Finally...Getting Some Projects Underway

This past weekend seemd to be a bit fruitful.
We have many projects planned for the Lucky Find III, but thanks to the upstate NY weather, most of them can't be started for another 2 months.

However, this weekend we got some plans off the ground.
On Saturday, we met with some of our marina friends, Bruce & Diane Malboeuf, for lunch in Canandaigua, NY. Bruce is an excellent cabinet maker and woodworker. I hired him to fabricate two bench seats for the flybridge. One will be an "L" shaped bench and the other a straight bench. Bruce gave me some very professional 3D drawings,

3D drawing by Bruce Malboeuf

and I gave him the go-ahead to purchase the materials and get started with the labor.
When completed, it will look like these two photos ....though the fabric on the cushions will be a different color & material.

Starboard side seating

Port side "L" seating

So, thankfully, this is underway

After our lunch, we drove to Greece, NY to meet with Bob Gozia of RLG Electronics. Bob is an top-notch marine electrical technician. Our Raymarine L760 had two broken pins in the transducer socket. I ordered the part from Raymarine last Tuesday, and received it on Thursday. We brought the unit and the new part to Bob, and less than an hour later it was finished.....now that is out of the way.

From there, we stopped at a Pier 1 store to take look at some new chairs for the salon.

and will get them sometime in March, along with some nice cushions for these chairs. We didn't buy anything, but we found what we like and will get them sometime in March, along with some nice cushions for these chairs.

Like a new home, a boat needs it's owners personal touches. Dottie wants to have new upholstery throughout the salon. On Sunday, Dottie and I went to the boat to make a template of the dinette seating and helm seating. We bought a roll of that brown kraft paper and traced out the cushion arrangements and made some exact measurements.
The week before, we ordered new Sunbrella upholstery fabric from http://www.sunbrellacentral.com/ . We found this place to be an excellent source of fabrics.....inexpensive, free shipping and excellent custome service. We ordered the fabric on a Tuesday and received it on Thursday.

Today I took the fabric, template and old cushions to our friends here in Clyde, Mike & Antoinetta Nicoletta, of Nicoletta's Upholstery and they will get started making us brand new cushions for the dinette and lower helm. Should have them no later than March 21st.

So all in all, it was a productive few days.

Scratiching the "Spring Itch"

This past weekend skies were blue and the sunny....
So, on Saturday, off to the boat we went, climbed in through the shrinkwrap and began doing some measuring and what not for the coming season. Dottie wants to do a little updating to the interior and needed measurements for curtains, sheets and bedspreads.
While there, we plugged the shorepower in and let the batteries charge a bit. All it took was about 30 minutes, and the batteries were topped off with a full charge.

Sunday morning we drove out to Syracuse to attend the Central New York Boat Show at the NYS Fairgrounds. First wet our daughter Karen, her SO Dave and our grandson Mitchell for brunch.
We went to the Calypso Cay Restaurant in Brewerton, and as always, this place did an excellent job on the brunch menu.

By 1PM we were in the boat show and spent the next 3 hours just strolling around looking at all that was new for 2009.
It was nice, but after attending some of the major shows in Annapolis, Ft. Lauderdale and Miami, this show just cannot compare.
All in all, we had a good time, met a few "docker" friends and just enjoyed the day.

It's those blue and sunny skies that just puts you into anticipation mode of the Spring season.

Back Home....AGAIN !....Thank You

Just a note to let everyone know that I am back home from the hospital.
To those that sent an e-mail or made a phone call, I thank you.

On Saturday evening (January 31st) around 9PM, I was overcome with some strong pains in my chest. We were traveling from Oswego back to Clyde when it happened. We had just finished having dinner with 2 other couples, friends of ours from the marina. I had Dottie take over driving and she drove me directly to the E.R. at Newark-Wayne Hospital. I spent the next 6 hours being checked over for a heart attack, and thank God, I didn't have one. I was then admitted to the Telemetry Unit of the hospital until noon the next day. My cardiologist did suspect a blockage, and made the necessary preperations for me to go to Rochester General Hospital on Tuesday (February 3rd).

Sure enough, after a angiogram, a blockage was found in my diagonal coronary artery, and Dr. Ling Ong placed two stents in that vessel to open it back up. He had already placed 3 other stents in my LAD artery in 1999 (1) and 2006 (2)

"This is a picture of the angiogram showing the blockage in the diagonal artery.
Notice the white space at the beginning of the diagonal artery. That is the blockage.

After stent placement, that white space disappears, meaning that blood is now flowing into the artery."

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These 2 stents were put in a bit differently than my prior 3 stents. Instead of using the femoral artery in my groin, he used my right radial artery in my wrist. One tiny puncture hole into my wrist and artery, and in went the catheter. He went up my arm, into the brachial artery, then into the subclavian artery, across my chest, into the arch of the aorta over the top of my heart and right into the diagonal branch artery. It is unbelievable how far this technology has come since my last double stent placement back in 2006. The best part is the recoup time....now hours instead of days.
Right now, I feel great, and hopefully this will make me a bit more comfortable over then next few years.

Again, thanks for your well wishes, it is deeply appreciated.....

Al