Occupiers of Our Time

So, there are lots of things that have been occupying our time  during the summer and recently.
We were in the July art show in Rockport:

Then we took a quick trip to Tampa, FL to visit friends, see some boats and relax.

 

We also "Stood with Wendy" on the steps of the TX capitol.

 

 

The biggest and best "occupier" of our summer time was these guys:

 

 

Yes, both daughters, both sons-in-law and all five grandkids were here for a little over two weeks!

 

Finally, just last weekend, Philip and I participated in the AIM at Melanoma fundraising Walk in Houston at the MD Anderson Cancer Center. It was a night walk that raised over $75,000.

 

 

So.... that's a recap of what we have been up to. Next, I will catch up on what has been going on with HEY JUDE.

 

Short Updates

So, here is just one of many things that has been going on since I last posted.
The poor Lake Travis is getting smaller and smaller. Poor Starnes Island is taller and closer than ever before.

 

Last weekend, was clean up of the lake. At the Travis Lake Marina, a nice group of citizens were there to pick up trash. Plus boats brought  trash from other places on the lake and put it into dumpsters that were brought in just for the day.

 BTW, normally in a wet year, all of that land behind those people at the ramp would be under water.

 

 

Catching Up

Yikes - two months since my last post. But, we have been busy.
Philip put in two new batteries. Not easy. These suckers are heavy. That's why it's good to have friends in the marina who are willing to help.

 

He added fuses to the batteries also.

 

Then he added a battery selector switch and installed it to the area just below the bench in the salon for easy access.

And..... he also put in a new water pump. This is when you wish you had a really tiny friend to help. The space below the galley is really, really small. But, he did manage to get down in there.

 

 

And... put in the new water pump.

 

 

Now, I have been busy as well. Unfortunately, my project is taking me quite a bit longer and needless to say I am not through. I have taken on sewing the screen enclosures for the lower deck. I have that great Sailrite sewing machine that I have now lugged down to the boat so I can sew right there. But, I only get a little completed each time I go to the boat. Things are coming along and hopefully, I will finish .... just don't look real close at all my stitching. This has been harder than I thought!

 

 

I hang these up to check each step and then take them down. At least they run back and forth into the track at the top without any problem.

 

I am almost to zipper installation. Arghhh.

More to come.

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.