Sailing Vessel Eternity

This is one of my favorite times of year - the United States Sailboat show in Annapolis.  I love going to the boat show.  So much to learn, see, do, and, of course, buy - LOL.  We aren't really planning on buying much this year, but I have a ton of questions for the Sailrite  (Tent D) people about sewing a screened enclosure and making cockpit cushions.  We need to check into dinghies, running and standing rigging, generators, and galley equipment besides.   I also love meeting up with people we've become friends with and making new friends along the way.  This year a friend I have worked with and his wife will be attending so I'm looking forward to hanging out with them.  It's always fun to turn the corner and see someone that we watch sailing on YouTube.  Last year we met quite a few.  We'll see how this year goes.   This year also marks the third anniversary of the first time we saw the boat we now own.  The first morning of the show we drove into Annapolis early

Greetings all - We've gotten some things done this week and some not.  But that's life sometimes, right? I leave to go home tomorrow, so I figure now is a good time to get a post up.  Sometimes it seems that time just flies so quickly. In looking through all that needed to be done to paint the motor compartments, we decided that we needed to first reinstall the swim ladders on the transom of each hull.  That's because the mounting for the ladders comes through into the motor compartments and we didn't want to do that work first and then drill back through it and mess it back up again.  Silly us, we thought that would be a pretty quick job.  LOL Last year at this time, on Mother's Day in fact, John woke up sick and it turned out that he had a pretty bad cellulitis infection in his left leg.  Two round of antibiotics cleared it up.  Guess what happened this year - yep, a cellulitis infection in his right leg.  It didn't make him as sick, but with all the cramped m

 Most women I know have many feelings about Mother's Day, some sweet, some sad, some happy, some bitter, the whole gamut of feelings I think.  Lot's of reasons for that I'm sure, not the least of which is the 'traditional' view of what makes a mother. In my book, while conceiving, gestating, and giving birth certainly creates many mothers, it isn't the defining factor in being a mother.  It's hard to say what I feel clearly and simply, but I think it's mostly about how you take care of and care for others that truly makes a mother who makes a difference.  That makes many women who haven't given birth mothers and I've been blessed to have many of them in my life. First and foremost, of course, is my own dear Momma.  Odetta Garder West. For me and my two brothers and two sisters, she was an amazing mom.  She gave us magical experiences and a very rich up-bringing.  She was ALWAYS there for us - attending every single event, performance, game, and s

 So many ask us where we are at and when we will be 'done'.  More and more we laugh when that questions gets asked because we are unsure sometimes of exactly what done will look like - LOL!! What we can tell you now is what we're working on and why.  Can you guess? Yep, it's all about the electricity.   As we've been working through (and by we, I mean John), getting the wiring for the electric motors, controllers, batteries, inverters, charging, measuring, . . . figured out and installed to meet the manufacturer's specs, we have found some - or many - issues with the existing wiring on the boat.  Plus, as far as we can tell, we are the first system to have dual motors, dual helms, and dual controls at each helm, so there isn't any pre-developed drawings or anything about how all the parts go together.  Plus, we've found a few weirdness things in the specs where they call out one thing, but what they sent won't fit that spec.  No worries though, we