and baby makes 6!

The sun sets, you put your camera away, and after a bit of cabin time, you ready the kids for bed. Tired does not describe the way you feel. It is more like your brain is shutting down, and you need to sleep to stop it from dying.
There is really nothing like sleeping [...]

Dingos know to always wear a US Coast Guard approved PFD (personal floatation device) while sailing.

My son took this photo of me. It is a rare instance when I am in a picture, as I am always the one behind the lens. Bill doesn’t like to take photos.
He lives in the moment, as it should be.

Me? I like to document things. I [...]

Little Miss Mimi is not one for heading below deck when out sailing. She wants to be right where the action is. She frequently tries to take the helm from Bill, and does not appear to be afraid of hanging on the foredeck (the front of the boat….when Bill and I crewed on [...]

My life is never boring. Well, sometimes it is, but Bill always comes in and shakes things up a bit.
I had in my head the numbers 2009 as the year we would sail offshore and expand our exploration of the Gulf coast to include Florida and Mexico. I targeted May 2009 as the [...]

One Garmin 440 GPS Chartplotter

The man is in heaven. Now our navigation station is essentially complete. We can find our way through any waters in the US, Virgin Island, Bahamas, Alaska and Hawaii.
Mia, our onboard navigator, thinks it is soooo cool, and will enhance her knowledge of celestial navigation quite well.
[...]

A dress, the ever present pink shoes, and sequins…..never forget the importance of sequins on a sailboat.

Lots of wind and enjoying things from a different angle.

The forcast predicted several light showers in the morning and 5-10mph winds, so it sounded like a tame sailing day to us.

5-10mph my ass.

We had several squalls come through. I suspect the winds were more like 15-20 with gusts up to 25, maybe 30. We were flying. Bill had a smile on [...]

Have I ever told you how much I love Texas? Well, I do.
I love that I can wear a bathing suit in November.
I love that I can wear a bathing suit in November on a boat.
I love that I can wear a bathing suit in November and sweat on [...]

We took the boat out. We motored, as the winds were way, way to strong to hoist sails.
I will be posting some video later, if I can get it to upload…grrrr.
For now, a couple of shots…and of course, the rest are up at Flickr so click through one of the pics to [...]

Yesterday was a long, wonderful day.
Bill got home, and like a total kid, was ready to head to the boat as soon as he woke all the kids got up. He had not seen the boat since May, when he took it for the survey.
We worked on the boat until we were [...]

Major, major exhausted here. We spent the afternoon/evening on the boat, heading home around 9pm.
We tested out the rather heavy air conditioner after hauling it from one end of the boat to the next, and it works like a charm…a nice, cool cabin for us to enjoy.
With the help of our boat [...]

Guess what we are doing tonight?

We are grilling shrimp off the back of our new sailboat.
All I have to say is, IT IS ABOUT DAMN TIME!

Remember when I told you that I thought we would have a clear title and maybe a boat this week?
Well, the title was cleared through the FDIC, but when they sent the documents (which was supposed to be by overnight but the clown sent it by snail mail….so tack on 5 more days to the [...]

The boat drama continues on, with the idiot Title Search Lady thinking that the bank that took over the MBank of Houston (who the default of lien originated from in 1985, but the bank folded) was Bridge Bank………..the document she was basing this on was found by her on the internet, and it was a [...]

Here we sit…waiting. Still. For the release of lien on the boat.
The owners are leaving for Mexico on Thursday, and will do something called a dry closing. Meaning they will leave the keys and title at the funding company, sign all the paper work, and the $$ will be deposited [...]

Well, just got word that the survey is complete. All checked out well with the Dehler. Some minor stuff that needs to be repaired, but the bottom of the boat looked good, the motor was great, and everything seemed sound.
It was a wet and cold sail. Heavy rain followed them [...]

The process of buying a boat is not at all like buying a car. It is more like buying a house.
You have to secure financing, do a sea trial, get something called a survey.
The survey is the big inspection. Usually, you can sea trial the boat and sail it to [...]