November 15, 2025 - Down to Check on the Arc

 A week ago today, Saturday, we departed for Florida for a boat check.  It's been several months and it's always good to make sure everything is ok with the Arc.  We had plans to bring the Flair RV down to use as a guest house but someone had other plans.

 

It seems everyone was ready to go except for the Flair itself!  Ha!  As we were driving to Elizabethton, we noticed a clicking sound and as we went further along it got worse and we began to smell something burning.  We immediately pulled over in the Auto Zone parking lot and called AAA and back to Stoney Acres we went.  Carter worked all afternoon on this situation and decided that even though the caliper situation was fixed, there was likely something else that he wanted to check out before we took the RV for a long trip.  We unloaded all the cargo going to Florida and loaded it into the Venza and departed the next morning. 

Radar is such a good sport about traveling. He slept on top of that tote for the entire 12 hour trip.

We arrived at Our Little Marina pretty early, way before sunset.  Carter, seeing the boat had turned green, decided that the first order of business was to take the Arc out into the river to give it a good pressure washing.  Yea, it was pretty bad, but looks much better now.

We departed on Sunday and anchored at Masons Creek.  

Florida still has beautiful sunsets.

Our first sunset on this trip.

Monday:  Our first sunrise looking out the kitchen window.  Anchored at Masons Creek.

Both Carter and I are getting anxious to get back into our cruising lifestyle and wake up to this every morning to a gorgeous sunrise and end each day with dinner on the deck with a beautiful sunset.

Monday we cruised down to just past Rice Creek and spent the day pressure washing the boat. 

On Tuesday, we went to Crystal Cove Marina for a potty dump and fill the tanks back up with water.  My bad...I used the marina hose which evidently was not drinking water certified and now we can't drink the water from our water tanks. It has a strong smell of rubber. Then we cruised back to Palmetto Bluff just in time to enter back into the canal to Our Little Marina at high tide.

Next up, Wednesday was to clean up the property.  After months of neglect, it was in need of weed eating.  Unfortunately, the weed eater decided to act up and Carter was not able to do a very good job but he was able to go ahead and cut down a few trees to enlarge the parking space in preparation for the Flair's arrival next trip down.  

Thursday:  After clearing the parking area, we loaded the whaler back onto the trailer so Carter could prepare it for another coat of paint.  

On Friday, we drove over to Silver Springs to check out a small trailer for sell that Carter felt would be good for a flip but nope...had too much rust on the underside.

On Saturday, while Carter sanded on the whaler, I had decided to give our mini washer a work out and wash up dirty clothes before returning to Tennessee.  I decided "The Juice Is Not Worth The Squeeze."  LOL

It wasn't as fun as I remember it.

And where was Radar?  

Sleeping like a baby in the back seat of the Venza.

He's a sweet boy.

We finished off this trip with a run to the dump and hauled off all the stuff I pointed out in the video.  

Feels good to have that done.

Tomorrow, Sunday, we plan to pack the Venza back up and finish any little odd jobs we missed.

We will depart for Tennessee very early Monday morning.  I have another appointment with the Urologist on Wednesday.

All missions accomplished.  Good Trip.

Updating 2024-25

 After reviewing my last couple posts, I see that I have not updated some of the work Carter has accomplished since Thanksgiving last year.  As an explanation, I'll tell you that this past January, I (Diane) was diagnosed with cancer and was pre-occupied in Tennessee with surgeries and treatments for the next six months.  Carter made a couple trips down to Florida and accomplished a few projects whenever I was well enough for him to step out for a minute and of course, I joined him when I was able.  I am happy to report that at this point in time, I am cancer free and feeling fine. 

Before all the work got started, Carter and I took the Archimedes out to participate in a Christmas boat parade in early December.  Each year, we try to participate in a boat parade somewhere in the area that we currently happen to be, which we chose Ponte Verde this year.  This cruise up the St. Johns River and down the ICW to Ponte Verde was awesome!.. Super COLD but Awesome.

Jacksonville is always an experience.  The free City Dock was closed due to damage caused by the latest hurricane forcing us to run late into the evening to reach a spot behind an island that is safe for us to anchor, out of the way of cargo ships.

The night lights in Jacksonville are a stunning site to see.

Sunrise means it's time to get on down the road so we can make it to the ICW in time to ride in on the flood tide and follow it on down the ICW for as long as it lasts.

It's nice to be back in the waters where the dolphins play!

Ponte Verde for the Christmas Boat Parade.

Unfortunately, it was SO cold that entire trip that we were unable to stay outdoors long enough to get all our lights out but we feel that we got enough out to make a decent showing.  We normally have all the solar panels outlined.  The forward main array did not get done this year.

Now, for the work that got done ... 

The top deck finally got it's last coat.  I think it looks SO nice!

At the same time, Carter worked on the sun deck.  He finished scraping all the old paint off , I had been working on that for several months last year, and he repainted it with liquid rubber with non-skid.  

We really like it.

Carter also put a fresh coat of polyurethane on the companion way doors to spruce them up a little.

Main Companion Way

Engine Room Entrance

And then it was back to Tennessee for the summer. 

See you in the fall when we will be installing the last of the new solar panels 

and the new electric motor!!

June 1, 2025 - Life Gets Wonky At Times

 It's been a little over a year since I've posted here.  Our summer in Tennessee went well last year completing several projects to the property and a fun project for Carter.  He found a "free to a good home" 27' Buccaneer and decided it would make a great electric boat for the lakes in Tennessee.  So...it came home.  Carter and his son Nick loaded up the boat from Watauga Lake onto Nicks flatbed trailer and it stayed in the yard for quite a while until Carter found a proper trailer for it.  But now they needed a way to transfer the boat from the flatbed onto the trailer.  Nick got hold of some leftover scaffolding and the two of them built a boat lift.  Works great!

On our last trip to Palatka to pump out and fill up water before heading back to Tennessee, we ran into a boat from the days back in LaBelle.  The Amara Zee.

We spent the first night out in Deep Creek after running away from a huge storm front.  We anchored just inside Deep Creek when the storm passed right over top of us.

The next morning we headed down to Palatka and ran into a young couple that has begun their journey to 100% solar power travel.  Their sail boat is Horus and they have a YouTube channel named Sailing Horus.

We returned back to our home port and departed for the summer in Tennessee.

May 24th, 2024 Update - Powering Through May

 May has been HOT, but we knew that it would be.  It's been slow going this season what with travel, cold weather, rain...you name it.  The weather finally turned nice and we dug in our heels as best we could.

After the deck at dockside, we put the remaining decking that came with the property, and laid out decking around the working area of the connex.  It works out well.

Next, I washed the backside and end of the connex, primed rust spots, and then painted the 2 sides hunter green.  I'll do the doors and front side when we return this fall.

From this...to (see below)

While I was outside painting, Carter was inside the connex finishing up the insulation.  We have been trying to clean everything up and put away and decided that there is not better place to store large items than to put them where they belong, so he got to work.

Beginning to cut the strips that go up first.

Gluing them in the 'corrugated' spaces with spray seal. 

He next covered the entire corrugated wall with a full sheet and glued it down.  He cobbled up some boards to hold them in place until they dried.

The last ceiling sheet is next.

He only had a small amount of paint so he used it behind his work bench.

A view of the entrance.

Looking to the back.  The remaining solar panels for the starboard array are behind the plywood.  Once those are installed on the boat this will free up quite a bit of storage space.  He still has a couple of wall boards to put up behind the shelving above the solar panels and directly beside it.  We had to load this thing full before we could actually begin the insulation so there's going to be a small bit of back tracking to completely finish.