Back at the boat

We are back at the boat - just planning on doing some more chores so nothing too exciting! 

Sailing buddies visit

Our Manta friends, Ed and Cathy, have stored their RV with us over the summer.  They came yesterday to pick it up.

Had a great night visiting with them and one of their grandsons, Nate.  Such a sweet kiddo.  (note that we're enjoying our new deck - amazingly bug-free and cool for a change!!)

Before we knew it, it was time for them to head out.  We'll see them again in the Bahamas around December if not before!

Surprise visitor

Buddy surprised us with a visit yesterday.  He had helped a friend (Reid) bring his boat up from Florida and was in town.  

Had a nice visit and lunch before he had to head out.  Fun afternoon!

Lunch

Rick and Sue brought their little power boat over to our dock to pick us up for a short ride over to River Dunes for lunch.  Good fun to go fast!  And such nice folks.

That's about it for the day - everything else was just plumbing for Duane and cleaning for me - not very photo worthy!  Gotta do it though!

Dinghy chaps finished!!

I know you're happy to hear it!  Me too!!

Saturday afternoon, we took a break.  The local marina - Deaton Yacht Service - had their 40th Anniversary celebration.  They sweetly invited the entire town for music and a catered BBQ.  We carpooled with Jerry and Donna - a lovely afternoon, but hot!!!

Last thing that needed to be done was attach the swim fin bags.  I sewed a batten in the front border pocket to keep it "stiff".

 Took the trailer next door to our neighbor's boat ramp that he nicely offered for our use anytime!  Off we went for a little tour of Brown/Broad creek.  We have to run the engine at 1/2 power for 2 hours to break it in.  It did great - got up on plane easily at even 1/2 throttle. 

 On our little dinghy ride, we saw new friend Sue out in her yard so we puttered over to chat.  Rick came out and invited us in for a glass of wine.   Had to twist my arm!!! 

Beautiful house - enjoyed chatting with them.   Sue got out a watermelon and Rick did a great job with a fancy cut -

Ended up with fun little watermelon spears!  Yummy one too.  (Watermelon and red wine are a surprisingly good pair!)

Back to the boat - swapped the new with the old on the davits.  Yay!!!  A project complete!!

Almost finished with the dinghy chaps!

I started the day with a "fail". 

If you'll remember on past dinghies, we've ordered this custom made registration number plate.  It costs $50....and I thought "I can make that" instead....

So, I printed out the numbers/letters using a large bold font, then carefully cut out the letters.

Traced backwards on the back of the vinyl and cut out the characters.  Thought they turned out really nice!

So here's my patch - ready to sew.  I changed to black thread since I thought it would be less "visible".

And here's the "fail".  I just could not control the sewing machine to make the turns easily.  The "walking foot" on this machine grabs the fabric with every stitch (which is very good when you've got heavy materials) but I tried several times and this is the best I could do.....so I'm calling it a fail and ordering the $50 plaques.

Next up is the bag for our swim fins/etc.  I just made a simple box using Phifertex material.  It will let the water easily escape when we store wet items.

The almost finished bag.

And this is where the bag will be in the dinghy.  We just need to put in the grommets and tie them in place. 

More dinghy chaps, what else is there?

Man, it's still hot, hot, hot!!


Proceeding with the motor cover, I just cut out the sunbrella per the patterns with about 5/8" seam allowance added, just by eye.  Started the assembly.  I ended up ripping two of the seams out and re-doing.  Made for a nice snug-but loose enough fit.

Mostly assembled.  Ready for the bottom seam/pocket for the drawstring.

All done with reflective tape added.  The little dog-ears will have an elastic string attached for extra security.

Added reflective tape to the dinghy itself - incase we ever need to search for it with a spotlight!

Added this plaque - I will attach a long bag/pocket for our swim fins, etc.  (I haven't made that yet)

Getting closer to "splash"!

Back to the dinghy chap project!

Man, it is hot!!!

Back to the dinghy project.....

I used masking tape and fabric markers to lay out where to sew the Naugahyde rub-rail protector strip.

Gives it a nice look and will keep the fabric from wearing when we are next to a dock.

Next up is some patches at the bow.  This is where we step onto the dinghy from the back of the boat and it gets a lot of wear.

Patches installed.

And in progress now - the cover for the outboard.  Just wrapped it up with paper.

And cut out the patterns.  I'll add seam allowances when I cut the Sunbrella fabric.  That's it for the 96 degree day!

Back at the boat!!

Finally back at the boat today....got here late so nothing accomplished other than unloading all our "stuff" and toting it to the boat. 

The gauge read 100.4 degrees inside the boat when I opened the door.  It took about 2 hours to pull the temp down to "comfortable".

Will get busy with chores tomorrow.

Little trip to Asheville area

We took a little weekend trip to Asheville to go to the Hall reunion.  But I was terrible at getting photos!

Keith and Denise told us to pick some veggies from their garden.  You don't have to ask me twice!

Mom picking some kale.  Such a pretty garden!

Here's the haul!  Will be eating good for a while!  Thanks K&D!

Stopping point on the deck

Time to move on to other things! 

In case you thought this was all fun and games....this is what I looked like yesterday evening after doing a bunch of sanding.

One final touch was to hang a swing that Robert had made several years ago.  Glad to relax for a few days!

More deck work

The section of deck we're working on is nearly complete. 

Thought I'd point out the new "style" for the railing.  This is the original installation - the pickets attach directly to the bottom of the deck.  Duane was not pleased with that after all these years of collecting pine needles and leaves at the bottom of the rungs.

This is the new detail with a bottom toekick board and the ability to sweep the deck off directly.

There is a mix of new/old wood - we salvaged what we could from the old railing.

It will all weather to grey over the next year or so and will look more uniform.

Pretty neat!

Deck coming together

The deck is nearing completion....maybe just a few more days.

It's so weird walking out our bedroom door!  Seems like a whole new house!

More deck work

We're braving the crazy hot temps to continue the deck work....

In progress, this is several days work.

Flooring finally going on.

From ground level.

Getting closer to finished!

Happy July 4th

We made some progress on the deck....

and then the boys showed up for a 4th of July bbq.  Thought I'd show my sis my vegan plate!  "Meatless" hot dog, Helman's Vegan May, potato salad (made with the vegan mayo and no eggs) fresh corn off the cob with Earth Balance and Bush's Veg baked beans with smokey bbq sauce.  Very yummy!