Christmas Video

A good friend of mine sent me an elfme video so being the perfect father that I am, I had to make one of our kids, Michelle, Rachel, and Nef (Rachel's husband).

Well Christmas is Almost Here

It's Christmas Eve and it is 80 and sunny outside. I have all the windows open, but there is no breeze right now so it is hot. We have a few friends coming over tomorrow for a barbecue. It does not seem like Christmas, but it is. Rachel is in Mexico and Michelle is in California. Once the kids leave home Christmas never seems the same. Although Jesus is the reason for the season family makes it even more special if that is possible. As the girls were growing up we always made a birthday cake for Jesus to make sure the girls (and us) would remember what we were really celebrating. I guess since the girls are gone we just need to really focus on what we were supposed to be focusing on all along, the birth of our savior.

We went kayaking the other day and had a really good time. Lots of different activities going on here to keep one busy. The harbor is filling up fast. Usually in January there is a waiting list to get a mooring ball. We plan on staying here at least another month and then may go anchor somewhere for awhile.

Headed for the mangroves.

Sharon looking at the map trying figure out where we are.

Clear lake in the middle of the mangroves.

 

Sunrise this morning.

Busy Time

I have been busy lately, hence not much blogging. I had to complete 24 hours of continuing education in order to renew my insurance adjusters license. Ye ha that was fun. I am glad it is over. I did it on line, which is better than sitting in a boring class but still just about as much fun as going to the dentist. At least I won't have to worry about it for another two years now.

There was a Christmas boat parade through the harbor tonight. It was pretty good. My favorite boat though was a sailboat with lights in the shape of the leg lamp from "A Christmas Story". That is my favorite Christmas movie of all time. We watched it the other night. I can not get into the Christmas spirit until I watch it.

We decorated the boat today. It is hard to get into the Christmas spirit when it is 80 degrees outside. It is like the four years we lived in Australia. We would go to the mall and sit in the AC and look at the Christmas decorations to try and make it feel like Christmas. Oh well, I guess we will suffer through it.

Island Queen decorated for Christmas.

More Pics

Kayaking through the mangroves near our mooring.

Kayaking through the mangroves near our mooring.

Harvey snorkeling.

Me snorkeling.

Sombreo reef.

Sombreo reef.

Great Visit

We had a great visit with Harvey and Linda. They left today to return to Australia. We had a great time of catching up and doing fun things. I even got to act like a tourist for a week and do all sorts of things I hadn't done before including parasailing. Another great thing about having Harvey aboard is that he is alot better photographer than I am, and he always has his camera in hand. Here are some pics from this week.

I am having trouble uploading pics tonight. I will try to upload more tomorrow.

Snorkeling at Sombreo reef.

Snorkeling at Sombreo reef.

Sunset in the harbor.

Sunset in the harbor.

Sunset at Sombreo beach.

Enjoying Marathon

We have been back in Marathon for a week now and are really enjoying it. It is so nice not have have another boat literally 4 feet away from your boat. That is exactly the way it was in the marina. Now the closest boat is about 200 to 250 feet away. It is nice to feel the boat move in the wind and swing around giving you an ever changing view.

It has been pretty windy here this past week making a bit of a wet dingy ride from the dock to Island Queen. It is starting to calm down now though. I have been busy working on the boat as usual. Just small projects though. This week I rebuilt both the toilets and converted them over to fresh water instead of saltwater. We can already tell the difference. I also fixed our anchor light. Even though this is a mooring field you still have to display an anchor light at night. I also installed a new depth sounder. We have never had a good working one on Queeny even though this is the forth one. I could not find one that would read through the hull. I would have to hang the transducer over the side to get them to work semi-consistently. This time I bought a more expensive model that is stronger and it reads through the hull fine. Time will tell if it is a long term solution.

Fixing the anchor light.

New depth sounder.

The numbers are even big enough for me.

Living aboard in Boot Key Harbor

The following is a video I made aboat living aboard in Boot Key.

Back in Marathon

We traveled back to Boot Key Harbor in Marathon this weekend. It is good to be back on a mooring and away from the dock. It is so nice to feel the boat swing in the wind and have all the windows and doors open. It makes you feel like you are living on a boat and not an extra small apartment. We had a good trip. It was about 50 miles and took right at nine hours. Island Queen ran great and was a joy to operate. This is our third time to Boot Key. I think we were just as excited to get here this time as we were the first time.

We have had some visitors in the last few months. My mother-in-law Pat came to visit and my friend Jack and his family. We are having friends from Australia coming in a couple of weeks.

The following is a video Sharon took on our way down this weekend.

Ray Stevens

Sharon and I have been trying to get some medical things taken care of while we still have medical insurance, so I had a colonoscomy this week. If you have ever had one you know the stuff they make you drink is the nastiest stuff you will ever drink, and there is a gallon of it. All the time I was drinking the stuff I kept thinking of the Ray Stevens song Doctor Doctor. So I had to look it up. Here it is.

IT IS FINISHED (well almost)

I finished up the teak rails a couple of days ago, and they look fantastic. Two coats of pigmented varnish and five coats of clear. Now all I have to do are the doors and windows. I will wait until we get to Boot Key Harbor at the end of the month before starting on those. Since we will be on a mooring we will have the doors open anyway so it won't matter if I take them off to refinish them. That wouldn't work here in the marina. I have lots of small projects to do. I don't know if Queeny will ever be finished. I guess it really doesn't matter in the long run. It gives me something to do to stay out of trouble and besides what would I do with all that money if I wasn't giving it to West Marine and Defender?

We got our new inflatable dinghy. We like it so far. Much more stable than Rosie was and a larger carrying capacity.

Our new dinghy

Hard to Believe

It is hard to believe but I have not had a single person claim their free vacation to the fabulous Florida Keys. Well if you were about to reply and say "yes, I am on my way" change that sand paper to foam brushes. All the sanding is done and the first coat of varnish is on. It looks beautiful. Second coat tomorrow, and then five coats of clear. If all goes well I should be done in about a week or week and a half. Just in time for us to move back to Boot Key Harbor on the 1rst of November. We are looking forward to being back on a mooring again. We sold Rosie our hard dingy and have bought an inflatable one. Now I have to find a new motor.

I borrowed a float from the marina to make the job easier.

Sanded and ready to varnish.

First coat going on.

First coat going on.

CONGRATULATIONS!!! YOU WON!!!

If you are reading this you have won a free vacation in the Florida Keys. On you way to the airport please stop by the hardware store and buy some sand paper. By the way it is only a coincidence that I started refinishing the teak yesterday and that you won this free vacation. This vacation promises lots of sunshine and exercise so please act quickly to claim your free week before they are all gone.

I started refinishing all the teak railings yesterday. The first cleaning yesterday, second cleaning today, sanding starts tomorrow. Hopefully the first of seven coats of varnish will go on Saturday. I forget just how much exterior teak there is on Island Queen until I start working on it. I usually just clean it and rub it with teak oil and it is beautiful. The problem is that that only lasts about six weeks and then it is time to start all over again. This time I decided to do a more long lasting job. It is a lot more work up front, but should last for years with a little maintenance every year.

Lots of teak.

Anchors and related hardware removed, cleaned and ready to be sanded.

More teak.

More teak.

Teak, teak and more teak.

Nice Weekend

We anchored out last weekend and had a great time. It is so nice to be out on the hook and away from the marina. We can't wait until it is time to leave the Keys and be on our way. It feels so good to be on the hook and feel the boat swing with the wind and to have all the windows and doors open. While at a marina you pretty well have to run the AC as you just don't get much of a breeze. On Saturday night we went for a swim and the water was full of bioluminescence. Our camera would not capture it so I am putting a couple of photos off of google images to show what it looked like. Every movement  in the water resulted in the water lighting up all around you. Very cool.

The solar panels worked out really well. We did not need to start the generator over the weekend at all and came back with fully charged batteries.

Still lots of small projects going on. I painted Rosie this week and have her on Craigs List and eBay. If she sells we will buy an inflatable dingy to replace her. I also replaced all the engine gauges this week. I plan on starting on the teak rails again next week.



Google pic of bioluminescence.

Sharon enjoying the ride.

Beautiful day to be on the water.

Small Projects

I have been working on a few small projects lately. I installed a WiFi antenna today which will really help alot with getting Internet. I mounted it on the front corner of the bimini. It is then hooked to a 12 volt DC router that I mounted in the closet of the Vee berth. We now have wireless Internet anywhere on the boat. I have also been working on a new seat for Rosie. The original one was delaminating because the boat builder (I won't mention any names here) but his initials are Scott Dunsworth did not coat it with epoxy resin before painting it. I got it cut out, fitted, sanded and a coat of epoxy on it today. Tomorrow I will get another coat on it. Hopefully I will have it and Rosie panted by this weekend and be able to get here in the paper to sell. We would like to get an inflatable dingy instead. An inflatable will be more stable and take a bigger motor which will help alot when we are anchored out.

Making the new seat.

Cut out and sanded.

First coat of epoxy.

New 12 volt wireless router.

New WiFi antenna on the front starboard corner of the bimini.

New Davits

I finally got all the solar panels in. Everything looks like it is going to work out as planned, that is always a good thing. We now have 480 watts of solar power. We only had 160 watts on Morgan, but this is a lot bigger boat with many more amenities. I think it will be more than enough power. I plan to also build a solar water heater that will be mounted on the davits as well so we will have hot water when on the hook. We have two more large projects to do as time and money enable. 1. Haul out and refinish the hull. We will install a bow and stern thruster while she is out of the water. We will also install new fuel tanks at that time, so that will be the biggest chunk of change at one time. 2. I want to build a water maker so we will always have clean fresh water. I can build one for about $2K verses buying one for $5K. The other advantage to building verses buying is that you then know the system inside and out and are able to fix it yourself.

Lots going on

I have been back to the boat for almost two weeks now. I have been getting alot done. Thanks to having some work I was able to go ahead and do some things on Queeny. I bought two new starting batteries and built a custom battery box to house them. I made the box and installed it in front of the motor. Queen has a huge bilge, so I recessed the battery box into the bilge. Which does two things. One, it gets some more weight lower in the boat which is always a good thing. Secondly it frees up some floor space in the engine room.

New battery box made of 1/8" aluminum plate.

Fits perfectly.

I contracted a welder to build davits to hold Rosy, our kayak, and the solar panels. It did not turn out exactly like I had wanted as the welder does not know how to read a scaled drawing, but all in all I am happy with it. This weeks project will be to mount and wire the solar panels. Slowly but surely we are turning Island Queen into a cruising boat. It just takes time and money.

New davits with one solar panel.

 

Rosy and the kayak fit perfectly.