Crazy times & playing catch up

I Wish someone would have informed me that once you move on board, toss the watches off and stash the calendars away that time somehow time manages to magically fly away. Here Dirk and I have been just going along, tinkering about the boat, doing what ever it is we felt like doing for the day and all the while days were ticking off the calendar. Our hardest decision of the day was what to cook for dinner or if we felt like putting shoes on long enough to run some errands. Ah, life is hard... Anyway we did pull the calendar out of a cubby to start planning our trips home to visit our families and friends. To our amazement someone had stolen like a week or two off the calendar, how did this happen? Where did it go? What did we do with it? Did we care? Now we do, because we are feeling the effects of crunch time. I guess let me go back and play catch up a bit before moving forward. We have added a couple upgrades to the boat but I can not at this point and time remember them all so that list will come shortly. Unfortunately this post will be photo less as Dirk purchased me a new notebook computer and well I need to install a program to edit and alter photos. Not done yet, so will have to catch you up on those next go round. One thing I had spoken about before was us getting a sun awning made and the salon cushions redone. The sun awning is up and after a few trips back to the sail/canvas shop I believe its pretty good. We are able to walk under it and with a little adjustment here and there it seems like it will make a great rain water catchment system for later down the road when water is harder to come by. We have had a few issues with the batten system put in to keep the sides from sagging and are trying to hammer them out. First there were I'm guessing fiberglass round battens but the first day up one snapped. On to plan B, we went with a 3/4 inch stainless steel pole on each end and a single batten in the center. We have had a few issues with this setup but will have to deal with it at a later date. As I write this our cushions are being made and will be ready to install soon. Perhaps next update I will have photos of them in place.


Other news, Dirk and I have been spending our days doing chores and relaxing. Some evenings we hop into the dinghy and head over to some of the waterfront in the bay looking for good floundering spots or sometimes just taking the flashlights looking in the water seeing what it is we can spot. Its really peaceful with the moon overhead, calm water, and quiet night. We usually spot plenty of blue crab and stingrays. One evening we counted over 25 rays. Most were the size of a saucer or dinner plate and some in only inches of water. We have taken the bait bucket out with us and tried to catch shrimp for fishing. Of course on the nights we have the bucket and net we hardly see the shrimp, last night there were shrimp all over the place yet the net & bucket were back at the boat. One day last week we took the dinghy over to the pass which only can be done on calmer days and even on calm days it can be pretty rough. We took the GPS with us and marked several shallow sandy spots so we can try those for flounder. We ended up doing some snorkeling but mainly saw nothing of interest. We did however see a cleaner crab which we had only seen one other time in the Caymans while diving.


The husband also planned a surprise late Birthday get together for me that totally took me by surprise. My Uncle, and some of our friends from Enterprise showed up along with a couple dock neighbors. Lots of food, wine, cake & Jagermeister was consumed and enjoyed by all. It was a terribly hot day and evening but we still had a great time. Thank you sweety, your too good to me sometimes.



And now fast forwarding. Gee I can really see I need to update more often. Its amazing how difficult it is to remember stuff day to day. Thursday found us on a road trip to my sisters house in mid FL to drop off our cat Butters for babysitting as we will be doing some land traveling starting next week. Soon we will be off heading to Cajun country to visit my family and friends. Nine hour road trip there, nine back, then we have to make the 7 hour road trip back to my sisters, get a quick fix of our kitty and then we are flying over to Germany to visit Dirks family for several weeks. Before we know it we will be back aboard with Butters and doing the final outfitting on the boat for taking off after the hurricane season. Sometime in there I will find time to breath. I think I am learning my lesson and perhaps I will begin to update weekly, Internet permitting of course.