LIVING IN THE MOMENT

You know all the years of life experiences do not prepare you for the realization of what the rest of your life should encompass. That is right, rest of your life. LIVING IN THE MOMENT just dawned on me this evening. Walking my k-9 friends around the Red Bay, AL. Tiffon Motorhome campground, viewing all the execellent motorhomes, I had to come to the realization that all that matters is the MOMENT. Now, my moment began at age 63. Finally realizing that my clock was ticking quicker than others, I decided to enjoy the MOMENT. Now each of us can have a MOMENT. I prefer to experience my own moments with someone I love. I love encouraging my Girls, Bailey and Bella to play! Roughing it in the motorhome and boat is their style. You know, riding high in the Phaeton, Cruising in the Trawler, 0 Regrets!! Now that is living in the MOMENT! They really know the drill. Living the life in the MOMENT seems to have become my remaining life ambition. Walking back to the motorhome this lovely evening at Red Bay, I had the thought that this was the way to live. Walking the dogs, watching the moon rise and planning to travel tomorrow in the Phaeton. The only spoiler is that I have to head back to Kentucky and not south for warmer climates. Hummm. our boat and Phaeton can make that trip. Like I said living in the MOMENT. Moments seem to arrive each day. I am in the Christmas moment at the moment, bad english. We are anticipating some SNOW later tonight and tomorrow. Yuck. We escaped any snow last year but paid the price with the greater volume of bugs this past summer. You just cannot win sometime. As is my habit lately, I plan to skitter back to the Lake Barkley condo by Thursday since I have some PROJECTS both for the Bend of the Rivers Condo and boat. I am trying my hand at refinishing some teak this boat season and the test case is the flag stantion for the transom. I am using Cetol product whick is much easier than many coates of varnish and clear coat. Our boating last season included a few lock passages which created some blemishes on the teak rails. My greatest project for the teak is to refinish the swim platform. This will be a good task. The greatest part of the task would be removal from the boat and reinstallation. That is the easiest way to refinish but requires the removal. I do have a friend who can help. So, we will see. During a boat cruise this summer I managed to break off a piece of teak at the corner. I am searching for a talented wood repair person for replace the missing piece. See attached photo.

The past owner left some paint on the teak so stripping is in order. The cost of a new swim platform is about $1,000 plus I have to finish. If I chose to refinish while attached to boat I will need to lay down on the dingy, trying not to splash in the drink. I will have the broken portion repaired, then refinish the platform.

Well, a new moment has arrived today, December 26, 2012. We finally had some snow this winter. Not that I like the white stuff, but killing all those bugs in important in the winter. We paid last summer for a mild winter. But I was going swimming today but the new sign stopped. me.

Well, this has been a post of many pieces. As you can read, I do have plans pressing into the future. However, living in the moment remains a goal. As I approach the new year, 2013, I hope we make gains to finally sheding the bonds of the work day world and take on the challenge of a 3 year cruise on "0 Regrets". Happy Sailing.

WINTER BRINGS NEW FREINDS & PROJECTS

As per my last post, we are at the end of the sailing season, ugh. However, the transient boat traffic does continue at Green Turtle Bay Marina. Since owning 0 REGRETS, I have enjoyed touring the transient docks when at the marina in hopes of meeting new boatmen making their way South and beyond. The type and style of boat is as varied as the crew aboard. My latest encounter was with a young couple, Nathan and Jo who began their trip a bit late from Lake Michigan in a 26 ft. sailboat. Please vist and follow their blog http://www.chasing70.com/2012/11/stepping-mast-on-boat.html#!/2012/11/stepping-mast-on-boat.html as they make an eventful journey along the Great Loop.

Jo and Nat sail tomorrow toward the Tennessee-Tom Bigbee waterway with the goal of reaching Mobile Bay near the middle of December. They have been preparing their Elise for this portion of the cruise and provisioning their boat. They are very tired of eating Roman noodles. Just think, only heat is a small propane heater, 3 burner stove, no chart writer, small head, no shower and limited fuel capacity. Just another walk in the park for these two adventurers.

View the map of their cruise and you may have a better understanding of the cruise thus far for this small sailboat and young crew. http://goo.gl/maps/ntHIi As we said our goodbye to Nat and Jo and HMS Elise we are reminded of the many new friends we have made in our short cruising experience. For now we have to live vicariously thru others competing the Great Loop Cruise. This continues to be a dream of ours and we make progress each year in our boat preparations and our personal preparations to escape the terra firma and enjoy a water-way of life.

We continued our Saturday with a trip to the Purple Toad Winery near Paducah, KY. While the building itself is not so quaint the wines are good and they were somewhat helpful with the tastings. We of course aided the local commerce with several bottles of wine for stocking our new wine chiller. Yes that is correct we now have a wine chiller installed in the kitchen of our BLC (best little condo). While I prefer wine with a bit of chill, Denise likes the red wines at room temp. However, we are exploring some new white wines which are better with a slight chill.

Of course the chiller is not stocked but our trip to the winery today will help that vacancy. We have collected wines from many locations across the US during our motor home travels and this will continue via boat. Hopefully some new wines from foreign countries as we eventually venture to the Caribbean waters. I think they have more rum in those waters but manybe we can introduce wines to some long, lost island. I plan several winter projects on 0 Regrets in preparation for the next sailing season. These projects include new captain chairs, teak repair, refinish swim platform and other small projects. These will help pass the winter months knowing we are preparing for next season. I really feel Denise will be good with a heat gun and in stripping varnish from the swim platform. Happy Sailing, Adm. Denise, Captn. Barry, sailors Bella and Bailey.