Life in Boatland

 Chores day at Publix is fun.  We went to a new store here in Charleston, it was big, clean, well lit and no horrible music. We got everything on our list and then some.  They have a foreign countries section with traditional foods from Germany, Italy, UK, China, Mexico, Caribbean and more.  I perused the German section looking for this particular mustard we like.  David found it originally at Fry’s in Phoenix and then we could never find it again.  For Christmas, our Daughter Leslie found some, bought 5 jars of it.  We are down to 2 so when I saw it today, I topped off our stash.  We also bought more Snappy Grillers since we enjoyed them so much last night, I still think it’s a funny name.  We went to CVS to pick up meds and get our DPT (diphtheria, whooping cough, tetanus) booster shot.  Since we have a new baby coming very soon, it is advised that anyone around the newborn be up to date on those things.  The shot didn’t really hu...

 This is a mojito night.  We had a couple of white knuckle moments today. We had to time our departure schedule based on the tide schedule.  At low tide we would have run aground, so we waited for a little more water.  We had a bridge to go under, we called the operator for a lift (actually it was a swing bridge, they rotate horizontally instead rising vertically). He stopped the traffic for us and commenced swinging the bridge open.  At that point the water was flowing, guessing, 2-3 knots pushing us wherever it wanted to.  We tried to get centered and go through the bridge fenders but the tide had other ideas.  We ended up going in the out and not exactly straight.  That was pucker factor 3.  We apologized to the bridge operator for going through the wrong side and for taking so long, the current was not our friend today.  Speaking of which, we normally run about 1700rpm and go about 7.3-7.6 knots. Since we were trying to stay in the h...

 We enjoyed our day off.  We did a few maintenance things, cleaned the sump pump (that’s where the showers and bathroom sinks drain into, the sump pump then pumps the water overboard).  It gets soap scum, shampoo and hair in it and begins to smell pretty bad.  This is the second time we’ve cleaned it and then smell goes away immediately. Thank goodness!  Our excitement for the day was not a fun excitement.  Somehow,  the breaker to the big freezer in the commissary got turned off....several days ago.  That space was not smelling very fresh , shall we say.  David went to get something out for dinner, opened up the freezer door and closed it very quickly.  The entire contents had thawed and gone bad.  We had  made a Costco run in the beginning of our actual cruising, we had a lot of really nice steaks, chicken, bacon, butter and my Detweiler’s hotdogs.  Not too thrilled about throwing away all that meat that I had vacuum pac...

 South Carolina,  here we come.  We continued up the ICW, our path was waypoint heavy, 161 to be exact.  We would change our course heading every 30 seconds to as long as 5 minutes.  It kept us on our toes, that’s for sure.  We had to race another boat for the last mooring ball, we lost.  We did find another one, thank goodness as there were no available slips In the marina. We decided to put the dinghy in the water and go into town to wander around. Then we heard this noise, a really,  really loud noise.  And then we saw them,  the Blue Angels jets pull straight up into the sky and then do a nose dive straight back down again.  They flew this way and that way and practiced their different formations.  Once they flew over the mooring field so close and so LOUD, you could feel the power behind each jet. We were awestruck just watching them, all 45 minutes.  We were told by fellow boaters that they practice here and I was ha...

 Drum roll.........I got to take the boat off the dock this morning! And I didn’t hit anything! I have been hesitant to control the boat when we dock and leave the dock.  As David handed me a headset, he simply said, “ok, you can take us off today”.  Instead of protesting that I wasn’t ready yet, I agreed.  I was actually anxious to try it, David is so good at it and makes it look so easy (and I know it’s not!). He watched the stern and gave me gentle instructions, I used the thrusters, all away, put it in forward, gave it some gas and off we went.  OMG, it was so cool!  Maybe I’ll take a shot at docking much sooner than I imagined!  Today’s trip was from Midway Georgia to Thunderbolt Georgia, 40 miles, 6 hours and we average about 7.5 knots, I drive the boat about 1/3 of the time.  Hey guys, thanks for reading the blog, shoot me a text so I know who you are.  Thank you Kev, Grant and Marcia and Marilyn, and Chrissy.

 Sunrise was a fuchsia color this morning, normally orange or red but this color I’ve never seen before.  It was quite stunning.  We knew where we wanted to go today but because we had to factor in the tide, we didn’t depart until 10am.  We had 183 waypoints on our trip today, which means no goofing off, man you gotta drive this thing!  Some of the time we went against the current putting the pedal to the metal to go not very fast and suck a lot of fuel.  Sometimes we went with the current and got a free ride.  For awhile the wind blew like a son of a gun and I got to extend my catnap (I sleep when it gets rough). But we finally made it to our little “off the beaten path marina” called Sunbury Crab.  Their restaurant’s claim to fame is, yes, crab....and was it good!!  I ordered, what we called in Durango, CO a “boil”.  There were 4 crabs and a dozen shrimp, very fresh by the way!!  It took me over an hour to peel the shrimp and crac...

 The Atlantic gave us another great day on the ocean.  Seas were smooth today, a little wind, and made this a 2 nap trip.  We watched a shrimper feed the birds, many many birds! Hope the video will load for you to see.  Ellie got to play “hide the goodie”. She gets bored so I show her the goodie, David keeps her occupied while I hide it somewhere on the boat.  She loves that game! The excitement for the day was running across the remains of the GOLDEN RAY.  In September 2019,  a Hyundai owned cargo ship was delivering 4200 new vehicles to the Middle East when it capsized off the coast of Georgia, near St Simons Island.  It took a year to devise the plan to scrap the shipwreck. A salvage crew welded 16 steel girders to the starboard side, each weighing 35-80 tons each.  A lift was then attached so the ship could be cut apart and the now rusted cars could be removed. Today, there is about 366 feet left to be removed. Today’s run was from Fernan...