We have finished our work on the fuel injection pump and have put up Pam's new bimini and weather cloths. We've been waiting for some good weather for traveling. There's a strong cold front coming through Saturday, but Sunday and the start of next week look good. So we are planning on taking off Sunday morning. Next stop Matagorda, Texas! It sure will be great to actually get out of Palacios. Its been a good place for us to start learning to sail and refi...

I have one other issue to take care of before we leave Palacios. I was looking for leaks after I replaced the water hoses to the heat exchanger. While I was doing this, I noticed that the fuel injection pump was dripping diesel... So I had to remove the header tank and the exhaust manifold just to get to the pump. A friend of ours is taking the pump to a shop in Victoria to get it rebuilt. With a little luck, it will be fixed and back to us tomorrow. Then I...

We are on our final countdown for heading off to Florida and then the Carribean! Pam's putting the final touches on a new bimini. I was rebuilding the head, replacing its hoses (they were 1 1/2" dia hoses but they had rock like stuff in them that constricted them down to only 1/2". And I replaced the last of the sea water cooling hoses, but then I came down with some really nasty crud... Nothing like being ill and not having a toilet! I should be b...

So I'm finally caught up with the blog! We are going to haul out Zephia next week and paint the bottom and take care of some other maintenance. We are getting closer to being able to move on from Palacios. Still need to practice anchoring out overnight and finalize the route we'll be taking. There still is a good probability of a hurricane in October, so after that we should be safe to start our journey.

I've been really bad about updating our blog. We've been way too busy. First of all, we did survive Ike. We hate hurricanes! We only caught the back side of it, but we were really worried. When we left the boat, I was fully expecting that when we came back it would be destroyed. Ike was a huge hurricane and was headed straight for Palacios when we left town. Fortunately for us, it turned a little north and hit Galveston. Its unbelievable the destruction t...