December 26th. Tuesday

What a feast we had yesterday! Christmas morning had its trials and tribulations though. We discovered the pumps for our sinks and toilets are kaput, Yep! Means no running water and no way to get the fresh water out of the tanks. After breakfast of Hot Oatmeal (something hearty and warm – we have no heat other than our space heaters) Patrick and Victor spent hours in the engine room trying to get the pumps going. No luck. We hoisted the anchor and cast off about 10:30AM. Lionel got the turkey on the grill about noon, Bob and I were in the wheel house and Pat and Vic in the galley, where Patrick made a wonderful apple pie. We dropped the hook off Mustapha Island on the Ohio side of the river. My gosh – it is gorgeous. Victor managed to make the table look very festive and even though we had to make some concessions – like paper plates and no showers, it was a wonderful meal. Clean up was a treat. Using the stove to heat up water from our bottled drinking water supply proved challenging. But we are getting better at it. The Capt. Charged me with finding the next closest bit town that we can order ahead the pumps we need, hire someone to install and tie up for a day. I thought we were about 60 miles from Cincinnati, but calculated wrong – we are actually about 2 days out of Cincinnati. Internet service is very weak, but did manage to find a number for the chamber of commerce in Meigs County. I’ll call them soon as 9AM rolls around.

Victor is up and making coffee, time to get the Capt. Up. Wonder what adventures we will have today? Supposed to snow – that would be kinda neat.