Christmas Recap

Christmas in our new home was a success.  We made a nice ham on Christmas eve along with fresh carrots and mashed spuds.  Choice of apple, pumpkin or custard pie for dessert, with squirty cream, of course.  For Christmas dinner we had Cornish game hens, stuffing, fresh green beans and more pie for dessert.  The oven works well and I have four burners on top so I'm all set.  The refrigerator is small but I'm just happy to have it.  Overall, I'd say the galley was very satisfactory indeed.  Kerm, Dan and I all had plenty to eat.

As Kerm's entry said we have had some windy weather and it's been cold but there's NO SNOW so I'm not making a peep.  It would be nice to have it calm down a tad and warm up a bit so we can get more done outside...supposed to get better soon.

We were at the apartment this evening as I had laundry and shopping to do.  Kerm and I left Dan to sleep there.  I moved my undies and my dop kit on board tonight so now I feel like this is officially my home.  Kerm is snoring in the berth and I am cuddled up in the salon writing this...I am a lucky girl.

Good night to all!

Kerm's View

Kerm here.

Gale force winds last night and all today. White caps in the marina. Huge waves in the gulf. We never did have a low tide as the wind is blowing the gulf waters toward us. I'm sick so Chris was up and down all night checking lines and tried to figure out where all the clicks and bangs were coming from. She slept quite a bit of the day today to catch up.

Dan, Chris and I continue to work on the boat. A gem, but as you all know from my race car and all the other boats I tend to be somewhat anal. What is nice is that Dan is not only helping but understands my torment and is going along with it with help and internet research. My original list was 50 + items but is now down to 60. Well, you kinda find things along the way.

Anyway we slammed down about 20 things on the list this past week and should finish another 20 or so this upcoming week. When I go into the local West Marine supply store they actually suck up to me. (For you non mariners West is not known for great customer service.) A lot of the fixing is related to long term cruising and probably would not need to be done if the boat was just for local playing around. Safety, anchoring equipment, electronics, spare parts, some new hoses and on and on.

An example of what Dan did yesterday was mark all valves in the engine room and what is below each engine room floor board. Red for critical (like sinking) and white for info only. He also did research on the fresh water pump for the engine and found that most people replace the pump with an updated more reliable unit made by Johnson vs Jabsco. MO money. If we're in the north channel of Lake Erie me thinks the more reliable one with the old one as a spare might be the ticket. He also got the dingy going with that all powerful 2 HP Johnson.

Getting things done

Hello, all.

We have been busy getting things done on the Belle. The Ship's Log is recording all of the updates and replacement activity.  It is such a joy to be working on a boat that is in such good shape already.

We also had our first official visitor yesterday.  Jake, the next door neighbor at out lot in Hudson, stopped by to say hello and look around.

We have slept aboard for two nights now and we are enjoying the huge V Berth.  It's the biggest bed we've ever had.  Last night I woke up and wandered around for a while taking in all the new sights and sounds.  It was quite windy outside but we were snug and cozy.  The boat doesn't rock at all like the Gypsy Tart and it is much more quiet.  The water used to slap against the chines on the Tart and it was pretty noisy sometimes.

Today we are back at the apartment taking care of landbased things.  I am thinking of making a small Christmas dinner on board.  Maybe cornish game hens and stuffing.  It will give me a chance to test out the galley...especially the oven/stove.

We send our love to everyone, along with best wishes for a wonderful Christmas and a great new year.

Christie

Getting to know you

Entry by Christie

What's the first thing you do with a new home?  Wash windows, clean out cupboards, check out the plumbing and electrical...that's what we've been doing.   Generally getting acquainted and enjoying every minute.   Today I decorated the fly bridge with Christmas lights.  Kerm and I tried to take pictures but they didn't turn out.  Will try again tomorrow now that we know how to turn off the flash on my camera..  We are going to have a sleepover tomorrow night...cool. 

Maiden Voyage 12/17/2010

Posted by Christie

We arrived at Henry and Joan's house in Clearwater at 9am.  They are Southern Belle's previous owners and they graciously helped us to prepare for a successful launch.  Sidenote to Henry and Joan: we'll try to take care of her as well as you did.  Enjoy your mountain home!!

We pulled out at 10:30 with Dan at the helm.  Weather was beautiful, sunny 68-72 and not too windy.  Since the weather has been stinky of late, the nice day was greatly appreciated.  We navigated on the outside of the coastal islands rather than through the intercoastal waterway because we had never been out there before.  The waves were 2-4 feet with a long duration...kind of a good swell, not really steep waves.  The Belle handled the waves well.  Each of us took turns steering and looking at the cool navigation tools.

I'm happy to report that two dolphins played in our bow wave for a while, spinning and cavorting.  I take that as a good omen.  I'm ship's secretary so I started our Ship Log and I've decided that dolphin encounters will always be reported.

We had no problems with equipment, weather or navigation and arrived at the outer marker of Hudson Channel at 3:30pm.  We docked safely at Port Hudson Marina in slip #9 approximately 35 minutes later.  Docking a single screw boat with a lot of windage and mass is challenging.  Kerm is anxious to hone his skills with this new craft.

In closing, I have to confess, Kerm and I are both a little overwhelmed.  We've dreamed of this for a long time and now it's a little hard to believe it's really happening.  Of course we're happy, but a little dazed, I guess.  The next days will be spent getting acquainted with our new home...washing windows and learning the systems.  We will probably stay at our apartment rather than on the boat for a while but I'm anxiuos to do an 'overnight'.

Signing off for now
c

First Entry

 entry by Christie 12/15/2010

Southern Belle is officially ours!!  Papers are signed and money has changed hands.

We will pick her up on Friday from Clearwater and bring her up to Hudson, FL for refit and provisioning.  The marina in Hudson is close to our apartment, so very convenient.

We have to be out of Florida waters by March 15th to evade the evil taxman.  Therefore, we are planning to work our way down the Gulf Coast and then up to southern Georgia where we will hang around until the weather warms up a little in the north.

I'll fine tune this blog and add more pictures but I wanted to document the initial day of ownership.  The adventure begins...