What a great week it has been.

Wow I have been trying for days to add an update to our blog, but because of bad internet connections the attempts have been futile.  Hopefully this one will work.  Well we have been up at the lake now for 6 days and will be here another 6.  So much going on from crazy rains that made find all new leaks.  In fact Saturday morning we both woke up to water dripping on our bunks.  Ugh, well there is still more water on the outside than there is on the inside.  So because of the leaks we had to turn our bunks upside down (almost) just to get things dried off.  So Mike spent two days working on leaky ports and replacing the parts that were sub-par.

Also this week we finally after two years of owning this lovely boat we put the name on her.  Yes poor Mike put the name on while it was in the water, not an easy task, but now she is legal and oh it looks so nice.  We have also worked this week on electrical issues and scrubbed floors in preparation of painting the floors.  We can't afford new flooring so we decided to use a product from Home Depot that is used for painting decks or concrete.  Hopefully this will help the floors to look a little better.  Unfortunately we found out that we can't paint this until the day we leave since you aren't supposed to walk on the floors for 24-48 hours.

 Another great milestone this trip, Mike was able to get the stove in the galley working.  I now have a completely functional galley and have already been making good meals, which in turn helps cut down on the costs of eating out.

One evening the Captain actually
took off his shoes and relaxed.  He very seldom does this so when I saw his shoes sitting on the bow of the boat I had to take a picture of it.

We had our friend Bob and his cribbage board over for a night of cribbage and some libations.  Mike and Bob had a good time and I had some time to play in my galley and make some snacks.

Along with all the work we did so far this week we have had lots of time to cruise.  The weather has actually been pretty cool, low 60's at night and mid 70's during the day, which is crazy weather for July, but we will take it.  Since two weeks ago when we were here it was in the 90's and the heat was "the pits".   

First Mate at the helm.

The Captain (new name is Skipper) is just fooling around (safely though)

The Lady J in her dock.

Oh those gorgeous sunsets

The house Mike has been looking for on Middle Bass Island

Yes we are wearing longs sleeves in July.  Who'd have guessed?

Happy Boaters

Perry's Monument

Lonz Winery, well duh it does say that on the building.

First Sunset Cruise

Last night we went for our first sunset cruise and oh it was wonderful.  The day started off with the temperature at 6:00 a.m. registering at 84 degrees.  Ugh!  was about all you could say that morning when we went to the bridge for our morning cup of coffee and our look out on the world, well our marina.  There was not a breeze for miles which made actually for some great reflection photos.  I must have taken several dozen of the boats just across from us.  In an effort to cool off I decided to spend the morning hosing down the decks.  I must admit spending about an hour washing down the decks actually was a "cool idea" and something that needed to be done.

Well as the day progressed so did the heat.  It got to the point that the best thing to do was find a good book or hope that the internet was running well that day, which it was.  Mike read while I updated our facebook page and our blog.  As Mike reminds me boats are not insulated so even the small air conditioner that we have only works to a certain point.  So we took it easy during the afternoon and early evening hours and stayed out of the sun.  During dinner Mike came up with the idea that we should go for cruise afterwards.  I agreed and off we went.  We figured it couldn't get any hotter.

So after preparing the boat for departure.  Wow that sounds official doesn't it.  I must admit we went through all the steps to prepare for departure and as Mike started pulling out of the dock I realized that we hadn't unplugged the shore power .  Ooops that could have been a disaster.  Well I quickly unhooked the shore power and we were off.  The bay was like a sheet of glass.  Barely a wind, but the movement of the boat made enough breeze that it made the evening enjoyable.  And oh that sunset, it was truly spectacular the way the light played off the water I just loved it.  We were still a bit warm (see the picture below) but oh what an amazing evening it turned out to be.

What a week it has been...

The night after the storm

What a week it has been.  We arrived in Sandusky last Tuesday evening with plans to stay here until the following Wednesday.  Well Wednesday morning we were talking over coffee and Mike decided we needed to go back home to get some repair items he forgot to bring with us so we thought what the heck and drove back to Ashville.  Well on our way back up to the lake we experienced horrendous storms.  A normal 3 hour trip ended up being 6 hours.  We had to stop in Bucyrys while the storms passed through.  60 mile an hour straight winds.  It then took us another 2 hours just to get out of Bucyrus.  There were so many downed trees and wires along with debris everywhere and flooding.  Finally made it back up to the lake, thank God there was no damage here.  I did say a long prayer for the folks that suffered any kind of hardship during this weather.  We were just so thankful to be unharmed.

This past weekend though we had a nice surprise.  Our daughter Amanda and her puppy Izzie came for a visit.  Here husband Kent had to stay home and complete some school work.  He's a full time student and working full time.  (Next time Kent)  Anyway we had a great visit and Izzie has turned into one great "boat dog"

Amanda and Izzie the boat dog!

What to do with 2 drop cloths

What can you make with 2 drop cloths.  I made 6 fender covers, 4 placemats and 8 coasters.  Okay I am a little on the thrifty side (some say cheap), but I had a drop cloth that I bought at Lowes but never used.  So I purchased some velcro and used some parachute cord that Mike had to make the fender covers.  The $10.00 I spent on drop cloths and about $8.00 on velcro sure beats the crazy amount the stores want for these and they were easy to make.  With the leftover fabric and some fabric paint I made 4 placemats and 8 coasters.  As any boater knows when the weather gets hot and humid things start to sweat.  Well I guess anyone would realize that.  Mike loves the fender covers and the placemats and coasters help to make it more like home.  Yes it is a bit of a woman's touch but whatever it takes to keep me on the boat is what the Captain says.

Launch Day

You know your life is busy when you can't get anything posted about the actual launching of your boat.  The same boat that you have been working on for the past two (yes count them two) years.  Well I can put part of the blame on the fact that we have very little internet access at the marina so downloading photos is not possible.  So we are home for a while celebrating the 4th of July with friends and family and we have time now to add a couple of posts to get folks up to date.

Well officially on June 25, 2013 the Lady J finally was put in the water after two years of renovations  What an amazing day it was.  We had the best crew at the marina to put her in the water and big thank you to those guys (Rick, Lew and Andy) for making the whole process go so smoothly.  I can't begin to describe the emotions that Mike and I were feeling that day everything from complete fear (that something wouldn't work) to complete elation that all our hard work had finally paid off.  My brother Gary and his wife Christy came up to join us for the event and help photograph and video tape it.  These are some of the photos they took that day.  It is so nice now to be able to sit on our boat in the water and look back at the land instead of sitting on the land wishing our boat were in the water.