Touch of Class

We found out the carpet in our state room was wet.  It had been pretty cold outside and we had the heat on plus the fact of all our heavy breathing ;), we figured it was condensation coming down the hull of the boat and getting the carpeting wet.

Luckily our carpeting and pad can just be pulled up so we can see what is going on.  Gary did just that.  We propped the carpet and pad up with spare shoes, turned a fan on it and plugged in the de-humidifier to get it to dry.  Gary put on his thinking cap while the carpet was drying and decided he needed to make a trough that the water could run in and then feed it to the bilge where it could just be pumped overboard, thereby keeping the carpet from getting wet again.  Gary was just getting ready to do start the job

Trusty Tools

when I went under the sink to get something.  One of the Tupperware containers I pulled out had about 1/4 inch of water in it.  Well lookie, lookie, I think I have discovered the true source of out leak!  Yah!  Maybe it will be a simple fix.  That would be nice for a change.

First we need to empty out ALL the stuff from under the sink

Wow

Look at all that stuff. (I’ve come to the conclusion that when I stocked the boat I thought we were going to be away from civilization for months at a time, cause man, I have a lot of stuff stored all over the boat. 🙂  And not just one extra back up item, several back up items.) The picture doesn’t due justice to what I had stuffed under that little sink.  It is surprising how much you can fit into a small area.

So after all that good stuff was removed and Gary took off the door to get better access, he g0t out our trusty mirror.

Yup, it is leaking

He then got out our trusty screw diver, he give the nut a few twists and we cross our fingers and hoped that took care of the problem.

In the mean time, I had a pen in the back pocket of my jeans and was sitting at the helm working on my computer and BAM

Ink on cushion

the stupid pen leaked all over the cushion.  Darn!  I immediately search Google to find out how to get it out, they suggesting rubbing alcohol, which I tried.  It got the first layer off but then quit working. Then I phoned a friend.  Rae, she knows how to clean everything. Tried her suggestion of rug shampoo, I’ll have to see where I can get her commercial cleaned that she mentioned.  I tried Google again for more suggestions and tried them all.  I tried my bleach pen, a Mr. Clean sponge, shaving cream….nothing seemed to work.  They also suggested hair spray (do people still us that?  One thing I didn’t think to stock 🙂 )  Anybody have any other suggestions?  Poop, double poop!  Hopefully Gary will be too preoccupied with the leak in the sink to see the ink stain.  I’ll have to rub some cat nip on it so Smokie lays there and hides the stain.

Well, we’ll have to see if the dripping stops and if we get anymore suggestions on the ink stain removal.  Stay tuned!

Well, we decided to put a chart plotter on the upper helm.  It also has a depth sounder that works.  Driving without a depth sounder was OK while we were on the river, a place we knew like the back of our hand :), but for strange waters, especially those that are 50 feet deep but are so clear they look like it is only 5 feet deep, a depth sounder is a must. So, I’ve made another entry under “From the Engine Room” if you’re interested. Those that aren’t, I have some more pictures of Hank

Hank at Night

Better picture of Hank

Nice Close up of Hank

He is our only amusement at night and Smokie especially likes to watch him.  Every night Hank comes fishing.  One night I couldn’t sleep and I got up in the middle of the night to read.  Hank had just caught dinner and he was standing there with two small fish in his mouth, I suppose he was waiting for them to die so he could eat them.  At least he is a quiet neighbor and doesn’t throw loud parties 🙂

We have a 63 foot Ricki Scarborough boat next to us.

Sport Fishing Boat

They pulled in a few weeks ago.  Apparently they had one of their fuel tanks burst so they had to replace it.  In order to replace it, they had to cut out the whole back deck, replace the tank and re-do the back deck.  They brought the boat here so they could complete the finishing touches and redo the transom.  They just finished putting in the new fighting chair.

New Back Deck

The guy who is either the captain or a crew member, has a black lab that comes to work with him every day.

New Best Friend

I made the mistake of giving him some treats….you know what they say about feeding the strays?  Well……

Hello! Are you in there?

Now everyday he sits by the back of our boat.  Once he makes eye contact with me he starts drooling

Time for Breakfast Cookie, please, please

I am such a sucker I dutifully bring him out his treats.  Who could resist?

Yes, we or should I say I, had to go to the Mardi Gras parade again this year.  It really is a lot of fun.  One of the first people I spy is this crazily dressed woman

She must like flowers

I wonder if this is her let’s go to a parade outfit or if she dresses like this everyday?

We had a bunch of kids and tall people in front of us

Kids

Tall people

So they were able to grab most of the booty.  The only stuff I got was the stuff on the ground :(.  I did pick up a giant toothbrush that no one seemed to want.  There were two little kids in a stroller behind me, I handed the oldest one the giant toothbrush.  He looked at it, then looked at me and started to scream.  I guess he has bad memories of the dentist.  Can’t say I blame him :).

I just couldn’t resist taking a picture of this little girl.  Love her hat!

Russian hat

Here is a guy with a funny hat, but he was in the parade

You can see all the bead they throw during the parade.  We were at the start of the parade, that way the people on the floats throw a lot more stuff :).  We are such smart cookies.

We didn’t get as many beads or goodies as we did last year.  Those darn little kids kept grabbing everything, greedy little suckers…….J/K :).

I found out later that night that I apparently was approaching the parade all wrong.  I was supposed to lift up my shirt and yell “BEADS!” and then I would get a bunch thrown at me. So, look out for next year!

We went to check out this marina that a friend of ours stayed at last year.  It is about 25 miles away by road, 2 miles as the crow flies, and 8 miles by water.  We couldn’t believe the interesting stuff they had there.  A guy by the name of Barber (surprise, surprise 🙂 ), bought 1,000 acres of land and put a marina on it plus a bunch of other fun stuff.  Here is some of it.

As you drive down the road to the marina, the first thing you see is Stonehenge

Gary by Stonehenge

Of course it is a smaller version, but cool none the less.  These stones are made of fiberglass so I expect they were easier to move around than the real ones.

Then as we continue down the road we are warned

Dinosaur crossing

Oh oh, dinosaurs ahead.

Dinosaur

Here is the guy with the little arms.  This dinosaur is like the people you go out to lunch with and the bill comes, suddenly they have little dinosaur arms and can’t reach the bill 😉

Here is another dinosaur

We finally reached the marina and they had a HUGE service area

Service Building

And it looks like you can work on your own boat in the yard

Boat yard

As a matter of fact we drove by a station wagon that had quite a few people/kids in it plus piled to the roof with stuff.  They also had a trailer filed full of stuff.  What a way to live.

Then we headed toward the ships store and saw this fountain

Whole Fountain

Fountain

Fountain

Top of fountain

pretty cool.  This was in the center of a circle jerk or traffic circle.

As we walked toward the office door…..watch out!

Ahhhh, run for your lives

Man, that was a close one.  Apparently they have a giant spider but we missed it.

Once in the building that the ships store was in, we found this room

Antique Boat Collection

they even had a motor like Gary had when he was a little kid

Motor like Gary’s

4 HP Martin.  Plus they had some cool chairs both inside and out

Crab Chair, looks pretty comfy

Side view of Crab Chair

I went to check out the head.  As I was sitting on the throne, I felt I was being watched.  I glanced up

In woman’s bathroom

I was right!  Gary said there was a crocodile head in the men’s restroom.

Then we looked out into the marina.  What the heck????

Woman Swimming in Harbor

I hope she is enjoying her soak.  We decided to walk around the docks and check them out.  We ran into a little friend for Smokie

Smokie???

Isn’t he pretty?  And look at those eyes

Look at those eyes!

The cat was pretty friendly, he almost ended up in the van ;).

All in all a pretty nice marina, too bad it is so far away from everything.  I guess we’ll stay at Orange Beach Marina another year.

There is a park close to us where we walk on the trails, we go almost every day. I know I mentioned them the last time we were here.  They have Geocaching in this park.  This year we found another Geocach

Geocach

Up in a tree

Here is the tree

I was just looking around while we walked and there it was, just like the other one we found on the trial with the alligator.  Except this one you have to climb the tree some to get at the little box.  Needless to say I didn’t climb the tree to look in the box.  That’s all I need is to try to explain that to an ER doc.

So some of you might be wondering what Geocaching is?  That is where wonderful Google comes in.  If you ask Google, what is Geocaching……

Geocaching /ˈdʒiːoʊˌkæʃɪŋ/ is an outdoor recreational activity, in which participants use a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver or mobile device and other navigational techniques to hide and seek containers, called “geocaches” or “caches”, anywhere in the world.

A typical cache is a small waterproof container containing a logbook (with a pen or pencil). The geocacher enters the date they found it and signs it with their established code name. After signing the log, the cache must be placed back exactly where the person found it. Larger containers such as plastic storage containers (Tupperware or similar) or ammunition boxes can also contain items for trading, usually toys or trinkets of little financial value, although sometimes they are sentimental. Geocaching shares many aspects with benchmarking, trigpointing, orienteering, treasure-hunting, letterboxing, and waymarking

This is why we love Google.  You can ask Google anything and it gives you the answer. When our Grand dog

Our Grand Dog

ate oatmeal raisin and chocolate chip cookies at 12:00 midnight on the first night my daughter and her husband moved into their house.  So we first asked Google about dogs eating those type of cookies and were able to ascertain that this was very bad for the Grand dog.  Then we were able to learn the best thing to do is to make the dog throw up.  How the heck do you do that?  Well trying to avoid a very costly trip to the Emergency room at the vet, Google to the rescue.  We learned that one teaspoon of hydrogen peroxide for every 10 pounds of animal will make them vomit.  So off to 24 hour Cub foods to get the $2.00 bottle of hydrogen peroxide.  20 minutes later, the Grand Dog was barfing up her midnight snack.  All was well.

We have learned so many interesting things on Google.  Sometimes there aren’t many people around here to talk to so we have to find other ways to amuse ourselves.  Asking Google meaningful questions has helped us pass the time.  We have learned that cats don’t fart. Apparently the muscles around their butt don’t constrict enough to allow them to make the farting noise.  It just flows out all day and all night.  So keep that in mind and watch out what you feed your cat!  That goes for you Smokie

Who me? I don’t fart!

We also watch Judge Judy.  As I worked for a law firm for 13 years I feel I need to keep up to date on the latest rules and laws and what better way than to watch Judge Judy?  If you watch with any regularity you’ll notice a young woman in the audience with long blond hair.  She is in quite a few of the shows, so we asked Google who she was and I’ll be darned if Google didn’t have an answer for us.  Apparently she is part of the TV crew.  They like to make sure the seats are all taken so the crew fill in.

How long do you boil an egg?  Ask Google!

How old is Opie?  Ask Google!

How do you change the oil in the car?  Ask Google!

So the next time you want to know something…..just ask Google!

There are a couple of sport fisher boats tied up to the face dock of the dock we are on.

Two Sport Fisher Boats

You can see our little boat right under the planked side roof.  It looks so little compared to them :).  Anyway, rumor has it the first boat, which is directly behind us

First Boat on Dock Face

which is 55 feet long and probably cost a couple of  bucks, and the second boat

2nd Sport Fisher Boat

which is 90 feet long and cost a few more bucks are owned by the same person.  Apparently who ever owns the boats bought the first boat, First Choice, decided it really wasn’t his “first choice” and bought the 90 footer instead.  Then instead of selling the smaller boat, he gave, I repeat GAVE, the first boat to his daughter.  Wow!  She is a lucky girl.  We hope our daughter doesn’t get any crazy ideas if she reads this.  Although we did give her a 1997 fishing boat.  Lucky girl :).

The big 90 footer is having some waxing done on his boat, so when he needs to turn it around he has to drive it down by the gas dock

OOOOOOh, a little black smoke coming from those diesels, time to burn out the carbon!

which is real close to our boat

Pretty close to us

so he has enough room to spin that bad boy around to face the other direction.  We love being by the gas dock, there is always some action going on there.  Look at this boat

Another Nice Boat

Look at the bow

Cool bow

Don’t really know what that is for but it looks cool.

Anyway, back to the story about our neighbors.  The little boat, and I use that term loosely, is housing the crew that is doing the waxing. They leave their under water lights on at night.  Pretty cool

Nice underwater lights

Under Water lights

You can even see fish swimming around

Get out the  Gary!

One day we got up, it had been a cold night, Gary checked the electrical panel, the amps we were drawing was down.  Those big boats suck a lot of power and with us being at the end of the line…….I guess we should be happy we get anything at all :).  Look at these electric cords the 90 footer uses

125 amp EACH!

Look at the size of the cover

Wow, that is big

And the inside I’ve never seen anything like it before.

One of the fun things about having our boat here is seeing all the different and REALLY expensive boats here.  They are fun to look at and we walk the marina often just to look.  It is like being at a boat show everyday :).

These are some well maintained and babied boats.  And so is our :).

Ya know, sometimes it is hard to tell what day it is when you are retired.  Every day seems like a Saturday.  One thing that is helpful here at the marina, or at any marina for that matter, you can always tell what day it is when you see these people out

Washing boats

Scrubbing boats

Rinsing Boats

It must be Thursday 🙂

We decided to take a drive to Pensacola as we hopefully will be making a trip there by boat before we leave.  While there, we pulled over and checked out the beaches there

Pensacola Beach

Gary was pondering whether or not he wanted to walk bare foot on the beach

Should I or Shouldn’t I?

Nope, not this time.

Not this time

Air is warm but sand is cold  and dirty.  We just washed and vacuumed the van, we wouldn’t want to drag all that sand in there, would we?

While we walked around Palafox Marina we ran into a couple of people fishing off the pier, of course all the pelicans were up close and personal just in case the fishermen wanted to share anything…..anything at all!

Please, pretty please?

Well, I didn’t really want anything anyway….

Boo Hoo

We did see this boat racing by, what a weird way to drive it.

How does he steer?

That was a good day trip and now it is back to Orange Beach.

It finally got warm enough on the 19th for Gary to put on his shorts

First day for shorts

I settled for flip flops and kept my jeans on 🙂

Gary decided to put in lighting in the electrical panel.  We got this nice strip of lighting from our friends at BearTrax (our favorite bait, tackle, hardware, grocery store, gas station in Hillman).

First we have to show off the electrical wires

Clean electrical panel

Wow, what an installation job!

Gary wanted to install the lights because the lighting is not the best there and he needs a little extra lighting when he is checking the gauges.  We had one dead switch that wasn’t hooked up to anything.  Gary used that switch to be our on/off switch for the rope lighting.  See how pretty it looks

Lights in the electrical panel

Night view

Oooooooo.  You could almost use this for mood lighting ;).

That is it for this project.  We are going to visit Pensacola soon, can’t wait!