Recipe

I know this isn't a cooking blog, it's a blog about living on a boat. But part of living on a boat is eating well. I made this soup a couple of times now, and it is the best soup I have ever tasted. Yes mom including your potato soup. Haha I am 1,200 miles away so you can't hit me, and you will forget I said this by the time I see you again. Lol

Creamy Chicken Taco Soup


Ingredients

2 boneless chicken breasts
¼ cup chopped fresh cilantro
1/2 cup diced onion
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon cumin
1 teaspoon chili powder
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
2 10-ounce cans Ro-tel tomatoes, undrained (tomatoes with green chilies)
2 cans chicken broth
1/2 cup heavy cream



In a pot place the 2 chicken breasts, one can of broth, onion, cumin, garlic, and chili powder. Simmer for about 40 minutes to thoroughly cook the chicken. Remove the chicken and shred. Replace the chicken and add remaining ingredients. Cook and stir until cream cheese is desolved and you have a nice creamy soup.

Better than a T-bone steak

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Miscellaneous

I have been working on a few projects lately. One was to take care of an electrical fire hazard aboard. After the boat fire on a nieghboring dock a few weeks ago, I mooved one of our projects up to the top of the list. The shore power cord connects to the boat just in front of the starboard door. That is also where the genius that designed the boat put the drain for the flybridge. So when it rains the flybridge dumps water right onto the connection. Plus it stuck out into the way when I would go forward to the bow. I changed the way the cord attaches to the boat. I got rid of the plug and wired it direct to the main switch for the electrical panel and used a waterproof plate where it enters the boat. Now the cord is permanently connected to the boat. When we are underway it will be rolled up and attached to a stainless steel hook on the side of the cabin.

We were driving back to Tavernier last Saturday and got stuck at the draw bridge. It was up and a sailboat was going through. We couldn't believe it. It was Morgan! It was nice to see her heading out into the Atlantic. When the bridge went down we crossed and Sharon took a pic, but by then she was pretty far away.

I have Rosie taken apart and up on the back deck right now fixing a couple of scrapes and getting ready to repaint her. Lots of other projects half done right  now as well. I am definitely not bored.

I look forward to the time when the boat is mostly finished (it will never be completely done) and we can get out of marina life and back on the hook or on a mooring. The marina is convenient for working on the boat, but you loose so much. Like privacy, scenery, feeling the boat swing with the wind, and it's just fun being "out there".

Morgan heading into the Atlantic.

Stock plug, in the way and not watertight.

Out of the way and watertight.

Sun Shade

I finished the frame for the new sun shade the other day. The canvas lady is supposed to start on it tomorrow. I hope she is better and faster than the last canvas lady I employed. I can't wait to get it done. It will make such a difference in the boat. We had one on Morgan and wow what a difference. The sun is so hot down here. If you are in the shade it's great, but in the sun it is unbearable. (to me anyway)

Sharon and I were talking the other night, and she told me she wanted Morgan back, that Morgan was home and Island Queen did not feel like home yet. I told her "too bad" She is sold and IQ is already home to me. I knew what she she meant though. IQ really does feel like home to me now. Maybe because I have put so much sweat into her already, I don't know. I do know this though, when it comes to comfortable living, IQ wins hand down.

More news coming soon.

Flybridge

Well we finally got our bimini top finished and installed. The flybridge is now 95% complete. I still have some work to do on the dashboard, but other than that it is done. It will be so nice to have a place to sit outside in the shade and enjoy the beautiful Keys weather. The flybridge is about 10' by 12' so it makes for a really nice area to sit and listen to music and enjoy being out of the boat. We are also doing a sunshade for the lower area of the boat that will extend from the back of the main cabin to the bow. It should be done in a couple of weeks. I will post pics of it as soon as it is finished and installed. I am excited about it as I am a shade freak.

30 Years

Well today is Sharon and I's 30th wedding anniversary. We both have the same romantic feeling about it. "I can't believe I have put up with your freaking nonsense this long". lol

My my my how time flies when you are having fun. We have lived in Indiana, Texas, Florida, Mexico, and Australia. Been to alot of places and seen a lot of different cultures. Now we live on a boat and are anxious to get traveling again. Life is exciting. I can't wait to see the next ten years.

We went to Outback Steakhouse and ate way to much. We ordered a blooming onion to start with. The first 5 or 6 bites were like heaven then it was just good until about half way through, but then I was so full I would have thrown the rest of it to the nearest stray dog if I could have found one. As the waitress was clearing our table she picked up the half remaining onion. I asked her if anybody has ever actually finished one. She said she had eaten one by herself but it took her all day and her body revolted afterwards. Mine would have just laid over and died.

Boat Fire!

No, not ours thank God. Very sad none the less. I stepped out of the boat this morning to do something and I couldn't believe my eyes. There was a boat on the next dock over totally engulfed in flames. It was a large power boat. Probably about a forty footer. Fiberglass is a wonderful product until it starts to burn. The smoke was black as black could be. There were other boats all around the one that was burning. A couple on a large house boat quickly untied and used their dingy to pull it away from the burning boat which was only ten feet away. I saw other people out with hoses wetting down their boats. One guy on another houseboat stayed on his boat even though he couldn't move it. The lady who owned the boat that burnt works in the marina office. She pretty well lost everything to the fire including her dog. One amazing thing though was the owner said the boat had 275 gallons on gasoline on board. Can you imagine what would have happened if the tank had exploded?

 So sad to see.

I couldn't believe it was real at first.

The houseboat just to the left is the one they pulled out with their dingy.

If you look closely you can see the guy standing on the porch of his houseboat while the boat next to him is on fire. He couldn't decide whether to leave or not. Would have been a no brainer for me.

Another vantage point.



Incredible!



Finally

We finally got to have a little fun (besides working on the boat fun). We went to the beach for a day and got got to do a little snorkeling. I actually felt like I was cruising again. After that it was back to work again. We have come along way on fixing up Island Queen.

It is hard to believe how fast time flies. We got to the Keys on Christmas Eve. That was 4 1/2 months ago. It does not seem like it though. The weather has been so beautiful. This is not a hard place to get used to.

There are a lot of fish that swim by our boat. The other day I stopped and took a couple of pics of them. I wouldn't need a pole to catch them, just a net. Maybe one day I will. The water here is crystal clear. You can see every detail on the bottom. So far we have seen manatees, dolphins, and lots of fish. On land we see alot of iguanas. They are all over the place. There was one about 18 inches long walking down our dock the other day until I made him jump off.

I think I got the comment problem fixed so people can comment again.

Sharon feeding them while I am taking pics.

Sometimes you can see 20 or 30 of them swimming past.

New storage doors.

What's left of the old doors.

Shades that Sharon made.

Inside looking out. You can see out better than what the camera captures.

My Love/Hate Relationship

No, not with Sharon, with CHANGE. One of the things I like about living on a boat is that it is so easy to change your surroundings. The neighborhood, the people, the scenery, the climate. You just move your home wherever you want. It's a lot cheaper to make a change of any or all of these by boat than in a house. That's the kind of change I love. The kind of change I hate is recently the Blogspot software I use updated and changed, at the same time my email provider changed everything as well (same parent company). They didn't add any new features that would make my life easier. They just moved all the buttons around to different places so you have to look for them now. They changed the colors to lighter harder see ones. Somebody obviously didn't have enough to do. Oh well, that's my rant for the week.

Still working on the boat. I thought I had all the leaks fixed until we had a monsoon the other day, about 4 or 5 inches of rain in one day, followed by three days of drizzle. So I am back to chasing down leaks. The lady doing our canvas work hasn't showed up for a week now. Every time I call her I hear tomorrow. I feel like I am dealing with sub-contractors again.

When I am not working on the boat I like cruising around YouTube. I came across this video that I though was pretty funny. A bit twisted sense of humor, but maybe that is why I like it.