After All These Years

The fist coat of varnish has been applied to the teak. We are heading down this weekend to see it all in person. Whitney and John sent pictures of what it looks like with that first coat on. I can’t wait to see it!

Here are some shots of the windows with the tung oil on them. Even with the blue painters tape, they are looking good!!

It is really getting cold up here. Snow forecast for Thursday! Warmer weather please get here soon!

Look how beautiful this wood is and this is just with the tung oil on the teak. John and Whitney are doing a wonderful job on the bright-work, we can hardly wait to get down and see it!! Here are just a few more pictures, Since we can’t be down there, it sure is nice of Whitney to send pictures and keep us updated!!

The couple we hired to redo the teak “bright-work” on the boat, John and Whitney Kokalis, started last week and even though it has rained a lot in Kemah, they have still managed to get a great deal done. Whitney sent pictures of the parts they have sanded . This top picture is when the teak was dry. The rest of the pictures are after a rain shower. When the wood is wet you get a feel for what it will look like the varnish on it. It is beautiful!!

What a face lift!! The grain is so pretty!

We always have a wonderful time when we are down at the boat. I love sitting on the bow, reading a book and just hanging out. Being on the water slows the pace, quiets the soul. Monty too has picked the bow area as his favorite place to lay in the sun. Lucky for us, the sun has been out most of the time we have been down to Kemah! Soon we will get to warmer weather and then of course as Texas is known for, some really hot weather. I am looking forward to experiencing it all aboard Kokomo.

This is the upper deck where the dingy was stored. I say was, because we unloaded the dingy that was on the boat when we bought it, cleaned it up and took it to the resale shop in town. We stopped by an looked at the Achilles dinghies, they are RIBs (Hard bottom with inflatable sides) and found a 9.2 foot one we really like!

Next we replaced the rigging  on the mast and boom that will be used to load and unload the dingy. It looks so good. Jim went to West Marine and put together all the wires with the stainless ends and shackles. It is a great set up now.

Jim also rebuilt the water pump on the port engine and both are running great. I have started to put up pictures and decorations to make the boat ours. I brought home the cushions on the settee to have them reupholstered as well as the cushions at the lower helm station.

This was Scooters first time on board the boat and he did so well. He loves to lay in the sun up on the bow and was just a great guy the whole time we were there!

I got to sit out in the sun and read for several hours on Sunday, the weather was great. We have a guy starting on the bright-work (exterior teak) Tuesday, he will sand it all and put 6 coats of varnish on. It is going to look soooooo good! It will take him 3 to 5 weeks depending on the weather.

Here you have one of the many projects on Kokomo, this is what is under the bed in the master suite. What is it, you might ask? Located here, is the hydraulic steering system and a 300  gallon fresh water tank. Jim had the fun job of checking all this out, cleaning up and making sure all is working well. He had to order a seal kit for the hydraulic steering, so he will have to change it, when the part gets into Kemah.

While down at the boat, Jim wiped down the engines, changed out the exhaust hoses, clamps, cleaned sea strainers and checked out all the systems on the boat. He worked none stop for 6 days!! After getting everything in order so he felt OK about leaving, he returned home and is already making a list of the things he wants to do when next we go down!

Well, we did it! After many conversations and  “No Ways”,  we bought another boat. Not just any boat, an Albin 43 Trawler. The opportunity came up suddenly to get a boat that was exactly what we had wanted for a price we could afford. Jim went down, looked at the boat, feel in love with it, had it surveyed, brought pictures back and wow, we closed on December 28th, 2009.

The first night we spent on the boat, I just loved it! It was cold outside but warm inside.

It has been a good while since I last slept on  a boat, I think about 8 years. I had forgotten how nice it is. Very good for the soul, being on the water just feels right.

We had a lot of cleaning to do and clean we did, as well as putting in a refrigerator, moving the boat to its new marina for two nights then moving to our permanent slip on the third day. Jim was amazing, moving that very big boat, docking, un-docking and then driving over and docking again. We worked on Kokomo until New Years Eve afternoon then we fixed dinner, made some dip with chips, turkey, ham and enjoyed ringing in the 2010. OK, we only made it to 11:00 pm, but it was midnight in New York!! Happy new year!

The new refrigerator.

Jim stayed on the boat, doing all the work to make sure all the systems are in shape. I came back up to work my day job!

We are embarking on a new time in our lives this new year, 2010. Our goal is to get Kokomo all spiffed up and enjoy her. We are selling our home, but we are putting everything in storage that we want to keep and that we will need to get back into a land based home.  We will move aboard Kokomo and see what happens. Just let life unfold!

This will be my ships log.

Here we go on this new adventure! We are loving it already!!

Here it is, the day we give thanks for all we have. I am so lucky to have such a wonderful family, home and life. It isn’t always easy to focus on the wonderful things in my life when I am going through the day to day messes, work, cleaning house, paying bills! It is however, very important to me to bring myself back to reality…I am one lucky person! There are so many people who have real problems,  I am so fortunate to have a healthy family, a beautiful home and a life of happiness. I have so much to be Thankful for! Happy Thanksgiving to all, hope we all have a wonderful day.

The land we bought in South Texas is located even further South than the Texas Hill Country, it was in deep South Texas, hunting country. When we first drove through the area, it was early spring and the wild flowers were unbelievable. They were everywhere! The area around Campwood and Leakey has some real hills, people love to ride motorcycles through the roads, taking all those curves and hills with glee and hopefully avoiding the wild life as they go. In addition to all the Oaks and Pecans on this property, there was a creek running across the back and lots and lots of cedar trees. We named chose the Luna Azul because one of our favorite songs was “Once in a Blue Moon (I’ll do something right) by Earl Thomas Conley.

We bought the land with the idea that we would build our own home. Jim is the greatest person for putting together a project and having everything work out just right. He put our cruising boat together with much research and hard work and brought that same hard working effort to this home we were going to build.

The first project was having a water well drilled. We were to close on the land in 2 days, we had the drilling company come out on the Saturday prior to the close to start drilling. The thought being, what good is land if there is no water available. The entire day, they drilled, about 325 feet down and no water. At $20.00 a foot this was an expensive dry hole! By evening things were not looking good. Our well was just a deep hole with nothing to pipe out. The crew doing the drilling decided that our best bet would be to line up with the location of the well on the property next to ours and try drilling there. So, the rig was moved, and drilling commenced at a new location. At about 130 feet, they hit water. We were so excited. The company gave us a break on the cost of the dry hole and in the end our water well was great, the water was almost ice cold coming out of the ground.

Monday morning, we closed on the land and already had a water well we knew would work!!This is Bo, our Border Collie in the outside shower at Luna Azul.