Back on the Loop Again

                                                                    

We are back on the boat!  After four months at home  we are here again at Pickwick Lake on the Tennessee River.  It feels good to be back!   The boat survived the winter GREAT!  We were worried watching the weather reports of the polar votex and the arctic freezing weather back east.  There hadn’t been any extended freezing conditions here for the last10 years we were told, don’t bother to winterize your boat.   Bill decided to winterize the boat himself anyway.  After 34 gallons of antifreeze (what it took for both engines, the water system and the generator) and 2 full days of Bill’s work he was done.  The marina had wanted to charge us $1500 dollars for them to do it.   Bill is the superhero – no boat damage at all!   Many other boats in the marina were damaged.

No mold, no bugs, no spiders (learned you don’t have any of them in the winter).  Very little dirt. The boat looked like we had walked away from it yesterday.  The dock has a cover over it which helped for sure.

We had our excitement yesterday with a tornado warning right in our county.  It all passed 30 miles away from here.  It was scary listening to the  radio give the emergency tornado information, tell you what to do and where the shelters were.  The storm filled up the dinghy with 4 inches of water. We really picked the perfect place to store the boat this winter (dumb luck).  It seems that all the really bad storms bypass this area for some unknown reason.  We are so spoiled in Calif.!!

We will have a “new and improved” boat.  Bill did a lot of work over the last few months at home making  upgrades.  We just installed a new bimini (cover over the back of the boat) today.  He had measured it, they made it, shipped it, and yes, it actually fits right!  We have a new emergency radio installed and lots of new cosmetic and functional improvements.  He has 3 pages (single spaced) of boat things he is working on before we take off…...