Sunday January 18: The Never-ending Stove Project

The door are on!! Well, at least for the time being. They still need to have handles added and of course a finish which will help the new doors to blend in with the rest of the cabinets.

Tomorrow the piece of maple for the cutting board will arrive so maybe by Wednesday or so the project will be deemed to be completed.

Of course this is almost exclusively Steve's project. I helped with clamps and holding wood as well as finding the starboard and maple wood on the internet. Otherwise, he gets the credit.

Not that I've been totally lazy but pretty much so - although I was shamed into getting something productive done the other day.

I finally took the picture of our former Cleveland harbor down (thanks to Becky for the picture!!) and painted the wall paper in the aft cabin. This will definitely keep the mildew from growing during the months of storage in the hot Florida summers.

Steve did manage to find a better way to work on the doors. Shade! What a great idea :-) I should have thought of it ......

Even though it took time to cut the doors from Craig's list down to size, it took even more time to finish putting them back together.

And then cleaning the teak. And then of course the hinges had to be put on.

Not just ordinary put-in-4-screws hinges but rather router out space on the doors and the frames to recess the hinges.

Fortunately our dremel has a small router bit but it still took an inordinate amount of time to cut out the 8 small spaces for the hinges.

Patience was the key here - good thing I wasn't in charge :-)

More gluing and trial and error fitting before Steve was satisfied with the results.

I think the most fun he had all week was when Cindy and Randy (from "I Think I Can ...") came over to watch the football games last weekend.

Gigit found the perfect place to sleep - using Steve's foot as a pillow :-)

Cutest dogs EVER (Cricket is their other little dog) :-)

Playoff games today .... not sure who to root for but I think Seattle and the Patriots. Wouldn't that make for a great Superbowl??

Thursday January 15: Making Great Progress

Monday started out as a great day - picked up the rental car from Enterprise and as is often the case, Sirius Radio was still active on the 2015 car we had for the next 24 hours.

I thought about just sleeping in the car - listening to Willie's Roadhouse! No seat warmers though. I must be getting spoiled - especially for a couple whose first "brand new" car was a 1967 Ford Falcon and then a 1974 Ford Pinto (later to be know as the 'catch on fire when rear-ended' car).

That's back when these cars cost less than $2200 brand new!!

Off we headed for the almost 2 hour drive to Homestead in search of Walter and the two teak doors we found on Craig's List.

He didn't get home from work until 7:30 so after we spent some time shopping, there was a welcome stop at Duncan Donuts for hot chocolate and a Boston Creme.

Perfect :-) Home by 9:15 - just in time to watch the second half of the Ohio State - Oregon football game. It was the Bucks over the Ducks - fun to watch for sure :-)

Using Rick's table and Randy's circular saw, Steve again measured, measured a second time and then cut the two doors down to where they would fit quite nicely in the space we had.

This involved cutting the doors narrower and shorter - all without losing the basic louvered look.

Hinges and handles will come from the doors under my desk area. Not a perfect match but with a finish on the doors I think it will be just fine!

Next was to make a cover for the burners. This will keep them from getting scratched or messed up from sitting the water pitcher, dishes or whatever on top of the burners.

We're using starboard - a plastic product that is easy to cut with normal tools. Should work fine.

The sides also needed to be cut so there was lots of measure, measure, measure, cut.

After staining the boards, the last step for the cover was to attach the top to the sides with small stainless screws.

The fit was perfect. And this after what became a long day of working on the doors and the cover. Amazing!!

A cutting board (actually a maple stair header) will finish the top front edge. This is ordered and won't be in until Monday so maybe we'll have the doors installed by then.

And it hasn't been all work - even though it seems like it sometimes!

Our new favorite breakfast place is now Porky's! We have been there so much that yesterday, the waitress asked if we were 'locals' - she could give us the loyalty discount of 10% off.

Told her were weren't really but would be around for the next 2 months or so. That was enough for her - so we have been decreed locals :-) Haven't lived anywhere long enough lately to be called locals - I kind of like it :-)

One of the best things is that Porky's is not quite 4 miles round trip on the bike - Great way to start the day.

Question: how do you make a rectangular cupcake tin fit into the round convection oven?

Simple - take a dremel and cut one end of it off! The 3 x 3 that's left fits perfectly into the oven now. I mean after all there's no need to give up having cupcakes or muffins just because the oven is now round :-)

Monday January 12: Next Steps for Stove

Yes - there was work to do on the stove but first things first! One of things Steve has learned over the years is that when conditions are right - go fishing :-)

North winds finally let up and the easterly breeze spoke to Steve. Off he went with Gary to fish under the bridge.

FINALLY, yellowtail! He's been trying to catch these for the past four years with no success.

Dinner? How can you beat fresh yellowtail?

Back to the stove project: Once the burners were set, it was time to deal with two basic items: move and install the electrical outlet (the old stove was hard wired so no outlet) for the burners and finishing the inside of the cabinet.

More measuring. And another measure just to be sure.

Off to Home Depot (just across the street) for oak boards of varying sizes along with thin finished plywood to use as the basis for the inside of the cabinet.

The reverse sides of the boards were finished with a stain sealer just to be sure the boards wouldn't absorb any kind of moisture.

Once the framing is done, the inside will be finished the same.

Left: Framing is done!

There will be a top shelf for frying pans. The bottom will hold the coffee pot and toaster on one side.

Everything is done - now the inside can be finished. I'm thinking just some kind of shelving paper on the bottom of the frying pan shelf as well as the bottom shelf.

The stuff that sticks and is hard to put on without wrinkles - we'll see how that goes :-)


Two finishing touches are needed yet: a cutting board to finish the top edge and doors for the opening.



Cutting board: found one at K-Mart that should work. Doors: found on Craig's List! We've already alerted our neighbors that if we don't return, look for Walter in Homestead to find out what happened to us :-)

So today is a road trip to Homestead (about 1 1/2 hours north) to buy the doors. We'll rent a car for the day - do some other shopping and just enjoy the area.

The doors will need resized and refinished but look to be a great match for the doors that are already on the boat.

And for $20 how do you beat that deal? Even with the cost of renting the car, it's a steal for what new doors would be - and that's if I could even find some that were wide enough without being custom made.

Will report back on the trip ......

Sunday January 11: Project: Replacing the Stove!

It was time.

When we were on Guppy this summer using the electric range, Steve realized how much the efficiency of our stove on Yesterday's Dream has slipped. Do we put $$ into repairs or do we move to something else?

Sad to say I get hooked sometimes on those infomercials on TV and happened upon one that was selling portable induction burners. It actually sounded quite interesting. For info on induction burners: click here.

While in Rhode Island in September, we had one sent to us while visiting Matt and Wendy. First of all, it was GREAT entertainment value and secondly, Steve fell in love with cooking on it!

Decision made: yank the stove. Replace with two portable (but semi built-in) units and a convection oven/microwave that was recommended by Linda on Symmetry (we completed this project while we were still in Jacksonville in October). Step one: pull the stove!

WOW - what an amazing space we were going to create for storage!!

Next was to make good use of all of this new space by doing some partitioning.

First, though, determine how to "build in" two portable cooktops.

Steve used a cardboard cutout to figure out how much of the wood trim around the old stove needed to be cut to accommodate the new units.

The two units would sit next to each other - with the top and side edges resting on the wood framing. Each unit's main support would be on cross braces using the four feet on the bottom of the unit.

Lots of careful measurements were taken before there was any cutting of wood :-)

By the end of day 2, the units were temporarily in and usable!


A stir-fry with rice noodles was, as is all of Steve's cooking, perfect :-)





Since it was after 5, no more cutting was allowed (rule from Safety Matt - learned by experience a number of years ago and reinforced by us through numerous not-so-good consequence of ignoring said rule :-)  ).



Job to be continued the next day! In the meantime, there was a sunset to enjoy .....

Wednesday January 8: Old and New Friends

 Things are settling into a routine now that the outside clean up of the boat is done.

Plus all of the craziness of vacationers flooding the Keys has died down. It seems the weeks when schools are out is when this area is REALLY busy.

Having a large part of the highway system still being 2 lane roadways complicates the matter.

We rode down to the old 7-mile bridge yesterday. The water was very murky but Steve still managed to see 2 very large eagle rays. Sadly I missed them :-(

There was still a nice breakfast out (still our favorite - and almost only - time to eat out). We were headed to the 7-Mile Grill but noticed on the way past Porky's that they started serving breakfast.

We had never eaten there before but we made a quick turn around and tried it. Just our kind of place - right on the water, good service (which means coffee and water in hand before having to order!) and the food was really good.

I'm beginning to really like red and yellow peppers - after all these years of not eating them. You can still have the green ones though - too strong for me.

The manatees are still frequenting the harbor. This one was just kind of swimming around checking out the water coming out of the boats (air conditioners have been running so the water pumping overboard from the circulation pumps attract the manatee).

They are looking for fresh water - so no interest in the salt water coming from the boats.


A trip to the natural food store the other day was great - lots of things that are low in saturated fat (my goal is to stay under 10 g a day). I even found some decent macaroni and cheese (of course it's not real cheese - too much saturated fat in that - but overall, not bad. Oh for the days of Velvetta cheese on my broccolli and cauliflower and REAL mac and cheese .... I should have enjoyed that kind of thing way more .....

Dave and Joyce (from Joysea - longtime Looper friends) came to Marathon for a few days. Dave loves to fish. Steve loves to fish. Off they went - to try their hand under the bridge (about 3 miles west of here).

Other than the loss of the shrimp bucket and numerous cut lines, the day was "fun" - but the north winds coming in made for a wicked current under the bridge and a slow trip back.


 Better luck next time ....

At least they weren't skunked as Dave caught a nice porgy and Steve caught a big grunt. As they know, I don't clean grunts so back it went :-)

Dave and Joyce were able to join us for dinner last night. It was nice to catch up with them - last time we saw them was a year ago.

I have to say though no one really seems any older - I think we've all aged very well :-)

They head back to their winter place near Lake Okeechobee on Friday. Maybe we'll figure out some way to see them up there. We're told there is an extra bedroom and Dave has a boat and motor. Have fishing rods will travel :-)

Steve made a new friend at the social gathering the other day: Margarite the parrot! Very social young lady - and she loves the men but not so much the ladies. Pretty funny.


Next project: remove the old stove and oven. To be replaced with 2 built in induction burners!

Sunday January 4: Getting Settled at Banana Bay

The 40 mile trip from Treasure Harbor to Banana Bay in Marathon was pretty uneventful - but then that's really the kind of travel we prefer!

After starting out on the ocean side we quickly crossed under the Snake River bridge to the Bay of Florida side of the keys (so north of the Keys).

The waves were broadside so the less wind and waves the better. It was nice to have the choice! Definitely would not have been on the reefs today as it was just too wavy out there.

Yep - the entrance was just where we remembered it was! Seemed strange at first as we prepared to enter the harbor we last left mid-March last year.

So we are finally at what is beginning to feel like home for us!

Yesterday's Dream is on the right side of the picture - slip 11 - same as we've been for the last three years.

It was really great to see everyone we hadn't seen since we left - many of the same boats were back for another winter season but also quite a few that had moved on to other locations. They will be missed ...  We've meet many new to the marina - everyone seems very nice!

No more resting though. Saturday was a work day. Steve took to the outside - with particular attention to the snaps and screw heads that were starting to tarnish in the salt air. This means using a toothbrush with a metal polish. Not a fun job.


Meanwhile I decided I could clean the white covers that we normally keep on the windows to lessen the heat from the sun coming in.

These never clean up as much as I would like but still it's better than nothing. It was nice to have the shade from the boat :-)

Steve's job today was the even worse one of cleaning the bottom of the boat.

Even though we had the bottom paint redone at the end of September, the times the boat sat for a week at a time and then being at Hollywood for almost 4 weeks, allows algae to being growing.

Not a lot but enough that if it isn't removed, it just keeps getting worse. Our goal is to take the boat out at least once a week to prevent the buildup from happening! We use an ablative paint on the bottom so it's kind of like a bar of soap. If the boat is moving through the water, the top layer of paint sloughs off - just like soap does.

The weather's been great although a bit warmer than usual.

Football games have been entertaining.

Full moon rising through the trees has been picturesque.

Life is good .....

Thursday January 1: Starting out 2015 at Treasure Harbor in the Keys!

Happy New Year!! No matter where you are celebrating, the New Year gives a new start to all that we are hoping to do.

Personally I prefer the celebration on the right :-)

We hauled anchor early yesterday. 53 miles to travel to Treasure Harbor on Islamorada Key - a marina we first discovered almost 20 years ago when we rented boats from them.

It wasn't hard to spot the anchor lying on the bottom - and this is in 7 feet of water!

Not much sand here really but not much wind either so it was not an issue. No fish either sadly. Later today  .....

After anchoring in Biscayne Bay for the night, we crossed over into the Atlantic for the first time this season.

The waves were MAYBE a foot at the reefs. A convenient stop was Elbow reef in the Pennecamp Marine Sanctuary. There was only one boat when we arrived and by the time we left we were the only ones on the reef!

It was a great snorkel for Steve with turtles, a large moray eel and lots of fish for the viewing.

Next: a quick stop for some fishing in the hopes of catching some nice yellowtail snapper or the likes. I thought of Dave (of Joysea) when I reminded Steve that I don't clean grunts (actually a good tasting fish but a pain to clean). We left empty handed but still the fishing was fun (so I was told).

Next stop: Treasure Harbor Marina. Really a great place. I recall the days when we were renting trawlers thinking that wouldn't it be fun to bring OUR trawler down here to this marina! And we did :-)

And another great sunset to boot!

Sadly the no-see-ums are out in force near shore. They are so small that they come through the screen.

Solution? Run the air conditioner and keep the boat closed up. Fortunately they don't appear until dusk.

They do love to sneak in near the extension chord for the christmas lights on the boat but Steve has the perfect answer by stuffing grocery bags in the cracks.

Tomorrow we'll be up early to leave with a mid-high tide as the entrance to this marina is quite shallow.

Destination will be Banana Bay Marina - home for the next couple of months.

In the meantime: there are college football playoffs to watch!!