Projects a plenty!!

We've been on our boat a little over three weeks now and we have been super busy tackling the project list! As you saw from the video I posted earlier this week, we have already started stripping the teak trim around the cockpit. Still have a lot more teak trim to refinish, but you gotta start somewhere and this is where we're starting. 

Slow & steady process

All sanded and ready for the next step...

Pretty & clean

Here hubs is applying the first coat of Awlwood primer/finish...

I've spent a lot of time getting to know our teak. And so far, I can say, I enjoy it!! Of course, this is my first time redoing it...I'm sure that will all change after the 6th or 7th time I have to do it. Who knows?!? Maybe not! 

Another improvement that we have had done is, we had four hatch covers made, as well as the companionway cover below. 

Canvas being installed

Next up on the continuing canvas projects will be, getting a new Bimini & dodger, and eventually interior cushions!!

We also wet sanded the old name off of the transom, in preparation of adding the new name to her! I wasn't able to get any photos of this job being done, because well, I had one hand on the boat for balance and the other hand holding wet sandpaper and sanding the boat, all while standing in a floating dinghy!!! I tried to convince Joe to take photos/video, but instead he jumped in the dinghy with me (almost making me fall into the water) and started helping me sand....good thing too, because painted on names are a pain to remove & I needed all the extra elbow grease I could get! 

Before w/old name

As you can see, it's still faintly visible! So, we'll have to do some work on that before the new name goes on. 

Old name {mostly} removed

One of these days, we will get ourselves a GoPro so we can fully document our projects. But for now, I hope you enjoy reading, because all these projects are using up every cent we have and there's no money left for fun things, like a fancy camera. ;)

One boat, two boat, we got a new boat!!!

Sea Trial Day with our new boat!

Here we are on the sea trial day, with our new {to us} 1983 Endeavour 40'!!!

As you can tell, hubs is over the moon excited about the new boat, as am I!! I told him, "I'd like to think this photo shows his love for me, but I really think this photo shows the love between a man and his boat!" To my surprise, he responded with, "it's the love of a man that has a wife that lets me live on a boat!" ....yeah, he's a keeper!!! ;)

Enough of all that sweetness, let's get to the real reason you're reading this! 

We got our new boat the Wednesday afternoon before Christmas! (Whew, just in the St. Nick of time there Santa!!) We unloaded all the things out of both of our cars onto the boat on Thursday and then left Friday morning to drive to Fort Worth to spend Christmas with both of our families! Hubs really didn't want to leave his new boat, right after getting it, but neither of us wanted to call our mom's and tell them we wouldn't be home for Christmas, after telling them both, "we would be there for Christmas!" So, off we went for a few days...  

So, what did we buy? We went with a 1983, center cockpit, 40' Endeavour sailboat. For you non-boaty people, a center cockpit simply means, the helm {a.k.a. the wheel}, from where you drive the boat, is located in the center of the boat. Unlike our two Catalina's, that were both aft cockpits. 

The benefits of a center cockpit are mostly interior, giving better access to the engine and allowing for a bigger, roomier, aft cabin! Exterior wise, the center cockpit means you sit a little higher out of the water, which is good for both visibility and more likely to get sprayed by crashing waves! You'll have to remind me of that last one being a good thing when I post about how soaked we get!! 

Here's the layout in case you're not familiar with the Endeavours.... 

What are the differences between this one and the other two? 

• 1st boat: 30 foot long and had a beam of 10' with 5'8" headroom. Vberth, quarter berth, 1 head. 

• 2nd boat: 36 foot long and had a beam of 11'6" with 6' headroom. 2 cabins, 1 head

• 3rd boat: 40 foot long and has a beam of 13' with 6'6" headroom. 2 cabins, 2 heads

Is this boat, our forever boat? Only time will tell, but I do know that, the more time we spend on it, the more we like it! And, I do see us going cruising in this boat!! 

She needs a little love and attention on the outside, but the inside teak has been well taken care of and was just recently varnished! 

We even have a hallway!!! And the best part is, I don't even have to duck or crouch down to walk through it. Hubs has to tilt his head, slightly, but that's really the only spot. The rest of the boat has 6'6" headroom, so that is something we both appreciate, since we are both tall. 

The other major upgrade is that this boat has two heads (a.k.a. bathrooms). She's a two cabin, 2 head, layout, with plenty of storage and can sleep 8 comfortably, before we have to send anyone outside, to sleep in hammocks!!

Now for some more photos....

Starboard side of the boat

Port side of the boat

Navigation area | looking down the hall to our cabin

Hallway with control panel, engine room access, & more storage

Aft cabin | closet/storage

Aft cabin | bed

Aft head

Vberth | there's much to be said about this part of the boat, but for now, let's just call it the garage ;)

Forward head

Port side settee

Starboard side settee

Each settee folds out & makes a full-size bed

The galley

Closeup of the galley

The cockpit | albeit, somewhat messy

The aft deck | or what i like to call it, the back porch ;)

We still have a little settling in to do, but we are mostly moved in! Besides, I just couldn't handle keeping our blog readers in suspense any longer. So, now that you've seen our beautiful boat & disorganized cockpit, what do you think of our new digs?? Let us know in the comments! ;) 

Happy New Year & thanks for following along on our journey afloat!!!

We've done it again

We sold our boat, again!!

Signing papers at closing....

You may remember last time our boat sold in eight hours and we had to be off of it a week later. Well, this time we thought we had wised up a bit by waiting until the end of boating season, to list it. After all, it was mid-November and just a couple days before Thanksgiving, so we thought maybe, just maybe we could buy a little time and maybe we could have it in the 'for sale' column just a teensy bit longer, while we look for the next boat. Nope, that didn't happen! About two hours after we had listed Irie, we had it under contract....and no, we didn't list it too cheap..We're actually making money off of it! Albeit, not a whole lot, but it's always better to be on this end rather than to be losing money on the deal! The first couple that saw it, put in an offer...that we accepted. The crazy thing {well, one of the crazy things} is, is that our boat listing didn't even populate to the broker's website!! All my staging & photography skills used up and I didn't even get to see the final result.

Needless to say, the search is on to find our next boat!! I have stopped referring to it as our "forever boat" though and am just saying, "our next boat". Our pier at the marina is starting to look more like the 'Bricker Brokerage Pier'  with all our old boats lined up! Haha :)

In the meantime, we have become pros at being squatters!!! I wish I could say I was joking about that, but that's the downside to selling your boat in a couple of hours, during the holidays. Everyplace is either already booked or extremely over priced because of the time of year. The upside however, is the friends we have made at our marina have been outstanding to us in our current situation! We have had many, many offers for us to use their boats, come do laundry at their house or stay in their spare bedroom!! I've said it before, but it bears repeating, our marina friends & neighbors are without a doubt some of the best people and we are so incredibly grateful for their hospitality!!!

I'm hoping by the time I type up my next post, I'll have something to tell you (or show you) on our next boat, but until then, I'm keeping it hush hush on the blog, so nothing is jinxed! ;)

Here's hoping we aren't homeless for too much longer...until next time!

Saturday Sail

A few weeks ago, we did a weekend trip with a few other friends at our marina! We hadn't really planned too much, other than to get away from the dock for a night or two. Friday afternoon we pulled out of our slip and went towards Redfish Island. This was our gorgeous view of the sun setting over Kemah!!

We arrived just after sunset and decided to anchor for the night. There were three other boats there with us, for the night. We all took our dinghy's over to Tom's boat and ate & hung out before heading back to our own boats to go to sleep. 

There's something great about being anchored and feeling the boat move with the water versus feeling little to no movement while being tied to the dock. I miss this more than I can say (at least in the daytime, when I can clearly see that we are not going to hit anything). 

There were no bugs out and the weather was cool, but not too cold, so hubs and I decided to sleep in the cockpit. Around 3:37am the wind picked up more than what was forecasted and at this point I was awake. Mostly, because of the headache that woke me up, but also because I'm always too worried that we we are going to drag anchor, I'm sitting up every few minutes and making sure we are not closer to the surrounding boats and so I can't really get any good sleep. It's like whenever I take a roadtrip with anyone. I cannot fall asleep for nothing, even when I've been awake for thirty-six straight hours, I just can't do it. I feel like I have to be the lookout person, at all times. About three hours later though, I decided Joe could be the lookout person for awhile and I went down below to catch some Zzz's before our day sail! 

We slept in a little bit and then I whipped us up some oven French toast!!! Yum :)

I felt like a real-live cruiser, complete with my collapsible tea kettle, heating the water for my coffee in a pour-over coffee maker and the toast about to go in the propane oven. I think I'm getting the hang of this no electricity needed, way of life!! 

After breakfast and a quick cleanup, we pulled up anchor and radioed over to our friends about the day's plan. We were going to go with one of the boats, that had anchored with us the night before and sail to Galveston for the day, but they decided they wanted to hang out in the bay instead. It's all good, we thought, were still gonna go, because we could, so we did! :)

We stayed just outside the ship channel and sailed all the way down to where the cruise ships come in and out of port. We kept seeing flares shooting up into the sky, followed by a thick cloud of orange smoke.

There were no distress calls heard over the radio, so we figured it had to be some sort of a training or an authorized removal of expired flares. Sure enough, we later realized, that was being done at the Coast Guard Auxillary Station and all was well. 

We cruised around a bit and got up close and personal with World War II history! Seawolf Park is a memorial to USS Seawolf, a United States Navy Sargo-class submarine mistakenly sunk by U.S. Navy forces in 1944 during World War II. It is located on Pelican Island, (29°20′03″N 94°46′45″W) just north of Galveston. You can read more about the submarine and ship here. 

We then sailed back to Kemah...

We went no where in particular and it took us all day to get there and back, but that's just one more thing we can say we did on our boat. Plus, you gain experience each time you take your boat out. And well, isn't that what everyone should do? 

Why we do what we do...

In short? Because it makes us happy!

Still, even after two years of boat life, occasionally, when we tell people we live on a sailboat, we see the look of "why on earth would anyone want to live in such a small space, full time?" Or even when family & friends come see us & check out the boat. Not all, but some look around our tiny home and though they don't say it, you know that's just what they're thinking, by looking at their faces. It's times like these, that sometimes, I myself start to think, "are they on to something?" But then I remember, I'm not doing this to make anyone else happy, I chose to live in a small space because that's what is good for me/us, right now. For years, I lived everyday, for the future. What if this? What if that? Then a series of life events happened and one day I realized, that I not only didn't want to live the so called "normal" but I also wanted to live in the now! Enjoy every moment as they are happening, ergo, we live on a boat!

Yes it's small, yes it's different, maybe it's even weird to you, something that you can't manage to wrap your mind around and that's all fine and dandy because you don't live our life afloat, we do. And guess what? We're not done yet!! 

In fact, we've recently narrowed down our search for our next boat and are really starting to make progress in making a final decision. We are keeping the next boat under wraps a little this time, but that's mainly so you don't have to suffer through all the many, "we made a decision" & "we changed our minds" posts. 

What I will tell you about our next boat is this. It will be:

-->older

-->bigger 

It's okay, you don't have to understand why we do what we do! Having done both, we don't get how you'd want to mow grass for the rest of your lives. Our backyards may look differently, but we enjoy ours just as much as you do, well maybe a little bit more!! ;)