Not long after the last post we rented a car and went on a Florida road trip. Jill's sister Amy has bought a house in FL in preparation for her retirement next year. We drove down to meet up with her and Alyn and check the place out. It's a very nice place on a canal and for whatever reason we didn't take any pictures to share with you, sorry. In fact the only picture taken the whole time we were there was at a cool tiki bar with a great sense of humor.
It is a great house in a nice town and I'm sure they'll enjoy the area very much. I know we look forward to another visit.
We got back to the boat in time for Thanksgiving and planned a wonderful feast. One of our boat neighbors had taken the boat south for some fishing....south as in Belize....it's a bigggg boat. They said we were welcome to use their smoker while they were gone so we decided to try a smoked turkey. It seemed easy enough.....prep the turkey (recipe from Kermit Ruffins in NOLA), prep the smoker, check.
Wait about 6 hours, check.
Enjoy a Thanksgiving feast of epic proportions, check!!
It took a bit longer than expected but it was delicious. We're already planning on smoking something for Christmas since they are still gone....hope they're OK.
The next week it was time for the boat to head to the boatyard for some much needed lovin'. It's a day every boat owner knows is coming and don't really look forward to. As much as we try to do all maintenance ourselves there are just some projects better left to the pros. It's been over 3 years since we've paid anyone to work on the engines so we're doing pretty well. I did some research and found a very well re$pected yard here in the area. That's part of the reason we chose to stay here this fall.
Projects were; cleaning the coolers on both engines (like a radiator in your car) there are 3 on each engine, repack the prop shaft logs (designed to keep the water outside where the prop shaft exits the boat), tune up both engines. Since the boat had to be hauled to do the shafts we decided to get the bottom done even though it was done last year. We should get at least 2 years out of a bottom job.
First up is the part I always hate...the haul out. Even though I know we chose an excellent yard that hauls much bigger boats than us I always wonder, what if? One little slip and there goes our house!!
A short video as she moves off.
First stop is the "dirty" side of the yard where the bottom is cleaned with a pressure washer and the running gear is blasted clean. They put us next to the lil 92 foot fishing boat we are docked next to at Orange Beach Marina.
Just when you think you have a big boat.....
I don't feel bad when it's time to pay the bill though. I can't imagine what a bottom job on that thing costs???
After cleaning the bottom the boat is moved to the "clean" side of the yard where the final prep work is done before rolling on the bottom paint. While this was going on mechanics where inside the boat working on the engines and shafts. Jill and I took the time to clean and wax the hull while we were there. The yard was even kind enough to rent us some scaffolding for the week!
Bottom before cleaning....not horrible really.
And after cleaning and paint. We also had the props sent out for scanning and they came back healthy!
We were lucky enough to get a condo in town for the week through our travel club so we were able to stay out of the way of the guys working inside. They were able to put the boat back in the water on Friday but the engine work wasn't finished. Here she is all cleaned up and ready to launch.
Since they were going to need at least 2 more days to finish up we decided to leave Monday morning and come back Tuesday afternoon so they wouldn't have to be putting back all the open hatches at the end of the day...it adds up at $105 an hour! The only question was where to go......where to go....Got It!!
Why not 24 hours in NOLA before we have to pay the boat bill??
Turns out the boat wasn't ready until Thursday so we ended up working around them for the last day or so. All in all we are very happy with the work, delays are inevitable working on an older boat, things break and parts are sometimes hard to find. The boat is running cooler and smother than it ever has. Can't wait to see if our mileage improves. They still need to come to the boat for some final adjustments but this time they are coming to us. Stay tuned for info on our gofundme page.....
Lastly, from the "don't you just feel sorry for us" department...this is the first thing I saw this morning.
Y'all can just keep that s##t up north!!! Good news is we bounce right back and Christmas looks like a beach day!!!
Stay tuned for the first post in 2017 where we recap all the holiday fun here in Orange Beach/Gulf Shores Alabama...Merry Christmas to all...🎄🎅🎄
