We are Hot

No Literally...

The average temperature for June this year was 76 degrees compared to 2009s 68!  We are already in the upper 90s. It's gonna be a HOT summer. Since we are on a "us first" program, we went out to Home Depot and bought ourselves a window AC unit! We need to fight back against this heat and the fans we installed are just pushing the hot air around.




Well after testing it for a few days, it does great in the afternoon keeping the boat acceptably less hot and at night it is actually kinda chilly. But during mid day Sunday, the sun fought back. It was still almost 90 degrees in the boat with the AC on full blast. So we might by another for the v-berth.

Now we bought a window unit, but our windows (called hatches on a boat) are very tiny so the best place to put this unit was in the companionway hatch where we enter the boat. It took some clever engineering and minor woodworking but we arranged an easy to assemble platform for the AC to sit in our hatch with towels all around it plugging the holes. Since the AC unit is in our companionway we had to climb over it to enter or exit the boat. Our acrobatic skills are nothing to brag about so we might design some kind of ladder to get in and out.

This weekend consisted of our friends Stephs baby shower, installing another fan in the cabin, and working on the engine. Our exhaust manifold cover finally came in and I attached it to the engine successfully. I just gotta find the right bolts for the throttle connection and we should be good to go!



We also spent some time with our new favorite toy, the dinghy engine, now known as Black Betty. We motored out to the Herring Bay for a relaxing swim and to cool off.  The only problem with taking the dinghy out is it is kind of a hassle.  We keep the dinghy (she still needs a name) stored on deck up against the mast.  We use a haylard to hoist it up and down from the water.  Would dinghy davits be nice? Maybe we will continue to spoil ourselves...

One of our goals this weekend was to go to the gym. We made it there to escape the heat but instead of running, we laid on the ground, watched a movie and ordered a pizza. Fail.



In other news Nala officially knows how to get off the boat. Last week we got a call from the Marina saying they found our kitten after she attempted to escape but landed in the water and climbed up the piling. Well one night as we were walking back to the boat we saw her standing on the dock waiting for us, or just shocked she was caught. We were very curious as to how she got off the boat cuz she is so small and there is a net going all the way around our boat. So we put her on the boat and got off and watched. Well the lil gremlin climbed up onto our bow spirit and balanced herself on the railing. Then amazingly was able to jump about 8 feet to the dock. We were both impressed and now worried she will run amuck. We are getting deja vu from when we had to go searching for Noodle (our orange cat) every night. Nala is from the same farm as Noodle and is actually his great neice, so I guess it runs in their genes. I hope she learns from our good cat Nomy to stay on the boat!

Eying up the Jump

The Cats favorite way to stay cool, sleeping on the fridge

Nala getting herself into trouble

We have plans to go out sailing for the 4th of July three day weekend so we are excited about having fun back out on the water!

-Joey

Happy to be Home

Written by Christine

Woo hoo! Finally in our permanent slip at Herrington! We realized this weekend that since May 1st we have been in 7 slips. In the past whenever we would leave our slip for the day I would always be nervous at what was sure to be a disastrous event but now I hardly flinch. We have moved so much lately into new slips that didnt have lines ready and waiting for us. Joey is really getting good at going slowly enough not to freak me out that we are going to put a hole in an innocent boat parked next to us. He's not whipping around turns anymore trying to pull a captain Ron. ;)




Sadly we don't have any exciting sailing stories from the weekend to share since we are still waiting on our engine part from Japan.



This weekend everything we did at Herrington, we kept saying

'this one moment here is better than a whole summer at Liberty'.

'A rainy day at herrington...'

'This beautiful walk to our boat'..

'Seeing our friends...'

' This delicious and free feast/party Herrington put on Saturday night...'

'This clean bathroom...'

'This water you don't need a shower after you touch..'



ahhh! Bliss!



Now onto more pressing manners. We need AC. We need CHEAP AC. Our cats are sweating. I'm not sure how, but I'm pretty sure they are sweating. They are definitely panting like dogs. So are we. I know, I know, we can buy the nifty hatch AC units for like 500-1000 bucks, but we're not going to. What ways have you used to cool your boat? We installed some fans but that isn't enough and while we're on shore power why should we suffer?

Hey guys - why so quiet? Why didn't you tell us commenting didn't work? Hahaha. Have no fear, Christine is here. (Commenting is fixed).

Wild Wednesday

Written by Christine

Wednesday was a great day! We went to West Marine and managed to walk out with only a spray bottle fan. (I don't have an AC in my car and I was DYING), went to Fawcetts for the first time ever, even though we keep hearing about it, it's cheaper than West Marine, with a different selection. We picked up a few things there including this super awesome bracelet. Its called a turks head bracelet or sailors bracelet. I asked the counter girl why they were all so small, I couldn't get any of them on and I don't have big wrists, she explained you find one you can squeeze on and you wear it all season and cut it off at the end. In a different store the same day I found a wooden bead bracelet for a buck and when I tried to pick it up... there were THREE in the bundle! One being pink! So now I have four awesome bracelets on one arm and I am just too cool.




We went to downtown Annapolis next to pick up our muffler we bought and the Naval Academy air show was going on with the blue angels so we caught a peek of that. We ended up at Bacon and got some great deals there as well. We got two fans to wire in the V berth, and a solar shower ... room? You hang it up from the same halyard as the solar shower and its a private room you stand in. Wow! Kind of disappointed though since earlier in the day I bought a hula hoop and was going to put a shower curtain around that to use as a shower room. Now I might actually have to use it to exercise.

Wednesday night was back to the boat for Joey to do work in that hot and cramped little engine area. He's got everything back together except for a muffler attachment which he is going to pick up today, then we'll try to start it up this weekend and hopefully it will sound ok, and switch gears ok, otherwise he's got to dive down there and try to see if anything is stuck on the prop. After a few drinks one night I argued and won that I should be the one to do it so I could help, but quickly sobered and was terrified of cutting myself on the prop guard so I sheepishly told him he could in fact do it himself.

On second thought, maybe we'll have Nala do it. While Joey was working Wednesday, and I was in the cockpit hanging out, Nala decided she thinks the netting we put on our lifelines for the sole purpose of keeping cats in, is a jungle gym! Woo fun! Climb them! Then she got really brave and decided to see whats on the other side. After a few times rescuing her (not that she knew that) from the other side, I got out the crabbing net/pole and resumed my chillin. I figured I would hear her splash.



Nope!



Luckily another live-aboard Julie was walking down the dock at that moment and saw her fall in. Joey had just come out of the hole so I grabbed the pole and we both scrambled for the front of the boat. It was getting dark and we couldn't see water moving, or hear any splashing, so we panicked but Julie from the dock could see that she was right below us, and since the boat angles out is why I couldn't initially see her. I was shaking so bad I gave joey the pole and he fished her out! She was swimming like a champ though! I was impressed. Poor kitty. By this time, all of her fans seemed to be on the dock and everyone had their input and stories about when their cats have fallen in. She got dried off and is fine. It probably felt good since it was such a hot day. Our hope is that she learned her lesson. Nomy cat though, I must say, did not handle that situation like I was hoping. When we got to the bow of the boat he was just looking over the edge. Haha. Meow, or come get me or something next time cat.

-Christine