Happy 4th of July!!

Monday July 4, 2011

Happy Happy 4th of July Everyone!!

Enjoyed my coffee up in the cockpit this morning! Let Dean sleep in to recover from his rough day yesterday and I am sure it will be a late night drive home. He has a list a mile long of things he would like to do but I wish he would just take a day to enjoy our boat. The man just cannot sit still!

Today will be such a great day!!
 I hope to talk Dean into dinner out & staying for the fireworks.

Dread the drive back to Dallas, but it must be done...GM wouldn't let him off!

When Honey woke up & relaxed with his coffee, we contemplated our day.

I 've been pouting alittle... the 4th of July isn't the 4th of July unless we can watch the fireworks!!!
Since we can't take our boat out to watch them I talked him into taking me out for dinner somewhere nice, then come back to watch the fireworks
before the long drive back to Dallas. Oh...and I promised to help him drive!

I sternly told my Hubby that he had to be done with his projects by 4pm so he could clean up & we could enjoy our date and a bit of the holiday. I'm sounding so bossy!! ;-)

While Dean started his own projects, I decided to work on two of my own.
 First whenever I sit down for a few minutes I try to work on the Gulf trip Blog, updating & uploading the pictures. I feel bad that it is taking me so long but there has been other priorities, Fibromialgia flareups, lack of Internet/issues with Internet, 1 trip to MI and once again, I am job searching. Now I am preparing for yet another trip to MI but afterward we will have all of our boating equipment here so that we can sort it and determine what we need and sell what we don't!
 My second project of the day was the forward cabin and head.
 It has become our catch all storage area for the things we are not sure that we want to keep or it doesn't have it's own spot yet. It was such a disaster! You wouldn't know that there was even a bed up there!
 So I worked diligently at organizing and cleaning up the mess. I am sure I will add to, take out, and rearrange a few more times...but I can walk in there and it is at least useable now!

I told my Hubby we had reservations and NOT to ask any questions!
Being the "gotta keep the Wife happy" kind of guy that he is, he followed my directions perfectly!
By this time he knew I was up to something...

I must interject here with this note. In our 10 years of marriage I have not been able to surprise Dean with anything! If I buy him a present...he knows what it is before it's opened. If I try to surprise him with something he figures out what it is. He is Mr Observant and I call him 'Mr Gotta Know Everything'!!

 The last 10 minutes of the drive, I know he figured out the "something"...
It didn't help that Houston Hobby Airport signs were plastered all along the highway when I said,
 "Take the next exit."
and it didn't help that we were there too early and we had to drive around and around and around the circle like 8 times!! The plane was a little late.
Well that just gave him too darn much time to think!
I could see his wheels turning and the smoke coming out of his ears!! ;-)
Now the big question was WHO?

Finally...

SURPRISE!!!

Our "Chrissy Girl" arrived and Daddy spotted her the moment she stepped out the door of the airport!
He said "I knew it would be her!
I told him, "No...you didn't know, and just never mind, enjoy being surprised for once in your life!"
You don't always gotta know everything!"
High 5's to me & Chrissy!! We pulled it off right up to the last few minutes!
(We had been planning this since Father's Day!)

Gotcha Honey!! :-)
HAPPY 4th of JULY!!
I LOVE YOU!!!

Now he understood why I was so set on staying for the fireworks! And we had to hurry back to the marina so that we could introduce Chrissy to Our Way Too! and see those fireworks!

ohhh....

Welcome To Texas!!
Fireworks just for Chrissy! ;-)

I dare say these two were enjoying themselves!!

ahhh....

This is what we see every friday night in Kemah throughout the summer!
It's absolutely awesome to be on a boat watching them from the Bay!

We had a great view from our Dock.

 Except for the bridge gets in the way if the fireworks don't go high enough.

Bummer...4th of July has come to an end for us.
 It was time to load up, jump into the car and endure the long drive to Dallas.
 If Dean were to call in...he would lose his holiday pay and get wrote up. :-(
We are hoping maybe he can get Wednesday and Thursday off so that we can come back to the boat tomorrow night after work?! I will play tourist with Chrissy of the DFW area during the day until we can come back to the boat. Hopefully, his boss decides to give him at least 1 day off while Chrissy is here.
We shall see...

May the Bird of Paradise Shed on.....

Sunday July 3, 2011

Dean was up bright and early...I really slept in late!

Must've been extra tired from all the hard work washing the boat!

We lingered over coffee while Dean made calls to a couple of NAPA stores.

 Nope...they didn't have the eraser wheel in stock but they could order it.

 Well we'd check a few other stores further away. One said they carry them so off we went. We got there and low & behold...they didn't have them in stock, but he could go get them from another store and would have them there in a couple hours. We had a couple other parts to find so we decided to grab lunch and then hunt down the other parts and just come back in a while. It was too far to make two trips so we went to lunch at Jim's Coney Dog place and we found a Home Depot near by there. We wandered around stalling time until we could go back to get the wheel. 

When we went back to NAPA, Dean came out alittle disappointed. He had ordered 2 wheels

(which they told him the other store had 2!) but when the guy got there....they only had 1!

Oh well, at least they had one...the job was finished as soon as we arrived back at the boat. 

It probably took Dean no more than 15 minutes to get the numbers off both sides of the bow! 

While he was busy with that, I cleaned all of the isinglass.

We were both so busy with what we were doing that we didn't notice that our flags attached to the spinnaker halyard were flying free ~ high in the sky! Dean had attached the bottom end of the string of signal flags to another line and then tied it to our life line. Due to his lack of expertise at knot tying, apparently the wind worked at it until it untied itself! Our flags were not to be reached until the wind died down! 

I wondered what all our marina folks thought...

That new boat in town doesn't know how to fly their flags properly!!

Poor Dean...he's had a rough couple days for things not going right. 

  

Organizing & Sorting the aft swim platform storage.

Dean waves at me...but do you see all those Birds??

But he's such a good sport...he kept right on working at his projects!

From my Blogpost title I know ya'll must be wondering...

Dean decided it was "Beer Thirty" & "take a break time" to cool down.

Just before he stepped into the cockpit...

Yepper!! One of our friendly Bird's of Paradise shed a 'Direct Hit' to Dean's shoulder!

He washed it off with the hose then came down below for his beer break and said,

"Guess what happened to me?"

I looked at him sorta dumbfounded and shrugged my shoulders.

He calmly says, "I got Shit on!"

I busted into hysterics! I knew that was gonna happen to one of us eventually, not just Our Way Too!

I wish I could've been out on deck to see his face!

Oh my Gosh! I am still laughing out loud!! Sorry Honey!!

We decided after that it was time to put away things for the day and kick back. We invited Jay over for cocktails, chicken on the grill dinner, then a couple more cocktails.

Good Friends~Good Food~Good Drinks~Good Laughs~Good Company!!

In no particular order! :-)

We went up for showers and afterwards sat by the pool with Cody, Cameron, and their puppy Nula for a bit to watch all the boats coming in & out of the channel. 

Another beautiful day in Kemah has come to an end...

And I am still laughing!!

A Putter-On-Boat Day!

Saturday, July 2, 2011

Up enjoying coffee and deciding on our 'list of things to do for today'!

Dean decided today was a 'work on watermaker' day & I decided Our Way Too! needed a good bath. Those darned birds have deposited uncountable direct hits to her deck!

So we did breakfast & our errands to pick up parts for the watermaker repairs. We came back and got right into being busy. Dean down below & me on deck. 

Watermaker Repairman!

After our jobs were done we puttered around cleaning little things, organizing this & that.

We decided we should decorate a bit for the 4th of July so out came the flags! 

Our dear friends Jim & Jane gave us some of the flags & a bow from Senior Prom.

And we bought a large new United States flag.

Our Way Too! in all her Glory....ready to celebrate the 4th of July

All Decked out!

She wears it well! :-)

Our Way Too! looked 'Grand' all ready for the 4th of July Celebration!

Dean hopped from project to project for most of the afternoon. He started to remove the GA registration numbers from the hull thinking that would be an easy quick job but that was not to be. Our neighbors we met the other night, Cody & Cameron, came down the dock and Cody lent him an eraser wheel that would make the job a snap. Oh it worked great until.....Dean didn't realize the drill was in reverse and it unscrewed itself right off and PLUNK....into the water! Oh was he upset!! Mostly because it was borrowed! But it really worked great and it was making the job alot easier!
Well we found out he bought it at NAPA...now to find the nearest store that has one in stock!

Our evening went by fast!
 Jay come over to visit and joined us for dinner.
 Before we knew it, it was time for showers and off to bed.
Our long holiday weekend is flying by!
Nite all!

Hooray for the Long Weekend!

Friday July 1, 2011

We slept in this morning! 9:30am...which really isn't late considering we don't go to bed on arrival night until wee hours of the morning!  Our mattress is so very comfy! We both sleep better on the boat anyway but this mattress is the best ever!

Dean called the AC guy right away. The forward cabin is pretty warm! I closed the door to the aft cabin so we would at least have a place to cool down! Texas is having the hottest year ever!

AC guy finally showed up & did his thing. Dean asked if he would mind if we observed. He didn't mind, so  Dean asked questions and watched to see what he did. Hopefully it's a fix this time! He did several checks on things, cleaned filters and such, then recharged it. Turned it on and...waaa laaa...it cooled it down in there! Wish us luck! 

We decided to get some errands done, so first, we headed to Skipper's for Brunch. It's our favorite place in Kemah for omelets!  Then we headed to LaMarque, TX about 20 miles away to the closest Texas Parks & Wildlife Department to register
 Our Way Too! 

More $$$...Big Bucks!!! Yikes!!!

Just as we were about to leave my Hubby decided to ask, "Are we legal to take the boat out now even if we don't have the documentation papers back from the Coast Guard?"

Oh My Gosh!! We almost started a war between two of the workers. One says we are now legal and  the other says we are not. The guy was from TPWD and the gal was from Marine Sheriff Dept.  I said to Dean..."See what you did now?" I felt bad for the young lady that was doing our paperwork. She asked them the question and just stood there looking from one to the other, then back at us, then them again, shifting from one leg to the other patiently waiting for an answer for us while those two went back and forth at it. I was rather embarrassed, there were were like 8-9 folks waiting in line behind us. Finally the guy asked us to come back to his office. He pulled out the Rules & Regulations book of his and read us the section concerning TPWD rules. Apparently, Texas has several groups that patrol the Galveston Bay waters and you can be pulled over by any one of them. TPWD might consider us legal, and the Coast Guard might look at our papers and consider us legal, but the sheriff or local police might slap you with a ticket. Or visa versa, it just depends who and what mood they are in I guess. We were also told that if the name of our boat isn't on the boat the same as the Coast Guard documentation papers read, then we could get up to a $10,000.00 fine. I believe the boat WILL stay in her slip until we are totally legal! Looks like we can't go out to watch the fireworks on board Our Way Too! like we were hoping to for tonight & the 4th of July. Bummer! We cannot afford a ticket or fine a like that!

Kemah's Boardwalk sponsors Fireworks every Friday night through the months of June, July, & August. It's quite the deal and there are alot of people, cars, and boats that come from all over every week. They put on a great show each night. I am really curious to see if the 4th is the same or better!?

When we arrived back to the marina, Rob asked if we'd like to go out on Wandering Star to watch the fireworks with them. We accepted the offer and enjoyed a beautiful evening anchored out there in the Bay with friends. The company was great, the laughs were many, stories were entertaining, snacks & drinks were aplenty, & the fireworks were awesome.
 Life is sure great on the water!

When we arrived back at the marina we decided it would be a nice quiet relaxing time to cool down in the pool. So we headed up there and enjoyed it all to ourselves! We do really enjoy it here! 

New Ritual on Arrival Night - June 30, 2011

After our 4 1/2 hr drive down from Dallas we arrived at the Portofino Harbour Marina about 10:30pm.

We are hoping that the issue with the forward cabin air conditioning is taken care of. Dean had called a guy that Rob recommended we call... Patrick McAndrew@ True North Marine Service. They opted to do the quicker/cheaper fix to get us by which he figured would work 3 months/6 months/possibly forever. 

They supposedly had it repaired and working.

We arrived at the boat to  a very quiet & calm marina. 

It was 99 degrees down in the cabin and the forward air decided it wasn't going to work for us!

We have no choice but to manage with just the aft cabin air conditioning for the night.

We loaded the fridge & freezer, then poured ourselves a couple of glasses of Franconia (which we filled our growlers  and brought with us from the 5th Wheel) and went out on deck to admire our Beauty! 

~ Our Way Too! ~

{AKA thru out the blog OWT! for short}

 We have been so lonesome for her!

 Dean & I both did our "walk around" just as we did at anchor on our Gulf trip.

 We marveled at how she still looks so BIG to us! I nick named her the BAB (Big Ass Boat!)

Then we walked around her one more time and decided that enjoying our "walk arounds" on arrival night would become a ritual for us as long as we are "Trunk Slammer's".

What is a "Trunk Slammer" you ask?

  It is a person or persons whom arrive for a short period of time to their boat.

 For example...They arrive on Friday night get their goods out of the trunk and slam it shut!

 Then on Sunday afternoon, they load their goods back into the trunk and slam it shut once again!

 Then they leave to go home.

 When we lived on our power boat back home in Whitehall, MI for the summer, that was our term for those that joined us on the weekends!

 We sat on the bow for awhile then went and sat on the sunpad. The music was playing over at the Kemah Boardwalk so we just relaxed with our beer and jabbered about our "To Do" list to get done while we were there for the long weekend!

For starters...she will get a good bath!! It appears I was correct and OWT! had many direct hits from the 

~ Birds of Paradise ~

Since the boat wasn't cooling down very fast we decided to go for a swim and cool off in the pool.

It was a great night to just float and enjoy the stars!

When we decided to get out of the pool, we rinsed off again in the shower, but before we headed back to the boat we took a detour up to check out the upstairs of the club house.

There we met our neighbors! A really sweet couple from Louisiana...

Cody & Cameron.

We chatted for a bit  and wandered back toward J Dock.

They were refitting a very old boat & trying to bring it back to life.

 Bless their hearts...it's a heck of a big job!!

Come to find out our Boats were bow to bow!

We said our Goodnight's & climbed aboard....

FYI - Fuel Consumption from Gulf Trip!

Just a short post to add this:

The Guys were very concerned about our fuel consumption coming across the Gulf. When we returned it took us a few weeks to get over to the Fuel Dock to fill up and figure what we had used. 

Our Way Too! has a 70 gallon diesel tank.

 We used a total of 46 gallons for our crossing from Tampa Bay Marina to Portofino Marina.

 We run the engine 61.8 hours over the course of 6 days.

So...if our math is correct we came up with .74433 gallons/hour! 

~ 46 gallons divided by 61.8 hours = .74433657 gallons/hour ~

Our opinion is that Our Way Too! is very fuel efficient

 and even though she has great fuel economy she

 LOVES to SAIL!!!

YEAH!!!!

Settling into a New Home for Our Way Too! June 19, 2011

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY DAD!!!!

We hope you have a wonderful day and we "Thank You" for being with us on our 1st voyage!
 We love you!

Happy Father's Day to all!!

HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my beautiful sister Kim!!

Dock J ~ Slip 16

Up & at 'em this morning!

 We have many projects & clean up to do to prep Our Way Too! before we leave her today.

 Dean has to be back to work tomorrow!

 I will catch up laundry and get ready to leave for Michigan to take Dad & Randy home.

 First coffee and alittle breakfast...

         ...it's pretty bad when I make my Daddy cook his own Father's Day breakfast! Shame on me!! :(

Randy & Dean gave Our Way Too! a really good bath (not just a rinse) to get all the salt off her.

 I could've collected the salt from the lifelines into a bowl and used it in the galley!! 

Everything was white & covered with it, 

even some in the cabin.

Busy as bees getting things cleaned up, stowed, and organized! 

The guys working out on deck & me working down below.

If you look closely at the dock in this photo above,

 you will see that Our Way Too! may not be slipped in an ideal spot!

 We have power lines above us just to our starboard side and I have a feeling that the

    ~Birds of Paradise~ 

will be shedding on Our Way Too! with alot of direct hits!!

(Possibly on our heads too!) 

That means we will have to give her a really good bath every weekend! 

We loaded everything into the car and walked up the dock...sadly leaving Our Way Too! behind.

 We are going to miss her...and can't wait til 4th of July weekend so we can come back!!

She feels like HOME now!

It was an extra long ride back to Arlington as we came upon a bad fire on I 45. Traffic was backed up so we cut across the median and found the back roads to work our way around it.

We were all tired & very ready to catch up on some more sleep.

We had to take Randy to eat at WHATABURGER!

Dad & Randy kicking back in the 5th Wheel resting up for the long ride to Michigan!

Leaving Arlington @ 0400 hr!

They are both eager to get home.

 Dean & I say "Thank you again & Love you both so much!

 We hope you enjoyed the Trip Across the Gulf!!"