After we arrived in Florida, we were staying in a house in Mary Esther, about 40 miles east of Pensacola. The drive from the house to the boat was about one hour. So needless to say we were spending a lot of time on the road. But that was not to last for long.

On the first full day here, Thursday the 16th, I began going throught the boat’s systems with C. A. (he sold us the boat) As we were looking at the engine, C. A. noticed some surface rust on the port side that hadn’t been there before.

A quick examination revealed that the raw water cooling pump on the main engine had a leaking water seal. In order to replace the water pump, Mr. Yanmar (the engine manufacturer) saw fit to place it in a position that requires you to remove an engine mounting bracket. In order to remove an engine mounting bracket, you must support the weight of the engine. The simplest way to do this aboard Cannibal is to put a timber across the middle of the salon with a come-along hanging from it. I should have taken a picture, it’s not pretty! So after we got the pump off, we had to order a new one. But when you order a pump on a Thursday evening, the earliest you can expect it to arrive is the following Tuesday, what with the intervening weekend and all. So at that point we were “dead in the water,” the floor was all lifted up and there was a giant timber across the salon with an engine hanging from it. Not the most conducive circumstances for moving aboard! But we only had the U-Haul until Saturday. What to do … what to do?

But God has a way of working things out. Don’t you love that phrase, “But God.” While we were working on the engine, hurricane Dean was kicking up in the Atlantic. It was originally projected to hid the mid Texas coast. C. A. and Bettie had just returned from Corpus Christi where they purchased a trawler (cabin cruiser). They had planned to move it to Pensacola after they helped us get up to speed on Cannibal. But now with a hurricane coming, they needed to head back to Corpus to move their boat and needed someone to house-sit and dog-sit while they were gone. Having nothing better to do, and having our boat moored in their back yard, we volunteered. So they left early Saturday morning (the 18th) for Corpus and we moved into their house and were able to unloaded the trailer just walking distance from the boat instead of an hour away in Mary Esther. Since we couldn’t really get around below decks (giant timber and all). We put all the stuff from the U-Haul in the forward hold of the boat. Man that space holds a lot!

So Sunday we went back to Mary Esther to clean up the house and wash sheets and generally check out. While there, we went to the beach and had lots of fun.

Eventually the parts came in and we got the boat put back together. I also got a LectraSan MSD (essentially serves the same purpose as a mini septic tank) installed. We got everything put away and slept aboard the last two nights.  We took the boat out for a sail on Friday. There wasn’t much wind and we were only out for about 3 hours total but it was a great learning experience and we enjoyed it.

Anyway, today we are resting and collecting our thoughts and making a list of things that we need to bring back to the boat from OKC. Then tomorrow, we’ll leave bright and early and drive back to OKC to put our remaining stuff in storage and have a big garage sale.  Stay tuned.

Well we had to render down our belongings to what we really needed. It is really pretty tough. We made three categories; stuff we wanted to take on the boat, stuff we wanted to save and store, and stuff we were willing to part with. So eventually we ended up with our “essentials kit”… although there is no food, shelter, or love. We’ll get food as we go along, Cannibal is our shelter, and we carry our love everywhere we go anyway.

Here is our “essentials kit” all packed up just before unloading in Pensacola. It’s amazing how much one of those 5 by 8 U-Haul trailers will hold.

Tuesday: We had to stick around until FedEx delivered the loan papers to our banker , Jonathan (@ the Quail Springs BOA branch–awesome guy–if you’re in OKC, call him for all your banking needs. He just happens to be Miles’ brother for all you VSA peeps.) Anyway, by the time we (John) signed the papers, got gas & freon for the a/c, picked up the sleeping teens at Namama & Papaw’s, changed the ball on the trailer hitch, we finally got out of OKC at 11:30am. 17 hours later—that’s right folks—17 hours!!!!! We arrived in Mary Esther at 4:45 am Wednesday morning. We had a major delay in Dallas-18 wheeler had a bad wreck. Pulling the trailer also slowed us down quite a bit.

Wednesday: By the time we all woke up, it was around 11:00am–not bad considering we were up so late. Garrett and Kimi slept a lot in the car, and Travis and I had little naps, but we tried to stay up to help keep John awake. Kimi & Travis had not seen the boat at all before, so they were pretty anxious to see it. We tromped around on it for a while, then headed back to the house in Mary Esther (the boat is in Pensacola-an hour away). Oh, another cool God thing. The house in Mary Esther. A friend of a friend owns a house in Mary Esther that she lets her family and ministers use for vacations. It’s perfect!!! It has 3 bedrooms and 2 baths and she is letting us stay there as long as we need to. How cool is that?!

Thursday: John and Travis went to Cannibal to install the LectraSan (a potty accessory-look it up), to replace the membrane on the water maker, and some other stuff. While they were down in the bilge they discovered that the engine’s water pump was bad and needs to be replaced. It won’t be in until Tuesday so not sure what we’ll do til then. It’s part of boat ownership–parts.

Now we’re at Panera in front of a glass window where a man just outside is sleeping. Garrett whispers at the window, “Hey, mister!” Oooooh…he must have heard him. He left. That will be all for now. Tune in next post for more excitement from the Votaw’s.