More spring break!

It's been a fun couple of days! We have been relaxing on the boat since Tuesday the 5th so on board about 5 days. We alternated between anchoring out, exploring the local section of the river, hanging out at the marina, and generally just enjoying our time together celebrating our 10 year anniversary and as much as we love our children dearly, enjoying some one on one time as they played with their grandparents in Atlanta! We really, REALLY liked one of the anchorages that is extremely close to Island Cove. It is surrounded by Harrison Bay State Park so it is wooded on all sides and beautiful! There were more birds to be seen than we could imagine, fish jumping everywhere, trees all turning green, and generally a great few days of glorious spring.

Here we are anchored out enjoying the sunshine:

A nice lunchtime view!

My wife on the bridge with binoculars in hand, bird watching to her heart's content. This was really a great cove that we are looking forward to spending more time in.

Evening one of our nights anchored out:

The beautiful Tennessee River in evening sunlight...I simply love kayaking around in the morning and evenings and just enjoying the calm, still waters.

Evening sunlight on the flybridge helm:

And the sun going down:

Our new oil lamp we bought and LOVE! It is so nice to sit by it's mellow light at night and talk under the stars:

The oil lamp is also good for sitting around drinking champagne!

And....we did a little bit of river cruising at night....calm winds, flat water, and slowly cruising around Harrison Bay enjoying a beautiful spring night before heading in for our last night at the marina.

I was also able to get a few smaller projects done on the boat that had been on my to-do list for a long time. One was installing new trim around the flybridge seating and entire bridge area. It was fun custom bending the trim and installing while anchored out. I still have the exterior of the bridge to install but the interior of the bridge trim is finally in:

And happily, I finally got our internet booster antenna mounted to the outside of the boat! I had been using it all winter with it just sitting inside the cabin at the lower helm. I am sure my dock neighbors were wondering why I had an antenna sitting inside the boat but it was hard to get motivated to run the cabling and install when it was 40 degrees out. :) You can see it in this picture mounted aft of the starboard running light.

And lastly, continuing my tradition of a video, here is a video from our anchorage on the days we were out:

More to follow....still have some refit projects I want to get done, weekends on the boat until school and sports are out, then we are looking for some more extended time aboard and summer fun!

Spring Break!

Vacation time! :)

It has been a long time since my wife and I have gone anywhere without our (wonderful) children but it is time for spring break! We dropped the kids off at my parents for a few days, much to their joy as it had been a while since they'd had an extended stay there and it typically involves candy, video games, baseball in the backyard, shopping, etc. Pretty much anything they want to do.

My wife and I then proceeded to drive up to Living Light for a few days together anchored out. March 24th was our 10th wedding anniversary and due to the kids sports schedules and work, etc. we didn't really get to celebrate it like one would anticipate for their #10. We knew we'd have this break so we are making this our celebration.

Yesterday we did a 2 hour cruise around the area. We know spring is here in the south because A) the leaves are turning green finally and B) all the boats (and everything else) is starting to turn yellow from all the pollen!

It was extremely windy yesterday- sustained winds of 20-25 MPH on the lake and stronger gusts. Luckily the sun was warm so it was still nice enough to cruise from the bridge. Here is my lovely bride as we depart the marina just before the winds picked up:

And yes, the trees are turning green!

The winds had died down by dinner and we were anchored back into a very protected and secluded cove. A happy dinner for two on the bridge with our new teak table and chairs:

The great thing is that that table folds flat to be only about 6" wide (width of the center board one of the wine glasses is sitting on) so that we can fold it up out of the way when not in use.

Dinner was GREAT but dessert, dessert was PERFECT:

I have been a long time fan of the nautical oil lamps made by Wheems and Plath. They are functional yet beautiful but they are also VERY expensive. Here is the simple man's version of a W&P lamp....cost $6 vs. $275:

I only strung it up for the picture as I didn't want it going flying across the salon. It did put off a wonderful mellow glow in the salon as we did a puzzle together after dinner. It brought back a lot of memories when we used to use oil lamps a lot at home and my time with the Amish back in the day. You just can't beat the soft gentle glow of an oil lamp and the slight smell of burning oil. The funny thing is that on any of our previous boats, such a simple lamp would never have looked good or seemed applicable but it fits right in with the trawler.

The good news is that last night was our FIRST night ever fully anchored out aboard our trawler. The battery bank did great and lasted all night without any issue whatsoever. The water is flat as glass, sun is shining, and it is looking to be a beautiful day in the high 70's. I think we'll spend the day kayaking around, resting, relaxing, maybe a few small projects on the boat, and enjoying our time together after 10 happy years.

We are so thankful for our little trawler though- we have never owned a boat like her before but she is so cozy and relaxing to us and has already brought us a lot of joy and this year's season has not yet even begun!