| DECEMBER 2009 The month was filled with various holiday parties - making the rounds as usual. Christmas Day was spent with friends on their farm in the Blackwater River State Forest. The Ireland photo album has been updated - now has 92 pictures! NOVEMBER 2009 Highschool and college friends Amber and Dale and their 3 children came to visit for a week over Thanksgiving: We camped at the Big Lagoon State Park in Pensacola; went to the Naval Aviation Museum, went to Johnson Beach in Perdido Key, FL; ate dinner at Flounder's on Pensacola Beach; bought shrimp and fish at Joe Patti; and fried a turkey on the beach at Ft. McRee OCTOBER 2009 Christina relinquished co-ownership of Happy Hoofer newsletter in order to cut down on her stress level, which she thinks contributes to her migraines. We hosted a dock party and had a lot of fun with friends and neighbors. We had oysters on the half shell and a shrimp boil. Yum! Emergency visit to Cincinnati to see Christina’s dying Grandfather Kahle. But we were also in town for her Grandma Denicola’s birthday party. SEPTEMBER 2009 Luckily Hurricane season has been quiet. September started festival season here in Pensacola. The Annual Seafood Festival marked 9 years in Pensacola for us. A side from the festivals. We didn't do much this month. Still settling into life back downtown. Our friends Marty and Lori hauled their boat out of the water back in July and Dan helped on weekends to get it ready to go back in the water. AUGUST 2009 Well Hurricane Season finally started with a bang! We went to bed Saturday night with an open tropical wave in the Gulf moving our way that wasn't supposed to develop. All the weather forecast said it would just be a rain event with only 10kts or so of wind. We woke up Sunday morning to Tropical Storm Claudette churning its way towards us. This just reinforces Dan's 'No Traveling During Hurricane Season" rule. Dan prepared the boat by placing extra dock lines, taped up the window seams, and secured loose items. Luckily Claudette turned out to be a bust. We got some breezy conditions with 20-30kt winds and almost no rain at all. We also finally have back all the conveniences of modern civilization - High speed Internet access and satellite TV. This was a saga and I will recount it here so there is a permanent record on the internet for all too see: Cox Communications is just terrible. Dan spent weeks on the phone with Cox Customer Service trying to get our service moved from the old marina to the new one. After not making headway for two weeks he asked to speak to a supervisor multiple times and was never put through to one. He was told multiple times He would get a call back and never did. After being a customer for years, COX just didn't seem to give a damn about keeping the account. We can only hope they go bankrupt from their poor business practices. We don't know why we fought so hard to keep our cable service. Our cable internet service from COX was unreliable. We had to reset the cable modem multiple times a day, which made working from home difficult at best. The final straw came when Cox finally told us they wanted $7000 to move the service - that's right, three zeros. Mind you the new location is in downtown Pensacola. We're pretty sure the downtown area has cable service readily available. When we asked why it was so much, the rep didn't have any information except the price. The rep was even laughing at the astronomical price. Dan called AT&T and they had DSL service installed in less than 5 days for FREE. AT&T also set us up with DirectTV satellite service. We haven't had to reset the DSL modem once yet in the month we've had the service. The DSL service is also a lot faster than the cable service. Theoretically the cable service is faster than DSL service, but in the real world DSL destroys cable internet. Moral of the story: Dump cable and go DSL JULY 2009 Christina has arrived back from her week long trip to Ireland, where she went for an equestrian vacation. Check out the IRELAND PHOTOS! While she was off riding horse around the Emerald Isle countryside, Dan and friend Marty moved the Sea Ranch to downtown Pensacola, where we'll be living again. Yeah!! At the end of July, Christina had 3 days of testing at Shands Hospital in Gainesville, FL, producing a new diagnosis of Acephalgic Migraines (aka Silent Migraines). Her new treatment has hopefully put an end to 8 years of bizarre symptoms and a laundry list of diagnoses (including seizures, aphasia, panic attacks, low blood sugar, and ‘nothing’ (aka Christina is crazy)). JUNE 2009 We are flying the flag at half-mast. Our cat Ralphie, who was about 14 years old, started going downhill fast this past week. We took him to the vet, they did blood work, and they said he had cancer and diabetes. We decided the best thing to do for him was to euthanize him. Ralphie had a full life. He got to travel a lot. Christina had gotten him when he was two years old while she was living in her first apartment after college. He lived a brief period with Christina's parents, then with Dan at his college apartment. But Dan got kicked out of the apartment for having cats, so Dan and the cats moved in with his mother for a year. Then Ralphie got to take a boat trip from Illinois to Florida, living at a couple of different location. He also had lots of brothers and sisters: cats Rygiel, Oreo, and Rompers (MIA), and dogs Bailey and Morgan. He didn't care much for the dogs. Ralphie was Dan's cat. He would jump into Dan's lap whenever Dan sat down. In happier news, we have new graphics for the transom, the dunning box on the aft deck has been recovered in hunter green and white sunbrella, and we replaced the white wrap-around vinyl on the aft deck with hunter green sunbrella. We also took the boat out for a weekend, which we have not done in a while! MAY 2009 The badly needed boat painting project is done. Check out the before, during, and after BOAT PAINTING PHOTOS! MARCH 2009 The weather this year has been very strange. March has been cold and wet. Dan has started his spring projects on the boat, varnishing, caulking, painting, etc. But it was put on hold because Dan tore a muscle in his knee. Then a week later, he somehow got Cellulitis in his foot! Christina had been busy with the preparations for the Blackwater Boogie Endurance Ride she manages every year, but in the end flooding and damage to the horse camp and trails cancelled it. FEBRUARY 2009 Christina attended two Police Horse Orientations to de-spook Ice. She has the completion certificates to prove it! Dan turned 32. The weather has started to warm up and Dan has started to run around on the water again. Our friend Chris Mallack has moved back to town and Dan has started helping him with photoshoots. Chris is a fashion/glamour photographer and he needs someone to hold the reflectors and lighting on the models while he shoots. We've also began gearing up for the Third Annual Blackwater Boogie endurance ride. There are a lot of preparations to be made. JANUARY 2009 Happy New Year! We hosted a party on the boat and discovered we're getting old! Everyone was tired so we rang in the New Year at 11pm with Times Square and Dan was sound asleep by 11:15pm. DECEMBER 2008 Well December we as pretty quiet for us. We spent Christmas with a friend's family in town. We also visited Christina's extended family in Cincinnati which we hadn't seen in over 10 years. Christina's parents and her sister drove down from Chicago to meet us. The hotel we decided to stay at had numerous problems and we were moved to three different rooms in 2 days. We were supposed to stay a third day but decided to flee before something else went wrong. NOVEMBER 2008 Busy, Busy month! Dan's brother Jeff and his wife Kat came down for a visit and we jumped on a cruise out of Mobile. We hit Cozumel and Calica Mexico. While on Cozumel, we hired a taxi for the day and had a blast. First we explored the Mayan ruins of San Gervasio, then drove around the island stopping at different beaches before finishing up the day shopping for tequila. At Calica, we hired another taxi for the day and went to snorkel in cenotes. We picked the cenotes where the movie "The Cave" and the IMAX film "Journey into Amazing Caves" were filmed. Words can not describe the beauty of the place. To top the day off, we stopped at Akumal Bay for lunch and then went snorkeling in Yal-Ku Lagoon,which is a nature preserve. The week after we returned from Mexico was Thanksgiving Weekend and we took the Sea Ranch out to Ft. McRae for the first time in 5 years! We met up with two other boats and had a big shrimp/lobster boil on the beach for Thanksgiving dinner. We ate until we were stuffed, then ate some more. The boat ran great, much to Dan's delight. He is looking forward to the return of the nice weather to start running the boat out for the weekends again. SEE PICTURES & MUCH MORE DETAILS OF OUR TRIP TO MEXICO!! OCTOBER 2008 Well let's see, October was pretty quiet for us. No tropical storms came near us. Dan continued to work out the small kinks with the diesel motors. Christina continued to work on the Happy Hoofer. SEPTEMBER 2008 Sorry for the lack of updates! We've been busy!! Diesel engines are in and the boat is running - just some very minor adjustments. This two-year project is coming to a close. We've also been hanging out with friends a lot over the summer, including going to the roller rink every Thursday for 'old school' night. We joined a gym just down the street. On June 1, Christina became a business partner in "The Happy Hoofer", a local equestrian publication and website business serving northwest Florida and south Alabama - she's an official business woman! Check out www.HappyHoofer.com! The Happy Hoofer, as well as the upcoming local Blackwater Boogie Endurance Ride that she is Ride Manager of is keeping her extremely busy. Ice is enjoying his summer off, but Christina is ready to gear up shortly for the fall/winter endurance season. Dan, that lucky SOB, is a full-time telecommuter and works from the comfort of the boat. Bailey really likes having daddy at home with him! Don't forget hurricane season! Luckily Fay and Gustav spared us! Gustav just brought some storm surge (see video above). JUNE 2008 Well, the boat wasn't ready to go for Memorial Day Weekend, BUT we are VERY close! We've been busy - working on the boat, riding horses, and having fun with friends. Christina got very sick again - this time with a bad sinus infection in the beginning of May. But just a week after going off of antibiotics and decongestants, she somehow managed to gather all her strength and energy into completing a 50 mile endurance ride in Georgia on May 17th. (Dan was floored that she pulled it off!) It is HOT in Florida now, so no more riding. Now it's just boating and beaches!APRIL 2008 The warm weather is back and that means boating, festivals, and being out in the sun. Dan has been extremely busy with the diesel refit (shooting for the boat to be operational by Memorial Day weekend), but we managed to join some friends on a spontaneous boat ride out to Pensacola Beach for the crawfish festival last weekend. Nothing like being anchored out in waist deep clear water, wading to shore, making your way past the young and old in bare feet and bathing suits on the board walk while a band plays, paying 15 buck for a huge cardboard flat of steamed spicy crawfish, redskin potatoes, and corn on the cob, carrying your treasure oh so carefully back to boat, and eating it while people-watching! The last couple months has been Christina and Ice's busy training season. After coming through without injury after 30 miles of fetlock-deep sugar sand in Ocala on New Years' Day, they went on to compete in a 25 mile endurance ride later in January in Georgia. Torrential downpour and cold weather thinned the field almost in half, but Christina decided to stick it out to the end. Unfortunately, her health suffered. She came down with a mild case of hypothermia, a very bad case on bronchitis, a mild sinus infection, and to top it she had a pinched nerve from riding with her shoulders to her ears (from shivering for several hours at a time) that had her laying in bed still for a day until she could she the chiropractor. Ice thank goodness had no ill events - of course, he does live outside 24/7. Christina was off of work for a week and half. Luckily Dan worked from home to take care of her. After not having the energy to ride for over a month, she did some carefully planned training and at the end of March, she and I did their best ride ever. 25 miles with a ride time of 2 hrs and 47 minutes - they Top Tenned in a field of almost 40 and Ice received the 2nd highest Best Condition Score. Their next competition is later in May in Georgia - hoping for another Top Ten win. JANUARY 2008 Well the new year has been a busy one for both of us. We had a plan for the end of the year that just didn’ t work out. We had planned on taking the Sea Ranch downtown to Palafox Pier to hit some parties the weekend before Christmas, then motoring to Ft. McRea for a couple days over Christmas, then take the ‘Ranch to the ship yard to perform a diesel refit starting on the day after Christmas. The plan kind of worked out. We indeed made it to Palafox Pier, but the weather was bad during the trip. We were out during a Small Craft Advisory and the bay was very rough. Both Christina and little Ralphie got motion sickness. A trip that should have only taken about an hour and a half took over two hours. By the time we got into port, secured the boat, and got ready to head off to the parties, we were exhausted and fell asleep. Unfortunately, the weather continued to be uncooperative, so we stayed at Palafox Pier until the morning of Dec 27th when we departed for the shipyard. We had no sooner secured the boat at the shipyard when Christina packed up and took off for central Florida for an Endurance ride and to visit our friends Rick and Kellye in central Florida. Actually, the visit was primarily with Kellye since Rick came up to help Dan perform the diesel refit. Dan disconnected one motor before Rick arrived and they were able to get the other motor and generator disconnected with the help of some more of Dan’s friends. Friday morning arrived with a few minor details to attend to, such as cutting a huge hole in the top of the boat cabin for the crane to come through to lift the old motors out and drop the new ones in. The weather on Friday was supposed to be bad with high winds and rain and the Marina staff approached Dan first thing in the morning about possibly rescheduling. So everything was rescheduled for Saturday. Dan already had a tow for the Sea Ranch lined up on Saturday so this put the work on a schedule. Saturday morning arrived along with a lot of Dan’s friends to lend a hand. The cabin top was cut out, the Sea Ranch was moved into position, and the motors were lifted out and the new ones dropped in. The actual moving of the motors only took 2 hrs, but everything else took much longer than expected. The boat that was going to tow the Sea Ranch back arrived mid morning, just after the cabin top had been cut out. Once the new motors were in the boat, Dan strapped them down and started the long slow tow home. They started at 4 pm and didn’t make it back to our marina until 9pm. It took 5 hours to go 15 miles! Dan spent New Years Day fiber-glassing the top of the cabin back in. He now faces the task of fairing it out, painting it, re-installing the mast, oh and lets not forget hooking up the new motors. DECEMBER 2007 Dear Family and Friends, We hope this year has been a good one to you. We’ve had another busy year, but are having fun. We ended up not going on our Thanksgiving trip on the Sea Ranch to Fort McRee. The weather turned out to be extremely windy, the water choppy, and the weather cool. So we stayed in port and had a quiet thanksgiving dinner with our neighbor Hardy. The rest of the weekend was spent on a 4-wheeler zooming around the Blackwater River State Forest marking trails for the endurance ride Christina was organizing the following week. In October, Dan flew to Maryland on business. He got back just in time to be home when his brother Jeff visited for a week. First order of business was to attend the Halloween Party at Seville Quarter in downtown Pensacola, of course in costume. Jeff dressed as a priest, Dan as a jester, and Christina as sassy satan. Jeff and Dan spent a lot of time in and on the water – sailing, exploring the swamp, snorkeling, and swimming in the gulf. We also took an overnight trip to New Orleans. We ate a Cajun dinner on the balcony of the Cajun Cabin Restaurant on the famous Bourbon Street while watching a parade go down the street. A trip to New Orleans wouldn't be complete without partying in the French Quarter until late at night. Christina even rode the mechanical bull at the Bourbon Cowboy bar. We ate beignets at Café DuMond, spent a little time at Harrah’s casino, walked along the Mississippi River, shopped at the River Walk, and took pictures at Jefferson Square. As we write this, Dan is making the final plans to do the diesel refit on the Sea Ranch! While Christina is visiting her friend Kellye near Orlando and competing in endurance ride in Ocala between Christmas and New Year’s, Dan (with the help of Rick who is driving over to help), will be putting the new diesel motors in the boat! OCTOBER 2007 Dan is not going to be able to get up to see his family this fall like he wanted to so Dan's brother Jeff is coming for a visit at the end of the month. There should be some adventures to report for November's update. We just planned a Thanksgiving weekend raft-up at Ft. McRea with our neighbors and we are looking forward to it. We will endeavour to update the site better than we have for most of 2007. Please note that we have updated the missing months below. On September 22nd, Christina achieved a long-time goal of completing a 50+ mile endurance ride. For the past two years, Christina and Ice have done 25 and 30 miles competitions. She and Ice finished the 55 mile Biltmore Mountin’ Hopes in Asheville, NC held at the beautiful Biltmore Estate. The terrain was very challenging (steep hills, rocks, and exposed tree roots) and even though Christina wanted to quit 45 miles into it, she persevered. Ice did great and trotted out perkily for the vets at the end. MARCH/APRIL/MAY 2007 Wow, have three months really gone past this quickly? Dan spent the first half of March on vacation working on the diesel motors. He got both of them running finally. There are a few more things to be worked on but it was good to hear them fire. Our Honda finally needed to go into the shop after 220,000 miles. All of it was routine maintenance - new drive axles/CV joints, brakes, water pump, timing belt, motor mounts, belts, new tires, and had the muffler reattached. Christina pole-vaulted the back of the Honda over the muffler after catching it on a rut. When Dan dropped the car of and list all the above work he wanted done to it, the shop manager got excited and had one of the employees drive Dan home and picked him back up after the work was done. The shop manager gave the employee money before Dan and him left and told the employee to buy breakfast for everyone in the shop on him. Needless to say, we dropped some money on the car - about $1200. April was a blur of activity. Dan continued working on the diesel motors. We also added a washer and dryer to the Sea Ranch. It is a wonderful convenience being able to do laundry whenever you need to without having to go to the laundry mat. We should have done this a long time ago. Christina continued to ride and train. May has been busy as well. Christina has been competing, organizing rides. or participating in fun rides every weekend. The wiring harness on Christina's horse trailer gave up the ghost so Dan rewired all the running lights. Some how he managed to do this even with Christina using the trailer almost every weekend. Dan then took the truck into the shop for an oil change, before Christina used it to tow the horse trailer to a ride, and got a surprise. The front ball joints were shot. This was causing the noise Dan asked the mechanic to check out. We got the truck back for $900. Dan insists we are putting someone's kids through college. In mid-May, Dan took the boat out for the first time since Labor Day. If you remember, Dan got really sick last Labor Day and the last time the props were cleaned was Memorial Day Weekend of '06. Since it had been almost a year since the props were last cleaned, the boat didn't move too well. Ten minutes underwater scrapping barnacles made it all better. Dan has also started SCUBA diving with his friends again. He came back with plenty of fish last last weekend. FEBRUARY 2007 Well the big news for February is Dan turned 30. On a darker note, a jet skier went missing on the river just outside the marina. For two weeks we were in the middle of the search operation. Needless to say, the missing person was not found alive. It was interesting to see how the volunteer rescue force was ill prepared for a search operation. If you go missing between the hours of 9-5 and your body washes up into the parking lot of where they are standing, they have it covered. If you don't wash up in the parking lot or have trouble outside the volunteer rescue crew's 9-5 hours, you're basically screwed. The professional forces - Florida Wildlife Commission, the Escambia County Sheriff's Office, and the Coast Guard were out in force. We didn't see them standing in the parking lot much because, oddly, they focused their search out on the water rather than looking for the missing person in the parking lot. As you can tell, I'm not filled with confidence in the volunteer search and rescue force. The divers didn't even have topography information for the river and used our computer to get to Google Earth to plan their dives. Dan finally uploaded the pictures from swimming with the Manatees. Check it the out here. JANUARY 2007 We started the new year off with a New Year's Eve party aboard the Sea Ranch. We were able to gather together most of the old marina gang and had a great time. The following weekend we loaded up the horse and headed down to the Goethe State Forest for an endurance ride. The trip did not start off well. Before we even left the barn, Dan noticed one of the trailer tires had a broken belt. Dan quickly swapped out the bad tire with the spare and we were underway. We made it almost to Chipley, FL (about an hour and a half down the road) when Christina needed a break from driving. Dan took the wheel and noticed that the engine oil pressure gauge fell to zero as soon as the truck got up to high speed. We immediately pulled over and the oil pressure came back. We called our towing service to see if they could tow us to a mechanic. While waiting for the towing service to locate help, Dan continued to diagnose the engine. Dan discovered that the oil pressure fell to zero after the engine reached 1750 RPMs but the low oil pressure light never came on. As the truck engine cooled, the behavior of the oil pressure gauge changed - it started behaving correctly. Dan figured the sending unit for the gauge had gone bad and there was nothing actually wrong with the engine itself. So we got back on the road and drove 6 hours with the oil pressure gauge fluctuating wildly or sitting at zero pressure. The engine showed no signs of trouble so we know its just the gauge that has gone bad. When we arrived at Goethe, we pulled our trailer in next to friends we have made at previous rides. Christina had a lot of fun and learned some interesting things about a ride she was going to do in February. After speaking with people that had done this ride previously, it sounded like a death trap. If the motorbikes didn't get you, or the Rainbow People (homeless people that live in Ocala National Forest), the endless deep sand would. The Rainbow People have been known to attack riders and steal their horses. Dan told Christina she would not be going to that ride. Since we were nearby, we drove down to Crystal River to swim with the Manatees. We had no clue where we were going and we were navigating by memory from our Christmas road trip we took back in 2001. Luck was with us because we happened to stumble upon the same outfit we rented a boat from back then. We went to the spring we saw lots of Manatees at before but there was only two there. So we took the boat up to Three Sisters Spring. Words can not describe the beauty of this spring. The entrance was a creek 4 feet deep, about 6 feet wide, with crystal clear water rushing out. The forest provided a canopy of oak trees covered in Spanish Moss. Dan took quite a few photos with his new underwater camera. Hopefully we'll be able to upload some them soon. This was his first time using his underwater camera so the quality of the photos may be iffy... After we swam with the Manatees we drove over to Eustis to visit our friends Rick and Kellye. If you remember, we boarded our horse with them in Milton until the moved away. They have a very nice place out in the country. Its a little hard to find because every road in the area is Route 44, 44 N, 44 W, 44 Leg A, 44A, or some other strange derivative. We got lost following our map. We quickly discovered someone at the map place screwed up because the map we had was actually a mirror image of what it should have been. So we were looking for a road you could only turn left on when in fact you could only turn right on the road. Dan has continued working on his diesel motors and has started the reassembly process on one of them. It passed the compression check with flying colors and Dan hopes to have it running with in the next couple weeks. Dan has also updated the Nature Photos section. He added some pictures of the moon and Venus together in the Astronomy/Images of the Moon section and has added a Swamphouse section which show cases the marina where we live. DECEMBER 2006 Wow, We have been busy. Christina has been busy chairing the first endurance ride her horse club - the Five Flags Horse Association - put on. Christina executed it without a hitch and it was a great success. The sheer number of man hours leading up to the event were staggering. Dan provided Lunch from 11-2 on Friday when everyone started arriving. On Saturday, the day of the ride, he started breakfast at 4: 30AM then cleaned up and provided lunch from 11 - 3. Sunday morning was spent cleaning up the venue after all the participants left. Both of us were thoroughly exhausted by the end. December 1 brought an end to this years hurricane season and what a difference from last year! We had absolutely no threats this year. Hopefully next year will be a repeat of this year - yeah right! NOVEMBER 2006 Dan has been Scuba Diving when not crewing at endurance rides for Christina or working on the diesel engines for the Sea Ranch. Dan went out with our friends John and Alice to see the November Blue Angels show. The weather was perfect until 10 minutes before the Blue's started their show. At that point, a cold front came through and kicked the winds and seas up and the temperature dropped from the upper 70's to the low 60's instantly. We wanted to take the boat out for the long Thanksgiving weekend, but unfortunately, the tides were just way to low for us to get the Sea Ranch out of port. Even bass boats were bumping bottom at the entrance to the marina. We spent Thanksgiving Day with our friend Christy and her family. We had a lot of fun and enjoyed a great traditional Turkey dinner. We went to the beach on Black Friday to avoid the crowds and our plan worked perfect. There were very few people on the beach and the weather was beautiful. We rolled up our pants and walked out into the emerald surf. SEPTEMBER 2006 UPDATE: We took the boat out for Labor Day weekend and had a great time up until Dan got sick with food poisoning. Before he got sick, our outboard motor broke down - the spark plug died of all things. He planned on borrowing a friends dinghy to run back to the marina for a parts run the next morning. When he woke up, he immediately started vomiting profusely. He still borrowed the dinghy and ran into town, puking over the side of the boat and out the window of the truck the entire way. By the time he got back, he was beat and his strength was waning. We made the decision to head back to port, however we had one problem - someone had to hoist the anchors! Christina isn't strong enough to lift the anchors with all the chain so Dan did it. It took him some time to do and he basically collapsed afterward. When we got back to port, Dan climbed right into bed still covered in mud from the anchors. Twenty Four hours later, Dan was feeling better but his stomach wasn't right for the next week. Rygiel is back!! Christina found him living under the deck of the Marina office. She picked him up and brought him home. He immediately fell back into the groove after a two and a half month hiatus. He has lost a little weight but does not seem worse for the wear. Dan has been SCUBA diving again. AUGUST 2006 Greetings all! We have been enjoying a quiet summer here on the Gulf Coast. Dan painted the cabin of the Sea Ranch and is turning his attention to the deck. He has started diving for fun again and has been enjoying it. Christina has started training for her first endurance ride coming up in October. We have been spending a lot of time down on Redneck Island since it is an easy dinghy ride away. We always debate taking the Sea Ranch out, but its sooo hot that we always decide we'd prefer to sleep in air conditioning. Nights go down into the mid 70's but with high humidity. Its comfortable to sit outside and enjoy cocktails, but sleeping is another matter. We've also been successful in rebuilding a new community in the marina and we usually get together on Saturday nights to grill out and have cocktail hour - or rather hours :). Bailey has adapted well to heat. We keep his coat trimmed and he has even started wading into the water on his own to cool off. Rygiel is MIA and presumed dead. He was acting funny before he took off in June and we think he just wandered off to die. JUNE 2006 June got hot quickly so we finally broke down and fired up the air conditioning. At the beginning of June we celebrated Christina's 31'st birthday. Instead of a party, we got a group of friends together and took a four hour tubing trip down Coldwater Creek. The water was definitely cold and it felt good in the hot June weather. On the 17th, We had our 3rd annual Midsummer's Eve party. It's basically a reason to wear a toga and drink :) Unfortunately, Rygiel went missing that night and we have not seen him since. Dan took a week vacation to work on the boat. He managed to get a coat of paint on the cabin. One more coat of paint, and it should be finished. MAY 2006 May has been uneventful. We took the dinghy to Redneck Island a couple times and visited Pensacola Beach a few times. We took the Sea Ranch out Memorial Day Weekend and anchored off Redneck Island. We had a number of friends on board and rafted up with some other friends. It was a great party. Christina started the application process to join the Santa Rosa County Sheriff's Posse. We did learn our friends Rick and Kellye were moving within two months so we are starting to look for a new stable for Ice. APRIL 2006 April has been beautiful on the Gulf Coast. We've started spending more time at the beach and swimming. There is a great little sand island at the mouth of the Escambia river just down stream from our Marina. It's a short dinghy ride to it. Bailey enjoys running around on the beach and wading out in the water. Dan finally washed the Sea Ranch for the first time in 18 months. It took all day and a lot of elbow grease just to wash the top side. He knew it was going to be a big job which is why he was postponing it. After living at anchor for a year with no running water for a hose, the boat had areas that were turning a luminescent green. When the boat started glowing in the dark, Dan decided it was time to wash it. We also went to the Kenney Chesney concert. Dan received free tickets from work. It was one of the best concerts we have ever attended. MARCH 2006 March has flown past. Christina went to the Lost Posse Run Endurance Ride in Apalachicola near Tallahassee where she moved up from 25 miles to 30 miles. Dan continued to work on the diesel engines. Other than that, not much has gone on. Finally, things seem to be quieting down. :) FEBRUARY 2006 Well, its been awhile since we updated the website so here we go. We started the new year off partying with friends. Dan installed the power pole and Gulf Power hooked us up to the grid at the beginning of January so we are no longer living in the 18th century!!! It is so nice to have electricity back. Our lives are finally back to normal since Ivan. January also brought some good storms. One of them damaged our back curtains. The winds were so strong the teeth from the zippers actually broke out. That storm was almost like a hurricane in its intensity. February has flown past. We went to an Endurance ride in Sylvester GA where Christina bested her time by a half hour. We also attended a Mardi Gras ball hosted by Neptune's Daughters in Mobile. We had a great time as usual. And finally, Dan had his 29th Birthday. Dan has obtained two diesel engines for the Sea Ranch and he is in the process of rebuilding them. Once they are installed in the Sea Ranch, we will have a 2000 mile range and the boat will be a lot more economical to run. The diesel refit is the first hurdle in our dream to go cruising. |
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