I can see clearly now...the rain is gone...

A beautiful song and yet, my boat windows!  Who knew that there were actually other boats next to us at the  marina?  One of Daniel's weekend projects this past weekend was replacing the badly worn, damaged plexiglass in the windows.  What a fantastic job he did.  He says he did other projects and I actually was at the boat to see them on Sunday night, but they aren't nearly as neat as the windows.

                    BEFORE                                                                                              AFTER                  

                 

Mother's Day Presents

I got Friday off from work and went to the Atlanta airport and picked up our youngest, Brian, who flew in from Dallas.  It had been a while since we had seen him and it was a wonderful idea for him to come for Mother's Day.  We arrived back at home in time to pick up Daniel, swing by my office and pick up a package that we had ordered for the boat and then head to Charleston for a fun weekend at the boat.  Brian had been wanting to go sailing but with our long list of things to do it was going to be hard to swing it, but we came up with a compromise.  He helped us clean and wax the top part of the boat and since he was such a big help, we had plenty of time to go sailing!  (What he doesn't know is that we were going to take him sailing anyway, but we were very grateful for the help he supplied.  Thanks, B!)
 

It wasn't enough that we went sailing in 15-20 mph winds with Brian steering the boat for the first time, Daniel decided it was a good time to get in the stern locker and have a look around.

 

 

 

 

 

To the casual observer one might think Daniel is kissing the boat – the man does love his boat – but he isn’t.  When we worked on the buff and wax job this past weekend he removed some snaps, and before reinstalling them he blew out each hole to get the extra dust/wax out of the holes.  Then he added some kind of sealant into the hole…you know what – I better let him explain.  Daniel??

We finished up our wonderful weekend with breakfast out and a present for me...flowers, a new dress, nope - a brand new, stainless steel fishing rod holder!  Yup, who could ask for more?  No, I do not own a fishing rod.  I have a bad feeling I know what I'm getting for Christmas.

Galley's Make Excellent Workshops

The doctor told Carla to stay off the boat for a while to give her inner ear a chance to heal.  I reluctantly went to the boat by myself (No, really.  I was reluctant.  Ok, maybe not reluctant, but I did feel sorry for her), expecting that she would join me on Saturday to sit on the dock and enjoy the nice weather.  Well, that didn't work out as expected.  Winds were howling 15-30 knots all weekend and it rained much of Saturday and Sunday, so Carla decided to stay home and clean out some more junk  I was able to finish a few small projects outside between rain events, but when it came time to saw and stain some boards for the new cabinets it was raining hard.  Maybe she won't notice the sawdust behind the seat cushions.

Amazing Weekend Projects

I have to brag everyone - my Captain is amazing.  I'm not sure how he does it every weekend, but he always does.  Projects that just blow me away.  The best for the weekend, so far, is this huge cabinet Daniel constructed to go around the washing machine.  It turned out beautiful!  I'm really very proud of him - not surprised because he has been building things for a long time, but WOW, this just turned out so good!

        

   And then for "safety" he added the hold bar you see on this picture.  It turned out great too.  This will really come in handy in rough seas. 

BUT THAT'S NOT ALL....here are more of Daniel's projects from this weekend:

A water spout in the anchor locker to clean the chain and anchor (and deck) when it comes up out of the water.

A new flag pole (with a brand new U.S.A. flag) to show our country of origin.

A new Mantus anchor (notice Cooper River Bridge in the background).  We can't wait to try out this new anchor!

Beats me what this thing is called.  But Daniel knows and he installed it.  It holds the spinnaker pole to the deck. 

Lastly, a motor lift to, you guessed it, to lift the 100 pound motor off the dinghy. 

I would say this was an amazing weekend of completed projects!



D - Time

If our boat's name is C-Time (Carla) I think our dinghy's name is D-Time (Daniel).  Come on, it's cute!  We finally got to take D-Time out for its maiden voyage.  After owning it for 2+ months, but since my slip and fall trying to take it for its initial run on my birthday in February, we never got to take it out.  So, one Tuesday afternoon after work, we loaded up the dinghy and pulled it 30 minutes to beautiful Lake Murray, in Columbia, South Carolina.  It was the middle of the week so we really didn't expect the lake to be crowded but as we pull up to the local dock we were mistaken.  Apparently every Tuesday night at this particular dock they host a fishing tournament.  The whole parking lot was filled with $20,000+ boats and us...with our little dinghy.  We didn't care.  Daniel got out of our car (most everyone else was there in their pickup truck pulling their $20,000+ boats) to put the motor on D-Time and put our life jackets in the boat.  We waited our turn and Daniel backed us into the water.  Here comes the hard part.  I had to get out of the car, on the slanted boat ramp.  Last time I was on a boat ramp an ambulance came and took me away.  To say I was a little nervous is an understatement.  I made it out of the car and onto the fixed dock area.  I held the dinghy while Daniel parked the car.  I made it fine and we jumped in the dinghy and motored her around.  Our little boat was a champ.  She planed out and she went fast.  It was a wonderful first trip.