Taking the Plunge

Angus, that proves their effectiveness as a guard animal.
The Dude abides.

Guard slugs, pshhh..

Raises the old question, is the ferret mightier than the sword. Or was that the pen?
Ferrets could be handy "ferreting out" items LOB (lost onboard).
All we need is RTF posting the Monty Python (?) song "I have got a ferret sticking up my nose".

Greetings,
As requested BUT it is NOT a Monty Python song or I would have posted it already. Just for that you'll have to cut and paste it yourself...
Didn't work. Moving right along...
Use your cursor on THIS one. You deserve it. Oh, and re-read post # 449. I think y'all are some confused...

Eel slap!

Oliver, nice kitty cat.
BruceK, don't encourage him.

Big party on Ten Knots last night. Sometime during the night we decided to string together this death trap of tiki lights. Not sure why. Maybe it was so we could have more light to play pie face.

frgeorgeh said:

Big party on Ten Knots last night. Sometime during the night we decided to string together this death trap of tiki lights. Not sure why. Maybe it was so we could have more light to play pie face.View attachment 40052

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I can see the venture was...well almost successful..

Alaskan Sea-Duction said:

I can see the venture was...well almost successful..

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It was a lot of fun. And we did play pie face. If u have not seen the game YouTube or Google it.

The next morning there was sticky whip cream from one end of this boat to the other! The Grand Kids loved it.

My wife and I had to leave the boat to go work our little business today. All I could think about was getting done and getting back to the boat. Lord! Talk about a fish out of water; that's me!

If I am sitting for more than 30 min and don't have to wipe the salt spray off my glasses, something is wrong!

frgeorgeh said:

My wife and I had to leave the boat to go work our little business today. All I could think about was getting done and getting back to the boat. Lord! Talk about a fish out of water; that's me!

If I am sitting for more than 30 min and don't have to wipe the salt spray off my glasses, something is wrong!

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Ah yes...the dreaded drying out.
Kind of like a zombie, only you're alive

Off Duty said:

Ah yes...the dreaded drying out.
Kind of like a zombie, only you're alive

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Exactly!!! Lol

So frgeorgeh,
How has it all gone? I had not seen this thread before or I would have responded sooner. My lovely wife & I were livin' in the friggin' desert.... Tucson, AZ? My wife and I had planned to live aboard when I retired...another four years from now.
THEN, my mother-in-law was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. That changed everything. Modern medicine says there is a genetic link, albeit a very small one with Parkinson's. But it was enough, my wife said she was concerned how long we might be able to live that dream if her physicality begins to be compromised. So, here we are 17 months later..... Moved all of our stuff (materialism) into storage, quit my job in Tucson, rented the house. Threw a few things into a small Uhaul, drove to Georgous Benicia, slightly inland off the San Francisco Bay, on the Carquinez Strait, and moved aboard. Got a new job here, doing the same thing, a 50% raise, life is really good! Living tomorrow's dream today. I know I'm a VERY lucky guy, my wife loved being a homemaker, but she is having the time of our life, as am I!
Anyway, I sincerely hope it's going as well for you three as for us. We have 2 Yorkies aboard to keep us company.
jmcdboater

jmcdboater,May the link you speak of, never connect.

Jmcboater: good for you! Don't want for nothin or no one. So happy you decided to go and go now.

I can't tell you how happy we are. The right boat found us and we are doing just fine.

Of course there is a lot to do but we have a list sorted by priority. We work on things and when we get tired we quit and go back to it later.

My wife and I had horrible allergies. She and I both had severe sleep apnea. All that is gone now. We sleep like babys and breath that salt air.

God Bless you guys and may you have the time of your life! Use this forum. It works and peeps are the best here. Please keep us posted on your progress!

BruceK said:

jmcdboater,May the link you speak of, never connect.

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I agree! I am a cancer survivor, so your whole outlook on life changes! Live your life now and have the big adventure with no regrets....

The best of Irish luck to you guys, Carpe Diem.
As they say here in Ireland there's no pockets on a shroud so go and SKI, Spend the Kids Inheritance.
Seriously, go and live your dream don't just dream of living.
I took the plunge and never regretted one single moment of it.
I wish you every happiness.

Short update for anyone still following.

We went to Miami for a convention last weekend. Used the boat as the hotel. Stayed at Miami Beach Marina and had a great time.

Miami beach Marina has really crappy docks, lots of rocking from the channel from the shipping channel but, service was excellent! Staff always there when you need them. And, to be honest, we slept like babies with the boat rocking.

Now for the bad: we were told at the start that EVERYONE runs aground sometime. We went ahead and got ours out of way early! Coming back up the ICW from Miami, I ducked into North Lake to give crew a real quick lesson on how I wanted the lines done when we got back to the Marina. I was in almost four feet of water, drifting, and left the bridge for five minutes.

Well, we drifted into 1.5' of water and grounded ourselves. It was low tide, around 3:30 PM, high tide next was due around 9:40PM.

Captain dumb ass ( that's me) decided to try and get out by running the engines. Dug in , killed motors...TWICE!, and ended up - as I would learn later - bending both props.

So, we played chess, dumped 2300 lbs fresh water, generally goofed around and finally made it off as tide began coming up again around 7:30PM.

We limped home at around 1000rpm. Anything higher caused vibration. My ego remained in my pocket.

Lots of things I could have, should have done differently. Another hard lesson not soon forgotten.

Diver comes tomorrow to pull of bent props and replace them with spares. I understand he and the prop shop offer a free wallet cleaning service too! Joy!

Greetings,
Mr. frg. Too bad to hear of your misfortune. If you don't have tow insurance, buy it now.

Ran aground, it happens. Won't be the last time if you're adventurous.
The sweet young thing that runs the marine store in the marina is a former employee of mine. She really knows her stuff. I trained her well!

RT Firefly said:

Greetings,
Mr. frg. Too bad to hear of your misfortune. If you don't have tow insurance, buy it now.

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I have it. Was just too stupid to call. This is now also filed away in the memory blank...., ah BANK!

That's what insurance is for. I hope you have considered filing a claim if it gets expensive.

FrG, note to self, as you have twins, you don't have a foot under each prop like we singles have, supporting the rudder, so if you run aground, must be pulled off - or you just wait for the, hopefully rising, tide. It's happened to all of us, of if it hasn't yet, it will. So, as you say, you got yours over early. Just a pity about the props. Normally the only damage is pride and time.

frgeorgeh said:

Thanks so much for all responses!

Today is cleaning day. All shades open in Salon so time for couple photos of our salon and view out window. Enjoy!View attachment 39779View attachment 39780View attachment 39782

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Were we all just not paying attention when the dogs took over? :lol:

One of many many lessons yet to learn my friend.

For what it's worth, waiting for the tide to lift you off was probably the best thing. You could get damaged props and shafts from a tow. They will pull hard to free you. Also the fewer claims the better. Most insurance carriers want to know your loss history. Your deductible may be the larger part of the expense. If not file a claim.

Props were bent up but not as bad as they could have been. I see no reason they cannot be repaired.

Our diver got them off without issue. Here are some pics.

Thank you all for the encouragement. Got a little depressed over it but hey, no one got hurt and I learned a lot from this.

Spoon feeding in the long run teaches us nothing but the shape of the spoon.
E.M. Forster

BTW, having a great time. All my children and grand children are here. Such a joy and blessing to have the whole family together. Best thing is they all love the boat!

The grand kids!!!!

Indeed FrG, enjoy while you may. They grow up awful fast. You are indeed lucky they are nearby. Ours are the other side of the world, so sadly, in order to see something of them, the boat must go to fund the travel. C'est la vie, I guess.

Peter B said:

Ours are the other side of the world, so sadly, in order to see something of them, the boat must go to fund the travel. C'est la vie, I guess.

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Seems to me the kids ought to be paying for your travel. You're the only reason they're even here. So they owe you big time, right?