Winter in Charleston
Dec 2 thru Dec 7
—Blogpost written by Bob
Sunday, December 2
Thunder, lightning, and heavy rain greeted us to Charleston. It rained all night last night and into today. C’mon, this place is supposed to be a winter vacation spot and this wet, rainy weather is unbecoming. I have to remind myself that it is snowing in the northeast.
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| Maggie, in her foul weather gear, is pointing to the sign for Charleston City Marina. |
The rain continued all day. We ventured out to use the marina’s bathroom and for a short walk around the marina. When we got back to the boat, any part of us that wasn’t covered by our foul weather jackets was completely soaked.
We spent the afternoon inside the boat watching a couple football games and a sappy Christmas movie.
Monday, December 3
I got up during the night because our fresh water pump was running dry. I turned off the pump. I knew we were on our last tank of fresh water. First thing in the morning, I filled our water tanks and vowed to find and fix the leak in the fresh water system today.
The sky was overcast in the morning but some clearing was evident in the east. The weather prediction is for clear skies by 9:30 AM!
After a brief breakfast onboard we, first, fixed the shore power supply by installing our 50-amp pigtail and used our spare 30-amp shore power cable as an extension since our regular 30-amp shore power cable barely reached the marina’s power pedestal and we were concerned about the connection coming loose.
Then, we offloaded the dinghy from the foredeck and stored it upside down on the end of our pier. (We painstakingly loaded the dinghy onto the foredeck just after we arrived on Saturday.) This allowed us a lot more space on the foredeck and made us look less like “boat-billies.”
After all the “heavy lifting” was completed, we strung our Christmas lights on the lifelines of the starboard bow. (We need to get another roll of them!)
We then tracked the fresh water leak that allowed the pump to cycle and empty our water tanks prematurely. The leak was in a screwed connection in the hot water line under the floorboard between the galley sink and the head sink. (Of course, we checked a lot of other places before we found the leak.) I tightened the connection and the leaked stopped.
Our next goal was to find the cause of a circuit breaker closing—it was the circuit breaker for the starboard cabin lights. A lot of small things are connected to this line, including the fan for our composting toilet. I removed the line for the little fan and it had no impact on the problem—however, when two other lines were connected the problem persisted. With all the moisture we’ve had on the boat during the past two days, the problem could just be condensation that dripped into a switch. We left the fan running continuously on our A/C while we went to lunch and during the afternoon with the hope that the boat would thoroughly dry out.
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Following are some of the sights around the marina:
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| Welcome to Charleston City Marina. |
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| This is the Mega Dock where the largest boats are docked. |
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| s/v Metolius from George Town in the Cayman Islands. |
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| This is just the stern of s/v Adis from London--it is a 3-masted sailboat with lots of beautiful teak. It probably has a crew of five or six. |
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| I don't know why anyone would name a 46-foot boat "Free Range Chicken." |
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| This boat is an Oyster, maybe 53 feet long, with a metallic gray gelcoat color on the hull. Very pretty! |
While we were waiting for the boat to dry out, we ordered two beach bikes from Walmart—they will be delivered on Thursday. This was much cheaper than a 4-month rental of a similar bike. We picked up the required bike permits at the marina office.
Finally, the clouds and the rain cleared out of the area! We're renting a car today to go to Walmart to buy bicycles since it didn't work out so well on Walmart.com |
| Our bike permits for 2018. |
Tuesday, December 4
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| A beautiful sunrise over the marina in Charleston. |
We bought two bicycles (Maggie's is yellow with beige tires and mine is black with red tires) at Walmart and bought a cheap bicycle rack so that we could get them back to the boat. We also bought some bike locks and another string of Christmas lights.
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There are two pump out boats here in the marina and someone has a wicked sense of humor--the names of the boats are (1) The Grateful Head and (2) Bow Movement.
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| Yhe first pump out boat is named "The Grateful Head." |
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| The second pump out boat is named "Bow Movement." |
We're still drying out the boat with the A/C's fan running continuously. Today was sunny and dry too, which helped a lot.
Wednesday, December 5
It was a sunny but cool this morning as we rode our new bikes into Charleston. We visited the Charleston City Market, where local vendors sell all kinds of things from handmade jewelry to t-shirts and other clothing. The Charleston City Market originated in 1804. Of course, there are many vendors that sell sweetgrass baskets, a traditional craft of the Gullah. "This style of basket was originally made to winnow rice on local plantations. Today, sweetgrass baskets are works of art and highly sought after souvenirs."
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| Looking through an arched window of the Charleston City Market. |
From the market we walked down East Bay Street one block to New York City Pizza where we had lunch. Their pizza was excellent! On the way back to the marina, we stopped by the bookstore for College of Charleston which is run by Barnes & Noble, an interesting partnership. We bought some lanyards for our keys for our bike locks. We biked about 5 miles today.
When we got back to the boat (about 2 PM) our mail and one other package had arrived. We sat in the warm cockpit and went through a month's worth of mail, most of it junk mail.
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So far the weather pattern seems to be cold during the night and early morning, then it warms up into the 50's and 60's during the day--this is for weekdays. On weekends, it rains almost continuously.
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I am still baffled by an electrical problem on the boat. I have a circuit breaker which controls the lights on the starboard side of the boat. (The overhead lights are on a different breaker and there is a similar breaker for the port side cabin lights.) Ever since all the rain this past weekend, the starboard cabin lights circuit breaker has been tripping. Being the electrical panel, there are three wires to areas that are controlled by this breaker. One wire is to supply power to the little fan for our composting toilet--when I hook up this wire alone the circuit breaker works fine. When I hook up either or both of the two other wires, the circuit breaker trips immediately. I measured the resistance in each of these two hot wires and found shorts to ground. (I tried wiring to a different circuit breaker and it does the same thing--so, it's not the circuit breaker.) It is very odd that this system worked fine up until after the rain this past weekend and it is also odd that two different lines have the same identical problem. I guess I have to thoroughly search each line for problems.
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Coming back from collecting some packages that were delivered to the wrong place, I tripped over the ledge on our cockpit enclosure and ending up with all my weight leaning against the starboard winch--it cracked the screen of my iPhone that was in my jeans pocket! So, tomorrow we will get the screen repaired in Mount Pleasant.
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| The cracked screen on my iPhone 6 Plus. |
Thursday, December 6
The outside temperature dropped to 38 degrees F early this morning! Fortunately, inside our boat it was nice and warm, thanks to our reverse-cycle heat. The only discomfort we experience in the cold (at least when we are in a marina like we are) is condensation inside our boat. When the interior warm air meets a cool surface exposed to outside cold air (like our hatches) condensation forms on the inside surface. The only reasonable remedy for the condensation is to use a dehumidifier inside the boat—if it gets much worse, we will consider buying one. (The high temperature for today is forecasted to be in the mid-50’s.)
This morning, we are off to an iPhone repair service in Mount Pleasant to repair my damaged iPhone screen. We bought some things at Walmart (a new crock pot and some groceries) while my iPhone was being repaired. We were back at the marina by noon. This afternoon, I am committed to having a relaxing time since it seems like we’ve been on the go ever since we arrived here in Charleston.
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| This is my "warm happy place" today! |
Friday, December 7
The sky is clear and the sun is shining brightly, although it may be the last time we see the sun until Monday. I've been reconsidering my positive thoughts about rainy days.
We rode our bikes into town for lunch and took a different route: all the way down Lockwood which turns into Broad Street to East Bay and then left on East May to Market Street.
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| This street musician was playing Christmas music on the saxophone. |
I still have a leak in the fresh water system (after fixing one already) and the electrical problem for the starboard cabin lights--I will be tackling these problems during the rain this weekend...stay tuned...
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