Rivertrip to Paris Landing: the shakedown

Good Morning! July 24 2012 Bill and I did a shakedown trip to Paris Landing in Tennessee 50 miles. After 4 years of dreaming, planning, training, repairing and some tears Bill and I were able to do a rivertrip. On Thursday July 19 2012 we stocked Proud Lady and headed out on the open lake from Kentucky Dam Marina to Paris Landing Tennessee. Aprox. 47 miles. We anchored out in Ginger Bay beautiful forest green waters reflected the surrounding trees in 10 feet of water, deer came to the waters edge for a drink, frogs chirped several blue heron watched as we had invaided their dwelling place. The quiet was so loud that stress from working faded away. The sunset was gorgeous. Strange things happen while at anchor..... Thursday evening we hooked a home made fish attraction. Bill my hero skillfully cut it away with his hack saw and we were able to set the anchor. Friday we headed out back onto the lake another 13 miles we arrived at Paris Landing. We met up with a friend that we spent the summer with at Rottering while being repaired, Ken, it so happened he was having a family gatering a send off for his nephew who will be on assignment for the Marines. We were welcomed and enjoyed the food and fun with Ken's family.

March 25, 2012

Back in November we winterized the boat and moved into an apartment in Paducah to sit out the cold harsh part of the season. We purchased a 30'x60' tarp and covered the boat in its open slip. A covered slip was unavailable so this was our only alternative unless we wanted to change marinas completely. We were blessed with a much warmer and milder winter than we had anticipated. A very light snow fell only once over the winter and the temperature fell below freezing only a couple of times. Having the apartment was good for us so we could get away from the boat for a few months but Bill managed to come down two or three days a week to work on stuff and basically work on systems that needed some work.

Moving at the end of February was hectic as Bill didn't move as much stuff from the apartment back to the boat as he'd expected to do. Things and stuff were in disarray for about a week but we made it liveable and of course didn't miss a meal.

Since the move back onboard Bill has installed a new freshwater holding tank(bladder), new freshwater pump, new hot water heater, new head in v-berth bathroom, and new pump on master suite bathroom head. He also installed a new AM/FM/CD player in the Flybridge and got the old Hailer working again. The Hailer is primarily used as a notification device, much in the same way a loud speaker is used. It also is used as a sounding device when navigating the boat through foggy areas. We have radar to see our way through fog but the Hailer puts out an audible signal for other boaters in the area to let them know you are there in the area.

Had the A/C looked at the other day by a marine mechanic and he has a new thermostat on order. After he completes the A/C repair he's going to balance (syncronize) the engines so they will put out equal amounts of thrust at the same time. The other day, after getting the engines back in running order, we pulled over to the "pump out" dock and with the engines being out of sync we were all over the place. You'd have thought I was a drunken sailor. After pumping out we went out onto the big lake (Kentucky Lake) and played with the throttles and transmissions to get a feel for her (the boat)again. We don't know what changed but something has and that's why we're getting the engines sync'd again.

We still have some thinning out of unnecessary items and numerous maintenance items to do before we shove off this fall but we'll get there. I'm certain of that.

Oh, and I finally got the boat documented with the Coast Guard and Homeland Security. The privledge for documenting a vessel is not having to pay for annual registration fees, but, for whatever reason in Kentucky, you have to pay taxes on the boat as if you are a homeowner. The tax man is never far away.

Until our next blog entry we wish you fair skys and smooth sailing.

Bill & Joy

Bon Voyage for Alan and Sandy Thursday evening

Looking forward to the dream, AGAIN!

Proud Lady is currently residing Kentucky Dam Marina. We were able to bring her over in September with the help of friends to share that grand day, Ken and Jennifer, friends, we met at Rottering marine, where we worked on Proud lady during the summer of 2011. Proud lady is almost ready to go on the Americas Great Loop trip! After the long summer of working on her, Bill and I have a new appreciation for our adventure and for each other. We worked side by side with many prayers and tears getting her ready to go. Lessons we are learning are: love one another, living on a budget, and all the skills of caring for a boat. We painted sanded, scrubbed, repaired, and waited not always real patiently for her to be restored. Proud lady does look beautiful she's sitting in the water. In October we have had the opportunity to go on a short day trip with my parents Denver and Betty Rauls, my sister and bro. In law Mark and Pam Stamps and my children. Proud lady ran like a beauty queen on a runway going up and down Kentucky Lake. I tried to up load pictures for you to see but I couldn't get this to work from the iPad. I have a really cute picture of Carlie watching for birds with her binoculars, and a picture of my daddy sitting on the aft deck watching the scenery. I also have a picture of our US flag flying that looks beautiful. So just imagine you can see them and smile. Again we are slowly and cautiously preparing our minds and hearts for the trip. For Christmas we have new books about the Great Loop to inspire and educate us both.
Our prayer is that we remain healthy, we grow spiritually, along with wisdom and knowledge for the journey. Love and Prayers, Joy

What's Cooking at My House: Cajun Oven Fries

What's Cooking at My House: Cajun Oven Fries

Making Progress

You know those jobs that can make time feel like it goes on forever? Well this boat prep job is one of those. Here we are right in the middle of watching the bottom of the boat being repaired from the storm on May25th, when another challenge pops up......."Oh dear!", a leak in the fresh water tank. BUT we will be back in the water this month of July 2011. We just gotta remove the old tank and replace it with a new one. So we bought the tools and are ready for the task.

Bill and I read the book "Honey lets buy a Boat" by Ron and Eva Stob and made the decision to take this trip about 2 1/2 years ago, never did we realize we would go through some of the challenges that they experienced, what we thought was funny in the book is not so funny in real life. A wonderful cousin of Bill's gave some good advice and encouragement. He says, "we will appreciate the trip more since we are doing the work our self."I agree but I wish it wouldn't be so many challenges. We experienced our problems before we started the trip.

Proud lady is getting fresh hull paint and her teak is all shined up she will be so beautiful for the trip around the loop, the flybridge looks great, we will have fresh and healthy water. Thank you Lord for watching over us.

Here's an example of our day, up early, work till we are exhausted in the heat, dream of being on the water, take a nap, go to bed at night in borrowed housing, start all over again. We do take time to shop for boat parts and look for a job. Bill and I even took a trip to Evansville, Indiana to visit friends, its a beautiful city on the Ohio River. I had never been there before it was awesome. Again thank you LORD.

THERE is a silver lining to this cloud (besides all the rain we this year). Bill and I have worked our careers, continued education,and taken care of our home the last 10 years, until we were not as close as we could have been. BUT working together on this project everyday has been a marriage saver. Oh! but there have been times we clashed. And again, Thank you Lord for being with us!

I look forward to posting on places we visit and the fun we will have so please stay in touch.

Proud Lady Breaks away

May25 2011 during a storm in the night Proud Lady decides she wants to go wandering. We arrived to the marina on Barkley Lake, Wednesday night she was sitting so pretty among a line of boats that were pulled into the channel to protect them in the flood waters.

Bill and I were so tired we decided to go back into town and get a motel room and dinner for the night. When we arrived back to the marina on Thursday morning anxious to move aboard or new home, Proud Lady was nowhere to be seen. Bill jumped from the truck and asked the marina employees, "wheres my boat?" They pointed down into the cove she had broke free from her anchor and floated to the end of the cove. Kevin another boat owner offer the use of his dinghy so that we could get to her. Arriving to Proud Lady we discovered she had her swim platform stuck in a steele drain pipe. She had bumped around the in the cove possibally bumping several mooring cells on her way down the cove.

She recieved moderate damage and was discovered to be taking on water about 1 gallon per hour. Boat US has been excellent and fast in compensating for her damages. She is in the repair yard awaiting her turn to be restored.

We spent a busy but wonderful 6 days on the water untill she was pulled from the lake, NOW we have to be land lubbers untill she can return to the water.