a day on the water

Well it was more like 30 minutes and it wasn’t a sailboat, it was our dingy.

A dingy came with our sailboat when we bought her, she was pretty rough and needed a bit of TLC, and still does. I’m not sure what Carl did to the outboard but she purred like a kitten. We’re still debating on selling her and buying a new one but the thought of  the money is like a sword in the side. Our issue is that it weights about 240lbs and it’s way too heavy for one of us to pull up on a beach. It’s a chore even with both of us. We had to pull her up on a muddy bank and we had to take the motor off to get it up. We saw a nice hard bottom inflatable at the Gulfport boat show that weighed 100lbs, much more manageable. Maybe we’ll just us the fatty and tow it behind the boat, if she gets lost then no biggy.

We bought a cute little 8’ walker bay sailing dingy on ebay the other day. Big thanks to our friends, Autumn and Garrett who are picking it up for us in Orange Beach Alabama. Can’t wait to get it out in the bay for a test run.

Took a stroll around a local fabric store. I’m going to make us all cotton gauze blankets. Checked out a few fabrics for the interior. I need to make some curtains to hid our junk. We’re going to convert the upper sea berth in the salon into storage but instead of spending big bucks to enclose it with wood and cupboards I’ve talked Carl into letting me make curtains to hide it. This way for any reason we need another sea berth all we’ll have to do is remove our stuff and the curtains would be a lee cloth. We’re also putting in curtains in the heads instead of doors. We figured that the doors would always be open and just a waste of space and weight. I may end up going with Sunbrella fabric because of the mold issue.

We’re a ways away from curtains. I need to stop procrastinating and finish the sails first.

Got a quote from a painter to paint the exterior of the boat and we just about fell over. Do we beat him down in price and suck it up or do it ourselves? We know the cost of the paint because we needed to paint our barges in marine paint. It’s bloody expensive. We would save a little by doing it ourselves but we would also be set back in our schedule because Carl wouldn’t be able to get a start on electrical and plumbing. Such a tough decision.