How we make AMAZING ICECREAM while Sailing

Hey Salty Family!

Welcome back to our family's sailing escapades in the beautiful Bahamas.

Today, we're diving into a topic that has made our island-hopping journey even sweeter – the 1-quart automatic ice cream maker with a compressor, a nifty find on Amazon that's become our onboard hero!

Now, life without ice-cream is something our family was not going to tolerate. LOL

However, finding ice cream in the Bahamas can be a real treasure hunt, not to mention expensive! While these islands boast crystal-clear waters, white sandy beaches, and breathtaking sunsets, they aren't exactly known for their ice cream parlors. When you're far from the bustling cities and tourist hubs, satisfying your ice cream cravings can be a real challenge.

That's where our trusty ice cream maker comes to the rescue! Picture this: anchored in a secluded cove, a warm Bahamian breeze rustling the sails, and your family gathered around with eager smiles. What better way to cool down and celebrate the joys of sailing than with a scoop of homemade ice cream?

This is our link to our Amazon Store which has all the items we keep on board to make ice cream!

https://amzn.to/3rkZ0NO

Now, as a current or future cruiser, I fully expect you to ask about size, weight and power usage! Rest easy, I have attached a graphic with those details. We found this little machine to be WELL WORTH the power use! It really doesn’t draw all the much, after it reaches the target temperature the compressor will cycle.

Now, let's talk ingredients. While you might not find a dairy farm around every corner, you can always stock up on powdered milk and cream. These kitchen staples are perfect for making your own creamy concoctions. We've got a simple recipe that'll have you feeling like a dessert master in no time. Also, in the Amazon link above we have shared our favorite powdered cream and milk.

Recipe 1: Classic Vanilla Ice Cream

Ingredients:

• 1 cup powdered milk

• 1 cup powdered cream

• 1 cup sugar

• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract

• A pinch of salt

Instructions:

1. In a bowl, combine powdered milk, powdered cream, sugar, vanilla extract, and a pinch of salt.

2. Gradually add water and mix until smooth, achieving a thick, creamy consistency.

3. Pour the mixture into the 1-quart automatic ice cream maker's freezer bowl.

4. Turn on the machine!

We found its easiest to make simple vanilla and chocolate ice creams and then add toppings. It’s easy to pack sprinkles, m&m’s and more to make it more fun!

With these easy recipes and our trusty ice cream maker, we've turned our sailboat into an ice cream parlor in paradise. The Bahamas may not be known for ice cream, but thanks to Amazon, we've unlocked the secret to sweet treats at sea.

Finally Boat Shopping..... Woot . Woot!!

So we finally officially starting boat shopping!!

Our first boat to seriously consider was a 2004 Lagoon 380! This catamaran was almost flawless! We LOVED her!! Her name was Mimi.

A few months ago we saw this beautiful sailing catamaran pop up on craigslist. This is highly unusual for a vessel like this to be available so close to home. Generally we see sailboats like MiMi in Florida or Annapolis, sometimes Charleston but even that would be a few hour drive.

We couldn’t pass this opportunity by! We called and arranged the tour, and to our surprise we fell in love! This catamaran was exactly what we have been dreaming of and she will be the yardstick to which all future boats will be measured against.

If you haven’t realized by my tone, we were not able to buy her, although we very much wanted to. We were very open and honest with her owner and we explained this was our goal! Sadly we are not yet in a financial position to make this kind of purchase. We hoped she would still be for sale in a few months and we could be ready to purchase her, but she has found a new owner. This is definitely the one that got away!

More about the finances… . MiMi was listed at 220,000.00. For a boat loan you will need about 20% down.. about 44,000.00 for this boat (give or take). He told us the price was 20,000.00 higher because he had listed it with a broker so the original asking price was about 200,000.00. We thought maybe we could get it for 180,000.00 or so because we have heard many times that large negotiations often take place. But even with the agreed price of 180K (which we hadn’t tried) we would still need 32K. We don’t have it… yet.

As you may recall, we have been putting all our extra money into our student debt so as to pay it all off. We don’t have a nest egg. Also, we are thinking more and more about a different business venture to allow us to make money without a traditional employer / employee dynamic.

At this time, sadly, we are not ready to make this kind of purchase. Simply put, we don’t have all our ducks in a row yet. We are hoping for a F. I. R. E. lifestyle:

-Financial

-Independence

-Retire

-Early

This means sacrifice now, yes we could have bought this boat but then we would be unable to create a foundation to secure our future travel adventure lifestyle.

We actually have a big vision on our we plan to make money and travel, and we will share that all with you in a few weeks when we start!

You’re coming along with us!

Welcome 2019!! What are the plans for this year?

Well, 2018 was a big year!! We seemed to have more downs than ups. The house did eventually sell and we are so happy to have that behind us. The RV… as you know.. was a nightmare of epic proportions. After the thing blew up, and then months of waiting and wondering, dishonest crooks and lawyers we finally have the RV back and with a new engine. I wish I could say thats it, but shortly after we moved in the toilet failed causing a flood of sorts in the bathroom, and the washer needed replaced.

Sure is lucky I’m handy! grunt grunt… other man sounds.

The biggest failure was the hydraulics which caused us to abandon the RV at the mercy of Hurricane Florence.

So many things went wrong but one by one we have handled them and overcome the obstacles.

No one ever said this would be easy… right? But who would have known our issues would have been like this?

Anyway, the year ended quietly, we had Christmas in the RV and the small space Christmas went off swimmingly. We all seem to have adapted to this compact lifestyle very well.

Enter --> 2019

The year has big big plans. These plans are preparation for our future. We know we want to buy a Sailboat BUT we don’t want to be in more debt.!

Our goal for 2019:

We need to continue to get our debt paid off.. Won’t be long now.

We are building infrastructure in our lives to allow us to travel and still have an income. We have very ambitious plans about this and, of course, we will take you along for the process. After all, the goal of sharing all this is to inspire you to live free like us.

All will be revealed soon!

Of course, we have adventure plans too!

Starting immediately we are embarking on a once-in-a-lifetime adventure in Florida….

Come back next week for more!

New Engine is in and we are done with the Dealer, After talking with Lawyers

Yes, things got very ugly in the end. The mechanic was met with employee issues and rain delays… yes rain, and weeks went by. We were promised deadline after deadline and excuse after excuse. We felt we were getting the short end of the stick so many times here and we had no choice but to get a lawyer involved. Good thing too.

When the final day came and we were to come settle up, the dealer wanted us to pay nearly $7000.00!! Remember, our agreed amount was $2000.00-2500.00 the amount above and beyond the cost of the used engine. I had it in writing! (text message)

It got very ugly, he said you can take me to court and I, very sternly, told him I will! I said, the RV can sit here at the mechanics yard, I will continue to make payments and I will see you in court! I said I’ve already spoken to a lawyer (which I had) and they felt we have ample evidence that he had failed to deliver and we were entitled to a full refund. He stormed out with a barrage of profanity and hostile gestures and then 30 minutes later he called me and left a message apologizing and stating that since I have it in writing, he will agree to cover all the additional costs!

It’s all done now. It’s still not right, but it’s gonna have to be good enough and we will sort out problems in the future.

Chalk it up to a life lesson on how to handle tough situations and when to stop throwing good money after bad.

I have intentionally left his name out of our blog and vlogs. Just stay away from RV dealerships in Mt. Pleasant S.C. If you need to know who the dealership was because you or a friend are shopping in this area, email me!

I have many videos up about this on YouTube.

-Our Engine Blew up! How did this Happen?

Okay so, the smoke was added in editing but this is accurate for how it felt!

So to catch up quickly…

We bought an RV from a small dealer, and after about 2 months we learned it needed repairs that would involve months of time and salvage parts. The dealer then agreed to “exchange” our RV for one of similar value, this time a Winnebago Adventurer. All good right? Wrong.. The Winnebago needed a whole ton of cosmetic work but he assured us the mechanics of it were good.

Again… a lie!

Turns out we learned this RV was purchased at auction, turned in by Camping World. Ask yourself, “Why would Camping World send an RV to auction when they are one of the largest RV dealers and service centers in the nation?” Because they knew it was beyond reasonable repair... That’s why! So, that means when he told us it was “good” he had no knowledge to back it up…Despicable

So basically, at this point he agreed to have the engine replaced!

We agreed on a Jasper Remanufactured engine, this was going to be a little more money for us but the other option was a used engine and more unknowns. We were going to cover the difference, above and beyond the cost of the used engine. He told us this would be about $2000.00 to $2500.00.

But… The question is why! Why did the engine blow up? We will never know for sure but we have a few clues!

The dealer told us he would deliver it to us the day before our trip! We expected them to arrive at about 3PM. They didn’t arrive until about 7 PM. At around 5PM we decided to go pick up a pizza and we saw the RV parked at the local gas station. We went on to get our pizza (pre-ordered for pick up) and the RV was still parked at the gas station as we traveled back home! The fuel was not filled up, so why were they there? TO LET IT AIR OUT AND COOL DOWN! They knew it was bad, about to blow and they gave it to us ANYWAY!

Again.. why?

When the RV was billowing smoke we pulled it over and checked the oil. It was empty! The dealer told us they did an oil and filter change prior to delivery… did they? Did they forget to put oil in it, or only a very small amount? We will never know..

Anyway, we have no choice but to roll with the punches. Onward and upward.

New engine here we come!

Searching for an RV, sense of impending doom...

We are off to find our next home. Should be a very exciting time… Right?

Well, we are total noobs here and I guess it shows. We first fell in love with a Gulf Stream and even purchased it.

The dealer told us there were some final projects that needed to be completed and it would be a few weeks. We were told about mid February. Well, this was our first clue to the character of this small dealer. Come mid March we still had not heard anything and we started to do our own homework. The dealer had outsourced the labor, so we went straight to the mechanic shop (thought we’d cut out the middle man). The news was quite alarming. Apparently the coach had some aftermarket suspension parts that have failed and the manufacturer was out of business. The coach was not drivable and was going to take months to repair with salvage parts.

He then offered to put us in a Winnebago Adventurer instead! Obviously he had us over a barrel here so we agreed to entertain the Winnebago. We made a different trip all the way back to Charleston SC - about 2 hours- and got our first impressions of what we now call “The Winniebeast”.

She was rough! But we thought the bones were strong and the dealer assured us this was a good solid coach and he was going to make all the cosmetic repairs, after all, this is what their whole business was centered on.

Okay, this story is getting long, so I will speed it up. After months of (what we later learned were) lies and deceit he delivered the coach to us. Most of the “renovations” were completed.

I say “renovations” in quotes because it was so laughable! However, again, we were kinda stuck here and I knew I could redo all of his shortcomings.

But..

The next day, the engine blew up. Yep, it blew up! We had planned an 8 hour trip to Florida and 10 minutes into the trip the thing is billowing white smoke, the smoke alarm and carbon monoxide alarm are sounding and we nearly got stranded.

He apologized, offered to come get it and take it to the mechanic to sort out what was wrong and he gave us 1000.00 for our inconvenience.

While away on our trip, sitting next to a pool I got a call from the mechanic, what I already knew, the engine was dead and would need to be replaced… .

More about the engine in the next post!

On the Market Off, Off the Market On…

So we entered into 2018 a little defeated. We had listed the house for sale and after 6 months it had not moved despite countless showings. We literally had piles of business cards of realtors whom had shown our home.

This is just a few…

We called them Realtor Droppings…

So we decided to pull the house off the market and do some maintenance and painting. In a 3600 square foot house, this was no small task. Also we had about a dozen windows that had busted seals and needed to be replaced, just to mention a few things we did to make the house shine!

We found a fantastic supplier of replacement window panes and after a YouTube tutorial we did all the work our selves, saving several hundred dollars.

The house is now back on the market!

We have listed with a limited listing service. It’s a 6 month contract and they will put the house on the MLS, Zillow, Realtor.com etc. We field the phone calls, arrange showings and negations. All for the bargain basement fixed price of about $300.00. Of course we will have to pay the buyers realtor but this will still save us several thousand dollars!! Woot Woot!

Christmas in Myrtle Beach!! A little different...

The holiday season looks a little different at the beach.  There are many traditional ways to celebrate but we also have a lot of improv.  This week we decided to go around and try to capture how things look at the beach in 2017!   

Here are a few of the fun and innovative ways we celebrate Christmas!

Sand Dollar tree ornaments, bulbs on succulents, lighted palm trees, and Christmas trees on peers.

In the parades they have snow machines!! 

Only bubbles but it still looks great!

No snow, no problem,  we can still have "snowball" fights!

Homemade Candy Cane ice cream doesn't get any better than this!  Made with our Sweetspot Instant ice cream maker.

As the night settled in we enjoyed the Great Christmas Light Show in North Myrtle Beach. 

I had never seen anything like it before!       

Really cool how they made the lights animate.  If you haven't already, click over to our Youtube channel to see some of this in action!  

(--------Click the YouTube button below --------)

Don't forget to subscribe!  We have a very lofty goal of 100 subscribers before the end of the year and right now we have 20!    Spread the word!

See you next week... if not before!!

Corey

Hurricane Matthew causes us to miss the Annapolis Boat Show

We had planned to go to the Annapolis Boat Show for months. We had arranged for time off work and booked the best hotel we could find: Pool, breakfast and close proximity to the event = best hotel for us.

We spent hours looking over the planned events and vendors.  We even talked about taking a class or two on something boatish. This was a big deal for us if you couldn't already tell.  We even went shopping for boat shoes in attempt to be able to board the boats while remaining shoed.  

(We have since learned you generally have to remove your shoes regardless of boat variety or other).

Then we learned about Matthew.  

We live about 2 miles from the coast of Myrtle Beach and we were evacuated.  

We decided to make the best of it. 

We quickly got online and found a camp site inland in the AMAZING Table Rock State Park.  

BTW did I ever mention we own a 1979 Airstream?

We found several trails to hike, and we found some awesome areas up on the mountain. 

We spent some time fishing....  Not so much catching, but we had fun anyway.

All in all we had a great time.  We made lemonade out of a lemon life sent to us.  Luckily we had no significant damage to our home from the hurricane.  

There was, however, one area of the mountain which disappointed us.  We found a scenic overlook and stopped the car to explore.  This was a very popular area and there were signs clearly posted: No spray paint or Graffiti.  As you can see in the pictures people painted frequently.  

And then... As we were getting ready to leave, I noticed something that got me thinking. 

If you have never seen the movie "The Lorax" you may not understand.  The essence of the movie to me was preserving nature and conservation.   What do you think of this.. Art?

Comment Below...

New Mercury... a few gift cards.

We have done a lot of reading online and review of others YouTube videos to find that most sailboats of this size do not need an engine much more than 5-6 horse power.  

What we experienced when we took our boat out the first time was 5 HP is the bare minimum to move us through the water. 

We decided the biggest issue was the water currents.  We are trying to learn to sail in the Winyah Bay in the Georgetown harbor near Charleston SC.  This area is affected by a river, the inner-coastal water way and ocean tides. 

Winyah Bay is amazing, we have already seen Dolphins and Bald Eagles as well as other cool sights of nature but the currents are crazy and from many different directions, sometimes conflicting (the river running down stream and the tide coming in). 

We needed a motor that could move us with certainty through the water. 

We looked up the transom specifications and all we could find was our boat could not handle more than 10 horse power.  This of course did not really specify weight so we needed to be conscience of this as newer 4 stroke motors often weigh more then older 2 stroke motors. 

We did a lot of homework and looked at many different vendors and eventually found Bass Pro Shops had the best price on a decent motor.  

We also found Bass Pro gift cards at Sams Club for 75.00 worth of gift cards we paid about 72.00.  For a 2300.00 engine this really added up to a lot of savings.  

Heres were this gets interesting. 

Becky bought every gift card in our Sams Club - about 80 of them which wasn't enough to cover the whole purchase but its all they had. 

We went to the Bass Pro Shop and talked to the sales rep. I told him what I needed and he knew I meant business, (I guess he could see it in my eyes).  He had the paper work drawn up, the title registration filed and the motor uncrated and running before he asked how I was going to pay. 

"Gift Card  ssssss"    I said as I pulled out a zip lock bag from my cargo shorts pocket full of gift cards. "Oh!" he said.  

He starred blankly for a moment and I started to worry that he was not going be be able to accept this form of payment.  Then he said "Well, I better get started on these" and he went to the back of the store to work on it.  I felt a little bad at first but then I noticed several other employees coming from his direction and they all seemed to be smiling and looking at us.  

I think every employee in the store knew what I had done within about 3 minutes. 

We saved about 90.00.   Worth it!!

They were great sports about everything!  They gave me a complete tutorial on the engine and instructions on the break in period.    

As you can see in the picture we bought a Mercury 9.9 HP 4 stroke with a long shaft. 

We have had it on the water once already and it really makes a big difference!  

Very Happy!!

On the Water Sails Up!

On the Water, Sails up...

After weeks of repairs, we finally got on the water and raised the sails.  Sooo amazing.  The feeling of moving through the water under sail is so different from what I imagined.  The most striking finding was how silent it was. 

We managed to tack a few times and move the boat along.  We must have arrived near the end of slack tide because we were soon overwhelmed by conflicting currents. 

Weird feeling to have the sails full and yet we were not moving.  As it turns out the area we were using for our first experience has two rivers which feed into the bay on one side and ocean tide on the other.  Basically we were barely overcoming the current.  Much the same feeling as if you were on a treadmill, you are working hard but not going anywhere.

None the less, we had a great time.  We saw Dolphins and a Bald Eagle dive and catch a fish.  Such an amazing first experience.   

The Kids also had a great time.  We had packed a large assortment of snacks and drinks, of which none made it back home.   

Looking forward to our next water outing, but we also struggled with our under powered engine...  We may have to do something drastic...

Engine Woes...

We were so happy to find such a great deal on a sailboat which came with a motor. 

The story was the motor was stored in a garage with the boat since around 1993 and the engine is a 1988.  So, by my math it would have only had light use for about 5 years!. 

The guy we bought the boat / motor started it up on the second-third pull and we let it run for about 5 minutes!  

I thought for sure we were solid here and I left this project for last!  -sigh

The night prior to our first planned boat outing Becky suggested we start the engine, let it run for awhile, make sure it runs good, etc.   Sounds good, I run to the gas station, fresh gas in hand we try to start the engine.  

Pull, Pull, Pull, frustration, yelling, anger, sweat, blisters, tendonitis.   No sailing tomorrow!

Becky suggested I share that I am known for my frustration which leads to yelling,  I disagree but it does run in the family....

We gave up for the night.  I always seem to wait too long before I decide to walk away and sleep on it. 

The next morning (Sunday) we discussed options.  

1, Purchase a new Outboard motor -$$$$,

2, send the old motor for repair- $$$,

3, or try to repair the motor myself -zero $

I have worked on other small engines (lawn mowers mostly) so I decided to take this on myself. 

I started with removing the spark plug and checking for compression.  All good so I replaced the plug with a new one and reinstalled it.  The fuel line filter was patent which leaves the carburetor. 

This proved to be easier than I anticipated.  It came off easily and I was able to carefully disassemble all working parts, clean it meticulously and put it back together without any replacement parts.  Now with the Carburetor reinstalled on the motor it fired and ran on the second pull!

We will be on the water next weekend and I will start it a few times this week to make sure it runs consistently. 

Becky said she felt lucky that she married a guy "who can do things".