s/v Rainy Days

Winter in Charleston

Dec 19 thru Dec 23

--Blogpost written by Bob

Wednesday, December 19

We slept in until about 8 AM this morning. By 9:30 AM clouds were already coming into the sky overhead in advance of the weather system arriving tomorrow. Since rain is expected tomorrow and Friday morning, we decided to bike to the Apple Store on King Street late in the morning (where we hope to get Maggie’s cell phone fixed or exchanged) and then have lunch in town. (We put off some indoor projects like snugging up the nut holding the galley sink in place and cleaning out the port cabinets until tomorrow during the rain.)

King Street is the shopping area
of the historic district, as
we discovered today.

We took Maggie's iPhone into the Apple Store on King Street and traded it in on a newer version (iPhone 7)--so, finally her cell phone problem is fixed (after dealing with this since the Monday after Thanksgiving)! We had lunch at the Mellow Mushroom, a pizza restaurant on King Street, and it was excellent. Then, we did some browsing in a few of the high-end stores on King Street and stopped at Starbucks before heading back to the marina on our bikes.

All together we probably rode between 3 and 4 miles on our bikes. When we got back to the marina we layed our bikes on our finger pier and covered them with our forepeak tent to protect them from the coming rain. We put a white plastic trash bag over our forward hatch and weighted it down with coils of big lines, in preparation for a lot of rain tomorrow. (Talk about us looking like boat-billies!)

Thursday, December 20

The rain started at about 5 AM. It was heavy at first and then tapered off into the mid-morning. It came down even heavier in the afternoon. Fortunately, it was warm outside (in the 50’s) all day and there is no more rain in the forecast until sometime well after Christmas.

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Last night before going to bed we ordered a new throw pillow (on Etsy) for a little makeover of our main salon.

We ordered this Charleston map pillow
as part of our main salon makeover.

Actually, we also ordered two bright red linen pillows on Etsy that are coming from Latvia, of all places. The little makeover only involves new throw pillows. I ordered two more pillows today--one a shaggy (navy) blue.

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The first project of the day is snugging up our galley sink—it keeps turning sideways. The nut beneath the counter had to be tightened but, of course, it was not that easy. First, I had to remove everything from the shelf under the sink and then remove the divider on the shelf just to get access to the nut. I use the term “access” loosely—I can feel it by reaching (as far as I can) behind the bowl of the galley sink but I can’t see it. I can't even get two hands in there. I took a picture of the area with my iPad, using my headlamp for light.

This is the nut under the galley sink that I had
to tighten while working blind. The two
stainless steel braided hoses
are for hot and cold water.

Our next small project involved cleaning the inside of the cabinets on the port side of the main salon, where mold is created by the condensation near the hull-to-deck joint. First, we had to remove everything from the cabinet and store it temporarily on the settee. Of course, we got rid of a lot of things that were very old and not needed any longer.

Maggie cleaned out the cabinets on
the port side of the main salon.

This afternoon was one of the most uncomfortable times I’ve spent aboard. It was very windy (25 knots with gusts to 38 knots out of the south) which created waves from across the harbor that really rocked our boat (and we’re in a slip).

This is the view from the stern of our boat
during the high winds. (By the way,
this is a color photograph!)

We tried to watch TV for a while and then tried to read but the motion was too disruptive for much of any activity that required mental focus. It was raining too hard to go outside and do anything else. We simply had to wait it out—according to the WINDY app it should be over by between 4 PM and 7 PM. The gusty wind was actually over by 4:30 PM, like someone flipped a (big wind) switch to the "off" position.

Friday, December 21

The high wind started up again at 3 AM but the direction had shifted to the southwest--so, we were partially shielded by the boats next to us. Still, it wasn't great for sleeping.

At 10 AM we took the courtesy van to the Apple Store on King Street to fix the software upgrade problems I had recently experienced with my laptop. I think it was caused by trying to make an upgrade using my cell phone's hotspot instead of using a normal WiFi. (I've noticed that my cell phone hotspot cuts off occasionally for no apparent reason.) It was all fixed within an hour while we had lunch. I can't say enough good things about Apple, both products and services.

When we got back to the marina we picked up a half dozen or so packages that arrived for us and carted them back to the boat. (The S100 wireless remote control for our autopilot arrived today!) The wind was still horrendous (24, gusting to 37 knots) but coming from the southwest which didn't rock the boat as badly as if it were coming from the south. Before the end of the day some brief rain showers appeared from some dark clouds that passed overhead. After the brief showers the wind died down. We were glad for the reprieve—the wind was brutal all day.

Saturday, December 22

When we awoke, the wind had calmed down and it was much cooler outside (low 40’s). Heavy clouds were still lingering overhead but no rain was expected.

Our goal for the day was to do grocery shopping at the downtown Harris Teeter, a grocery store we haven’t been to before but we got on the courtesy van to West Marine instead--we went to the Harris Teeter near West Marine. We bought a ton of groceries! By the time we got back to the boat the sun was shining brightly and the cockpit was nice and warm.

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I decided to begin the installation of my autopilot remote in the mid-afternoon. As simple as it seems, installing the two AAA batteries in the remote was the most time-consuming part of the task. I thoroughly read the instructions which were very simple. First the instructions state to remove the screws on the back of the battery compartment with a very small “cross head” screwdriver.

I hate to admit this but I am a mechanical engineer and never heard of a “cross head” screwdriver—it turns out that the instructions were referring to a common Phillips screwdriver (of which, I probably have a dozen different sizes). However, there were no screws to remove—they were enclosed with other screws in a little sealed plastic bag.

After fifteen or so minutes of online research and thinking, I gently pried off the back to the battery compartment with my pocket knife. I inserted two new Duracell-brand batteries (instead of the generic ones made in China that came with the unit). (By the way, the S100 remote was made in Hungary.) Then I installed the tiny "cross head" screws on the battery compartment lid.

In the cockpit, I held the unit’s little rigid plastic holster onto the face of my instrument pod where a big gap existed after recently changing to a smaller autopilot control head and drilled the holes for the three self-tapping screws.

Space remaining in instrument pod after
changing autopilot control heads
last summer.

Installing three screws from the supplied stock completed the installation of the remote on the instrument pod where it will be stored when not in use.

The remote inserted in the fixed hard
plastic holster for storage.

The installation of the remainder of the remote (the wireless base station) will wait for tomorrow, now that I am prepared with multiple sizes of “cross head” screwdrivers.

Sunday, December 23

Today was a beautiful day reaching the low 60's outside. We rode our bikes into town to see Rainbow Row, a series of colorful houses on East Bay Street.