It has been awhile

 An almost 4 month break from blogging. Sorry folks, but I had my reasons. So, keep reading to find out.

It has become a very hot summer here in southern Ontario and work on the boat is really only possible early in the morning or late afternoon when temps are a bit cooler. However, work on the boat has progressed. More electrical work for kitchen outlets and a 12V plus solar powered vent on the ceiling above the cooktop. More grab handles for safety found their places as well kitchen Led ceiling lights got fitted incl. some miscellaneous wires for future installs. 

Benno installed four 100 amp Renogy lithium batteries in the boat that will become our so called house bank. As I mentioned before there are as well two 100 amp AGM (group 31) batteries that start the diesel engine and supply sufficient power to work the bow thruster and anchor windlass.

Not easy to install the batteries!

The platform for the batteries under construction

I worked on the design for the boat galley (kitchen). Space is at a premium, so it’s compacted but has all that is needed. The galley is now totally finished with hanging cabinet (I energized Benno to build it) and drawers in the counter, sink and cooktop are integrated including the fridge. There was a lot of woodwork for Benno involved and plenty of varnishing for me as well. The Corian countertop was purchased from a Mennonite counter top company that had done our house and some camper countertops over the years.

The old kitchen ripped out

The next project will be finishing the main cabin and settee, so stay tuned for that.

Now I am going to write about some unpleasant issue. I am not well and even had to call off a planned visit from Sue and Rick, dear cruising friends. I am sick. On April 15th, after my morning yoga exercises, I experienced some abdominal pain, felt sick and additionally thought I had a urinary tract infection. A trip to the walk-in clinic and a prescription didn’t seem to help much. In addition my eyes turned yellow and the following days my skin too. Another trip to the same walk-in clinic and another prescription that didn’t change much, I then went to the Princess Center Walk-in clinic here in Leamington and the doctor there was almost in shock seeing me. He ordered an immediately blood test, ultrasound, and followed by a CT scan. After the results were back I was told that I had pancreatic cancer. The doctor advised me to check into the Leamington hospital to get an MRI test done, which I did. That resulted also in a trip by ambulance to Windsor to get a stent inserted to relieve the jaundice and my skin became normal looking again.

Now, I’m in the capable hands of the London University Hospital and associated London Cancer Hospital, called the (Verspeeten Family Cancer Center) and many, many trips and talks with doctors later I have weekly chemotherapy treatments in the Chatham Hospital, which is a shorter trip than London and they are affiliated to the London University Hospital as well (everything is computerized nowadays). I am a fighter and Benno is a great support. So we keep on going, but some days are a bit tougher than others and blogging is far from my thoughts.

Oh, and we sold our travel trailer to a very nice couple and it lives now somewhere in Sudbury. The goal is still to finish the boat by next year to be able to make a trip to the Bahamas in the near future and to grab me some lobsters. 

Thank you for your patience with this blog.

 

Work has resumed here at our house and boat

 After three and a half months of doing nothing while we were enjoying Florida, it’s back to work.

Mostly though, it’s Benno who is doing most of it and as an electro mechanical technician he is at his element while it is electrical, mechanical or hydraulically related. The boat, which is a work in progress, was also meant as a hobby for Benno in addition to enjoying it on the water when finally completed.

The hydraulic pump, lines, hookups etc. behind the wall

We came home with several items purchased down south that were next in line to be installed. A major item, also cost wise was the Simrad Autopilot, integrated to the GPS system. You just got to have an autopilot, otherwise you’d be hand steering the whole time you are underway. So this installation took some time. Of course the finished bathroom (head compartment) where behind the wall are all the electrical hookups and hydraulic steering lines, which we had last year replaced, got dismantled again :-( for the extended work. The Autopilot came with an electric hydraulic pump which had to be spliced into the hydraulic steering lines as well. Glad we had not primed the hydraulic with the special hydraulic oil last year, this would be a mess now.

Benno is mixing the Epoxy for the box he made

The box needed several coats of paint

The actual Display unit went onto the dashboard, but I convinced Benno to make a nice wooden box for it to match the looks of the engine panel box. Also the unit would have stuck through the ceiling of the bathroom and that solved the problem.

The Autopilot unit installed in the box and hooked up

The autopilot is ready to work

A switch to turn on the power to the autopilot

While filling the hydraulic lines with Seastar hydraulic oil that runs from the steering wheel pump to the electric auto pilot pump further on to the steering cylinder that turns the rudder from port to starboard, Benno needed my help in the aft compartment under the cockpit to help bleeding the lines while he filled the oil in and turned the steering wheel. A cramped position for sure but easy to do.

The hydraulic lines to be blead of bubbles

But I’m not crawling in all cubbyholes, there is the one where the house lithium batteries will be installed. I show you the area so you get an idea where he sticks his head and arms in to make the electrical connections that feed the main cabin and galley.

This is the cubbyhole and around to the left Benno gets to twist his limbs in :-)

Just a few days ago I cut the grass, but you wouldn’t know it as it has already grown so much again. Back into the saddle of the John Deere. The spring flowers are all starting to bloom and the weeding can begin. Just what I have been looking forward to :-)

Oh, something I found interesting, a marine item came shipped in this plastic bag. Read the descriptions!

Lots more updates to come for the boat as it is all in progress. Stay tuned.

Thanks for your visit.

It’s so good to be home again

 We were so happy to pull into our driveway yesterday afternoon. This year’s travel from the south took us longer than we had planned. Everyone must know of the big rain storm that crossed the United States causing floods in many areas that also seemed to never end. 

We left the RV Park in Florida on Tuesday April 1st and had good weather. In the evening we parked for the night at the Valdosta, Georgia, Camping World Store’s parking lot. They allow overnight parking and we have been there before so knew it would be a good place to stay. For part of the evening we ran the air-conditioning to keep the travel trailer cool enough so we could sleep as it was still 30C outside at 9 p.m.

Camping World store in Georgia

The rest areas were busy most of the time

The next day’s travel was equally good. As usual we make pit stops to stretch our legs and of course the fill-up stops for fuel keep us delayed a bit. In the late afternoon the I-75 got heavily congested and instead of crawling on, we just pulled off the highway to the Bass Pro Shop that looked very inviting across the highway in Chattanooga, Tennessee. There are lots of parking spaces available and in short order several other RVs pulled in keeping us company. There was a good breeze blowing and we decided to sleep with the windows open. Big mistake! In the early morning it became so humid with a heavy fog outside and because the blinds were up the bright light bothered me from the parking lot as well as some music that played somewhere all night long. 

Bass Pro Shop, Tennessee

So far we had been travelling behind the weather front but knew that we would probably catch up to it the next day. Hoping the weather would move ahead of us we left the parking lot a bit later than we normally do in the morning so we could stay behind the rain. However, eventually we caught up to it in Kentucky. We had stopped for lunch in Williamsburg Kentucky and treated us with a chicken burger at the Burger King there before moving on. 

Lunch break from Burger King at shared parking lot with Walmart

The mountains held onto the clouds and rain and the driving became dreadful with a horrendous amounts of water gushing from the sky. We did not want to drive in that! I’m glad Benno has nerves as steel but it was the kind of nail biting drive when you cannot see the car in front of you in mountain terrain with steep incline roads. There were tons of bad accidents on both sides of the highway, never saw so many blue flashing lights before on a trip. Benno said we have to get quickly off this damn highway, this is hell and high water! We took refuge at the side of the parking lot of a Walmart Superstore in Berea, Kentucky and just sat in our truck as the rain came down in buckets. It was actually a good spot and we considered of staying the night until I looked up and saw the sign at the light pole next to us saying no overnight trailers.  Well, just around the corner was a Cracker Barrel Restaurant that has trailer parking, but we found that we did not fit into their too short trailer parking lots. Some Motorhomes were already getting comfy there.

With no place to stay, we reluctantly got back onto the I-75 in the rain. The next 50 miles were terrible, but we knew we could park at the Camping World store in Georgetown, Kentucky that is just off the I-75 (we’ve been there before) and that is where we went and were able to finally relax for the evening. However, because of the heavy rain we could not run the generator, so no TV watching. It poured all overnight into the morning.  The weather radar showed a clear spot from 8 a.m. to midday along I-75 towards Cincinnati, Ohio and we made a run for it. Wow, we made it ahead of the storm and it stayed dry and became sunny for most of the afternoon drive, but the temperature kept dropping. 

We are making a run for Cincinnati

Surprisingly there was hardly any car traffic at the border control. Of course the other side was packed with transport trucks. The customs attendant was super friendly and to our surprise we did not have to pay any taxes for our purchases. :-) What a nice welcome to Canada!

Driving over the Ambassador bridge into Canada

From the border crossing to our home it was only another 45km/30 miles, but having outrun the weather for several hours we wasted no time to unload and unpack as much as we were able to before collapsing in our chairs yesterday evening to finally put our feet up. Today it is raining here and the temperature is only 9C/49F back to sweaters, I guess.

Thank you Linda, our RV neighbour, for your goodby gift of a little elephant that was to keep us safe and sound during our travels.

So the only mishap this trip was a broken coffee carafe. At every trip so far I have been sticking this Krupps coffeemaker carafe into the cupboard for safe keeping during our travel so it won’t hop out of the coffeemaker. However, mysteriously the cupboard door opened this time and the glass carafe and a package of crackers ended up on the floor. There were a million tiny sharp glass pieces all over the floor and carpet. You would assume those glass carafe pots would be made from tempered glass, but I guess not.  Oh well, it’s time I shop for a new coffeemaker.

Thanks for following along.

Saying goodbye to Florida

As nice as our stay was this year here in Florida, we are looking forward to going home in a couple of days. That is not the drive, which is long and can be  tiresome, but hopefully no delays because of accidents or road construction.

Birdhouses mark the entrance to our RV Park

Since my last blog post not much has happened with us. We did though take a couple of drives to the Ft. Lauderdale area. One was a visit to the manufacturer of Kubota diesel generators. Our present boat does not have one and we would like to get one. The problem is space, so a small single cylinder 2800 rpm 3.5 KW might be the answer although the next size up, a twin cylinder 1800 rpm 4.2 KW would be much quieter when it runs but the dimensions might not work for the given space. For that reason we pestered the guys at the Phasor Generator Store with questions and taking measurements. Back home we will find out what type might fit.

This is the 3.5 KW generator

The enormous size of a flagship Boat Owners Warehouse store in West Palm Beach with their inventory just amazed us and so we had to have a look and browse through their store when we were in their vicinity. 

As the weather this month stayed rather warm or hot, we weren’t too enthusiastic for walking outings. Although I have the opportunity to read books back home, I rarely do as I feel guilty doing so because I could be doing something around the house or yard instead. This past month I went through several books and quite enjoyed letting my imagination follow the stories. 

Elsa waiting for a handout of a couple of peanuts

Reggy's pastime is snoozing in my bed :-)

Reggy and Elsa always kept me company in their dog shelter outside under the awning while I had my nose in a book. Benno preferred his Mini iPad in the air-conditioned trailer.  There are not too many bugs here, but Reggy is occasionally being bothered with a flea that makes him itch like crazy. His hair is very fine while Elsa has a thick coat and does not seem to be bothered, although I do comb both every day and mostly find and get rid of the little pest that keeps Reggy scratching.

Florida is so much more than beautiful beaches and lots of wildlife can be seen if you visit the National Forests. The area of the RV Park we are staying at has lots of cattle grazing along the highway. But also lots of fishing is going on here as I have mentioned before. In almost walking distance (for me) is the Fisheating Creek that I have mentioned before also. In addition to the fishing boats many people fish from the shore at the boat ramp and are quite successful doing so. Here are some photos we took on a windy day with a few spits from the sky. If you can spare the time (38 min), there is a wonderful YouTube movie covering this area as well. It will give you a better idea than me trying to describe it. Here is the link: Fisheating Creek 

There are signs of the creek from both sides of the bridge

View from the bridge

And a another view from the bridge

There is a park for cars and trailers at the boat ramp

This lady was not deterrent from fishing because of a bit of rain sprinkles

This was her catch so far

So Benno did his tire pressure check on the trailer and the removing and stowing of the hoses should be an easy job. If I see something interesting driving home I will take a photo, and the I-75 highway might have some good opportunities.

Benno uses a 120V tire inflator from Canadian Tire

Thanks for sticking with me and until next time.