This ain't Chasing 80!!

After a fairly mild start to this winter season February has really kicked it up a notch! We had another 5+ inches of snow today and I'm getting a bit tired of all this. The forecast 2 days ago was for upper 30's and rain but (surprise) the weather dudes got it wrong again. I know, I know...it could be worse. We're not in Boston after all but this is a bit much for me, I'm ready do be done with winter. Folks are even complaining in the Key's because it's only in the 60's and windy...aww shucks.

2/21/15 totals

The Thompson Road Cabana Club is officially closed today. Note the diving board for the accumulation for the week.

Closed for the season

The real reason for this post is to point out a few new features we added to the blog. If you look at the bar on the right of this page you can see the following.

1. Added a link where you can enter your e-mail address to get notified when we add a new post. This way you don't have to just check the blog to see if there is anything new.
2. Added a link called Follow Us. If you click on the link you will be taken to our Delorme page with a map showing where we have been and where we are now. I left the In Reach on when we left the boat and it looks like it lasted about 4 days before going dead. Hopefully the boat didn't move around as much as it looks like on the map. I can only assume the signal is degraded a bit by being under a metal roof. It should be more interesting as we begin to travel.
3. I also created a map that shows where we have been. If you click on the map it will open in a larger page where you can click on a marker to get info of where we were and when. I'm looking forward to filling up the eastern US with our markers.

So that's about it for now. Pretty sure I haven't done 2 posts in the same week when not traveling. Not much else to do on these snow days. I'll leave you with a few pics from our trip to the Key's (where it's now only 70 degrees). The first 2 are from the Sunset Grille in Marathon.

Seven Mile Bridge

Sunset over Moser Channel

Next is another attempt to be artsy. This is a shot at the Green Parrot bar in Key West. We were there for Jill's birthday and Glen David Andrews from New Orleans was playing. The artsy part was of his bone resting on the table, I only later noticed the picture of Fats Domino keeping an eye on them.

Do you see Fats?

Until next time....

Two fer One!

Well, not really but I thought I'd give a quick update on what we've been up to for the past month or so.

After Christmas our next regular trip to the boat would have been mid January. The restaurant was closed for the month and no real projects were calling us so we opted for plan "B". My sister Kathy's birthday is mid January and she expressed an interest in getting away for a bit since it was a special birthday (the kind where you change numbers). I suggested our friends Mike & Gretchen's condo in Panama City Beach as an option and she was all in! The plan evolved to a few days in New Orleans since she had never been there and then a few days in PCB before a stop at the boat on the way home to check her out.

Sorry, no pictures to share from NOLA as it was a bit cool and damp. We covered a lot ground in 2 days, saw the Quarter of course as well as some time uptown, Magazine St,  and dinner at one of our favorites Jacques-Imos and a Ramos Gin Fizz at Tujague's. It was a short stay but I think Kathy will be back. I know we will...in April!

Next we headed East along US 90 on what we like to call the Gulf Coast pub crawl. I had the bright idea to take the Dauphin Island Ferry to get over to Gulf Shores and lunch at LuLu's. Turns out we got to the island just before the start of their Mardi Gras parade and wouldn't make the ferry until 3:30 if we waited...we didn't. Took the long way around Mobile Bay and got to LuLu's for a late lunch after a stop at Billy's seafood for a few pounds of Royal Red shrimp (taste like lobster!)

Eventually we made it to the condo and crashed pretty hard. We spent the next couple of days checking out the area going as far as Apalachicola and having a few oysters at Boss Oyster House.

Sister Kathy & Bro-in-Law Ron at Boss

After the oysters we walked around town a bit and along the waterfront. We saw an eagle across the river although I couldn't get him to look at the camera. I also tried out my artsy side with some shrimp boat pictures.

Shy Eagle

Artsy Shrimp Boat

We also found a nice lunch spot back in Panama City and right on the water called Bayou Joe's.

Bayou Joe's

We are definitely looking forward to seeing these places again when we head that way with the boat in the fall.

Back at the condo we got to spend a bit of beach time as well as a fantastic dinner with the Royal Red's. The sunsets are pretty spectacular in this area as the beach faces west/southwest.

Pelican looks for dinner

Alas we had to head north but spent a night at the boat on the way home to show our guests the new digs. All was well at the boat and they got introduced to the fantastic food at Patti's 1880's. It was a bit cool and damp at times but all in all a great trip. Happy birthday Kathy!

Jill and I weren't done traveling just yet. Since her birthday is the 31st we decided to fly down to the Keys for a long weekend birthday celebration. We spent a couple of days in Marathon and checked out marinas we hope to be docked at this time next year. We also met several fellow boaters (and Bloggers) living the dream in the Keys. Next we went to Key West for Jills birthday and checked out a few marinas there as well as several bars...it's what we do. I'll dig up some pictures of that trip for the next installment.

We made it back down to the boat for a long Valentines day weekend. Not much going on but the restaurant is back open and we met some more dock neighbors. Really looking forward to Summer down there. In fact, I'm looking forward to Summer anywhere! I've shoveled snow the past 3 days and the high tomorrow is expected to be 7!! This sure ain't Chasing 80!!

Till next time....  

  

Quick Update

Just thought I'd write a few lines to keep everyone up to speed. Last trip to the boat was over Christmas week so it was a bit shorter. We stayed in town on Christmas Eve to keep the family happy and headed down on Christmas Day. I must say it was an easy travel day with not many people on the road.

Jill and I made a promise not to get anything for each other this year since we're still trying to sell the house and are not really sure what we'll store or pitch. Jill did a great job and kept the promise. I bought her a few things that were really for the boat. The first item she got to open was an anchor bridle! I sure know the way to my ladies heart!! Truth is this will be a much needed item in our future and make our anchoring easier and safer. We also both got new rain coats with built in flotation, It's for safety after all.

The "big" item was a DeLorme inreach explorer. What is that you ask? It's a nifty little satellite tracking device that will also allow us to send out an SOS to a 24/7 help desk. This unit is completely satellite based and uses no cell service so it works anywhere in the world. This will allow us to keep in touch down island without having expensive cell service. We can send and receive text also. As an added feature to the blog I added a link on the right of the page called "locate us". If you click on the link it will show a live map link while we are underway....it's for safety. I had the unit on at work the other day so that is most likely the most recent data if you go there now but it should be more fun this summer.

We also got some work done on the boat. The biggest project was removing the dishwasher to make room for a stand alone freezer. The dishwasher didn't make much sense to either of us.

We're going to pass up our next scheduled trip to the boat instead going a bit farther to the Gulf Coast with my sister and brother-in-law. We're celebrating her next "big" birthday on the beach.

Sorry, no worthy pictures this trip. Maybe I'll post some from the road trip next time.

Work Detail

We were back down on the boat last week for our Wed-Sun long weekend. Obviously there's not much fun to report since the boat is buttoned up for the winter but I want to keep up with the occasional posts in case anyone is interested. We did get a bunch of projects crossed off our to do list but still managed to have a bit of fun as well.

First thing we found was that they had taken out some decking that was preventing us from backing the boat all the way into the slip. We spent Wednesday afternoon pulling the boat back and re-adjusting all our dock lines, fenders, power cord and steps. It is a much nicer fit and we don't have to worry about losing our bow pulpit to an errant boat. Thursday was spent doing a bunch of small projects with the exception of the water tank repair. This was a BIG win for me as I have been trying to figure out a way to fix a broken fitting all summer. Finally went full MacGyver on it and found that with enough epoxy you can fix anything! Friday was another big work day for me with several hours spent in the "doghouse" (the area under the upper helm). This place was a rat's nest of wires when we bought the boat. I cleaned out a bunch of wires this spring that didn't go to anything. After installing the new electronics this year I had left everything loosely tied up until I was sure it was all the way I wanted it. Friday was the day to finally secure everything and put that project to bed. Here is a before picture, sorry, no after.

I shouldn't say it was just a work day for me, Jill was assisting me as needed and spent some more time decorating the boat for Christmas. She was even able to get a few hours of real work (the kind you get paid for) via the computer...maybe she's on to something! Here is some of her handiwork.

Rodney the Reindeer 

Friday evening we went back to Patti's for dinner and to check out their Christmas lights, very impressive for such a small town. Had some fun taking pictures but most aren't worth posting.

The water wheel

Also got a few shots around the marina. Proved again that sailboats are a good photo op.

Not to be outdone by the blow boaters we added a few lights on the bow to let them know we mean business.

Saturday we went into "town" (Paducah) and Best Buy to get an early Christmas present, a real TV and Google Chromecast so we can watch movies and the like. Still some learning to do but it looks like a cool gadget. Saturday night was the club Christmas party and we got to meet some of the other folks from our dock. No pictures taken, something about the witness protection program.  They seem really fun, we should have a good time next summer. Don't worry E-Dockers...I'm sure they won't hold a candle to your antics!!

That's about it for this trip. Next time down will be Christmas. Not much work planned for that trip but I'll post something because I know you (both) want to know.

  

What Polar Vortex??

We went back to the boat last week with the forecast of bitter cold temps. Not sure about bitter, it was in the low 40's during the day and upper 20's at night. The boat was plenty comfortable and the water temps warm enough for the reverse cycle heat to work just fine, not sure how long that will last. We don't really winterize the boat but keep the block heaters plugged in on both engines which keeps everything below deck nice and warm. In fact, when we left Sunday morning the ER temp was reading 82. Wednesday through Sunday every 3 weeks will be our MO for the next few months until we can move in full time.

We spent last Thursday doing a bit more exploring of the area to find hardware stores, Wal-Mart, liquor stores etc. We made it as far as Paducah and found a really good BBQ joint also.

Friday we took the boat over to the fuel dock to top off for the winter and found we only used 126 gallons since Evansville, very happy!! We went out on Lake Barkley for an hour to warm everything up and get ready for the oil change. It was sunny and in the low 40's but the full enclosure on the fly bridge kept us nice and toasty.

The duck hunters here take their shelter very seriously. Funny thing was, just to the left of this camp were about 30 ducks in the water...they must know the hunters schedule!

After our short cruise it was time to get to work in the engine room. We have a pump plumbed into each engine and the generator so getting the old oil out goes pretty quick. The pain is adding the the new oil into the engines. The fill port is at an odd angle so you can only add a small gulp at a time before it overflows, At 7.5 gallons per engine and 10 minutes for each gallon it takes a loooooong time in cramped quarters. Jill was a great helper from up above bringing me new oil and hauling the jugs of old oil to the dock but there's not much room for both of us to work in the ER. I'm going to have to come up with a better way of adding the new oil in the future. Here's a view of the holy place where I spent about 3 hours....

That evening after a couple of docktails to get the feeling back in my legs we headed over to Patti's to check out their Christmas lights. Boy do they do it up right! It wasn't fully dark while we were there so we didn't get the full effect, we'll save that for our next time down when we're more in the spirit. Hard to do when it's still before Thanksgiving. Jill did get to spend some time in Santas throne before he showed up.

The view toward Kentucky Lake from Patti's

Also on this trip we hauled down a trailer full of stuff from home to make our stay here a bit more comfortable. The marina is going to remove one of the extra wings on the dock to allow us to get the boat all the way in. This will still give us plenty of deck space for our outdoor living. We plan to be here for about a year and will have a "dock" sale to get rid of the stull when we leave.

Note the Christmas lights (on a timer)

Next trip down is early December and the marina's Christmas party. Looking forward to meeting some of the folks here. The docks are pretty empty this time of year.

Oh yeah...about that polar vortex...at least it waited until we got home. This was my view heading to work Monday morning!! I was not at all happy to still be in Cincinnati and working. The boys at work said I had my grouchy pants on...they were right.

Settling in

As I said earlier we are settling into our new marina at Green Turtle Bay .After looking at a slip on Pier 7 we decided to go with one on Pier 5. This gives us a bit more elbow room in the slip and puts us steps from the restaurant and indoor pool. If you go to the map at the bottom of the link above you can see the resort lay-out.

Last time down we spent a day getting the boat set up in her new slip. It's really convenient with the uprights on the covered slip as we have all the dock lines adjusted to just drop onto cleats as we back in so no one has to step off the boat until we're secure. I spent some time Friday exploring the marina in our kayak. Plenty of room here to paddle around without going out on the lake. Note: we've replaced the Commodores Club burgee with one for our new marina...next up ALGCA burgee for next fall.

Saturday we took the boat out to Kentucky Lake and did some more exploring. The leaves here are just starting to really change so I hope there is some more fall color next week when we go back down. The 2 lakes here are huge compared to our time on the Ohio river and we are looking forward to seeing more next season.

Thats about it for this post. Our plan for next week is to do a few more boat projects, top off the fuel tanks for the winter and change the oil on both engines and gen-set. We'll take another trip out on the lake to warm everything up. Hope this Polar Vortex isn't too bad!  We already have a trailer loaded up with a patio set and grill to make out home away from home more comfortable. We have an open house tomorrow so who knows...it may become our real home!! Wish us luck.

 I'll leave you with a couple more pics from the front deck as we enjoy evening "docktails". The sailboats make for a good photo op if nothing else...

Trip Recap

Trying to be a better blogger I thought I'd run down a brief recap of the trip. 

We covered a total of 487 miles over 6 days and put 48.5 hours on the port engine and 51.7 on the starboard. Not sure why the difference in engine hours but it's something I want to look into and happens on a regular basis. We took on a total of 373 gallons of fuel which included the fuel burned all summer. By adding up the engine hours for all season we're getting a burn of about 3 gph average. We were about 2.5 gph over the summer and the 1st day of the trip and a bit over 4 gph by mid-week as we were running at a higher rpm to make time. I'm pretty pleased with this and figure we'll be closer to the 2.5 number in the future when we're running slower. We still need to top off before the end of the season but I'm not expecting more than 100 gallons used.

We spent every night tied to a dock so no anchoring this trip. The first 2 nights were free, Turtle Creek because we took on fuel and Louisville because that city embraces the river!
Rocky Point Marina charged $0.75 a foot and Inland Marina and Golconda were $1.00 a foot for a total of $126.50. Inland Marina surprised me in the fact that they charged for a slip after we bought 151 gallons of fuel, most marinas don't do this (in my short history).

Overall a really great trip with no issues on the boat other than the house batteries. A couple of weeks after and even the weather doesn't strike me as being too bad...

In an earlier post I promised some pictures of the updated electronics so here they are

In this picture you see the new chartplotter, a Raymarine e7D and one of the stereo speakers. The chartplotter shows our position, radar overlay, AIS targets, depth and speed.

The starboard side has the new VHF radio with DSC and a 1 touch mayday button that is tied into our GPS. Also in the picture is the remote control for the Fusion stereo, USB charging port, speaker and autopilot which is tied into the e7D. Overall a pretty good setup in my opinion. I added a wireless router that allows me to control the stereo from an app on my iPhone anywhere on the boat (geek).The e7D has it's own wireless that allows me to use my iPad on the lower helm with the full functions of the chartplotter.

That's about it for now. We went back to the boat the following week and got settled into our new slip at Green Turtle Bay and did a bit of exploring, but that's for another post...stay tuned!