All new plumbing, plus 2 new sails

{{ First off, sorry about the many different fonts used! I am aware of the formatting issues & that's one of the reasons there's been such a gap in our posts. I will be making BIG changes to the blog soon, hopefully before the next post! }}

Where's the floor??

Y'all may remember a few weeks back, I shared a photo on IG/FB about not having a floor in our boat, due to Joe starting our plumbing project. So just a refresher.... We decided, or rather the boat decided, the plumbing needed to be redone, after taking the boat down to Galveston, recently. Our boat had all copper tubing, and the previous owner had not moved the boat in 10 years...it was merely a floating condo.  As soon as we actually started using the boat, we developed water leaks, everywhere!! We thought it was imperative that we make the necessary improvements, sooner, rather than later....ergo, no floor! 

Assessing the situation...

 Hubs worked really hard at removing all the copper pipes from the boat! The photo below, shows just a small portion of what was removed.

Boats & copper don't go together!

This is how we spent many, many nights...working beneath the floor. And with no stairs to board the boat, it got pretty interesting getting on/off the boat. Wish I had got a picture of that! =}

We spent a Saturday afternoon finishing up our project of re-plumbing the boat. Yeah, running water is one of those essentials that you don't want to live without for too long. And for us, we'd already been without it for a week, so it was time to get'er done!! 

Another Home Depot run...3rd times a charm! The crap part of doing boat projects is, all the grunt work & errands I get to run. The good thing is, it's really close by....the bad thing is, it's really close by. 

I didn't get the faucet I wanted. All of the bases on the pull-down style faucets, are too wide for the area we were installing it in. And after five trips to the Home Depot, I didn't care anymore. We opted for a stainless steel one to prevent rust and with that option, I really only had two choices, unless I was willing to pay $300 for a faucet....and I was not willing to pay $300 for a faucet! It's by no means fancy, but it is functional, and it is way better than the one we originally started with. 

New galley faucet

So after almost two weeks of no running water, we are now back in business! You never know what modern day conveniences you take for granted until, you don't have them!

New Pex plumbing....

New Pex plumbing...

Now we can easily identify each water supply line & which tank it goes to.

And as an added bonus..... Guess what we found underneath the v-berth? Two new sails!!! Granted, they are a good twenty years old, but they have never been out of the bag before, so that's still new, right?? 

This one is my favorite...only one letter off from being my name!! ;)

Plus, a storm sail, I hope we never have to use

Can you guess what project we're now working on? It's coming up, in the next post!

How did we ever live without a dodger?

Our beautiful new dodger & cover!

Seriously, having a dodger makes all the difference, when you live on a boat!! I don't know how we survived on our last two boats without it. That's not true, I know how we did it, actually. With our second boat, we knew we were not keeping her for a lifetime and since you don't really make that money back, we thought we'd just wait until we bought the forever boat, before we really started throwing money around.

Without the dodger

The dodger, sans cover

Now that we have all new canvas on the boat, the rest of it is really looking drab! Time for me to start back up on the teak, and get the rest of the trim looking as nice as it does around the cockpit area!!

More recently, I have been working on creating a design to go with our boat name. You may remember the t-shirts I designed last year...we both liked the design so much so, that I have now started branding everything on the boat, from, t-shirts to coolers to cups....

Irie t-shirt design

It has taken some time, since I am not exactly a tech savvy person, much less a designer, but I have figured out a way to use my design, from the shirts, and keep it going throughout all other items on the boat...

close-up of the new & old YETI tumblers w/my design decal

Y'all know how much I love my Seafoam Yeti, right?? Well, when I heard they were bringing back the seafoam, for a limited time, you better believe I was trying my best to figure out a way to get rid of the used, brown one we had picked up from the resale shop and replace it with a much prettier color! As luck would have it, Joe told me he wanted to sell the big one (the downtown-doo-doo-brown one) and get a smaller-ish one, that fit better. So we did! And, now our back porch looks a lot better.....

Matching YETI's on the back porch

close-up of the new Tundra 35 w/my design decal

close-up of the Roadie 20 w/my design decal

Continuing with what has now become our "unofficial" boat colors...at least for the exterior (and maybe a little in the interior too).... I finally convinced hubs to hang up the hammock he bought me, for Christmas! Ahh, so relaxing....It is my new favorite spot on the boat!! I even got my first sunburn, over the weekend, from laying in the hammock for too long, but it was worth it!!

Chillaxin' in the hammock while Joe is installing the windlass.... I call it supervising ;)

Living on a vacant boat

It is not fun living on a vacant boat. Why is our boat vacant, you ask? Well, we've sorta sold it!  As I'm sure you already know, we have been wanting a bigger boat for quite some time now. So, we  decided to put this one up for sale  before we buy the next boat so we don't end up with multiple payments.  Everyone told us our boat will sell pretty quickly.... We thought, maybe a month??  That's pretty quick considering our house sat on the market for over a year. Well,  it was on the market for about 10 hours and we already had a contract on it.  The survey was done yesterday, but here's the kicker, they wanted our boat to be completely empty when they did the survey. So, we started packing....

Thursday afternoon after I got off work, we finished packing and moved everything off the boat! We decided it was better to work after the sun went down, while it was a somewhat cooler than during the day and be insufferably miserable.... So, from about 10pm to 4am Friday morning we made trips back-and-forth from the boat to our cars and storage and then cleaned the boat until it was immaculate!!!

We haven't heard back from the broker about the survey.....so now we wait! We still get to sleep on our boat, but it's not as comfortable as it used to be. We have two blankets & our pillows, that's it! There's no pictures, no decor, no personalization that says this is our boat! No food & no dishes, no cooking or eating! We did plug the DVD player back up, so we can at least watch movies, but that is the scope of our life right now! If you thought we were living minimal before, you should see us now!!!

Making our boat a home

Pillows, pillows and more pillows! I may have a teeny tiny problem. You see, even before we moved onto the boat, I had a love for all things ocean related. Now I know what you're thinking, pillows aren't from the ocean, ah, but they sorta are when they are made using ocean/beach themed material, are they not? Ok, they're not, but I'll use whatever I have to to make my case! 

I had already been wanting to add to my collection of throw pillows when I read Lahowind's post on her many boat pillows, so, I  ran with the idea. {and I'm not done running, either....shhh! dont tell hubs!} ;)

Below is our salon {aka living area} lots of family photos & even two of my neice's art work is displayed. :) oh, and let's not forget, those ocean pillows. 

And the other side of the salon...

More pillows, a couple more photos and lots of baskets & bowls to keep everything on the shelves looking neat & tidy. 

When I found these indoor/outdoor pillows I snatched them up and added them to my collection. I am now up to 10 pillows, it would've been 11, but I finally won the war on Bertha and she took a hike to the dumpster a few weeks ago. :)

The itty-bitty head {aka bathroom}

Again, baskets to keep things looking clean and more importantly, so little things are not sliding around everywhere when we take the boat out. And, a custom sized rag rug made by moi for the itty-bitty bathroom floor! 

End result:

The v-berth {aka bedroom}

Nothing fancy, and not even really a room, just our cozy, lil' loft-style, bed! 

The little nook on top of our hanging locker {microscopic closet}

And, my favorite part of the boat, the galley {aka kitchen} 

Favorite, because standing in that back little corner I can see every part of our boat that makes our home!!

My dainty kitchen, not like anything I've ever dreamed of having, but it has its charm too! 

Everything is neatly packed in and easily reached while cooking, cleaning or just grabbing something to drink!

I've tried really hard to create a home in our boat....and I finally feel like I'm getting somewhere. It's important to me to make it feel homey, so that I don't feel like I'm camping. If it feels like a temporary thing, it'll most likely stay that way....and we want this to last longer than a vacation. 

Pillows, photos and rugs, basically, anything that adds texture, a pop of color and a personal flair....these are the things that make up a home, for me! 

Where have we been?

This last week, the crew of Irie {i.e. hubs and I} flew to the Bahamas to see our friends and fellow sailors, on s/v MiJoy!!! It is good to have friends in pretty places! :)

And oh, what a pretty place this is!!!!

We first met Mike & Joyce when we moved to Kemah and quickly became good friends, really more like family! 

It was so very nice of them to share their boat with us.....and yes, we still want to go cruising ourselves! 

We did so many fun, new & interesting things....I'll try and recap everything from the last ten days! 

Let's see, there was, 

• Ocean/transom showers

• Swimming, standing with stingrays

 

• Island hiking 

• Attended beach church with sandy toes 

• Explored a deserted island 

•{attempted to} blow a conch shell & picked up a few other shells, as well

•Played lots of beach volleyball 

•Slept on a trampoline {at least that's what it feels like when you're at anchor and there's strong winds}

•Sailed to Lee Stocking Island & back to Elizabeth Harbor

And saw some amazing sunsets

 And even a moonrise (I don't know why there's not moonrises & moonsets)

 

Yep! I'd say it's safe to say, we had an unbelievably incredible trip and can't wait to go back! Maybe our next visit will be on our own boat....that's the goal, anyways!

 

Who wants to come see us, when we're out there cruising the islands?

Sunsets & Sailboats, Tan Lines & Mast Climbs

We went for a walk the other night and I took my camera along in hopes of capturing some good photos.....glad I had it with me because it was an eventful walk and I think I managed to snag a few good shots! :)

Sunsets & Sailboats....

These two, go hand-in-hand at our marina where we have lovely sunsets such as this one, most every evening! 

Tan lines....

Joe has acquired some serious tan lines on his feet.....gotta love the flip-flop life!!

I, on the other hand, have always been happy to be barefoot, so my tan lines don't show, quite like his do. :) ....what does show up, is the fact that I am in major need of a pedicure! :/  {don't look too closely}

 

& Mast Climbs....

At the end of our walk we ran into our new friends on s/v imagine. When asked if either of us were willing to go up the mast to retrieve their GoPro, fearless Joe was more than willing to be hoisted up.....the near 60' mast. I was glad he volunteered so quickly so I could {nervously} sit by on the dock and  capture this moment. 

.....going up,

 .....and up,
 
 .....still going,

 .....& all the way to the top of the mast!!

All in all, I'd say that was a pretty & productive walk!!!