dolphins a plenty :)

A couple weeks ago we went sailing with our dock-neighbors on their boat and we saw quite a few dolphins!!! I love watching dolphins..... they are so graceful!  Everything about them is peaceful & magical! <3 <3 <3

 

 

They are quick little, ok, big guys.....hoping next time they are out & about I can capture more than their fins. ;)

Beauty tips......for the ladies!

Here is the fastest & easiest way to shave your legs....on a boat{or on land}.....I refuse to answer {on grounds that may incriminate me} exactly how I came to know this! ;) 

But, here's what you need:

leave-in hair conditioner

a small towel 

and a razor{preferably, your husbands'.....I don't know why, but they seem to work the best ;) ;)} 

Oh, and a well lit cockpit....wait, did I say cockpit?? I meant bathroom...or did I? :/

Now, for the shaving:

Spray a small section of your leg with the leave-in conditioner, rub it in a bit and shave! 

No running water to rinse the razor off?!?.....no problem, that's what the towel is for!! Slide the razor side-ways on the towel to remove gunk and repeat above process until your legs are all smooth!

That's it!! :)

If I were to venture a guess, I'd say it [would have] taken me longer to write this post than it did to shave my legs....and I've got some long legs! But that's just me guessing....or is it?!? :)

1st Time on the Hook!!

Well, we can officially say, we have anchored out now! .....Although, being anchored out while waiting for TowBoatUS to come and tow us back in to the marina is not quite what we had in mind for the first time we were at anchor. :/ 

The day started good, but the 'just my luck, story of my life' quickly took over... My sister, BIL & my newest niece {she's 8-weeks old & oh so cute!} had come in for a visit. We had planned to take them out sailing, but the weather had other plans. We waited & waited and finally decided we would at least motor out and show them around a little. We made it out to Kemah Boardwalk and, albeit briefly, the sails did go up.....and that's about when  the bottom fell out, so to speak, of course! 

The wind wasn't really blowing, we were all hungry and they needed to head back soon so we decided to go back so we could go out to eat. As we were headed back from the boardwalk, Joe noticed there was no water coming out of the exhaust and the engine was getting a little warmer than where we like it to be at. 

Joe went down to investigate and I stayed at the helm and slowly steered us back toward our marina. I quickly became the idiot in the channel going far too slow and in everyone's way. I guess it had to be someone....maybe next time I won't be so quick to call that person a moron. :) 

Joe said there was no water coming up to the engine from the through hull. So, he dropped anchor while I made the dreaded call to TowBoatUS. {NOTE: it was only a dreaded call because we had yet to become members(I was planning on signing us up the following week)...isn't that how it always works??} and it was going to cost us a boat-load{no pun intended} of money for the tow and then the cost of repairing the engine. 

After 30 minutes or more of waiting and still no sign of the tow boat, and with a storm headed our way Joe couldn't sit still any longer and went down to see if he could repair it with the parts we had on the boat. He found a plastic bag covering the water inlet. After removing the bag, water started gushing up inside the boat{good thing he didn't tell me (& our guests) until after we were back in our slip and they had gone home} All was fixed,  so I called TowBoatUS back and cancelled the tow. 

So glad it all worked out and yes, we are now members of TowBoatUS....just in case there's a next time!! :/

Delicious mornings

Homemade Monkey Bread {click on the blue words for recipe},

Avoca coffee {click on the blue word for their website},

with this 180* view,

at the start of a three day weekend!

Who says you can't have it all?

What made us decide to live on a boat? Part 1:

I've been meaning to write a post for a while now explaining what made us decide to take the plunge, so to speak, and go live on a boat. Well, there's no real, simple answer for this....that's not true. In short, the answer is always going to be, "Why not?" The long answer? Well, that's where this post comes in....

Who wants to live the same mundane life, day in and day out? "What's for dinner?" "Did you pick up my dry cleaning?" "Where are we going on vacation this year?" .....Oh wait, that last question is actually, sort of where all this began. "Where do we always go on vacation?" "To the beach, of course!" Sure, we may have once seriously considered moving to Chicago, but ultimately, we are both warm-weather people. That's when it hit us, we are always planning a vacation at the water...why not buy a boat and always be on the water?!?  

So, we thought about it and talked about it.....and thought about it some more. Then, we started looking at boats! We looked at boats online, we went to boat shows, we read forums & blogs about other people who live on boats. And we always asked ourselves, "Could we do this?" "Could we live on a boat and be happy?"

 I've got to say, at first, I kind of thought this was just another idea of Joe's that would never actually happen. You know, we were just day-dreaming. In theory, it all sounded quite blissful, but would we ever really take that step?

After careful consideration, we came to the conclusion: we were going to live on a boat. At this point, we didn't know how or where, or even what, but what we did know was, we wanted to buy a boat. 

So, we did some more online searching & we went to even more boat shows. And then came the hard part {for me, anyways} sailboat or motor yacht? I think we all know that I'm a yacht girl at heart, but you see, I've married this wonderful man who fully understands the concept of fuel consumption. In addition, we know that wind = free and well, yeah, I lost that decision.

 A sailboat it is, but what brand?? Have you ever looked at buying a sailboat...so many to choose from. We knew we wanted a sloop rig{see pic below}, but other than that, we were unsure. 

Joe had heard about The Great Loop {see pic below} and we decided that was something we wanted to do when we got our boat, so that helped with narrowing down the search a bit, since there are certain draft requirements in order to complete the loop. Plus, we knew we would want to eventually head for prettier waters {I.e. The Bahamas, BVI's etc...} so we knew we needed something capable of crossing the gulf. 

 

 

All these things helped in the narrowing down process, but there was still so much more to look into.....and, that's where I'll pick up at in an upcoming post!