Wrapping up.

We had a fun two weeks with Mark down here in Orlando, it was busy that's for sure, a different park everyday, but we swam and got burnt and walked our feet off at Disney world and Universal. We met characters and fought Darth Vader (so awesome) but now Mark is back home in Coupeville, WA and the kids and I are counting down our last ten days here before we follow suit.

 

Mac breathing like Vader.

My pirates.

We are incredible if I do say so myself.

Jedi training academy at Hollywood Studios. So, so cool, if only we were under 12 years old Mark and I would have been up there too.

The wonder and fright of Fantasmic firework show.

Late nights.

After his fun packed time here with us Mark caught a late night flight back to Washington where he caught the shuttle back to Whidbey Island. He didn't arrive until 2am and instead of being a decent person and dropping Mark off right along the highway at the end of our road, the driver refused and went into the town of Coupeville where his scheduled stop is at the gas station. Mark tried to call every taxi company on the island but all went to voice mail, I guess they don't work after 10pm. The driver of the shuttle tried too and when he couldn't get a taxi for Mark either, he shrugged his shoulders and drove off leaving Mark stranded in the middle of the night. With no other recourse Mark started to walk/hitchhike, ten miles back up the highway dragging two 50lb suitcases behind him.

Of course no one would pick him up (another example of that small town, hospitality) so he ended up walking for 3 hours, back up the road, all because the driver wouldn't pull over for two seconds. 

To say the least we were livid that anyone would do something like that. I sent an email to the shuttle company informing them of my disgust with this, while Mark tried to recouperate his poor feet. The company sent me back a snippy comment saying it was against their regulations to stop at non authorized stops and that I had mentioned Mark was dragging two suitcases but had only been booked for one so we should be thankful that they didn't charge us for the second one, that they have us a break. I pretty much lost it then and unleashed my sharp tongued reply through email back to them. In the middle of the night, on Podunk, Whidbey Island there is no reason the bus couldn't have pulled over. How could they leave someone stranded with no recourse? I can't help thinking what if that had been the kids and I? It is their own policy that military members get two free suitcases on their shuttles, so I'm not sure what kind of a 'break' they are talking about... But I guess it's all right as long as they have their arbitrary regulation to hide behind.

Anyway...

Once Mark had a full day of sleeping and recovering he is back down on SweetHaven carrying on with the projects.

When Mark left he was in the middle of running the plumbing on the boat, he had the cold and hot water hoses run through the bilges to the galley sink, the head sink and the hot water heater as well as the city water intake valve set up.

This is our tankless hot water heater, the instructions say it is ventless and can be installed anywhere but I do not feel comfortable having anything that runs on propane inside the cabin. That's why I opted out of having a propane heater and went with the shipmate wood stove for interior heating, we do have a propane stove in the galley but I don't see any other way around that. At least I feel better minimalizing the pipes of propane running through the hull. So we have installed the water heater out in the cockpit on the wall opposite where the galley stove is on the inside. The propane locker will be right underneath it. Also our cockpit shower right there above it.

Under the galley sink we have the water filter and that blue tank is the accumulation tank which goes after the pressure pump. The pump fills the accumulator tank and pressurized the system so that we have 2 gallons of water to use before the pump turns on again, saves wear and tear on your pump and keeps it quieter in the boat with the pump running less.

The new anchor installed.

Work on the port side ama where damage had been done. As I wrote earlier in the blog when we were purchasing the boat, the previous owner had done extensive damage, he had left her sitting at anchor in Port Townsend, when she let off the hook and drifted miles across the harbor and crashed into a navy crane. Which ended up punching a huge hole through the middle of the port ama and into the aka, which was repaired adequately so that she is sea worthy but the finishing work inside was never completed.

The port ama is the boys cabin. Mark is replacing some floor boards where there was still a jagged hole from the crane crash. Also the paneling around the window needs tiddlying up.

So work carries on while the kids and I enjoy our last few days here in the sun, it will be nice to get back home to Mark, but I am dreading head back into our log dungeon, oh I really hate our house. This winter has proven very difficult for us is in trying to maintain such a large house and being made of logs, it actually isn't all that air tight and energy efficient, the propane bills are through the roof. And with all the bad weather back east this year, the west has been shipping propane out that way and as a result the prices have doubled. The high bills and struggling to make it through a season without losing our shirts and all for a house we hate living it. It's making us think about why we are doing it, we might be moving onto the boat sooner than we'd planned.