The Refrigerator - Part 1

Well....it finally happened. The fridge that has been threatening a revolt since day one made it's last stand on Friday. What we did not realize, was that it wasn't leaving quietly.

Saturday Morning Mike and I got up, had a tasty breakfast at Kelly's, and then set off to find a new fridge. Of course, there are size restrictions, so it does take some time to find what we believe will be the right fit. By two in the afternoon, we had paid for our selection, and even arranged for it to be delivered that same afternoon, between four and eight.

A couple of phone calls later, our buddies Patti & Grady, Donna (a late arrival w/ Travis' wife Crystal) & Randy, and their son Travis were on their way to help with the removal of the old, busted fridge. We (translation: "I") had measured not only the existing appliance, but all of the openings through which it had to travel. On paper, it should fit. It would be snug, but it would fit.

It was a lie. First it wouldn't fit through the opening from the galley to the  pilothouse. Come to find out, the height of the the opening is not the same on both side.

Enter power tools and safety glasses. Some unknown unit of time later, the refrigerator was now essentially in  two halves, a top and a bottom.

Mike and Randy cutting by hand, while Grady works on the inside of the fridge with a saw.

The guys ripping apart the fridge that has been cut in half...

The top was moved to the pilothouse with minimal difficulty. Enter problem number two. The tape measure says that this should fit through the door. The door is 24" wide. The fridge is 23" wide. It should fit. Three other people measured it. It should fit. It doesn't. IT DOES NOT FREAKIN' FIT!!!!! 

Now the decision is made to cut the top half into half again. This is a delicate process due to the constrained working area, but with some patience and a fairly significant amount of foul language, it is done. We are now able to eradicate this broken POS from our boat.

Total demolition time, approximately six hours.

When all piled up, it looked like this:




While all of this was going on, the delivery folks showed up, and discovered, after asking to borrow some tools, that the door of the unit we had chosen was indeed NOT reversible.Of course we had checked into this at the retail establishment where we completed this purchase...none the less, we were not really surprised at this outcome.

This entire experience was too much for some of our helpers, who each handle stress differently:


Final Outcome? We currently have some extra room in the galley, but we still need to find another fridge so that we can move out of the ice chest that is currently residing on the front deck.

My Chauffeur

Today being my first day off, I was relaxing on the couch with my Snuggie and the cat and no real plans for the day, when I heard a distinctive knock on our hull. After I pulled myself away from the remote and the cat, I found Grady smiling in the normally empty slip next to ours, asking if I'd like to go riding....

We had a nice little cruise through Waterford across the lake and through the Lakewood Yacht Club, I'm pretty sure we even spotted our sister-ship! The weather was damp, but not too cool...

Thanks Grady for a fun afternoon and getting me off the couch for awhile!

Knots and other Nautical Things

As of late I have taken an interest in all things rope and knot related...so here are my first decorative projects....

Here is my first Monkey's Fist. It's small, and knot quite perfect, but it's mine and I'm very proud of it. I keep it in the bag with my rope tools...




While at the "Used Boat Junk Store" (I have no idea what this place is actually called) I picked up a hank of approximately 75' of 3/8" braided line. 50' of that made a very nice Kringle Mat approximately 12" across...





For those of you that have been to the boat, you have seen the Ponytail Palm...


Well, Mike and I read that it will thrive a grow considerably larger if given a larger home, and so we acquired this...


Which, after a couple of tries, I turned into this...



Again...knot perfect....but I think it turned out pretty well! Now if we can just manage to keep the little darlin' alive until it grows into it's new pot!

Happy New Year!

Mike and I rang in the new year with some of our best friends...

Rachel and Santos joined us briefly early in the evening for a short Kemah Channel Cruise, but left early for some plans with the kiddos. Donna & Randy and Patti & Grady stayed over, making for a great sleep-over. The evening didn't really turn out like we planned....the weather kept us in our slip instead of anchored out at Redfish...but the evening couldn't have been any better!

We even finally met our starboard neighbor, a physics professor at Tulane, who came over for a drink in the evening and for breakfast the next AM. Guy (yes, that's his name) seemed to fit right in, and if we haven't scared him off, maybe we'll see him again soon...

To review all of the evidence, click the pic...


Oh...and when you are looking through the pictures, I apologize for the excessive number of photos of Cat Buddy. However, what I would like to point out, is that since I am the one with Cat, I didn't take those pictures, therefore, they must have been taken by the one who "hates" the cat....I'm just saying...