Checkin' in

Dear Friends and Family,

Here we are checking in once again.

Jimi continues to remove teak from Sanibel to bring home, so I can strip, sand and varnish it. All the striping and sanding is done thus far and we are preparing space where I can begin varnishing. This is going to be a lengthy process. We think he has removed everything he is able to, which means everything left will need to be done at the boat. The ladder still needs to be painted with varnish.

 My amazing Jimi took an old teak table top from another boat and made it in to a swim ladder. It hooks over the edge of the boat and allows us to climb down into our dingy or up onto Sanibel. It's amazing - check out the picture.

Still amazing - he also took an old mahogany door from a 50s Chris Craft and made it into a shower pan for our shower. He slightly con-caved the middle with a circular saw and sander, drilled a large hole for the drain, covered with epoxy and WA-LA - a beautiful mahogany shower pan. He's like a proud papa.

I did a little more sewing on the mizzen sail cover. We spread the genoa sail out in the front yard and scrubbed both sides with scrub brushes, soap and water. It looks like an entirely different sail when it's clean. Lol.

Jimi painted two of the original light fixtures and re installed them; both are for the saloon.

We continue to sell things on eBay His motorcycle was picked up last week. The trailer still sits in the front yard - no takers or even lookers. We have not listed my car yet, but we will soon.

We have great great news to report and I am super excited about it. Jimi purchased a used device called SPOT Messenger and paid for an annual subscription to its service. What is SPOT? SPOT is high tech; it receives our position from GPS satellites and then sends that position to the SPOT satellite, which then reports our location to the internet, Facebook, text message and email.

Jimi has been working on upgrading our blog to represent our future adventures with Sanibel. Check out our new look and all the new goodies. Included is a SPOT map page (mentioned above), so you will always know where we're at. Here's a link to the map page: http://dogbonegraphics.com/blog/?page_id=2589 Theblog is still a work in process.

Jimi is still working on bits of the electrical still. Here is a picture of him wiring the engine panel in his office. He is NOT making a bomb - LOL.

39 days till we put Sanibel in the water. 70 days until we move aboard. As much as I want to, I'm not sure if I can officially say it's getting down to the wire yet. We still have a lot to do. Jimi is worried about getting everything on Sanibel done, whereas, I'm worried about the piles and mounds of stuff in our house that will have to be gone through and cleaned out. It's all a little overwhelming at times.

Until next time!

Love everybody,
Lorie & Jimi

We can see the finish line

Dear friends and family,

Hello hello. How is everyone? We are doing great. Busy little beavers, we are.

Sewing the V berth cushions went very well; they are finished. We've fitted them on Sanibel and they look great. Here are some long awaited pictures of all the cushions. I've made some pillows for the saloon also, but did not take any pictures of them.

We sewed the sacrificial on the genoa sail. It was a challenge to say the least and was most definitely a two person job. We're not finished with it yet, as we have to figure out how to do the corners and make the pockets. It took both of us working between three and six hours a day for five days to get this much done. The genoa sail lives on the bow of the boat. In a triangular shape the two sides we worked on measured 41 feet to the top and 20 feet across the foot. This thing is huge being the largest sail on the boat. The sacrificial  protects the sail from the UV rays when it is not in use and rolled up on the forestay.  Once we complete all the sewing, we have to figure out a place we can stretch it out and wash it.

I have stripped all the old varnish off the interior doors (there are 4). The next step is to sand them and then apply six coats of new varnish.

I began sewing the cover for the mizzen sail. Since we don't have a pattern, Jimi will take it to the boat for fitting and bring it home, so I can sew the next bit. This process will take place until it is complete.

Jimi has sanded the lower portion of the hull, aka bottom paint. This is a nasty job because it involves sanding overhead and the paint is very toxic. Without it, we would have lots of animals growing on the hull, even oysters. For about four days he came home completely blue. I told him he looked like a smurf. He said he'd rather be refereed to as a blue man. Ha ha.  He has braced t
he interior floor, which previously had some bounce to it in areas. He build the battery box. He has installed both toilets with sanitation hose and the holding tank. And he closed three thru hulls. For some reason there were too many holes in the hull and Jimi says "holes in boat....bad".

Molly brought a baby bunny to us one evening last week. Jimi set it free in the front yard. The next morning Molly brought it back in the house. We felt it may be hurt, so in an effort to save it's life we researched and made a natural rabbit habitat for it until we could be sure it was ok. Later that same day, after searching our yard, another baby bunny was found. We brought it in to be with it's sibling and then we went about our business. About 11:30 pm that evening we checked on the bunnies to find the second one had died. And the next morning the first one was dead. I felt horrible thinking we had done something wrong. But Jimi assured me we had not. That same day Molly brought us a third bunny. Jimi immediately took it to a nice grassy field and set it free, where hopefully it survived.

So, there we are. That's all for now. 56 days until we put in and about 87 till we are full time live-a-boards.

Love everybody,

Lorie & Jimi