Father's Day Weekend

Father's Day weekend and perfect weather...does it get any better than that?  :)

We went up to the boat early on Friday morning this past weekend.  We spent several hours cleaning the outside of the boat from top to bottom.  It was so nice to see her sparkling finally.  :)

The marina had hauled the boat this past week and put on my spare shaft and spare props as they sent out the original props and bent shaft out to be repaired from our "incident" the other week.  I still wish I knew what we hit but who knows.  

Friday evening we headed out to our favorite cove in the area and dropped anchor for a few days of resting on the water.

The weather was absolutely perfect this weekend...clear skies, mid 80's, just perfect!

Caleb is getting older and really enjoying learning how to drive the dinghy.  This weekend he pretty much ran the dinghy all over the place...starting it himself, etc.  I loved these two pictures of him with our boat in the background taken Friday evening.

Saturday morning dawned perfectly beautiful after a great night sleeping on the hook.  We took our usual dinghy ride with "Daisy the reluctant boat dog" to take her to shore.  She actually is getting more and more used to being on the boat and really likes our pilothouse a lot more than she ever liked our trawler for some reason. 

 Saturday was a great day of swimming and relaxing on the water.  It felt good to just hang out quietly with our family.  We had some friends anchor nearby during the day with their two daughters ages 12 and 8 so pretty close to our kids in age (10.5 and 9).  They had a blast playing together all day on the kayak, taking them for fun dinghy rides and bouncing on the waves in the main channel from all the boats, having them swim back and forth between our boat and theirs, etc.  LOTS of laughter and smiles from them all which is truly a joy to see.  We ended the night with a great "sunset cruise" on the dinghy haha:

Most everyone left by evening on Saturday though so it was a quiet evening anchored out again Saturday night with only us there until around 10 P.M. when a nice 43 Californian came in and dropped anchor.  For some reason most all my pictures this past weekend were only taken from the dinghy so here is our Sunday morning shot from Daisy's shore run with our boat and the Cali anchored quietly in the early morning calm:

Best though was waking up Sunday to my Father's Day surprise banner and signs my wife Tarne and the kids had put up around the boat:

 We had a great morning of "boat church" together Sunday morning in the pilothouse.  Caleb is really getting into playing guitar as I have been letting him play our small backpacking guitar I got as a gift from Tarne a few years ago (meant for backpacking but great for boats too!).  So...he lead the worship music part of our family boat church and we took turns reading Psalms, praying, and sharing what God was showing us. 

 As we finished up our worship time we took a family photo:

Followed up by a "funny" family photo.  :)

 

Forecast Sunday afternoon was for storms and after 2 solid days of anchoring out and feeling sun drenched, we decided to head back to the marina soon after lunch on Sunday.  This gave us time to pack up, head home, and still have time for grilling out ribs at home for a nice Father's Day dinner.  The storms rolled in last night with lots of lightening and thunder and just pure summer beauty.  I have some meetings this week that will keep us off the boat but we hope to be back up ASAP this week.

Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there- hope you had a great day with your family!

Cruise up to the Hiawassee River

Last week we spent about 5-6 days on the boat...so nice to get away!  We intended to cruise up to Lake Tellico but took a more leisurely route and just did about a 30 mile one way trip up the TN River to a great anchorage on the Hiawassee River.  Some pictures.....

Cleaning the boat at the dock prior to departing...great to finally have some good weather instead of the cold rainy spring we had!

 

We stopped by Shady Grove Harbor about 10 miles up the river from Island Cove to take advantage of the "low price" diesel they had....never thought I'd be excited to pay "only" $3.80 per gallon!  Considering that other marinas in the area are around $4.40 a gallon though this was a good deal.  So we took on about 160 gallons to nearly top off our tanks for this season's cruising.

My wife Tarne and our daughter Sarah at the helm as we cruise up towards the Hiawassee...beautiful day and love my girls!

Sarah had lots of solo time at the helm as we sat in the settee behind her as she cruised us up river.

 

One of the joys of your children growing up is that they can drive the boat (with our watchful eye!) while my wife and I relax together in the pilothouse settee and enjoy the day together.

Even Daisy, The Reluctant Boat Dog, was having fun.

Our anchorage on the Hiawassee could not have been prettier.  It had a narrow entrance with water only about 10'-12' deep but it opened up to be a wonderful wooded cove with more birds than you could imagine.  It was like anchoring in a bird sanctuary.  Truly, truly beautiful!

 View of the boat from the back end of the cove....

 Tarne kayaking around the cove in the evening light...so peaceful!!

 Sunset off the transom as we grilled out and watched birds from blue herons to 2 peregrine falcons that had a nest in a tree at the back of the anchorage.

 Usually the kid sleep in their separate staterooms but one night they had fun sleeping in the bunk beds together reading.  You can also see the hamsters that travel with us sitting on the writing desk.  :)

Sunrise dawned calm and beautiful with the water still as glass and bird song everywhere.

 This picture reminded me of when the kids were younger so much.  They used to paddle around together with Sarah sitting in the back of the kayak way back when we used to be on Lake Lanier which seems ages ago these days.  They had fun singing songs and kayaking around together.

 And I could not resist kayaking around myself to the back ends of the cove and exploring the wooded shoreline. 

 All in all, a great, great 5 days on the boat.  The kids had fun swimming in the Island Cove Marina pool, fishing on the docks, cruising the river, and just hanging out together as a family.  Unfortunately on our way back to the marina we hit something submerged in the water.  We never did see what it was but felt it and heard it when it happened.  We immediately noticed the vibration afterwards.  So....this morning the boat has been hauled out and the yard has determined we have a bent shaft and bent props.  FUN!  Calls to the insurance company have been made, surveyor coming tomorrow to asses the damage for them, and hopefully new props and shaft installed by end of tomorrow so we can get back on the boat and do some more cruising around the river ASAP.  Thankfully no major damage at all.  Other than the shaft and prop repair the boat is running great.  We had the injector, timing, and valves all done and the smoking issue we had with them is gone and she runs smooth as could be.  We also added a new remote control spotlight and a new hot water heater to the boat this season which we have enjoyed.   Even more fun....we replaced the worn out gypsy on the anchor windlass and ordered and installed 175' of all new anchor chain.  A new bimini and mooring cover for the flybridge is on order as well.  Stay tuned!