Winter in Charleston

Jan 26 thru Jan 29

—Blogpost written by Bob

Saturday, January 26

Nearing the end of our second month in Charleston, we are getting accustomed to the roller coaster of winter temperatures in the low country.  Early this morning the outside temperature hit freezing but by mid-afternoon the temperature was in the high 50's.

Our big event for the day was riding our bikes into town for lunch, this time at one of our favorite lunch spots, the Brown Dog Deli on Broad Street.  Our normal bike route into town is down Lockwood Drive which turns into Broad Street--we like this route because the sidewalks are wide and there are very few people walking on them until we get to King Street.

Our regular bike route into town is Lockwood
Drive to Broad Street. (This photo was
taken while returning to the marina.)

The shadow of a wrought iron gate onto
the sidewalk along Broad Street.

A brief stop along Broad Street.  (Our
bikes are in the foreground of this
photo locked to a lamppost.)

Our lunch at the Brown Dog Deli was fantastic as always.  We got back to the boat at around 1:30 PM and relaxed in the warm sun making its way into our cockpit enclosure.

Sunday, January 27

The sky was overcast when we got out of bed--it stayed that way all day.  The outside temperature was in the mid-50's pretty much all day.  I understand that this is the normal winter temperature for this time of year.  Today was a complete nonevent--nothing happened except we got all of Lola's matted hair combed out (what a job!)

Monday, January 28

Again, we awoke to an overcast sky.  The sky cleared before noon and the temperature increased into the mid to upper-50's. 

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Our big objective for the day is to run a cable from the autopilot's course computer (under the quarter berth), back to the pedestal, up through the pedestal guard, and into the instrument pod--this was believed necessary to complete the installation of the autopilot's S100 remote control.  Of course, before any routing could be accomplished we had to remove everything from the quarter berth (our de facto storage room) and remove the platforms beneath the cushions.  Since our living space is small, the only place where we could temporarily store the quarter berth contents was in the main salon.

Before pulling everything out of the quarter berth, I looked over the schematic diagram for an easier way.  Since I already had a blue backbone cable running into the instrument pod, I determined that I could put the SeaTalk1 to SeaTalkNG converter strip in the instrument pod, along with the RF Base and all the necessary cables. I just had to make one splice, essentially to cut the red power lead so that the power from the SeaTalkNG network did not carry over to the SeaTalkNG network.

Schematic of new wiring arrangement done
completely within instrument pod

This was a huge saving in the amount of work required!  I was finished with the project by lunchtime.  This is the first boat project that I recall that required less time than I expected! 
'The new S100 autopilot remote (far right) draws its power from the instruments on the old SeaTalk1 network while drawing its data from the newer SeaTalkNG network. I learned a lot doing this little project!

Sailboats at rest.

The stern of s/v MOKEN from Amsterdam

Tuesday, January 29

The outside temperature is already in the low-50's at nine in the morning.  We realize that people in the upper mid-west are experiencing temperatures well below zero today--I can't even imagine that.  The polar vortex is expected to dip down a little and affect us too but only for freezing temperatures overnight.

Our goal for the day was to go grocery shopping, taking the marina's courtesy van at eleven o'clock to the Harris Teeter in Avondale.  We accomplished our goal and we can eat for another week or so.  I finished another book and will review it next blogpost.  Stay tuned...


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