Oct 28, 2010

So our biggest project to date has been the installation of our new aft head. Andrew and Jay spent 2 days working on installing new black water tubing,replacing a broken Y valve, cutting starboard to cover all of the old holes in the fiberglass, as well as working on all of the wiring required for our fancy flushes. Andrew spent a third day to actually get the head installed. I am very thankfully for all of their hard work. They both did an excellent job!! I am proud of both of them.

Electric panel

Andrew and Jay working

Elizabeth installing the flush panel

Jay hard at work

New Head

sump pump Oct 9, 2010

Andrew and Sabastian had some not so much fun work in removing the sump pump under the forward stateroom bed. We noticed that the forward shower was not draining properly and decided to investigate the issue. We had to remove all of the bedding to get to where the sump pump was located. Sabastian climbed down into the bilge area and started to remove the screws. When the smell got to strong Andrew took over. The pump was successfully removed and then we were off to Hurd's Hardware to locate a new pump and switch. The installation of the new pump and switch went well and now the forward shower drains properly.

VA Boating Safety Course Oct 16, 2010

The VA Boating Safety course book covered know your boat, before getting underway, operating your boat safely, the legal requirements of boating, boating emergencies what to do,  and finally, enjoying water sports with your boat. We woke up early on Saturday to head down to the Mathews County Rescue Squad to take our test. We watched videos and had an answer question segment after each chapter. The class began at 8:30am and the test began at 2:45pm. The kids finally finished with some help around 5:00pm.  The test was an open book multiple choice test. The power squadron that was supervising the class was very patient with the kids who needed a little extra help  in some of the areas. All four of us successfully passed the VA Boating Safety course! We are all now legally certified to drive the boat.  Now we have to put our knowledge to the test and do our best to follow the rules of the road.

Sabastian's Entry on Va Boater's Test

I had a boating test on 10/16/10. You had to watch little videos and answer questions and you had to sit in your seat for more than an hour. We left our boat at 7:00am and stayed until 5:00pm. It was long and boring but I passed and got my boating certificate. Now I am legal to drive a boat. I liked chapter 6 best of all it was about having fun and being safe on the water.

Paisley's entry on VA Boating Class

Early one morning I woke up and went to the VA Boaters test. The class had to go over the booklet and after that I took the test. Everybody passed including me. I never have to take the test again because the card is good for life. My favorite chapter is chapter 6. It was about having fun on the water like fishing, hunting, and jet skiing.

Paisley's entry on life on a boat

My version of life of living on a boat. When I wake up I eat breakfast. At 9:00am I have school until about 2:00pm. After school we have fun like listening to a cool story on tape or maybe watching t.v. but the funnest thing to do is to swing on the rope. Do you want to know why it is the funnest thing to do? I will tell you. Because you get so close to the water but never go in the water.

October 5, 2010

Last week we had lots of wind and rain. The temperature outside was in the mid 80's so the rain did not feel bad at all. We had a tropical storm coming up from the south and it took 4 days for it to pass us by. On Thursday the wind and rain was at its peak. We were under a tornado warning from the hours of 7am until 1pm. As the wind and rain picked up in the morning the kids and I added 3 extra lines to the boat and filled up our fresh water tank as precautions. Sabastian raced down our dock and over to B dock to catch our neighbors cooler which got picked up from the wind and caught it with a net. He also caught Paisley's raincoat which went flying by as well. During the rescue of Paisley's raincoat he lost his net and had to go get another net. So after it was all said and done Sabastian rescued 3 items from the water. It was a very successful morning.

Sabastian's Entry #4

I am living on a boat. I will tell you why i do and do not like to live on a boat. I like to was and rinse the boat. Also, I like to tie knots. I really like to go fishing. I do not like to do the dishes.

Sabastian's Entry #3

My favorite job is to make knots. First, I think it is fun and entertaining. Next, it helps in a part of tying up the boat. Finally, it is cool to learn trick knots. I have already learned to tie the French Hand Cuffs. That is why i like to do knots.

Paisley's Jet Skiing post

My dad and I left our slip at Norview Marina on Broad Creek and headed out onto the Rappahannock River to a cove up river early one morning. We went so fast it felt like it was only one minute until I got to the cove. I had to sit in the front of the jet ski. I saw a big sandbar. We had to be careful not to beach the jet ski. I told dad to not flip us. It was so much fun. I wish I could do it again.

Neptune Festival

We decided to head down to Virginia Beach for the day to look at the North American Sandsculpting Championship. I have to say I was blown away by the Sandscuptures. They were beautiful. Sabastian and I talked quite a bit about the Gods and Goddesses from Percy Jackson and how all Greek and Roman mythology is still used today. There were mermaids and mermen sculptures along with the traditional castles and then the out of the box sculptures. We all voted for our favorites and while none of our picks won we did pick some that placed.

Paisley's entry on Crabbing

My experience with crabbing. First I get the bait. It is called Menhaden and it stinks! Next, we chop the Menhaden and put it in the pots. Then we wait about 5 hours and then we pull up the pots. In three days we have enough crab to cook. We steam the crabs for one hour and then we pick the crab so we can eat them. The crabs are so sweet it melts in your mouth.

Aug 18, 2010

Male

Well, plans change. I was going to wash the boat down top to bottom to get it looking good. However it has been storming all day long. Guess the boat will get clean on Friday.The kids have been doing well with completing their homeschooling work! Sabastian made a crab out of play-doh and Paisley made a crab by painting it and then decorating a mat. We caught another 10 keeper crabs and these will go to our fellow live aboard Jimmy 2 slips over from us. Jimmy has been buying the bait and teaching Sabastian some basics of crab fishing! Everyone here at Norview has been helpful and very knowledgeable.

Cooked Crab on a plate

Jet Skiing by Sabastian

Jimmy, my dad, and I went out on Jimmy's Jet Ski's early one day. It was one of the funnest things in my life. First, it was cool when we went onto plane because it squeezed your face. Next, I like to just cruise around. You are feeling the breeze. Finally, I think everyone would have fun. That is what I did.

Knots

Self-Stopped Coil

Slipped Over Hand Knot

Double Overhand Knot

Slipped Figure-Eight

Sept 23,2010

Yesterday Paisley, Sabastian, and I packed up our backpacks and headed out on bikes in search of the public beach we were told about. We didn't ask where it was considering there is only 3 miles of land to the north of our marina we were sure to be able to find it or not in our case. Miss Paisley had the lead on bikes followed by Sabastian and then me. We were in search of a spot to play in the sand and take pictures. As we continued down the road we kept seeing signs saying private property keep out everywhere. We finally found one gentleman(Joe) out on his golf cart and inquired as to where the public beach was. He commented that it is all private property but said that we could use the beach in front of his house. I thought it was very nice and kind for Joe to share his private beach with us. The kids and I had fun climbing on the rocks and Jetties. The kids wanted to make a sandcastle and dig to their hearts content but, did not want to leave big holes in Joe's beach which I thought was very thoughtful of them. After playing for a while we packed up in search of another spot to play in and dig but we did not find one. I think I need to plan a trip to Buckroe Beach or the ocean front so the kids can dig to their hearts content. The Neptune Festival starts tomorrow and the big sandcastle sculpting contest is this weekend. Maybe we can fit it in somehow.

Max

Max our 10 1/2 year old Basset Hound is doing a wonderful job of being a salty dog. As far as Max's life experience goes he only  knew of life on land. Andrew and I were wondering how he would do living on a boat and I think both of us were very surprised as to how well he transitioned.  Max loves wandering the marina and saying hi to all of people here. He knows who will give him treats and love and makes a bee line for them when he sees them or picks up their scents. It is very cute. Max has been on many golf cart rides and his ears flop in the wind and looks like a regal hound dog in his rightful place in the passenger seat. We also borrowed a center console tender for a day. Max graciously wore his dogie life jacket.As Andrew and Sabastian were driving the dingy out of the boat ramp area poor Max ran into a sign on the walkway and scared himself so bad that he fell into the water. Thank goodness he had on his life jacket and he was on his leash. It was a quick dip and only got his back legs wet. He recovered quickly and boarded the tender gracefully.Max whimpered until he got the bow seat as he did not like sitting on the floor of the tender. Max loved the ride and did better than we thought.

Sept 20, 2010

I did my best to surprise Andrew with installing our new faucet in the galley. I successfully removed the old faucet. I did get all of the parts together for the new faucet but I was missing 2 gaskets and needed 2 new couplers to complete the job. There was a small leak that I could not solve and Andrew did come home to a boat with no running water and that is not what I wanted at all. I wanted to show off my skills of completing a pluming job. I still have so much to learn. Andrew did get the job completed after realizing that I put the plummer tape on backwards and we needed different gaskets. We are now enjoying a nice new faucet.

Paisley's entry on Golf carts

My family and I borrowed a golf cart from some friends named Bob and Lynda. The second time my dad let me drive the golf cart to bring it back. Now I am going to tell you what it feels like to drive a golf cart. It is easy all you need to do is press the go pedal to go and the stop pedal to stop when you need to stop and the parking brake when you need to park. It was so fun. I loved doing it I wish I could do it again.

Sabasitan's entry on Crabbing

Male

Mature Female

I am writing about Chesapeake Bay Blue Crabs. First, I can tell you how to tell the Jimmy from the Sookies. The boys are the Jimmy. The girls are the Sookies. The girls have rounder outline on their apron than the boys. Next, I will tell you about the males. They guard the females from the predators. The reason that the males guard the females is that at every full moon the girls shed their shell become soft shell crabs and are vulnerable to being eaten. Finally, I like to eat the crab that I catch it is fun.

Kids and Andrew running the transducer cable from the thru hull up to the flybridge

Broad Creek aquarium

Hurricane Earl Party

views of Broad Creek during Hurricane Earl

Hurricane Earl on F dock

Boat issues as of Sept 14, 2010

We believe we solved the mystery as to why we were taking on so much water. Apparently, when we hooked up our fresh water hose to our boat the gasket was not as tight as it should have been. We were filling up our boat to a dangerous level of water and had the potential of being a sinking at the dock story! Andrew and I are no longer letting the fresh water come directly into the boat unless we are doing dishes or taking showers. For most of our daily activities using our 60 gallon fresh water tank is more than enough.
Andrew installed our new AC pump and it has been working great. Our manifold had no issues and is working just fine. Andrew also added the foam mount to our aft AC unit and it is now a quiet hum and no longer a loud unit while running.
Our next few tasks are to find and install a fresh water gasket, replace the transom shower hose and nozzle, decide and install mini blinds in the salon, replace our canvas on the fly bridge, aft deck, and replace  main windows, and replace our forward hatch.

Sept 12,2010

Inconceivable moved back to C dock on Sunday morning at 8:00am during a rain storm. Sabastian's 10th birthday party was a success even with all the rain we received. We had Godo, and Pappap and Uncle Dan, Grammie, and Papa, Uncle Warren and Aunt Elizabeth,Cousin Jonathan and cousin Aubrey, Jay and Philip Andrews, and Chad and Jesse Hudson on board. The three boys sorted the crabs out of the pots and then I steamed them over at the Oar House. The adults enjoyed the crab picking while the kids watched some TV over in the Pirates Den. We had lasagna for dinner and a Yoda cake for desert.

catch up

So I am a little bit behind. We had Hurricane Earl pass us by with not much fan fair last Friday, Sept 3rd. I moved the boat from our covered slip to the floating dock so that we would not cause any damage to our boat. So instead of a hurricane party we had a croquette/ pot luck meal with 5 other boating couples! The kids also had a fire safety drill with Bob in the proper use of a fire extinguisher.
 Then this past Monday our boat was taking on a dangerous amount of water( which we now believe is coming from a leak in our fresh water lines coming from the pier) and our automatic bilge pump was not working.We discovered that the switch for all of our bilges were cut off. Due to the large amount of water in our forward bilge our ac pump was under water and died on us. Andrew installed the new pump and now we are waiting and watching to see how the new pump works out. Our next project is to install the rubber mat under our aft ac unit to cut down on the amount of noise. I know I am looking forward to having a quieter ac.