TLM

 I know it has been a long time since I  posted, but I have been busy on the other blog ( excuses, escuses). So, anyway.... this weekend the annual Christmas Parade celebration. We have had Christmas parades in weather so cold that you did not want to get out of the boat. But this weekend, the weather was beautiful. So Travis Lake Marina did things right!!
First, we ate - starting at 4:00 pm, everyone was invited to come have appetizers the ship store - UFLOATEM. The new owners let us bring food and drink down to the deck of the store and we visited and ate enough food to fill us all up (not remembering that after the boat parade, we would be eating dinner over on L-dock.

These are the new ship store owners, Lance, Teddy and Veronica. We are thrilled that they have chosen to be not only boat owners but store owners. We have all been wanting UFLOATEM to come back to its glory days and now there is hope.

This is just a sampling of the group. PD took tons of pictures, but I don't like to post closeups without a person's permission and we were way too busy having fun for me to remember to ask about that.

The evening was approaching and the weather was beautiful. Here is a shot of Starnes island just before sunset.

This was the leader in the boat parade last night. It just happens to belong to the president of the marina association and his wife, Mark and Janie Miller.

This is not the greatest shot, but at least one can see that there were lots of boats in the prade this year which was a wonderful sight.

We rode on a houseboat belong to friends on M-dock. Since you can't see the face of this fellow boat owner, I thought I would post the picture to show that we were having a good time.

 

So... a good time was had by all.

PD did actually get some work in this morning before we left to come back home.

He did some generator check up.

 

And then he worked on the old and heavy batteries. The thought is to replace them eventually with something lighter and easier to handle.

 

Boat Three

Just a quick note to say I actually tried out boat #3 about three weekends ago. Philip thought this might be a useful mode of transportation while cruising in the ICW or on the rivers... so we bought one. I am not graceful getting in or out, but then neither is Philip. (No pictures of this, thank goodness.) But I did row all the way over to Starnes Island and back.

So, yet another play toy, but it could be good exercise. Good for your arms for sure. Perhaps we will need a second!

The Dinghy

It occurred to me that I had not posted anything about our dinghy purchase. First, had come to debate - "to dinghy or not to dinghy". We read the many postings by "loopers" who wrote that they had travelled the entire loop without one and then we read the opposing viewpoint written by those loopers who wrote that it was absolutely necessary to have one so that you could anchor out at night and still be able to go to the marinas, the restaurants, the stores, etc via your little boat.
Then came all of the research as to which dinghy to get, IF we were going to do so. We looked at EVERYTHING! We even went to the Miami boat show to look at them first hand. (Ironically, the Miami boat show vendors aren't very interested in displaying little boats - not enough revenue possibilities compared to the more expensive items they could sell.

Anyway, we looked at hard sided boats - like the Livingston boats. Then we considered every brand of soft sided boat. We talked to everyone we knew who had a dinghy to ask their opinion plus we read everything we could on many of the blogs out there. We finally made our decision and purchased a Achilles RIB. Plus we purchased it from Triad Marine in Kemah, TX.

http://store.triadmarine.com/cart.html

These folks were great plus they were close to home. By the way, they also have a blog with great information. They do a lot of work on search and rescue boats, but their blog has lots of info on safety issues and equipment.

http://triadmarine.blogspot.com/

We've now hauled it home to Boerne, to Lake Travis and back again. So, yes, we have had it in the water, but unfortunately, not for long. We hauled it back to Triad for them to attach our registration numbers and now she waits patiently for her attachment to HEY JUDE.

All of that stuff inside the boat is the Davit system that must be installed on HEY JUDE so we can raise her up and carry her as we travel. I'll give info on the DAVIT system purchase later.

Now, the conversation has been, do we name this little boat or is that to hokey. We do envision times that our dinghy might be tied up along with several others at a dock, at a restaurant, etc, so manybe a name would be a good idea. Then, if we do name her, should we keep that name somehow connected to the Hey Jude idea? No decision yet.  



Weekend at the Lake

Well two exciting things happened this weekend:

1.  Philip accomplised the first half of the water pump repair (remember back in the spring when this broke and we had to be towed back into the marina from the middle of the lake??). Well he got the first half of this finished on Sunday.
This picture does not do justice to the uncomfortable position he has to get in to do some of these repairs!
The second half of this job will be done during the next weekend.

2. There was a rather huge storm that occurred this weekend and ravaged some boats and other structures.

This was taken from inside the boat looking out toward the lake.

Several party barges were caught out in the storm. These two had to be towed to the shore (not where they boarded, by the way) by Sea Tow.

This is our deck after the first round of the storm when we turned over the furniture to hopefully keep it from sliding into the water. We had already lost two of the straight back chairs to the waters of our slip and the big table had gone into the lake but PD pulled it back out. All but two of the tables tiles were missing! The catfish are probably aready making themselves comfortable under them.

You can also see the end of the courtesy dock in the picture. It should not be visible in this view.

This is the other end of the courtsey dock, broken loose from the shore and sunken. However in the middle of the lull between storms, the marina crew got out and quickly fixed it.

And this was round two of the storm coming with one more after that. Some lightening but lots of very loud thunder occured in this storm. Three of the houseboats on our marina were caught out but made it back. One suffered damage to the bimini top. Three other neighbors in big Formulas and Sea Rays rode out the storm at anchor in different coves.

We.... on the other hand, had made it wisely back into the marina before the storm because we had been out on the JET SKI!

Adding Official Documentation and a "Fitting"

There are so many things to do to one's vessel to make sure she is legal. We have the official yearly Texas registration decal already affixed to the bow.

Yesterday, Philip added the official "Poop Sticker". Actually, this sticker certifies that you, as a boat owner, have "certified" that you have the correct sanitation device on your boat and that it is in good condition. You can be stopped by officials if you do not have this sticker displayed. So..... PD applied this sticker to the both sides of the bow of Hey Jude.

The port side was easy for him to do. The starboard side... not so much!

Now, lest you think I have been idly doing nothing except taking pictures, I have evidence that I have been making progress on sewing the enclosures for the back deck. (Remember that heavy duty sewing machine I bragged about purchasing in an earlier posting?). Well after seeing two other Manatees with enclosures that are screen only (and therefore one must have a separate set that have the "glass" windows.), we decided that's what we want. So, I started on the first panel and with crossed fingers and tried it out yesterday. I thought I'd better make sure the top of it actually fits into the little track that is installed at the top of the deck. So all I have completed is the top part of the enclosure and the screen. AND HOORAY!!!  It fits! It's kind of hard to see in the picture, but if you squint, you can see the screen.



Now. I have to rewatch those instructional videos again from Sailrite and tackle zippers on each side and fasteners at the bottom and do the wole thing six more times!!



Re-retiring!

So what does one do when one "re-reitres"? I'm back to that high school-like question of "What are you going to do when you graduate/retire? So far, since Monday June, 4th, my last day at work, I have:

   1. Worked like crazy in the Windsongs bell shop!
   2. Travelled to and from Nashville, TN with Philip and completed an art show there.
   3. Sewn - a bag for art show tent poles, finished a quilt for the granddaughter, a "fishy" gift bag
   4. Gardened
   5. Made contact by email with three of the ladies I have met this past year who own Manatees.

Hmmm, notice there is nothing in there about being on Hey Jude. Yes, that's right. No progress there. But we will rectify that this weekend. We will get out to the lake, clean her up from the invading spiders and hopefully get the water pump fixed so we can get her out on the lake.

She does have her flag flying, but since we might be there on the Fourth this year, perhaps I can get her decorated appropriately this weekend.

Saying Goodbye

There are lots of things we are doing to get our plan ready to take Hey Jude out on the Loop. One of those things was to sell our other boat, Bon Dia. Well happily and sadly, we accomplished that this weekend. This is our boat that we travelled all the way to Tennessee to the Sea Ray factory back in 2005 to watch her being built.

Then we brought her to Lake Travis, christened her and then enjoyed her for many years.

We spent many afternoons tied up with other boats, soaking in the lake, driving to lake restaurants.

The first three grandkids got to spend time on her. This is a picture of the first one, Will, and his Dad.

We will miss her, but are happy that the new owners is a couple with a little baby girl. That makes us feel a little better.

 Today, before we left the marina, I looked over and there was an empty slip where she used to sit :(

               It is good. No one should own two boats, at least no one in our income range!!

Hey Jude's Status (or OUR Status!)

We must answer this question at least twice a week - "So how soon are you taking off on you big boat trip?" And to their creidt, our friends are disappointed for us when they hear we still have a while to wait. So what have we been doing lately that has prevented us from being ready to take off, one might ask.
I have just graduated my last groupd of high school students and have re-retired from the world of education. We have been doing spring art shows which took up four weekends since the beginning of April plus all of the prep time for each. So, no work has been done on the boat.

BOAT SHOWS - a recap

My life evolves - I started by life with Philip attending many, many air shows. Then we progressed (and are still attending/working) to arts and craft shows. Now... it is boat shows. However, while the early boat shows we attended, a few years ago, usually were not for purchasing anything, these last two have been different. We now own a trawler and we now have a vision of an adventure and we must get her in "ship shape", purchase necessary safety equipment, install new navigational aids, purchase a dinghy, and complete enclosure upgrades. In other words... spend money.
*** Do you know what BOAT really stands for?   Break Out Another Thousand! ***

So, this winter/spring we have been to two significant boat shows. In January we went to the Miami Boat show.

We spent two days walking through this massive show. Even with our program... we were often lost! We collected more reading material, catalogs, brochures than we could carry. We went in each morning with our backpacks somewhat heavy with drinks, food and camera. As we added these publications given out by every vendor in sight, our idea of being thrifty and bringing our own food didn't seem like such a good idea. But, we persevered! And we learned a lot! We settled on which navigation electronics to purchase. I bought one of those skinny little life jackets that expands upon  "impact" when/if I hit the water and I got one in a fashionable yellow color (color is most important!).
We looked at dinghys, davits and generators.
We met lots of great people, gots lots of advice and all in all, had a great time. We met a "looper" couple who currently had their boat there in Miami, but hail from the Houston area. We stood on the floor of the boat show for more than an hour talking with them and getting some great advice. We also visited the new West Marine store , which I believe is the largest store in their chain.
We spent our nights in the Ft. Lauderdale area, but were so tired from walking each night, we just crashed in the motel room. Philip did a great job of driving each day and we were armed with the GPS and the IPAD so we always found the best route. We found a great little diner near our parking lot. It was near the theater district and many actors had eaten their over the years so we purused their autographed pictures as we ate. Parking near the show was unattainable, so we used the great bus shuttle system and met other folks who were like us - there to purchase, research and dream.

We also went over the the area where on the water where boats were for sale. OMG, as the kids say... some of the boats were unbelievably beautiful. Some had captains and mates in uniform stationed on them. Many, you could only board by invitation. We went to the new Krogens on display and toured two. John Gear, who heads up the Krogen company now was there and took us on a tour through the boats.
All in all a good show!

Our second and more recent show was here in Texas in the Kemah/Galveston area.

 Easier to travel to, cheaper motel and close to our friends Curt and Karen and we were able to see our oldest daughter and her family. So... as a result of this show, we made a dinghy choice. I visited with two fabric providers.
 Here I am with Matt from Sailrite (who I have already spent mucho money with - see earlier post about the sewing machine).

This was a small show but we still gained lots of info. We have decided on which davit system to buy so that we can lift the dinghy on board Hey Jude and we found a replacement generator when the time comes. There was some great music and pretty good food. Philip sat near an attractive woman who taught him to eat crawfish. I just sat nearby and smelled the stinky stuff. I thought I had a picture of this event, but can't find it.

 This is Hannah's Reef performing - lots of Jimmy Buffet tunes.

That is probably the only two shows we will attend this spring, but I am sure there will be more to come.

Fixing Things on the Boat

Well, this won't be in order because I did not keep up, but here are the things we have fixed so far.

                           We put in a new sink and rerouted the supply lines to the sink and added shut-off valves.
                                             
   
                                                                 Installed a 32" flat screen TV

Relocated air condition condensation drain line.

 Made a new table base

Excuse for not posting lately

Ok, I do have a good excuse for not posting for two months... family events came first.
Carla and family moved from one area of south Texas to another. They actually now live on the coast of Texas where we might get to hang out with them on Hey Jude if we decide to move her to the Gulf Coast to start our trip. In fact, we just met up with them this past weekend to celebrate Sascha's birthday. Here's Philip and the birthday girl at the Kemah Boardwalk.

 

And Philip and Carla on one of the rides!

The birthday girl and her father and brother, taking a rest.

Our friend Curt was with us at Kemah and then we all went to his boat at one of the local marinas and continued the party. His wife and her sister met us there too. Curt and Karen used to have their boat at Travis Lake Marina with us. We miss them terribly and it was great to see them.

When all was said and done, Kemah was a pretty interesting place. We were able to see quite a few boats go by just outside the restaurant, including THE BEAST, a big red "go fast" boat that takes customers for a ride at a high speed and usually gets them sopping wet in the process. ! Big brother Julien was tired and needed a ride in "the end".

Now, the other time consuming event was the move of the younger daughter's family to Morocco.

January was their farewell trip to Texas, then my trip to VA to help them organize and pack. Then PD and I went back to VA in Feb to say our goodbyes. So... at the very end of Feb their little family (including a dog and two cats) left the country, as they say.

 They are now in Rabat, moving into their permanent house (well permanent for a couple of years any way). All seems good for them. We have talked a few times and are awaiting their internet connection so the we can "skype". We miss themvery, very much, but we know this is an adventure of a lifetime  and are happy for them.

Back at Lake Travis

This past weekend we went to Lake Travis to spend time on Hey Jude. First, we did some cleaning plus we took off the Christmas lights that were still affixed to the railing! Then, Philip replaced the old sanitary drain line under the NEW sink. He figured that was the original 1980's drain line and it might become an issue somewhere in the future, so he might as well be proactive and change it out now. Then, we took her out on the lake on Saturday afternoon. We drove down toward the dam, past Hippy Hollow, past the new construction below the Oasis and over by the ramps at Hudson Bend. Philip practice lots of manuevers while out in the open. We really haven't had the opportunity yet to just drive around and get lots of time on the engine.
Well, this weekend we did. In fact, we ended up going from one end of the lake to turn around and go all the way to Arkansas Bend, meet up with friends and ended up spending the night in a cove with them. Well actually, all but one of the boats we originally met up with went in for the night. So, we stayed tied up with our good friend Don Neese on Gypsy Mermaid and stayed all night. We left early on Sunday morning, made our way back to the marina. Philip did a great job getting back into the slip, even managing to not clip our neighbors' long houseboat in the slip next to us. I drove the boat for a decent length of time on Sat; only forward and with a little turning.

The new sink before the faucet was added (last month).

                                            Plumbing work in tight spaces is tough!

Practice makes perfect!

                                          Only a few boats tied up at Hippy Hollow.

                              Part of the structure to support the new pumping system
                              to take water from Lake Travis and pump elsewhere.

                                 Lots of the dam showing now days.

                                 Friends we rafted up with.

Our friend Mike on his sailboat.

                          Our buddy, Don, on Gypsy Mermaid.