No sports= on the water!

This past weekend was our first weekend of no sports or other kid activities (pretty much all sports though) in over 10+ months! Caleb's team had his team party Friday night but Saturday morning we (after sleeping in!) made our way to the marina. It almost felt weird to have no organized sports to go to all weekend long! We are definitely looking forward to a great summer on the water with hopefully some fun cruising and gunkholing very, very soon. For now though...well...a relaxing 2 nights on the boat is just what the doctor ordered!

As soon as the anchor was set the kids were ready to start goofing off!

Within moments of dropping anchor and getting the dinghy launched, Caleb was already making himself at home in the water:

And Daisy was walking the decks to make sure all was in order:

Evening on it's way after a fun day of swimming and playing:

More goofiness!

Hip hop pose!

Sarah's hip hop pose:

A joyous day

Our favorite part of the day....relaxing on the bridge, feet propped up, oil lamp casting it's soft glow:

It looks like we need to get a fun day boat. We tried pulling the kids on floats from the back of the dinghy but a 6hp engine doesn't quite pull kids through the water super fast! Still, pretty fun times on Sunday afternoon....

I also squeezed in some more boat projects as I am trying to get some of the smaller stuff done each time I am up at the boat. There was a big open hole at the flybridge helm where I believe a stereo used to be. I cut a piece of wood to fit, routered the edges, stained and varnished. I installed the fishing pole holder as it fits the mounting bracket I have for the flatscreen I am using for the flybridge helm GPS monitor and also mounted the depth finder/fish finder on it.

I also finally got the venturi windshield installed at the upper helm:

And one of the last exterior projects that still needed to be done...installing the teak hand rails on port and starboard down the side decks.

My next projects are installing the inverter, running another 110v outlet up to the flybridge, and thanks to the storms and tornados the other week, getting a new bimini installed. Hopefully our sign guy gets the name installed this week as well. We are looking forward to next weekend as it is not only Memorial Day weekend but Friday is also the last day of school for the kids! As some of you may know, we have home schooled our children up until this past January when we put them in the local public school. The teachers are very nice but we were less than thrilled with the academics and the social environment. We are leaning towards going back to home schooling again which could translate into some BOAT SCHOOLING. :) Seriously, our kids, by and large, seem to truly love being out on the water with us. I think it is a combination of quality time with mom and dad, time in nature, time together, etc. but our family seems to be happiest together on the water. We hope this translates to a truly once in a lifetime summer together aboard. Right now I think the plan is to enjoy Memorial Day weekend on the boat, then drive down to FL for a week or so of relaxing, then back up to the boat until who knows when....could be a week, could be a month, could be more. We'll see how it goes and just go day by day and see what God seems to be saying and leading us towards. Our plans are always subject to change so we'll just see what happens. Even if this summer just translates into us anchoring out at the local coves and swimming every weekend with friends and family that will be just fine with me.

One last word about this past weekend....if you recall from my last post just previous to this one over Mother's Day, I wrote about the swallows trying to build a nest in our exhaust. We anchored out in the same cove this past weekend and believe it or not, the same birds spent the weekend trying to build another nest in our exhaust! We think they must have some kind of mental issues or something....out of all the places we can't figure out why they seem to think that an exhaust thru-hull is the #1 best spot to build a nest!

Mother's Day and One For the Birds....

What a beautiful Mother's Day weekend!! Our son Caleb had a baseball game early Saturday morning so we did not get up to Living Light until later in the afternoon. It clouded up a bit as we drove to Chattanooga from our house in Woodstock but luckily, by the time we dropped the anchor, the sun was back out and it is was perfect out. Temps were around 78 degrees, calm winds, and the waters remarkably uncrowded! As we pulled into what has become our favorite little anchorage, we found another trawler anchored there as well. She is a beautiful little ship (Great Harbor 47) and actually berthed on the same dock as us. She is one of the largest 47 footers I have ever seen and just seems to make you want to pack up and cruise off to distant horizons.

We motored into the anchorage a little further than our trawler neighbor. First order of business after dropping the anchor was launching the water toys:

The kids ignored what to us seemed like slightly cold water and proceeded to swim their happy hearts out. When not paddling the kayak they have always loved tipping it over and rolling around on it. Caleb decided it was kind of a good spot for sunbathing so he took a break to catch some rays:

I realized I have not yet properly introduced some of our other "family members." Here we have the one and only "Miss NumNums," Sarah's amazing teddy bear. She named Miss NumNums within 2 seconds of seeing her and she is the best teddy bear a child could ask for. Luckily Miss NumNums loves boating as much as us and sarah even made her her own little bed on the settee below her bunk bed. Miss NumNums also has her OWN little teddy bear to keep her company when Sarah might be away. Pictured with Miss NumNums is "Puppers," another wonderful friend to both Miss NumNums and Sarah.

My wonderful bride surrounded by the soft glow of teak in the evening sunlight:

And Daisy. She is our newest addition to the family that came to us late last summer. Tarne and the kids went shopping at the store for some supplies and came back with Daisy! :)

She is still getting used to the boat. She is fine when the engine is off but she does not so much like the quiet little rumble of the main diesel engine. She used to shake like crazy the first time or two but she is getting used to it and actually wandered around the cabin a bit and no shaking. Given how much time we spend on our boats in the summer months she is going to have to get acclimated. :)

Our quiet anchorage Saturday evening. It is hard to believe that this cove is less than 1/2 mile away from 2 large marinas, weather was perfect (not too hot, not too cold, calm winds), it was mother's day weekend, and only us two trawlers anchored for the night in this idealic little cove! On Lake Lanier where we used to boat before moving to the TN River, this cove would literally have wall to wall boats in it.

Another shot of Pipe Dreams. They dinghy'd over in the afternoon to visit as we had not yet met. Super nice folks and also from the Atlanta area.

Some fun sunset pictures:

The morning began with our first time doing what will be a regular task....taking Daisy to shore! This weekend was the first night we, as an entire family, had anchored out overnight in Living Light since we bought her late last year. It was also Daisy's first time riding in the dinghy. Given her apprehension about the engine noise of the trawler we expected her to NOT like the dinghy ride. We were wrong though- she seemed to think it was great fun and enjoyed watching the water go by the hull.

The cove we are in is surrounded by a state park. They happen to have a small public fishing dock here as well. Talk about the perfect anchorage if you have a dog aboard! We dinghy'd over to the dock to let Daisy wander around.

View of our boat from the shore. We HOPE to have the name installed on the boat this week! I have been trying to get them to install it for the last month to no avail- will probably just order the lettering myself and install it after all these delays. Note you can also see in this picture our mangled flybridge bimini frame. The tornados and storms that roared through the southeast the other week ripped our old bimini to shreds and bent the front part of the frame in half. I hope to have the new one installed ASAP as well.

Caleb and Daisy on shore:

Two young and happy explorers returning to the boat:

Sarah and Tarne in the cabin on Mother's Day. We made her coffee and a nice breakfast with mimosas topside on the aft flybridge deck and took care of everything she needed. A GREAT mother's day I think and hope for her! What more could you want than all your family together, playing in the water, relaxing, enjoying the beautiful anchorage, and a full summer ahead of us. She works so hard to make our house a home and to raise our children with such love and she is truly my best friend.

By now you may be wondering, why the title of this post is also "one for the birds." This was the weirdest thing we have had happen while anchored out! Sunday mid-morning I started to notice 2 little sparrows dive bombing the boat, particularly down towards the transom. We thought it was odd but didn't think much of it at first. They did not go away though so I investigated. Come to find out, they seem to have found our boat that morning and decided the exhaust through-hull would be the perfect place to build a nest. They started bringing pine needles galore to the boat and setting up house. They did not care that we were there or the kids were swimming next to them or anything. Finally, concerned they would actually build a full nest that would only be blown out as soon as I cranked the engine up to head home, I decided I better close up the through hull. Grabbing a rag, I stuffed it in there to block the entrance. That lasted about 30 minutes until they, after a bunch of attempts and tugging, pulled it out! So I put rag #2 in there. 15 minutes later, they pulled that one out too!! Crazy. Here are some shots of them landing about the boat when the first rag was in place and they were contemplating/plotting their next move:

Here you can see them landing on the swim platform and you can see the rag in the exhaust through-hull just below them and above the water line:

"What to do, what to do??"

Love shall not be thwarted! Here one of them comes to remove the rag:

They kept this stuff up for over several hours!! Late afternoon we decided to pull up the anchor, go for a small cruise, and head to the dock to head home. We saw a few nice boats out on the water though really, compared to Lake Lanier, we were again struck by how little traffic there was out on the water. It would have been a mad house on Lanier this weekend. In fact, a good friend of ours who is on Lanier told us it was like "I-285" out on the water (that is the beltway that goes around all of Atlanta and is known for tons of traffic).

A couple of nice boats we saw out on the water....a classic Chris Craft 47:

And a nice Marine Trader 50' trawler:

And as all parents know, the proof that your children had a great time, played hard, and exhausted all of their energy....two sleeping children in the backseats as we drive home, both asleep within minutes of leaving the marina.

No major ocean crossings or long cruises to exotic waters for us this past weekend but it was a wonderful way to celebrate Mother's Day and honor Tarne for all her hard work and love she gives our family and children!