A door latch…

The newly install door catch in Jack and Karen Hall's motor home .  No people pictures this time. We have become a bit lax at taking photos.  This is all for now - I have been lax at publishing the blog as well.

This only takes us through June 2013.  It is now November and we are back in Dallas as the boat is on the hard getting a new paint job.  Hope to see everyone while we are here.

Marble Falls

We go to Marble Falls to see friends and WHAT do we take pictures of you may ask. The table in Scott Johnsons kitchen…and…

Oak Lane homestead

We stopped by Mark's old home on Oak Lane in Grapevine to see if it is being taken care of properly (though we do not own it anymore).  The grass used to look like a golf green - sadly, it looks bad now.

 

 

June 2013 - Lunch with our adopted daughter...

Lunch with our 'adopted' daughter Megan. Oh, and Angie joined us a bit later BUT we forgot to get her picture - man, we are getting really bad about taking photos…

and Suzanne Reaves

and Suzanne Reaves

Dinner with Mike Reaves

Dinner with Mike Reaves

 

Lunch with Matt

Lunch with Matt

Kathleen and Bosco

Kathleen Crossland and her Godfather, Bosco.

 

 

Rynn Doan and Julie

Rynn Doan is a Dallas school friend of Julie's.

 

 

Mike & Bosco at the Smith's for a get together.

Mike and Bosco at the Smith's for a get together.

Chris meets for lunch with Xerox Retiree's

Some of the folks I used to work with meet for lunch and I get to join them when I am in Dallas.  Pictured here are Joy, Chris, Pete, Ann, Judy, Barbara, Mary, Nell and Linda.

 

 

Mark, Dick, Susan and Dave

Visiting friends Dave and Susan at their home in Coppell.

Mark & Maret Maxwell

Mark meets up with a colleague from Abbott to catch up on stuff at Houston's in Addison.

Fast forward...

And in a blink of an eye we move from NC to Dallas, TX and the home of Robert and Julie Smith to begin what I am now calling our 'summer travels'.

Robert, Mark and the camera girl out at Jakes for a beer and a burger.
 

Tim & Mark

Tim and Mark.  I know some of you think…is that all they do is go to parties, right?  Well, it seems like it but in reality the parties are after we have worked on the boat all day, scrubbing, cleaning, fixing repairing etc.  It is not all fun and games (she protests) but we usually don’t take pictures of the ongoing upkeep…perhaps we should.

Another party…

Tad, Chris and Mike at yet another party at the Captain's Lounge.  (Naturally, all crew is welcome at these parties.)

Bon Voyage…

Bon Voyage…

The nice man next to us takes off for Florida.

The nice man next to us takes off for Florida - I believe his name is Ed…drat, I hate when folks don't have boat cards.

 What is a boat card you ask?  Well, they take the place of a business card - ours has our picture on it, the name of our boat, our cell phone numbers and email address (and since we both have our ham radio licenses our ham call signs).

These are very handy as we just exchange them when we meet new folks and can refer back to them later as our memory fades.  I usually make notes on the back as to when/when we met, etc.

After we change the oil…

After we change the oil…huge difference.

May 2013 - Lube oil turns to mud…

When we do a passage and get water over the bow it seeps into the lube oil for our windlass (that's the thingy that brings up and/or let's out the anchor.  We have a check list for things to do after a passage.  Top on the list is to check the oil and sure enough it again looks like mud.

 This is before we change the oil…

Patty & Chris on the dock…

Patty and Chris on the dock…

Friends…

Patty, Ziga, Tim and Keith at a party.

The contacts need to be replaced.

The contacts need to be replaced.  While it was out we sent it to a local machine shop to have it refurbished.

Bow Thruster needs work

Later we remove the motor to the bow thruster…as it needs some work.

 

 

Friend Tim Bastian

Friend Tim Bastian

Here we are back in our slip in Bridgeton NC for hurricane season.

Here we are back in our slip in Bridgeton NC for hurricane season.

We enjoyed a few days at the dock in Beaufort...

We enjoyed a few days at the dock in Beaufort after checking into customs.

 

 

Here is the bridge in question.

Here is the bridge in question.

 

 

Beaufort NC

And…we are  on 4/10/2012 back at Morehead City early in the morning, before dawn.  We decide to wait to proceed under the bridge until we can see better.

Once it is daylight we continue to make our way up river having called customs to say we are back.  Customs said we should be OK but if not they would call us back.  Sure nuff - we had to report back to customs in Beaufort…drat.

We spent the night in Oriental NC tied to the city dock as we had to make a 4 hour trip back to Beaufort.

The next day we return to check in and discover that the same morning we waited till dawn to go under the bridge that it was closed.  Another boat was dis-masted as they attempted to navigate under the bridge while it was closed!

This dolphin picture is better.

This dolphin picture is better.

 

 

Dolphins sighted.

I took an amazing number of photos (bless the inventor of digital photography!) of a pod of dolphins who were swimming with us but it is very hard to capture the excitement of the moment.  Just let me say that dolphins always excite us when they swim in our wake and cross our bow easily.  We still have not seen them often enough!
 

Dock in the Abacos

Dock in the Abacos - a storm was brewing so we decided to spend our last three days at the dock…nice change.

Rust bucket

The chain (new four years ago) from the spare anchor was rusted tight…it was disposed of in a natural environment.  (Davy Jones Locker at 6000 feet 25 miles from shore.)

Anchors Away…for good.

We have carried around a spare anchor for 4 years and have never had a reason to use it…so finally made a decision to lighten the bow and donate it to a fellow sailor.

April 2013 - SHARKS!

SHARKS!  Needless to say we did not jump in the water this day…

An afternoon to visit John on Sojourn.

An afternoon to visit John on Sojourn.

Cracker P's in Lubbers Quarters, Abaco

A lovely view from the shore at Cracker P's Restaurant

Dinner aboard m/v Sojourn

Dinner with our friend John aboard his boat.

In the Abacos…

In March we sailed from Georgetown Exuma, Bahamas to the Abacos.  This is the view from the Firefly Bar and Grill.