It’s time for a different "poster-child" to write this edition of our blog, the Admiral has had enough "boating fun" so the Captain has volunteered to assume the duty this time.

Where do I begin? Let’s start with my birthday; thanks to those of you who sent cards & emails, for those of you who did not I’m still accepting gifts......preferably cash! :-) We went up to our favorite hangout, the New Orleans Bar & Grill here in the marina, to celebrate my 1st birthday as a live aboard. It was a pretty mellow event but the beer was cold, the food was good, the company was fun, and "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" continued to be on the tube.

During happy hour (one of the few times we have been happy lately) I was invited to play golf the following day at the local course, it ended up being a great break from all that was happening with Lifes2Short. I actually hit the ball pretty good for not picking up the sticks for more than 4 years, I managed to keep my score under a hundred but only by 3 shots.

After returning from golf the marina owner, Fred, stopped by the boat and wanted us to come back over to his house on Wednesday for a "farewell dinner & swim", he promised to lift the curse of "Fred’s Triangle" and supply us with good mojo so we could get away on Thursday. "Fred’s Triangle" is a local phenomenon; like the Bermuda Triangle, once you get in you can’t get out!

After a swim & a nice dinner of the Admiral’s BBQ’d shrimp & veggie kabob’s Fred lifted the curse and we were ready to leave on Thursday, one month to the day of our arrival in Demopolis. I got the Admiral up early so we could get underway before the heat of the day, we cast off the lines and were on our way before 7:00 a.m. By 9:00 a.m. we were back in the marina and wondering what ever possessed us to take on this new lifestyle.

Without getting too technical the issue was that the seal that keeps the water from coming in from the drive-shaft (the stuffing box) was overheating. Fortunately we had only gone 4 miles when I decided to do a temperature check on this piece of equipment and noticed that the stuffing box was up to 195 degrees, it should run about 95 degrees depending on the water temperature of the river. So back we limped to the marina, visions of a month ago, for round II of "Fred’s Triangle".

This time they actually hauled the boat out, all 15 tons of it, so we could fix the issue......which we did the same day. I keep telling the Admiral "everything happens for a reason", even though she is VERY tired of hearing this, and the reason for this new problem was so I could see the bottom of Lifes2Short which I had not had the chance to see yet.

The bottom looked good, almost as good as the Admiral’s bottom! The Admiral got her first chance at scraping the barnacles off the bottom of the boat while I replaced some zincs on the shafts & bow-thruster. After doing these few items and fixing the stuffing box issue we put her back in the water and idled back over to slip number B-15, which has become our local address.

We have decided that we will spend another week here because we have had a nagging oil leak in our port engine ever since we left FL and we figure we might as well take care of that item too. I have ordered the oil pan gasket and expect it here early next week, perhaps we will get out of the triangle by next weekend?? I guess the positive in all this is that I have really learned a bunch about the systems on this "money-pit" so in the future I "should" be able to take care of these items.......I say "should"!

There are also some other positive items that have come out of our misadventures; the next few days are supposed to be 97 degrees and it’s great to have AC here in the marina (Buddy is really enjoying the cool cabin), we continue to meet some wonderful folks and hear about their adventures, and we have another date to go over to Fred’s house on Sunday afternoon for more BBQ & swimming! Hell who knows, we might just stay here and forget about the trip?

Actually I have been offered 2 jobs while I have been here; one job is working for the marina and the other job is filling in for one of the waitresses/bartenders over at the New Orleans Bar & Grill while she is out on maternity leave! At any rate that’s where we are for now, still in Demopolis and still waiting to head north. We enjoy getting the emails from those of you who are keeping abreast of our adventures, so keep them coming. Cap’n T.