Friday Funny 6-29/18 (Food, Fun, and Family)

I'm on it.

I just realized that our current lifestyle could be considered a permanent staycation. It's also an odd thought that friends, and family are coming to visit, for their vacation, while I'm on staycation. 

A staycation (a portmanteau of "stay" and "vacation") is a period in which an individual or family stays home and participates in leisure activities within driving distance of their home and does not require overnight accommodations. Wikipedia

My brother, and his wife are coming next week, and we're looking forward to the visit. As usual, whenever someone is coming, it's a good time to get some procrastinated projects out of the way. The shower stall is getting a fresh caulking, it'll be clean and bright. I posted about the overhead hatches last week, and I've been polishing the interior brass. I wanted to get the salon cushions recovered last winter, but you all know how that went, so I'll be content with doing a good cleaning.

Barometer, and clock.

Inside steering station.

Ship's bell.

All of the doors have old-fashioned skeleton key locks, and of course they need polishing as well.

I stubbed my toe during the cleaning this week, and shhhh don't tell Bill. His mantra is that all injuries will be amputated, and I would like to keep all my toes attached. I'm pretty sure I broke it, so just add that to the list of appendages that I have broken. (Good grief!)

Ouch!

Wrangell has a whiz bang fun 4th of July Celebration, and the hotel, and all B&B's are full. I have my google calendar all set for the activities I want to attend.

I really wanted to participate in the egg toss this year, but since I'm still on crutches, I don't think it'll be a good idea.

2017 egg toss on Main Street.

Wrangell has had a tradition since 1950 for the month leading up to the 4th festivities, they organize a royalty contest. The teens sell food, rummage sales, car washes, and drawing tickets everyday for a month, whoever sells the most tickets wins. The winner gets to keep a portion of their earnings for scholarship, earns the title of King or Queen, and the rest funds next years celebration.  Seems odd to me, that the 4th is all about our freedom, and the break with England's royalty, but we crown someone King or Queen here. Maybe we should give them the title of President instead? The first four tickets that are pulled at a drawing, also win prize money, so it's a win/win no matter what you call it.

2017 Royalty on their parade float, throwing candy, and waving.

There's sunny weather predicted for next week. Woo hoo, bring on the parade, food, games, and fireworks!



 As always, we enjoy hearing from you, either here in comments or on our Facebook Denali Rose Sailboat page

Friday Funny 6-22/18 (Maintenance- Boat and Me)

Don't you think that would be cool? Imagine having a work team come and take over all of the household chores that you put off for someday, unfortunately, I don't think that's a possibility with a boat. Most owners I know, do almost all of their own maintenance, or mechanical work, and only have a few tried, and true experts come to do specific jobs. You have to trust your boat, and it's parts, and pieces with your life, so it's more serious than someone messing up a part of your house.

While I was gone in Anchorage for my doctor's appointments, Bill did quite a few of the chores we have on priority. You have to put your jobs in an ordered list, or you'll get bogged down with what's next. 

We had teak framed bug nets on the hatches in the main salon, you unlatch them, and swing them down to open the hatch.

Bill changed them out for these new shade, and netting hatch covers. They slide open to access the hatch opening, slide the netting across, or slide a cover over the entire thing. Pretty slick.

I know we just got a new Espar heater and controller, but now we have a newer new controller. This one you can set to temperature. [And it interprets diagnostic codes from the heater and provides clues in English...]

He was also working on running the new wiring for the solar panels he installed last summer, not quite done yet, but in progress. 

While new projects are being completed, alternate issues always make themselves known. I was doing laundry, hanging up the clothes to dry in the work room, and something dripped on me. I looked at my arm, and it was some kind of red liquid. Eeek Blood! No, not that... silly me. Bill came, and said that it looked like hydraulic fluid from our steering column. Wrangell has had temperatures in the 80's this last week, (WHAT!?! Yeah, Alaska southeast rainforest has hot weather....), and he thought the line had burped from the heat. 

The ceiling in the workroom, under the steering pedestal.

Overhead in the workroom, he jammed an oil absorbent cloth around the line, to see how much, or if it would leak again.

The steering pedestal.

Then he took the back off of the pedestal, looked in for more leakage, found some, mopped it up, and now we'll wait to see if there is more. It's important to keep steerage, for obvious reasons....

Bill even took time out to make some cat videos. Who doesn't like cat videos?

"I can jump in"

"I can jump out."

That's all good news, Denali Rose getting more new stuff... now for the bad news.

I was going to be in Anchorage for 3 days, and ended up with 8. My surgeon sent me to another doctor,  a foot and ankle specialist. After more x-rays, and a cat-scan, we're still not quite sure what the problem is. They sent me home, with instructions to put my post-surgery boot back on if it relieves the pain, and try to put as much walking weight on it as pain allows. They see some bone loss in the ankle that concerns them, possible minute cracks, and need me to weight bear on it to increase bone mass. The ankle/foot doctor will call me in about a month, and see how I'm doing. 

Here's to MORE bone, LESS pain. 

Bring on the vodka, Grey Goose please! (maybe with a few green olives in it, oh well, just make me a dirty martini.)

 As always, we enjoy hearing from you, either here in comments or on our Facebook Denali Rose Sailboat page

Friday Funny 6-15/18 (Back to the Doctor🙀)

The forever ongoing saga of the broken leg, it reminds me of the "Song That Never Ends".  🎶 It just goes on, and on my friend. 🎶. If you ever sang that song, it will now be stuck in your head today, you’re welcome.

I’m back in Anchorage to see doctors, yes, more than one. My surgeon, and his PA have inspected their work, and have referred me to an ankle, and foot specialist. The pain that’s been keeping me from walking, and on crutches, is not near the inserted hardware, so on to the next expert.  I’ll see him next week, and hopefully get my problems solved. It’s been six months since my accident, and I’d like to be back to normal.(?) If my crutches weren’t borrowed, Davy Jone’s locker would have had a new set by now, however I’ll need to give them back someday. 

This is now seriously messing with my summer, and I’m getting cranky.
 (Getting cranky? says Bill, dodging...😏)

(Relatives are not really a pain in the neck, just kidding around)

We have guests coming for the fun 4th of July celebration in Wrangell, and then spending a few days onboard exploring. We are looking forward to having my brother, and sister-in-law with us for a visit, and I have some serious cleaning, and provisioning to get done. My sis-in-law is allergic to cats, and I need to be sure she’s as comfortable as possible. We don’t keep the v-berth cushions onboard, they’re in storage, so the cats haven’t been on them, but there’s plenty of other chores to finish. 

I only have my iPad with me, and this blogger format doesn’t work very well on it, so I’m using a third party app. It’s an experiment, and  I won’t know if it works until I publish.  Wish me luck. 

We enjoying hearing from you, either here in comments, or on our Facebook Denali Rose Sailboat page.

Friday Funny 7-8/18 (Writing and Shrimp Come Together)

I would never do this.....  hehe

I would never call myself a writer, this is just a blog about stuff, and I enjoy doing it. Bill, on the other hand, has informative posts that people actually use. I usually say that he writes about the technical, and I write about the goof-ball. (You may have heard that before.)

This will not happen in my lifetime, no one will send me fifty thousand dollars for my writing.

There's a nice power catamaran that has a slip at the end of our dock, and it's owned by a published author, and his wife. They are super nice folks, fabulous fishermen, and Ken writes great books. They are fun murder/mysteries that are set in Southeast Alaska. If that kind of reading is appealing to you, I recommend you try them out.

The first one is West of North, and the second one is The Peat by K. E. Hoover, and they can be purchased on Amazon. I find it enjoyable to read along with his fictional characters, with non-fictional details in places I know. It's not a series, but some of the characters from West of North show up in The Peat, so reading West of North first is helpful.

Yesterday, Ken came by and told us the tender, "Martina", was in, and that they had shrimp onboard to sell. Oh. Yeah. Fresh Shrimp!

Tender Martina, in her slip at Heritage Harbor, Wrangell AK.

Per Wikipedia:

A ship's tender, usually referred to as a tender, is a boat, or a larger ship used to service or support other boats or ships, generally by transporting people and/or supplies to and from shore or another ship.

Or in this case, transporting recently caught seafood, ice, food, or fuel.

I just happened to be reading The Peat, when Ken stopped by, and then I read in the back acknowledgments that he had spent a week on Martina, learning about tender activities. It was sort of an "all details come together" moment. 

One bucket of fresh shrimp

One bowl of clean shrimp

Bill scooped out a bucket of fresh shrimp from Martina's iced storage, and Bill Armstrong, the owner was very generous with the cost. THANK YOU! The shrimp had not been sorted yet, so they were all different kinds, all different sizes, and we did the be-heading, and cleaning. So worth it! Bill is contemplating making Shrimp Étouffée for dinner. Can't wait.

 As always, we enjoy hearing from you, either here in comments or on our Facebook Denali Rose Sailboat page

Friday Funny 6-1/18 (Kitty Komfort)

Leaving Petersburg AK (by motor, not sail)

There's just one problem with that saying, SE Alaska is known for not having much wind in the summertime. Turning on the engine is a  way to get places, the "iron genny", as sailors call it, referring to a type of sail, the genoa, or as Gus, (the cat) calls it, the "Growly Monster".

Growly Monster, or Tasmanian Devil.

Gus has never liked the sound of our engine, the Ford Lehman, and when he hears it revving, he heads for a dark corner somewhere. I've found him under the gimbaled stove in the galley, behind everything in the v-berth, hiding behind the toilet in the forward head, in the shower stall, in a small space behind a door, and the pantry, but mostly he gets in his shark bed.

We usually check on him after we've been underway awhile, and he will meatloaf on the settee in the aft cabin. (Ship's Cat)

Elsie could care less....  she just wants to be where we are, and in the sun.

Finding her warm, sitting spot. [Wasn't that Dad's warm sitting spot 30 seconds ago...?]

"This might do"

"Don't disturb me, I'm napping. Whatever you need in these lazarettes, can wait.
Likewise if you are looking for a soft place to sit..."

While we are underway, both Elsie, and Gus wear their harnesses and leashes in the cockpit. Elsie likes to try and wander outside the cockpit, but that's not allowed.  A tug on the leash, and a firm "NO", will have her turn around to sit, and sulk. She even tries it when we're in "sporty" weather.

"Lalalala, I think I'll go for a stroll on deck before we anchor, and have cocktails "

"Uh, I don't think so, little Miss Mostly Blind Cat!"

 As always, we enjoy hearing from you, either here in comments or on our Facebook Denali Rose Sailboat page