Frog Feet

    Has it really been almost a week since I last posted?  So sorry!  We're still here at the dock and, believe it or not, still doing stuff to the boat!  We're waiting for Mexican charts to arrive, which we can pick up Monday!  We also ordered more jerry cans, which will be here Tuesday.  Daren told me to stop picking departure dates, but I'm thinking Wednesday looks good, weather permitting!
    Hope you had a great Thanksgiving yesterday.  We did, too!  I finished sewing a canvas boarding dog "ladder" for the inflatable dinghy.  This morning, Pete fell overboard, which he hasn't done in weeks!  He must've known I needed him to try it out, and he climbed right into the dinghy using the steps I'd made in the canvas!  Kate here at the marina thinks I should market them to dog lovers, and I have to admit it's a better option that the ones available...big clunky plastic things that cost $200!!  Anybody want to help me with that project?  : )
      Today, we went shopping in Corpus Christi and did our best to stimulate the economy!  We'd forgotten it was Black Friday, but we needed snorkeling gear, and a lobster spear for Daren.  At one dive shop, I tried on a pair of mint green Vibram shoes and fell in love with them and wore them home.  They're like gloves on your feet and make you feel wonderful, like you could walk or jump up a wall...great traction and springy-ness!   But they DO look ridiculous, and make you smile just looking at them!  I took a picture, but will post it later, since my tech support (Daren!) has gone to bed!  I suppose I should, too, as tomorrow's another big day!  Kate and I plan to go to Coastal Bend Health Foods!
     Until soon....

Grand Opening of Coastal Bend Health Foods

 Today, I was happy to attend the grand opening of Kimmi's health food store, (111 N. Austin St) which happens to be the only HFS in Rockport!  I wish her great success!  It was a fun time with great food and recipes!  I met a lovely family who are planning to move to Equador, which looks like a great spot!  I also got a wonderful chair massage from Anne, a brilliant masseuse!  Four String Farm owners Justin and Kayla were there, and Justin played his bass guitar with singer/songwriter Ty Dietz to provide great entertainment!  He has a fun blog at www.FourStringFarm.wordpress.com

We've Been Expedited!

    We got the nicest call from Judy at the Coast Guard yesterday morning, (Friday) letting us know we've been approved for expedited processing for our Documentation certificate, which would be sent out the same day!  WOW!  (Thank you, Michael, for that great advice!)  It should arrive Monday or Tuesday, and we'll be good to go!  We'll grab one more 30# bag of Taste of the Wild for Pete and Libby, and get the rest of their shots to enter Mexico.  Pete needs to show Dr. Stork and the crew how great his leg's doing!  He's a new dog!
    We may be sailing on Thanksgiving Day!  This means we may still reach the "Cozumel by Christmas" goal!  Life is good!
     BTW, I heard it's hard to comment on this blog.  I'm always happy to hear from you at flyngdgs@gmail.com, and will gladly put you on my e-mail notification list if you'd rather not sign up to join this.
    Happy Thanksgiving!  We ALL have so much to be grateful for!!  Let us hear your great news, too!

A New Direction!

    We came up with a new plan yesterday...we're going to head SOUTH along the Mexican coastline!   We reached that decision after realizing that we'll cut 200 miles off the trip to Cozumel, and we won't have to contend with cold weather.  Besides, it'll be new terrain for us.  We're already pretty familiar with the US Gulf Coast.  Our only concerns are: our sketchy Spanish and the lack of phone/internet once we cross the border.  But "God has not given us a spirit of fear", and lots of friends and family are praying for our safety...thank you so much! : ) As I recall, Mexicans are really friendly and have enormous patience with attempts at Spanish, and I've been listening to Spanish radio at night for practice.  I understand about half of what I hear now, so that's an improvement!
      Yesterday was gorgeous and 90 degrees, but it turned windy and cold last night, and we were grateful for the use of Sue and Al's little space heater!   Sue just started a blog at www.sailingwithwinddancer.blogspot.com   I AM sorry we won't be catching up to them anytime soon, but we'll always be friends and blog buddies, and this way we won't be holding them up!
       Our only hold up now is the  Coast Guard documentation papers that we've been waiting 2 months for!  I called them yesterday and was told we needed to request expeditious processing  by fax, so we did that this morning.  Tomorrow, we'll know if we've been approved or not, so please pray with us that our request is granted!  We can't leave the Country without them!
        Hope you have great Thanksgiving plans. This Sunday, the Methodist church choir is having a special musical event with a Thanksgiving potluck afterwards.  Daren hates potlucks, but I'm hoping we'll go hear the choir.  Sue and Larry were kind enough to loan us her car, so we have no excuse to miss it!  Of course, it's a bit embarrassing after all those goodbyes, but sometimes plans change!

Still Here!

   We're still finding lots to do on the boat!  Daren's painting the stripe on the side, which seemed like a low priority, until he pointed out that it's easier to finish painting than to stow all the paint and supplies!  I'm still working on the safety netting and getting all the food organized!  At this rate, we may still be here in Rockport for Thanksgiving!  I was hoping we'd be in Key West!!  

    Larry and Sue and Frankie and Sherry came back on Lovely Cruise this afternoon. They had a great time in the 4 days they were gone, but had a scary Red Tide story.  They were at an island park up by Port O'Connor and were offered a ride from a park ranger to the beach side, where they all got terrible coughing fits...even the 2 dogs!  They said they didn't smell anything, and were fine as soon as they got a ride away from there!  Yikes!  Sounds like the Andromeda Strain!!  I thought Red Tide was just in the water!  So, if you start coughing, you might want to re-locate!  That might be just the motivation we need!  : )

Left Behind!

    We waved goodbye to Al and Sue on Wind Dancer and Larry and Sue and Frankie and Sherry on Lovely Cruise yesterday morning and drove up to meet them and Lee and Kate for dinner.  What a place, with floating docks and beautiful grounds and covered dining area!  Daren and I arrived (by truck) just after 6 pm, and just missed a big wedding reception complete with Mariachi Band!  There were flowers everywhere, and we were given gorgeous orchid stems to take home!
      Today, Daren finished the boat name, installed cleats, and we almost finished the safety netting.  After much deliberation, we decided to let Sue and Al go on without us.  We're just not ready, and hate to hold them back!  We'd rather take the outside route anyway, to avoid commercial traffic and shallow water.  We're sure to catch up to them along the way, and that'll be great fun!
 

   

Farewell Heavy Metal Friend!

    We sold our 1984 4X4 red pick-up truck this evening to a bright young high school senior, Carl, with big plans for his future!  How fun to meet someone that age who knows what he wants and is going after it!  He also knows a good truck when he sees it!  This is his first vehicle, and we wish him many happy years with that reliable old friend!  Selling the truck was one of the major loose ends, and God really worked things out by sending Carl our way.  Yesterday, when we picked up our new dinghy and motor from the marina office in town, we saw Stacey, who works at Dr. Stork's vet clinic!  Turns out her Mom, Robbie works at the marina office.  Stacey (a Navy vet) thought her Navy friend's son Carl, would like to buy our truck and they came by this evening, just as we were about to leave for a going-away party at a favorite steak restaurant, hosted by our dear marina friends, Bert and Dixie.   What a great send off!
    Sue & Al and 3 couples from the marina are going 7 hrs up the Intracoastal Waterway to Sanctuary at Costa Grande tomorrow morning, and we plan to catch up to them on Monday or Tuesday, after we seal the truck deal and pick up a final package.

     Oh, and thank you, Veterans, for your service to our Country and for keeping us safe and free!  Hope you had a day filled with appreciation!  We ate at 2 restaurants today, and both gave free meals to veterans!  I wonder if they do that everywhere, or just here in Texas?  What a nice thing to do!
     Hope you're having a great weekend!
     

Departure Date: THIS Saturday 11-12-11

    It's starting to feel like we're really leaving here!  Sunday morning, we said goodbye to Rockport United Methodist Church.  We will certainly miss that amazing choir and Pastor Doug's inspired messages!
    Today, I finally finished the sail cover, and the closed cell foam cockpit cushion is now covered with Sunbrella canvas.  I wish I'd re-done ALL the cockpit cushions, but I didn't know it'd be so easy!  That Singer of Sue's is really great!
      Daren's been busy with carpentry and adding 12 volt lights.  He's re-done the cockpit grate and varnished the interior cabinets and wine rack with stemware holder above the "new" AC.  Very nice!  He moved the TV screen off to a corner, which makes the whole salon area look much bigger.  That's really saying something on a boat!
      We finally decided which dinghy to order, and it's arriving on Thursday, along with a 15 HP motor.  That'll give us just one day to put the new lettering on our transom, but I'm sure Daren can handle that!   Heidi sent the letters and flying dogs, and they look great!
       We still need to sell the red truck, and Larry suggested taking it to a consignment auto dealer in Corpus.  We may resort to that if we can't find a buyer by Thursday.
      The plan is to leave Saturday morning and go 7 hours up the waterway to Costa Grande, a beautiful marina development with BBQ grills and covered dining areas.  We're hoping dock friends will join us for a fun time and over night send-off!   It should be great weather, and low stress;  just follow Al and Sue, who already know the way!  : )

Houdini dog

Yesterday, we put up half the safety netting on the dock side of the boat, and it was so nice to know the dogs would stay put on the boat with it in place.  We went over to Sue and Larry's boat for wings, and suddenly, there was Libby right outside their boat!!   I couldn't imagine how she got out, and was afraid she'd jumped it and onto the dock but, upon investigation, found she'd chewed or pushed a head-sized hole in the net!  GREAT!  Maybe I need to use chain link or at least a heavier plastic instead of nylon!  That dog will not be contained!  When we close up the boat with the weather boards, she somehow manages to claw her way out and nose the sliding hatch back far enough to get out!!  Quite determined!   That's why anchoring out will be the best solution to having them run up and down the docks!
     Sue and Larry loaned me her antique Singer sewing machine and it sews like a dream!  I was able to make a windscreen today... a big rectangle with grommets in it that will keep the wind and spray out of the cockpit, or at least that's the theory!
    Tomorrow, I'll tackle the sail cover!   We had pizza with Sue and Al tonight, and they've moved their departure date to a week from Friday, 11-11-11.  That's certainly a memorable date, and Daren thinks we can be ready by then!   It really would be fun to join them, and it would be nice to have Thanksgiving in Key West!  It's already getting a bit cold here, and I'm wishing I hadn't gotten rid of all my cold-weather clothes!
     Just got a notice from good friends David and Aliza!  They just had their baby boy, Theo this afternoon!  Congratulations!!
 

Dog Food!

   Pete went to Dr. Stork this morning to have his stitches out, and we were given the lab report: "....undifferentiated sarcoma...a malignant neoplasm likely to be locally invasive."  It doesn't sound good.  Dr. Stork recommended radiation treatment, and we may be able to find that in the Keys.  In the meantime, we'll continue to pray for Divine healing.

    I stopped by Moore Feed and bought six 30# bags of Pete and Libby's favorite food, Taste of the Wild.  I'm hoping we'll be able to find it in other countries, or at least have it shipped there!   It's great stuff; no grain and they love it!

     Paula, who worked with Daren in Modesto, CA, told us her parents have a winter home here in Rockport, and they recently arrived from Minnesota.   We got to meet them this morning and had a nice visit!  Paula looks and sounds just like her MOM!  Funny how that works!

     We've decided we will definitely take the Intracoastal Waterway at least as far as Mobile.  It's a longer trip, but a lot easier and more scenic.  Plus, we'll be able to take the dogs to shore and sleep at night.   We're trying to hurry up and get everything ready.  Today, I finished all the courtesy flags and am ready to sew the sail cover and windscreen.