Did I tell you I'm into DIY?

So it's not news that I'm into Do-It-Yourself (DIY) Projects. I come from a long line of yard sale shoppers, trash pickers, crafters and do it yourself lovers. Living on a boat has also taught me how to scrimp and save money while reusing items that in another life I may have just thrown away. During my DIY hunt online for an alternative to those chemically enhanced plastic Glade Air Fresheners I stumbled upon Smashed Peas & Carrots. This awesome "Mommy Blog" offers up a clever alternative idea that I just had to try.

We used:

Mason Jar
Baking Soda
Essential Oil
Scissors
Safety Pin

If you already have some of these items around it makes it that much cheaper! I purchased three 8 oz. mason jars from Shell Lumber for .99 cents each.  I already had lavender oil & baking soda on hand so, my initial investment (ha ha ha) was very small.

Fill the jar half way with baking soda, add about 10 drops of essential oil. Cut the paper to fit the inside of the lid, fit onto the top of the jar and place lid over the paper tightening down on the jar. Then poke holes in the paper with a sewing needle or safety pin. Gently shake it up and allow the sweet scent to fill the rooms! We put one in each head but the scent filled the whole boat, making it feel calm and clean.

This project is truly one that will last a long time, whenever you want to release more of the scent just give the jar a little shake. You can also add a few drops of oil to prolong use.

If you give this a try, please let me know what you think!

It's FRIDAY!

When we were cruising and I could never remember the day, I just had to log on to Facebook and see all the posts about it being Friday. Now that we are working "real" jobs, I am fully aware of what day it is. Today, I am happy it's Friday tomorrow I have the day off. But I won't be sleeping in. We will be getting up early to take the boat over the to Rickenbacker Causeway. There we will meet a fuel truck and receive about 160 gallons of fuel. The best price we could get was $4.08 per gallon.  Once we are fueled up we will mosey on back to the marina and do a good wash-down. We need to work on the VHF radio and may need to replace the antennae. So what projects are you doing this weekend?

Change of Scenery

I'm so happy to release our BIG NEWS!

It's official - we are moving to Ft. Lauderdale! 

After 5 months of living aboard Felicity in Coconut Grove, we are moving to be closer to GR's work. Can you believe he has been commuting by bicycle and public transportation for almost 5 hours just to get to & from work? Me neither! Five months of getting up at 5 am just to get to work at 8 am. Five months of arriving home at 6 pm when his day is finished at 4 pm. Wow, what a guy!

Gia has been studying her butt off at school to pass a state mandated test called the FCAT. This week is her opportunity to show the state exactly how hard she has worked since November when she began her 3rd grade public school experience. Gia is so happy that she got the chance to meet up with her friends from Coconut Grove Elementary again, but she is definitely ready for a change. The rigorous schedule that her class has followed has allowed her to see that Home-School is awesome! Maybe next year we will continue with that plan for 4th grade.

As for me, I have given notice to both The Bookstore in The Grove & Sale Rack. I'm sad to leave them but also excited about what lies ahead! Oddly enough the girl who is taking my position at The Bookstore is also taking my position at Sale Rack too! So I think everyone is happy with the seamless transition!

Coconut Grove is one of our favorite places to live but we have never lived in Ft. Lauderdale. Our new dock will include, WiFi, Cable (with 5 HBO channels), a Swimming Pool, and it's only 3 miles from GR's job! We will be spending more quality time working on Felicity, instead of commuting! The grocery store is only 1 mile away and the beach is about 5 blocks down the road! All of the conveniences being close by is helping u avoid purchasing a vehicle, which we are really against. We don't want the expense and we love the exercise we get from biking everywhere!

This weekend was big in getting us ready for our trip up to our new home. Our official moving date will be April 28th.

Wishing you your own felicity,
Jessica, GR and Gia

Crunch Time?

I'm so glad I have you all following along so that I have someone to share this crazy thing we call life with! We got the stove Monday night after we were supposed to have received it Friday night. No harm, no foul right? We were just as happy as clams to get it period. The anticipation was killing us. So we opened the box.

Hmm, something just didn't look right. So we took a closer look. One of the knobs popped off and rolled to the floor.

So, yes, we are in talks with the company and the shipping company to see what we are to do next. Hopefully, they will make it right and we will be up and running in a short time.  The saga of Project Galley continues..

Really, Refrigerator?

After living for the past 3 years without refrigeration we have slipped into the world of comfort pretty easily. Currently we have a household fridge on board. It came with the boat, it's old but it worked fine. But, suddenly the fridge lost her cool. Just to give you all a quick update we kicked off Project Galley a few weeks ago by ordering a new 20" range. Isn't it just fitting that the fridge would go on us? This is how one chore turns into a bunch of little ones.

It's almost as if she knew we were getting new appliances and wanted a replacement herself! My first clue  came on Monday morning, (of course not on the weekend) when I noticed the milk wasn't very cold. I mentioned something to G and he said to call the repair man (since he was at work). Here is where is gets interesting. Repair man arrives, he takes one look at the fridge and says, " You need a new one." Really? "That will be $20," and with that he is gone.

Now I have the magnitude of finding a fridge bearing down on me. Have you ever had to replace a broken refrigerator or other major appliance? It's not a quick and easy job. Typically, you would drive around to various appliance stores in search of the right fit, design and price. For us, we don't drive so getting to a couple of places in one night between 5pm and closing was just not going to happen. We set out to our local Home Depot and were told they had no stock, anything we wanted would be a special order. Booo! We stopped to grab a bite to eat and while we sat, we thought... if we are going to have to order something we might as well get something perfect. The Home Depot salesman was searching through inventory on the Home Depot website, I mean, we could do that! So back home we went, sort of befuddled.

Meanwhile, the freezer is still going strong and now has all of the perishables like milk and yogurt inside. GR gets to thinking, if the freezer is still working something must be able to be repaired to cool the refrigerator part. So we sleep on it, work all day and voila! When GR finally gets home from an extra long day at work at 9:30pm he tears into the fridge! I pulled up a parts breakdown of the current GE model we have and GR took a quick peak into where certain items were before he started dis-assembly. After removing the housing and fan we came up with the lazy culprit causing all the fuss! The motor that runs the fan was not running.

Seventy five dollars later we have the part on order and expect it Friday! 'Til then we keep our fingers crossed. I'm so happy we were not forced into buying another household fridge as the goal here to be more self reliant. A 12 volt system would be better in that way, but we sure would lose a lot of space, so we are torn. One thing is for sure, we will not take our luxury for granted! We should have a running fridge and a brand new range this weekend! Woo hoo! Hurray for handymen!

The Sandbar

Me and James, GR photo-bombing us

Every place has one, a little sandbar out in the water where people can tie up like the country song, "Redneck Yacht Club" and get wild and crazy! Miami did not disappoint, our first trip to "The Sandbar" was a success. We brought all of our girls, sure they were all under 10 years old but whose checking? We filled the requirements, lots of girls! The sun was blazing, the breeze was cool and the water was the perfect blend of blues and greens.

The kids jumped off the fly bridge into the water and even swam a few hundred yards to get to the very shallow sand bank to collect shells. While we were out there having a blast we were reminded of the couple of things we want to "repair". One being a stereo and speakers, our set up is really weak. We need the front deck and all the rooms down below to be able to hear music not just the salon. Thankfully, for us a boat pulled up along side with a full on DJ on board blasting the typical booty shaking music. We weren't short on loud music or Brazilian bikinis bouncing around! We were also reminded that our time on the water can only be limited to a few hours because of our refrigeration. With this massive household fridge and no generator we can't keep our food and drinks cold.

So we enjoyed our time on the water, got some sun and headed on back to the slip. We needed that trip out so bad. We all feel refreshed, ready to go back to work and make some more money to create the dream we long for.

Electrical freedom, free from the dock; financial freedom, free from the job and creative freedom, the freedom to live our dreams!

We got 'em, so now what?

Don't let this face fool you, she isn't having a hard time holding these incredibly light tanks. Granted they haven't been filled with propane yet, however, these babies are so light even Gia could carry them to be refilled. (Commence evil laughter) Mwah ha ha ha ha. All part of our plan to get our kid to work for us! No, but seriously though we are really happy with our purchase from Backcountry.com. Check them out for some of their other great boater friendly items without the "marine" price tag!

Now that we have the tanks the next step is finding out how to install them into a spot that

1. we don't have to look at, like a box or storage hold.
2. that we can easily run the hoses down into the galley.
3. that doesn't require a bunch of hassle/re-designing/cutting of fiberglass.

Like any boat project, "Project Galley" not just cut and dry usually one project opens a door to another and so on hence the reason every boat is still under some kind of construction/repair/re-design. Also another reason why so many projects get left undone. These projects are going to have to be done on the weekends as time does not permit on the weekday and two days just doesn't seem like enough but we are going to give it H-E-double-hockey-sticks for sure!

In the meantime, we are trying to come up with a good font for our transom. We have been searching the net and wanted to reach out to you all. Show us your transom. Go to our facebook page, "like" us if you haven't already and upload a photo  of your transom, or a font you like for our boat name. Can't wait to see what you come up with!

Fuel for the Fire

Backcountry.com Best Price @ 89.95 no shipping

Here she is, take a look! Fiberglass propane tanks are the coolest new invention! We have been dreaming of getting fiberglass tanks since the day we first saw them on the stern railing of another boat. The idea is that you can see the level of propane and never have to guess again! Believe me those propane gauges never work anyway so just save yourself the time and money and buy these! They are actually cheaper than stainless tanks. Since having a propane stove is all I have know for the past few boats I'm a bit spoiled. When it comes to cooking with propane the benefits are seemingly endless. The only downside would be Sunday morning pancakes interrupted by having to switch tanks or worse, lug the only tank you have into town for a refill. Not anymore!

Time Saver - Cooking with gas ranges allow you to begin cooking right away as there is not waiting for burners to heat up like with electric units.

Safety -  Propane burners cool just as quickly as they heat. Turning off the propane from the tank also saves fuel and keeps from gas leaking into your living space.

Consistency - Propane allows for even heat distribution across the bottom of the pots and pans, so forget about hot spots!

Precision - Temperature control like quickly changing from boil to simmer allows even the newest chef to look like a seasoned professional!

Propane is a great resource supplying 3 to 4 percent of our nation's total energy needs. Almost 11 billion gallons of propane are consumed by 60 million Americans every year to heat, cool, cook and light up their homes! Propane is universal and is also used in countries around the world so when you need a refill in Bahamas or Jamaica it can be simple. For us, living outside the box and relying more on self preservation to live leaves us seeking out new technologies and methods to spend more time at sea and less time at the dock and with our new galley set up we can do just that!

How will you get set up to stay longer out at sea? Are you relying to much on America's electricity? Cut the cord and seek out our renewable energy alternatives, you just may find a new hobby!

Until next time...;)

*We got our tanks (2, 20 lb. vertical) from Backcountry.com, they were available in a variety of colors including red, blue and green. We chose white;)

GR's Five Favorite Products

Fridays are fun days right? Everyone is excited about the weekend, including us. I decided that on the blog Fridays will be Favorite Days! We will talk about some of our favorite things like anchorages, products, companies, and foods.

In my opinion, GR is a "Mr. Fix It" like no other I have ever seen before. He really takes pride in every job he does and that shows. There are a few products he uses on a regular basis that help tremendously and we wouldn't consider leaving the dock without them on board. I just LOVE telling everyone about the little tricks we have learned about certain products. So without further delay, here we go! While most of my posts are pretty basic this one gets down right technical! (Well, for me anyway!)


Super Lube - It's a great multipurpose grease and can be used as a dialectric grease for electrical connections. When applied to rubber gaskets it can keep them from dry rotting. It performs well in high temperature areas. The secret ingredient, Syncolon® (PTFE) a replacement for Teflon. It creates a better barrier between moving parts.


PB Blaster -  Penitrating oil can that break free many rusty things including Master-Locks, screws, bolts and any other fastener you may need to break loose. You can spray it on bike parts after the evil rust monkeys get to it.

Ultra Tef Gel - Creates a barrier between two dissimilar metals. Every screw, nut, bolt and rivet get a bit of Tef Gel.

Sea Foam - GR adds this to fuel, diesel, gasoline and oil. When added to oil at oil changes it keeps the valves clean and working freely. GR has also been known to soak carburetors in it to clean out all the junk that builds up. Cleans injection systems and engine parts.

Sno Bowl* - Sno Bowl is the best at getting that brown brow off the hull that every boat gets from the ride down the ICW. It works in the head getting all that calcification off the bowl.

Have you used these products? Do you have any other uses for them? Please share them with us in the comments section. Today being Friday, I'm sure GR has a list of projects for us to do this weekend. I'll be sure upload anything good we get done!!

*This stuff is seriously bad for the environment and contains Hydrochloric Acid. So handling this should be done very carefully and sparingly.