New Year - New Repairs

So we came to the lake to spend the New Year's Holiday on the boat. We just wanted to relax and have a restful holiday. And we did... well mostly. On Sunday before the holiday, the fresh water pump decided to take a holiday as well. I got up and took my shower just fine, but by the time Philip got in and lathered up, the water began to dribble and then stop. Luckily, I had bottled water in the pantry. He managed to rinse off with one of those, then he went below to detect the problem.

 Answer?? Non-functioning water pump. So... get out the tools, take out the bad pump

And this earned us a trip into the city and to West Marine. We bought a new one.

We caught lunch at Whole Foods (our healthy fix for the upcoming New Year's overeating that was to come) and headed back. Now came the hard part. Squeezing Philip's large frame into the area beneath the galley floor in order to install the new pump was difficult for him but worth several pictures for me. This is when both of us think of those boats we saw at the Miami boat show last year with engine rooms large enough for a small family to live in.

Something to remember... put on long sleeves and pants before you wallow on a fiberglass surface.

So, we have one more new part to our little old boat!

We were now able to take a shower and get ready to ring in the new year with our fellow Lake Travis friends.

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.