Sunday: rest but no rest

We went to First Assembly this morning and then did a bit of grocery shopping.  Aftewards we came back to the boat and crashed for a few hours then went out to do a couple of Geocaches – a long forgotten love of mine.  We did not find one but it lead us to a wonderful little open church near the river on Gum.  What a wonderful experience.

Afterwards we came back to the boat and listened to music as the sun went down.  Now we see it id dark out and dinner is being fixed by SAM while Abby watches intently hoping for some morsels.

Still listening to Christian Radio and thinking of DJ and his trials.  I have lead a guided life and not had to go thru those trials.  We pray for you DJ and feel so helpless that is all we can do right now. However, we have brought in the biggest warriors of prayer we know.

A night of insomnia

I went to sleep too early and now I am awake here at 0200 so I thought I would write in this blog a bit.  Our comings and goings revolve around the boat and church.  First Assembly has just started to take some of my time.  They found out that I know some technical things related to computers.  The normal IT guy’s mother just passed away so they hate to bother him so I am filling in for a few higher priority tasks liked bringing Pastor Register’s HP All-In-One 4635 printer online.  I installed it on the network yesterday morning. Thge office secretary will use it as a stand alone fax and Pastor Register as a wireless network printer.

I texted Beth about the latest on DJ and the words coming back are not encouraging.  We continue to pray for DJ and I will do an alter call asking for intercessory prayer.  I’ll let Karon know as well so they can start prayer at Angola Assembly.  We are very concerned grandparents right now. I just contacted the Gideons in our camp to ask for prayer too.

We went to Jim & Linda’s boat, Winsome, last night in response to the evening sundown invite.  He, like me, is an Electrical Engineer and does a lot of projects on the boat.  Also like me, he is a ham of long standing.  We had a good time.

Yesterday, I stayed on the boat most of the day but SAM went shopping most of the day.  However, she returned in time for the party – just in time with 5 minutes to spare.

Last night I was awakened to slapping halyards against the mast and after trying to ignore it for a while and in good neighborly standing I went to the foredeck to find the guilty line.  After a quick jury rig I went back below to finish the sleep.  Upon awakening a bit later than usual at 0745 I heard the piter pater of rain on the cabin top.  After enjoying this for a period of time, I got out of the sleeping bag and fixed my breakfast and SAM’s too.

I quickly headed for the shower to beat the morning rush that has occurred with the arrival of 12 more boats that were kicked off the Green Cove Springs Marina long pier.  Why this occurred no one seems to know but they are here and half are projected to stay forever.  It is a lot more genteel down here at this end.

Valentines Day 2015

The day started with me telling SAM Happy Valentine’s Day.  After that it was presenting the “Wife” card and the “Read My Lips” candy.  I’ll post the picture some time.  Later we attended the church function of a pay for Valentines Day Dinner  which was OK.

.Prior, we asked Al & Carol to go with us to St. Augustine to the Sailor’s Exchange where Al & I spent an enjoyable hours of dreaming of our next expenditures.  We enjoy their company and SAM especially treasured the crochet mouse she received from Carol the artisan.  The mouse is an original creation that is crocheted and stitched with a solder wire tail that allows it to stand in a self-supporting manner. It is pretty cool and beautifully wrapped in its own blanket.  Thanks Carol.

We spent the day enjoying the cool temperatures under a full sun with light winds from the southerly direction.  This evening is supposed to be in the 39°F range but last night was a hard freeze night.  We managed to maintain reasonable temperatures with the two electric heaters but it got cool inside with the early morning dip in temperatures that takes place as the dew evaporates.

The whole friggen day!

The whole day, I mean all of it, was spent talking with the Healthcare.gov with only very limited success.  A lot of time was spent trying to take pictures of various documents and sending them to a “cloud” in the sky that will judge whether we owe this or that.  It finally got to the point we said we would pay the whole enchilada just to get them out of our hair.  By this I mean we will cancle Obamacare and just pay “whatever” it takes to get an healthcare package for SAM.  As for me, CWM, I am so totally fed up with the whole BS I want to move the boat to some latin american country and tell my country bye.

Another birthday past – except = 70

Since my last post I have turned 70 years old.  This momentous occasion was accompanied with little fanfare.  The very small party consisted of my sister, Lee, my wife and myself.  We had a good time.  The next evening Al & Carol, our South African friends, came over and we also had a good time with them.

Here is what I wrote in another blog for 5 February: I awakened about 0530 this morning to the sounds of water and surging; therefore, I was on high alert listening for issues but a few minutes of listening produced no sounds worthy of alarm. However, I was awake and there was no turning back to sleep mode.  Now, I am writing  and slightly cold  as the heaters are not really keeping up with this size of boat. I have an estimated 3KW running and this is about 10K± BTU’s which is not sufficient to do more than take the chill off.  Still I am happy for this and am feeling like making some coffee on the stove to add a bit more heat.

Today I awoke early and went down to the clubhouse.  Later back at the boat I mapped out the day to SAM.  I was going to the camper and clean up and move stuff from the car to the truck.  Also on the table was to get the truck out on the road and drive a few miles.  Upon return from the little jaunt SAM and I loaded the camper and re-organized.  We also put air in the tires and pumped up the air shocks.  She is sitting pretty now.

Later we organized the boat and partitioned stuff to go to the “lock up”.  Still latter we lounged around the cockpit and watched the sun go down and the chill starting to creep into the bones.  Right now SAM is fixing the food and it smells great. This is the end of a beautiful day – full of sun, low winds and moderate mid-60’s temperatures.  Tomorrow looks to be a repeat of the same.

Just an update but nothing special

This is the first time I have sat on the boat writing on the computer with all systems running including air-conditioning/heat pump. Yea, and here we are many $1000’s later. Marina just changed antifreeze (not needed but gives me assurance), oil (probably not needed but again those assurances) and adjusted valves that definitely needed attention ( a burned valve would be just around the corner). To-Do is to add a solenoid that assists existing starter manual solenoid so as to allow a much more direct connection to the battery as the generator was not starting so good. Also needs a new start 12 VDC Battery. I hope all the locals appreciate the tens of thousands we spent here this year and in all probability will continue to be spent in foreseeable years.

We bought a Start Battery from Advanced Auto here in Green Cove Springs that has 1000 CCA and 800 CCA @ 32°F.  From there we went to Walmart and bought a 12 cup Regal coffee maker (a steal at $8.77) .  Upon return to the boat we de-boxed the machine and it fit the nook intended for it perfectly.  The old machine will be placed on the FREE table at the club house.

While at Walmart we had to continually re-think our ice box/ freezer situation:  we have lots and lots of space now.  So much so we could provision for weeks and weeks at sea.  the upper part is for slightly chilled items like veggies and tender things and the bottom which is quite a bit cooler for the longer deep cool items like milk, some meats and our special bread.  There is a 1.5 cubic ft freezer for the stuff that needs to be deeply frozen for longevity. The Fridge-a-boat cooling system is set up to maximize life on the waters deep with with its microprocessor controlled system. Not too sure where the temperature probe is located and what it is optimized for but we will find out in years to come.Some of the last parts on order have just arrived and they sit up in the very cold cockpit to await further action in upcoming days.  Speaking of cold cockpits and the freezing temperatures expected on this mostly full moon, SAM just left for the RV to fix dinner and take care of our wee one Abby.  I told her I would be along directly but secretly hope she brings food to the mother ship but this is not too likely!

I am currently sitting here listening to the water pump pumping to its heart content and feeling the heat coming out of the water to heat my body. This is not an obtrusive thing but a natural evolution of bringing heat or cold to the microcosmic space I now occupy.  Truthfully I love it and enjoy hearing the roaring gale outside while the boat presses ever closer to the floating dock and is seperated from oblivion by 5 sort of tired fenders of the 8″ variety.  With that missive ZI will close this particular thread.  Bye to all.