GroupWBench

May brought a bit of rain to Texas. Here is a look at what the rain did to our lake level.

We went from 898' to 927' in about 36 hours. The lake is considered full at 909 feet. The day after the big rain, we thought we'd drive out and check on the boat…silly us. This is Ivy looking at the road into the marina.

 
There was enough rain that the peninsula that our marina is on became an island. As a side note – avoid walking at the edge of flood waters. Critters that bite, sting, and scratch live there. Ivy's ankles became a playground for fire ants – ouch.

After a week or so they started running a shuttle from one of the other marinas over to our marina. Ivy rode over and pumped the bilge out and cleaned up the boat one Friday. We went back the next day and did more cleanup. Before this flood, we had never really worried that boat only had a manual bilge pump. We had never considered that we would be isolated from the boat for an extended time. It was time to reprioritize "The List Of Boat Chores".

It took two days of boat yoga that included famous positions such as "Lazarette Smoosh" the "Two More Inches Reach" and the always fun "Oh God, How Will I Ever Get Back Out?" to get an automated bilge pump plumbed, wired, and functioning. We also added a small solar trickle charger for the batteries so that the pump won't wear them down. Good timing, too, as the rubber diaphragm on the manual pump decided this would be a good time do develop a small tear. We certainly can't have the "The Big List Of Boat Chores" ever actually shrink.

Ivy drove back to Spartanburg to visit with her folks. She had to change hotels there as there was apparently a pea under her mattress (and cockroaches everywhere) at the first place. When I flew out to meet her there, she had it all under control and had us set up in a very nice place.

We took care of some chores for her folks and did some visiting there before starting back home. We decided to stop in Louisiana and look at a boat and spend an evening in New Orleans.

The boat we saw was at a marina in Madisonville on the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain. It was the second (or third) Endeavour 38 Center Cockpit we've seen and we are really finding this model very nice. When it is time for us to get the "getaway boat" the Endeavour 38 and 42 with center cockpits will be in serious consideration.

 
The boat broker took us to lunch at the marina and we got to watch the alligators wandering around waiting for someone to fall in.

We drove across the causeway and wandered up and down Bourbon Street. This was a Thursday night – nothing special. The place was mostly a freak show. Maybe you had to see it through a drunken haze to appreciate it fully, but mostly we weren't too impressed.

Over this Independence Day weekend we made it out to sail on Friday. We had some trouble raising the main, but had a good time out just under the jib. On Saturday Ivy cranked me up the mast to see what the problem might have been, but it looks like we just needed to lube the sail track. I did get a couple of pictures while Ivy held the belay.

Side note – climbing shoes don't do very good on aluminum.

 

 

The hanging belay was just as comfortable and fun as ever…ouch. I did a search from up there to confirm that our safe little lake has no alligators, thank goodness. I did see that we need to put painting the spreaders on to the "The Big Unending List Of Boat Chores".

As it was the 4th, we put up our flag with the burgees.

Ivy made cherry bombs for the holiday party at the marina – maraschino cherries soaked in vanilla vodka and dipped in white chocolate and blue sprinkles. They are guaranteed to set off a race to see if you go into a diabetic coma before you pass out drunk, but they are decadently good.

We went out at dusk on a friends boat to see the fireworks. We had 360 degrees of fireworks going on around us for about an hour. It was quite the sight. When we got back we checked our running lights and found something to add to the "The Big Unending List Of Painful and Difficult Boat Chores". We stayed the night on the boat. It is a nice summer in Texas this year, no need for air conditioning at night and not brutally hot during the day (yet).

That's it for now. I think it is time to go buy a bigger notebook for the "The Really, Really Big Unending List Of Costly, Painful, and Difficult Boat Chores" so that we can keep up.