Looking Back!

There's a great new project on the internet called the "7 Links Blogger Challenge"!  Created by Tripbase,  this project's goal is to unite bloggers from all sectors in a joint endeavor to share lessons learned and create a bank of long but not forgotten blog posts that deserve to see the light of day again.  In order to participate in this project, you must first be nominated by a fellow blogger.  Thanks to Matt n Christie of s/v Kaleo, we've been nominated to contribute seven of our past posts.  All nominees use the same seven criteria when choosing their posts, which makes this a real challenge!  Ken and I  reviewed over 100 posts, which brought back a lot of memories from the past year and half.  We've accomplished a lot during that time, but have so much more planned for our future!  So, here it goes ... our seven links:

The Most Beautiful Post:  Sailing to Mandeville



We'll be cruising the Caribbean in the future, but for now we've been sailing the waters of Louisiana.  We love sailing to Mandeville for a night or two!  Mandeville has a little bit of everything, including great local restaurants/bars with live music and fantastic food.  The boat dock provides a perfect view of the sunset on Lake Pontchartrain, and we think this place is a gem! 





The Most Popular Post:  Sailboat Blisters!

Unfortunately a lot of sailors need to know about sailboat blisters!  We experienced blisters, over 81 of those suckers, and we wrote about them, as well  as thru-hulls, strut repair, and plenty of other repairs during our six week haul-out.  We did all of the work ourselves, especially Ken.  Sometimes I think it must really suck to be a guy!  Although this was the most popular post, the actual "how-to" of blister repair was in another post, which we would say was our most helpful post.  This now leads us to ....



Our Most Helpful Post:  Sailboat Blister Repairs


With so many sailors experiencing blisters on their boat, we think this is our most helpful post, as it details how we repaired all 81 of these nuisances.  It's really not that difficult, but you do need to allow the time for the blisters to dry out.  It also takes a lot of time to cut all those damn fiberglass circles! 
 
We've tried our best to pass on what we've learned while our boat was "on the hard".  If you look to the right of our site you'll see "Stuff We Wrote" ... just click on "Haul-Out" for a lot of great and informative posts!
 
 
The Post We're Most Proud Of:  Nirvana Before n After
 

We're really proud of the makeover we gave our sailboat, Nirvana!  Ken and I worked really hard for six weeks in the hot Louisiana heat.  We painted her bottom, her hull, and her boot stripe (among many other things).  We also performed a renaming ceremony to keep the gods happy, then applied her new name and port.  We love our Catalina 30, so we also applied new "Catalina" decals.  Nirvana came a long way in six weeks, and we think she's proud of her makeover too!  Since this post we've also refinished the exterior teak, making Nirvana look a lot younger than a 1987 model! 
 
 
Most Controversial Post:  Oil in the Gulf!
 

This time last year oil was still gushing into the Gulf of Mexico and Ken and I were anxious about whether or not the oil would come into Lake Pontchartrain.  Our home is on a canal which connects to the lake, and we were in the middle of hurricane season.  Luckily, we dodged the hurricanes and the oil!   However, the oil spill stirred up a lot of controversy across the nation between those that feel oil drilling is a necessity and others that don't.  Hopefully this tragedy will get people thinking and turn into something positive in the future!  Living on our sailboat will enable us to provide our own wind and solar energy.

Post Whose Success Surprised Us:  Anticipation and Frustration!
 

This post almost won "Most Popular"!  We assume that the picture may have had something to do with the success of this post.  I found this picture and thought it was hysterical.  It was perfect for representing our feelings at the time!  We think that reaching a goal is not easy, and the frustration that can creep in your head is part of the challenge of "getting there".  Therefore, we wrote about our frustration in reaching our goal of becoming sailboat "cruisers".   We're not letting anything keep us down, but we still feel frustrated pretty often.  The house is still ours, but we're still moving towards getting it sold.  As they say, it's the journey ... not the destination!

 Post That Deserved More Attention:  Remember Our Veterans!

With all of the sacrifices and lives that have been given for our country, we thought this post would have been more popular.  This post was written on Veterans Day, 2010 and included an article written by Drew Brees, the quarterback for our hometown football  team ... the New Orleans Saints!  The article was about his grandfather and his service to our country.  It is a truly moving article, and we all should take a minute to read this article.  Ken and I are truly grateful to all of the men and women who have so bravely fought for our nation.  Do not let  them be forgotten!

So, what do you think about the posts we've chosen?  We'd love to hear your comments!

Want even more good stuff?  Check out our Facebook page ... we know you'll "LIKE" it!

Now, we must nominate a few bloggers.  Our choices are:

Knotty Cat Tales

Pineapple Girl

Bright Eyes

Hasta luego ... until then.  Mid-Life Cruising!