You may recall that over the Fourth of July, we went scalloping and we were rather upset about some issues we were having with our boat that the dealer was supposed to fix.  We want to take our boat out again in a couple weeks with a bunch of people for Greg’s 30th birthday.  So it was time to compile a list again and take it to the dealer.  Below is the list of expectations we sent them and they have 2 weeks to fix the boat.  Anyone want to take bets on whether or not they will have successfully repaired or replaced all items on our list when we pick it back up?

• Port stern seat base needs to be replaced
  
• Port bow seat back has a tear in the top corner of the back cushion
  
• Still owe us a proper sized anchor
  
• Porta Potty door still doesn’t seat properly at the bottom
  
• Porta Potty door still doesn’t lock even though they supposedly replaced it before
  
• Radio stopped working
  
• Bimini boot cover was torn, they took it from us to repair
  
• Brown ooze is coming out of the base of the starboard bow rail
  
• Port side of the boat has some gelcoat overspray
  
• They still need to reimburse us for the new propeller
  

Last year for Labor Day, we went over to Homosassa, FL on the west coast for our first scalloping trip.  We had so much fun that we decided to plan another trip.  Since 4th of July was on a Thursday this year, we figured we could go for an extra day or two by going on 4th of July instead of labor day.  Last year we had 8 people but this year we got 12 signed up: Me & Ryan, Ashley & Matt (flew in from California), Ryan's mom Mary (from St. Augustine), Al & Doreen, Charlie & Mary (and their baby), Pete & Vicki, and Eddie (flew in from Marlyand). 

Last year we stayed at a cheap motel and it wasn't that great - the hardest part was that we had no way to cook any scallops we caught.  This year we decided to rent a house and we ended up a little farther south than last year based on where we could find a rental house.  The house we rented is in Hernando Beach, FL and has 3 bedrooms plus a loft and a library so we have 3 actual beds, one futon, two full size air mattresses and one person on a couch (we brought an air mattress but there are a lot of couches here).

Ok so we talked about the trailer some before but it's been consuming a lot of time lately and is getting close to done so I thought I'd share some more.  Here's where we left off last time:

Trailer bought on Craigslist: $350
New Axles to replace rusty ones: $880
New wheels after finding out the old ones didn't work w/ the new axles: $375
Total Cost: $1605

After getting all that put together, Ryan was ready to try to get the boat loaded onto it.  So he drove the boat through the creek to a nearby park with a boat ramp and I drove his truck and the trailer there (I was a little nervous since i'd never driven his truck or the trailer but it was fine).

We weren't sure exactly how far we'd have to back the truck in or how easily the boat would pull up on it.  But we took a guess and Ryan started driving the boat up onto the trailer.  Unfortunately, we couldn't pull the boat all the way onto the trailer - it looked like the bunks were in the right spot but the front of the boat wasn't going to clear the winch and post.  Ryan tried to do some adjusting of the winch location while we were at the dock but it was getting dark pretty quickly.  Eventually we agreed he would have to do some work on it at home and come back the next day.

Often times when I tell people that I sew or quilt, they say “I just don’t have enough patience for sewing” and I think I often forget that it really does require some patience.  Sometimes, you can work on a project and everything goes smoothly and it’s great – one neat thing about sewing is how quickly you get to see results.  It doesn’t take a lot of sewing before you start to see your project coming together.

Then there are those times where something isn’t working on your machine and it takes a while to troubleshoot it – that can be very frustrating if you aren’t a sewing machine repair expert (I’m not!).  It’s like the times that my quilting machine and I fight – I’ve tried so many different solutions without any consistent answer and the biggest frustration is that I feel like I still don’t know the root cause of the issue and you can’t fix the problem if you don’t know what truly caused it.  Times like that require patience.

Over the past few weeks, we've been working on projects and travelling so much, we haven't gotten enough time to just...chill out.  This weekend, I was expecting to work on more projects but instead, we had a surprising yet nice "Florida style" weekend.

Friday night we went out to The Mansion for a friend's birthday dinner and had a few drinks.  Click the pic to check out their website - it's a really neat restaurant that also has a huge beer/wine/liquor 

Since I got Pernell's quilt done Saturday morning, we had time to take out the boat and guess who got to drive?

Happy St. Patrick's Day!  Unfortunately we weren't able to go downtown for the St. Patrick's day parade or other Irish festivities. But we did hear a guy playing some bagpipes...as we finally did a sea trial of our new boat!  Unfortunately I didn't take a lot of pics on the sea trial (except of small things that we need to get the dealer to fix, lol) but here's us saying goodbye to the Bayliner (sorry it's fuzzy but it was too bright out to see my screen when taking the pics).