Wilbur is sad

This is what a sad little pit bull looks like.
Why is Wilbur so sad?
He feels bad because not all pitties are loved as much as he is.
Far too many of them are being thrown away like garbage and usually after being starved, beaten, and sometimes even shot.

I read a lot of blogs written by owners of rescued pit bulls and their stories are unbelievable. The amazing thing is though, that these dogs who were treated so cruelly by so called human beings are still full of love and affection. One dog in particular that I read about was found in a dumpster. She was grossly underweight and had open sores all over her but when a policeman opened up the lid and discovered her, she wagged her tail. She's now in foster care and well on her way to getting a forever home with loving owners.

Another pit bull was tossed into a mall parking lot in Texas during last summers heat. She had almost no hair due to mange and was lying there on the scorching pavement in 110 degree temperatures until someone found her and took her to the vet. She was also starving and suffered from heart worms, mange, a destroyed eye, and then they discovered she was pregnant. She has had a long and painful recovery but she gave birth to a litter of beautiful pups who've all been placed in homes. Recently during her heart worm treatment the vets discovered she'd been shot in her rear end. Through all of this she has remained very sweet and loving and we all hope the rest of her time on this earth will be fear and pain free.

Anyway the cost for the treatment for these dogs can be very high as we all know. Some vets are kind enough to offer a discount which helps but it's still expensive.

The latest pit bull who needs help is named Shy. You can read about her here and here.

Shy has been living at a vet clinic for quite some time and they think she may even have a future home but she still needs cataract surgery as she's going blind.



If anyone would like to make a donation I tried to add a chip in button to this post (If I failed, you can find it at Two Pitties blog). Any amount will be very much appreciated and if you have paypal it's a breeze. Just a couple of bucks is all it takes.

Let's put a smile like this back on Wilbur's face!!!

Sewing Bloggers Meet

Mary, from MarySews, was kind enough to let me know that if we were able to finally motor into the Daytona, FL area we should let her know so we could meet.

Well after a very eventful trip through the Intracoastal I honestly started to think we'd never arrive, and then TAAADAAA! There we were!

Mary and her husband Paul came by last night and we hope they had a nice visit. Wilbur insisted on being the Welcome Wagon and he barged into our photo op!

We had a wonderful visit, and Mary and Paul were so nice and offered their services should we need them.

The last blogger I met was Marji from Fiber Arts Afloat and I get such a kick out of what a small world it is after all!

More motoring than sewing or sailing.

One of the problems with the Intracoastal is that even though you may have a sail boat you are going to motor almost the whole way. But anyway at least we're finally in Florida and closer to sailing than we have been in weeks.


We arrived in St. Augustine, FL on Monday and ended up staying until today. Hans had replaced a pulley on our raw water intake and we ended up with problems. Seeing smoke pour out of the exhaust instead of fresh water is never a good thing. We hope it's finally fixed but at least this extra time allowed us to meet some fellow cruisers and we all ended up going out to a Martini Bar last night. We had a great time visiting and sharing both good stories and bad. It's always nice to hear that you're not the only people who seem to get into fixes with your boat. I was thankful that I actually had one pair of jeans that don't have huge holes in the knees. Believe it or not I've mended both a pair of jeans and a pair of capris but they continue to rip anyway! Boats are hard on everything.


Earlier in the day when we were walking around St. Augustine I happened upon a quilt store and went in to buy some thread and as I was paying for it I apologized for our appearance. I promised them we weren't derelicts even though we certainly looked like it. They were probably afraid we'd come in to rob them.


Here is our boat as seen from the bridge.
This beautiful building is now Flagler College. It was originally built as a hotel and by today's standards would cost about a thousand dollars a day to stay there! Hans said he felt like he was in Spain as the Spanish influence is still really strong here.

Even though it was cool, we were able to keep the cockpit door open until bedtime. As I sat in the salon and read for a while I could see the foggy lights of the bridge in the distance.

We finally set out again today and will have to anchor tonight. One of our fellow boaters arrived at an anchorage awhile ago and called us to let us know that his anchor held nicely and that there is room for us.

Tomorrow we hope to arrive in the Daytona Area (Port Orange) in the afternoon and Hans is itching to watch the Super Bowl.

Some more boat sewing and Wilbur jumps ship!

I made some pot holders a while back and decided I may as well use them on the boat. You can see that I have them stacked upright in my pantry area, and in my spice bin.

I put them beside a can of Pringles (the super stack sized) and you can see how big they are. Actually, they make great trivets.

I pleated and re-sewed another part of what was originally a purse storage bag and hung it in the guest head.

Yesterday we ended up staying an extra day at our marina because Hans had to replace some plumbing. When our boat was winterized someone at the boat yard didn't drain all the water out properly and a brass pipe burst. This extra time allowed me to mount my new storage bins.

They're in our guest berth but I stuck our bottles of sunscreen in one, clothes pins in another, and some clothing in the last one. I have enough of this stuff remaining to make another set.

It's all about storage on a boat!

Last but not least, Wilbur snuck off the boat this morning as we were getting ready to cast off. Hans and I were both in the cockpit trying to remove our grill and I was positive I'd heard Wilbur's tags jingle. We had the engines running and and Hans was going to get our dock lines ready to release. That's when I wondered why Wilbur wasn't in the cockpit with us as he's always getting in the way. After checking the salon area and then our berth and not finding a dog, I started becoming alarmed. Hans insisted he'd just seen him in our berth so I went below again and pounded the covers in order to make sure he wasn't hiding.

He wasn't.

That's when I lost it. Hans turned off the engines and I jumped onto the dock and started screaming Wilbur's name. I was trying to peer under the boat when someone way up the dock yelled out to me. "Up here" he shouted, and I saw about three people looking out into the parking lot. I started running as fast as I could and as I approached the end of the dock, I saw Wilbur coming back toward the men who'd been calling for him. I was shaking so bad and breathing so hard I'm surprised I was able to remain standing.

I have no idea what possessed him to jump over (it was a big drop too!) and it must have been a pretty fast maneuver on his part since Hans and I were right there! Yesterday when I took him for a walk he was fascinated with an area right behind a white car. He pulled me over to it several times and nearly inhaled the pavement he sniffed so hard. That's pretty much where he was when we found him and it must have been preying on his mind all night long to get back to that spot.

This is what a baaaaad pitty looks like after getting caught. Once we hauled him back on the boat he hightailed it to our bunk.

He's always on a tether when he's in the cockpit but from now on when we're ready to cast off I'm going to close him in our berth.