Happy Thanksgivng

I know I am a week late in wishing everyone a very happy and blessed Thanksgiving. I hope everyone had a great day with family and friends. Rich, Lucky, and I went to our son Rick's house and I made dinner. Since it was Rick's year to have the boys it was my joy to be able to prepare the meal. 

 My heart was torn this year because part of me wanted to be with our marina family. This is the first year that a Thanksgiving meal was offered at the marina. The turn out was fantastic. Myron and Dena prepared two turkeys one smoked and one grilled. Twenty two people showed up bringing a special dish to share. By the time we got back to the marina at six pm there wasn't ever a piece of pie left. I am glad they all had a good time. This marina is truly blessed with wonderful caring people.

Rich has been busy working in the engine room. He is changing wiring and getting all the systems up and running correctly. We decided to move the Morningstar to Dock A. I really didn't want to do this because I love my slip on Dock C. On dock C we get a lot of shaking from the fast boaters. They ignore the manatee zone and speed past the docks on plane, but to me the view of the Ortega River is worth the rocking. We are only moving because while we were in NY dockmaster Paul let a 46' Sailboat dock across from our slip and his boat sticks out too far into the waterway. This narrows the area for boaters to pass through. So to be considerate of the other boaters in the marina one of us had to move.

Our new slip on Dock A has a nice view but my internet service is much slower and I do not get ION television channels anymore. My camera battery died just minutes before the move to Dock A so I had to order a new one. I feel truly lost without my camera. So for now there will be no new pictures until I get the battery.

Lucky is now very comfortable with the boat and is finally sleeping at the foot of our bed again. Well I guess that is all for now.

Be Blessed!

First devotional aboard the Morning Star in our slip (C81).

Thank You Lord, Thank you for preserving our beautiful "Morning Star" and saving her from burning. Rich and I love you and are so thankful for your divine intervention.  We give you all the glory and credit for her safe return to our home port at the Ortega Yacht Club Marina (OYCM)

Lord now that I have a moment to be alone with you, let me first ask for your forgiveness. I have been behaving selfishly and haven’t spent the time with you that I needed.  But now I want to take this time and thank you for your love and protection. I really don't know how I could have responed if I knew we had a fire on board our  “Morning Star.”

Rich and I were sitting on the bridge, when suddenly I was feeling the desire to sing “Great is Try Faithfulness”. I was looking out onto the beautiful Saint John’s River. The sun was shining in the sky and making ripples of stars upon the water.  Words or pictures just can not describe the beauty.

During this praise and worship time, there was an electrical fire burning up wires in the bilge of our boat. There was no smoke or smoke smell.  You had the whole situation under control. The fire put itself out once the heat stared to burn through the water noses. The water pump was on so it pumped our tank that were full of water on the fire. Our bilge pump sent the water overboard so once we found out about the fire the bilge was not very wet. The turbos on our 8.5 Detroit engines drew out the smoke and the wind direction took the smoke away from us. When the Gps started to go out and darkness was in sight, You had Eric cross right in front of us with his sail boat and showed us the direction we needed to go to get onto the Orgega River.  Thank You Father

Rich and I truly love the “Morning Star” and we don’t have any doubts this is the boat You wanted us to have.  I wouldn’t have known to look at a 36” Senator. The Morning Star truly feels like home to us.  We can shower in our bathroom and use the toilet anytime we want. I am so happy you love me and want to reveal your loving presence upon my life. I mean us. Rich and I are a team.   I guess I am selfish Lord.  I know of your loving forgiveness and how when I say to you I am sorry I have failed you suddenly you are there again and I feel your Spirit return to the throne of my heart. I love you Jesus. I am sorry for all of my wrong doings and sins I believe your blood is washing away my sins and I can come back into your presence. I love you Lord.   Devotional time to sing to you my Jesus.  

I love you Jesus,  I love you Holy Father and Amazing Holy Spirit. You truly are Alive and fun to be with. Lord please take away Lucky’s fear of the galley and master stateroom steps. He is making himself crazy and me as well.  Thank You Lord that as I sit here in the salon typing you this love letter, I am looking out at a warm and foggy morning. It is truly beautiful the morning is so still.  “Be still and Know that I am God” How often you have put that scripture on my heart to think on. Now I understand the stillness and it is refreshing and serine. I have the salon door open and looking into the sky. I see pelicans and sea gulls flying. I can hear them making all kinds of sounds some so sweet and some are very annoying. This is truly the day that the Lord has made I will rejoice and be glad in it.

http://youtu.be/De40GGwqlB8

That is the most Amazing Video that I have ever listened to. It is scriptural words spoke in the voice representing our Heavenly Father. Remember God is your Heavenly Father if you have asked Jesus to come into your heart. Our Heavenly Father needs our hearts to change us from the inside out.

http://youtu.be/CEtsHWFE6-w 

 

First Weekend Back Home at the OYCM

Once you are traveling or living aboard for awhile you start to realize most traveling boaters give out business cards. It is a way to keeping in touch or following someone you like on their blog.. You meet  new people all the time and before long you have a nice collection of memories. I had cards when we owned our 36' Trojan but never bothered to have any made up for the Sea Ray, Since the Morning Star is a very special boat and we hope to be doing a lot of traveling I wanted cards to give out. It is so easy to design them on the internet now. I chose this design for us. My new cards came in the mail Saturday afternoon just in time to give them to our friends at the fellowship dinner. The Lord's timing is always perfect. 

Rich has been busy removing all the charred wires and re-wiring the boat. It is a great undertaken but Rich never complains. We are both so thankful for the way the Lord protected us and the Morning Star from disaster. God's Word is so faithful and when the Lord says He is holding us in the palm of His hand He proved it to us. The more wires Rich removes the more we realize the miraculous intervention we had in putting out the fire in the hull of our boat. I took some pictures but they do not really show the charred wires or melted plastic.

It is great to be back at the marina and with the people we love. Rich took a break from wiring to design a way for Lucky to get on board. We went to Lowe's for supplies and Rich made a walk aboard plank. We picked up Lucky from Rick's house and now Lucky is back home with us. It did not take him long to learn how to use the dock steps once he saw Myron and Dena on the dock. He was so excited to see them. It is funny how dogs remember those who love them. Lucky is happy to be back home with us but will not go in the gally or cabins.  He is afraid of the steep narrow steps.

Well Sami is here to see Lucky so I better close this for now.  Be Blessed!

Our trip back to OYCM

Rich and Joey turning the Morningstar

We left Palatka to begin our 50 mile trip back to Jacksonville around 11:30 AM on Wednesday.

Joey offered to drive us to Palatka so we wouldn't have to make a trip back to get our car. I was very thankful for the ride and also thankful that Joey would be there to help Rich turn the Morning Star around. I don't know why but when the reality that we were finallly leaving hit me I started to get really nervious. In fact Joey offered to go with Rich and I would just have to drive his $50,000 truck back to Jacksonville. That was not something I wanted to do, so I said a fast prayer, reminded myself of the fact the Lord would be with us and then waved goodby to Joey and our friends at the marina. It only took a few minutes to start to relax once I started to soak up the beauty of the St John's River.

Just minutes into the trip the port engine started to run hot so Rich decided to shut it off and just use the starboard engine. Rich said it probably needed a new thermostat. The drive up the river was truly beautiful.

We were just pasting under the Shands Bridge in Green Cove Springs when we started loosing power on the alternator on the starboard engine. Since we were only running on the starboard engine Rich said he had to keep the batteries up so Rich started the generator.  Rich said it would power the battery charger.  Once he did that it was running fine. In fact with the generator running Rich went down in to the gally and made a pot of coffee which we enjoyed on the bridge. Everything was going great until we got back to the marina and Rich went to back up the boat into our slip and he couldn't get the boat to go in reverse. Rich did not know why this was happening and it made for a very trying dockage. 

Once the Morning Star was safely tied up, Rich went down below to check out what was wrong and found out that we had an electrical fire. It burned up all the wiring, it started burning the fuel filter and burned through the pressure hose,  The water pump was on so once it burned through the water hose the water put the fire out.  We did not see or smell any smoke. The Lord was truly watching over us and we are very grateful.  God's angels were truly with us. While I was up on the bridge singing, "Great is Thy Faithfulness" little did I know our boat was on fire. 

The Lord is so good to us. If I had any idea we had an electrical fire I would have freaked out and maybe jumped overboard. We maybe not, but I would have been calling 911 and the Coast Guard.

So now we are safely back at the OYCM and Rich has a boat to rewire. I don't know what we would have done if Rich was not able to repair the wiring. Rich said it will take him about a week to get all the wiring replaced. The Lord is so faithful and kind to us and we love him with all our hearts.  Be blessed!  

  

   

Our Departure was Delayed Again

Hello everyone. On Thursday when we arrived at the "Morning Star," the top canvases were not finished but the sundeck was completed. The Lord gave us the perfect weather to travel on Thursday and the lore of the water was strong, but we didn't get to Palatka until two pm and it as too late to begin the trip back to Jacksonville. Rich stopped to see Adam and told him we were going to leave on Friday morning and Adam said he understood and would just have to go to Jacksonville to finish up the canvas work. This really motivated them because they came to the boat a few times on Thursday taking measurements and fitting pieces.

Early Friday morning, I started to have problems with my stomach. At first I thought it was just nerves but it got worse and I was really sick all day Friday. The weather also changed drastically. It got very windy and cold. The temperatures dropped and I did not want to go anywhere. I was getting sea sick at the dock so we decided to wait until Saturday to leave. I was still sick on Saturday and the weather was windy, cold, wet and damp so we told Adam we would be leaving Monday morning and he worked all weekend on the canvases. After waiting all this time I did not want to take the trip to Jacksonville in bad weather. We live in sunny Florida so I knew the sun was bound to shine again in a few days. On Sunday afternoon Adam and his brother has the back three pieces for the bridge completed and the two side panels almost done. He told us he could finish it up by Tuesday and since Wednesday is suppose to be the best day of this week for travel we decided to come back to Rick's house and wait it out.

 

When we got to the house we found a house full of sick children and adults. They all have bad colds but no one seems to have had any stomach issues. Colton Seth and Jeremy are staying home from school today. We are going to be bringing the Morningstar back to OYCM on Wednesday.

Be Blessed!

Should be headed back to OYCM

If all goes well Rich and I should be headed back to our home port at the Ortega Yacht Club Marina on Thrusday. The Morning Star has been in the water for a week now. The canvas man has broken promise after promise to us and we spent the past week waiting for him to finish up the canvases. On Sunday when we left Palatka, Adam promised us the canvases would be done by today. The weather tomorrow is supose to be perfect for traveling the 50 natucial miles back to Jacksonville.

Rich is so ready to leave the dock.

We do not have internet in Palatka but once we get back to our marina I will be back on line with more pictures and the story of our first traveling adventure aboard our beautiful new boat. Rich had to do a lot of work on the engines and other maintenance but we believe they are ready to go.  Last week we had strong winds and it felt so good to have the water sloshing against the sides of the boat while we slept like babies. We are excited because our good friends Myron and Dena will be arriving at the marina in a day or so and we can't wait to see them. There will be so many stories to tell and hear about.

We will be leaving Lucky with Rick and Vande while we make the trip back to Jacksonville. Lucky is adjusting slowly to the new boat.  He does not like the steep stairs and will not go anywhere but the sundeck and salon. 

Hopefully we will see one of these on the way back to Jax.

Be Blessed.

http://youtu.be/B26yJeYY8LU

Picture Journal

Be Blessed!