Still plugging away

Well we continue to clean and clean and clean. And then we clean some more. It is amazing how much marsh mud is still hiding inside my boat. Add in the grease and grime from engine rebuilds along with fiberglass and gel coat dust and you can imagine how I spend my days off on the boat. Both Freddie and I are sore and hot from squeezing into lockers with bleach for me and becoming a jet ski contortionist for Freddie. He did discover the reason for our jet ski trying to sink on us was a through hull that was damaged by a rodent while the ski was taken apart before we bought it. Hardest part of the repair is getting the damaged through hull out. Freddie is still fighting with it as it hangs on the dingy davits on the back of Stray Cat. We found that the wrong transducer was purchased for the fish finder Freddie had installed is the culprit for that new instrument now working. The correct one is ordered and will hopefully be installed next week so I can get the salon put back together.

We passed the year mark since Beryl and along comes Andrea! We are in a much safer location from storms now. Very grateful we did not have a repeat of last year.

Andrea's rains did identify the hatch leaks. Get out the water catchers!

Freddie tracking leaks as it rains.

SMAC before we open from the top of the Orange Crush Slide. This is what keeps me busy when not working on Stray Cat.

Another jet ski Adventure!

Having little success with the jet ski thing. We have taken the jet ski out twice and broken down twice. Batting zero. This time we almost sunk her. We haven't figured out why it started filling up with water but I can tell you it is impossible to balance the ski when it takes on water. The sloshing water will cause it to roll with the slightest lean. We were laughing and thinking we were just uncoordinated until the ski was in real danger of sinking and we were floating away from the boat down the river. We were fortunate to float close enough to grab hold of another cat at a private dock. Thank You, Lou and Cherry for your help and hospitality.With their help we were able to secure and pump out the ski and other good Samaritans from the boat yard used their Dingy to tow the ski back to Stray Cat. Now to figure out the problem and solve it. Ah the joys of boat life.

Sea Trail Day!

Well Thursday was a fun day. Freddie took Stray Cat up the river with our mechanic and everything went GREAT! They got her up to around 7.8 knots, which is really good for us. I was stuck at home waiting for the FedEx man who was bring our flares. After they arrived we decided to take the jet ski out for it's inaugural run. (well for us anyway) Wow what a trip! Both Freddie and I are newbies to jet skis and it was genuinely a rush. Well that is until we broke down and had to paddle/swim it back to the dock. He He. No worries it wasn't far and ended up being just some trash in the fuel line. An easy fix and looking forward to getting back out there tomorrow.

Yippee! We are back in the water finally!

Well almost a year later and we are finally back in the water. It has been along and frustrating process and we are still not finished (are you ever finished with boat work?) but we are floating again. The trip from land to water looked like something out of a scifi movie and was pretty nerve wrecking for me but went without a hitch. Below are pictures of the process.