God Bless America Lollipop

New companionway doors

Rebecca, Carlie, Chuck, Joe

The weather here is still being most cooperative in the 80's almost everyday which makes living aboard so much easier.  The boat projects have continued.  After the 11 inches of rain we received here two weeks ago, and all the leaks we had, we decided to re seat all of the side stays, all the experts say this needs done every 3 to 5 years, when it rained the other day again we did not see any leaks so maybe that solved the problem, we can only hope. We finished up the new companionway doors that we built in Ladys Island. It is so nice not to have to pull the hatch boards out everyday. Complete with smoked acrylic windows and screens we can see right into the cockpit from below.  Now we just swing the doors open.  We put pull apart hinges on them so we could remove them whenever we want.  They look great.  Joe finished hooking up the hot water heater to the engine so now when we run the engine each day to charge the battery banks we have hot water.  He also changed the oil and cleaned the fuel filter system, I made myself scarce when he is doing that.  Last Wednesday we took the boat over to the fuel dock, Joe put on his dive gear and went under the boat to replace the zincs and scrape the bottom.  He said it wasn't too bad, that was good news, we will have to bottom paint this summer though and that means we have to pull the boat out of the water. We also took on water and washed the boat down.   Our water tanks hold 50 gallons of water and if we conserve we can last 2 weeks.  Which is not too bad.  We also have 2 - 5 gallon water containers which we fill also when needed.
Last week I got my hull cleaning products, buckets and scrubbers out put everything in the dinghy and cleaned the entire hull of the boat.  Took me a couple of hours the wind was blowing 15 to 18 so it was kind of wavy during the process but I finished what I could.  I could not get the black streaks off the sides so when we go to provision next time I will have to get something to clean those off.  Then Draco will get a much needed wax job.  After that is done it is on to sanding and staining the teak on the outside of the boat, 2 hand rails and an eyebrows and the teak around the companionway so it won't be too bad.  The maintenance project list is getting shorter at the top but we keep adding more to the bottom. it is nice to cross some off the list but the list never ends.
We had visitors last week as well from St. Louis. Our niece, Rebecca, nephew, Chuck and our great nephew Charlie came to see us, they were enjoying the Cardinals training camp in Jupiter Florida.  Only about 30 minutes away, they drove up and spent the night on the boat with us.  Charlie is 3 and he talked and talked, I think he will be a Cardinals fan for life.  He would be telling you something and then blurt out GO CARDS!!!! then he would continue on with what he was saying.  We were walking in downtown Stuart with them on Friday night and Charlie starts singing God Bless America. A few people looked at him and some even joined in the singing. We all got a good laugh out of that one.  Next morning when we were raising the flag on the boat we let Charlie pull it up and we all joined in singing God Bless America.
For some unknown reason Charlie was calling us all lollipop when he was playing peek through the hatches at us on the boat.  His little blonde head would stick through the forward hatch and say hey you lollipop,he was so cute. We had some tootsie pops on the boat so before he left I stuck one in his pocket and called him a lollipop. I hope he can have candy???  They left early on Saturday so they could get to the Cardinals batting practice and game against the Twins then they were heading for Tampa.  The time together was too short and we did not get to take them sailing but we hope they come back soon. Thanks for coming to see us.  That's all I have for today.  TTFN