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Showing posts from April, 2012

Mr. Perkins' wild ride

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March 17, 2012  Today we were towed over to the next marina by Eddie’s Marine Service headed up by Lupe, his brodder Chon, and a friendly crew of mexicanos, side tied along their dock and hoisted out our engine with their crane.  hey Lupe, pull my diesel... Preceding the pull was the disconnecting of all the engine components, hoses, shaft and wiring, all the binnacle mounted electronics and the binnacle, and breaking loose of the cockpit hatch for the engine to come out through. prop shaft went smooth deep breath in, and hold.... starting on the binnacle Fein Multimaster-if you have the means, I highly recommend you pick one up.  They're so choice Next day was the tow to Lupe's.                                                                     I wish I had a photo of Lupe(on the left) jumping on the tranny as they hoisted her to get the proper tilt so it would fit through the hatch al

Memory foam dreams

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Officially living aboard now. One of the first projects was to reshape two memory foam mattresses to our aft cabin bunk, a pilot berth and the settee berth. Our main motivation is the existing berth in the master cabin is horribly uncomfortable for two of us to sleep on. Our other motivation is to empty and get rid of the U Haul trailer. did I mention driving cross country with a trailer blows? 2 memory foam mattresses we schlepped across 8 states – just under $4,000 Plus: 1 electric turkey knife we bought during one of our stops during the drive - $19 Equals: 4 memory foam berths aboard. So, here goes, watched a couple how to vids on You Tube, fire up the turkey slicer, and tear into 4 grand worth of bedding. first victim next and aboard Ahhhhhh. So nice. Having a bad back I have been sleeping on memory foam for the last dozen years, and I have to admit, as our boat searched started, this ide

The Wiener goes west.

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April 1, 2012 "objects in mirror are chunkier than they appear" Driving cross country with a trailer blows. P.S. Driving across Texas with a trailer blows more. Myron's total driving time: 5000ish hours Samantha's total driving time: 5ish hours Scooby"s total time awake: 5ish minutes (no exageration) Driving cross country with a trailer blows. Sam's drive cross country: Sccoby's drive cross country: Myron's drive cross country: Driving cross country with a trailer blows.

Back to the Biscuit......

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March 21, 2010 So, back in Cocoa Beach. Now to pack up/sell/trash all our possessions and drive it all cross country. Pretty straight forward. then comes the Bon Voyaging. Since we have a large group of family and friends in our home town, this could be tough. Especially with my appetite for grog when I get within 3 miles of the Beach Shack. Or Casablanca. Or Paddy's. Johnnies. Sheesh . Yes, we need to get out of town quick..... our wonderful dive bar, literally right on the sand I will miss this corner, many years spent here with the best of friends. Three days later, I have done nothing but Bon Voyage with the crew. Samantha is totally house bound with a bronchitis thing she brought back from Cali, but she still manages to pack all day. Trooper. I resign myself to stay in and pack all day.... which I manage to do, but then every afternoon, "I hear da tunda cuz "......sunset at the Shack, start crushing Busch cans....

Closing Time....

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March 16, 2012 Finally, we close on our dream boat today after a hectic month of delays, years of planning and dreaming, and a 2 year search for a sailboat that had everything we were looking for. After negotiating and agreeing on a deal around the new year, I flew out to socal in late Jan. for the sea trial, surveys, and to close the deal if everything went well. As we first laid eyes on her Welcome to boating: sea trial - everything pretty much OK, sailed well in light winds, raising the mainsail proved tricky due to heavy friction on the halyard and a winch that was literally falling off the mast. next day, engine survey, rigging survey. Rigger showed up with his helper and we had to rebuild the mainsail winch that was falling off the mast so he could hoist his helper up the stick. winch got rebuilt, but then the sheave for the halyard is frozen. Explains the difficulty raising the main the day before. same deal with the mizzen. Other than th