Winter in Charleston

Mar 12 thru Mar 15

—Blogpost written by Bob

Tuesday, March 12

A beautiful sunny day beckoned us to do something outside.  There was a cool breeze and the afternoon high was forecasted to only reach the mid 60's today.

There were a couple small tasks on my "to do" list for this week:
(1) inspect the seal between the upper and lower sections of our composting toilet--I wasn't able to turn it onto the locked position recently.
(2) repair a faulty overhead light in the head,
(3) put the refilled propane tank back in its locker beneath the helm seat,
(4) turn the dinghy right side up and clean the upper portion of the inflatable tubes before I add the second coat of red bottom paint, 
(5) take some underwater pics of our prop to see if we need a diver to clean it, and
(6) apply the second (and last) coat of bottom paint on the dinghy after the additional can of paint arrives.

I knocked off the first two tasks fairly efficiently.  I inspected the toilet's seal and determined that it was turning over onto itself when tightened.  We applied some petroleum jelly to the plastic surface of the toilet body and this allowed the seal to slide properly and I was easily able to lock it in place.

The faulty overhead light was due to two burned out LED bulbs.  Since LED bulbs are rated at 50,000 hours (nearly six years running continuously) I found it odd that two had burned out.  But after replacing the two bulbs (which I had in my onboard inventory), the overhead light worked fine.

This image of Leon's interior is from their
website.  Otherwise, one would
never find it this empty. 

By the time these two little tasks were completed it was time for lunch.  We caught a ride on the courtesy van to Leon's, the oyster and fried chicken restaurant on King Street--this has become one of our favorite go to places!  Today, we decided to stop at Charleston City Marina in future years coming down the ICW.


Once lunch was over I didn't feel like tackling another task.  Instead, I downloaded a new book and started reading.  The remainder of the tasks can wait another day or two.

Our replacement microphone covers
(the black sponge rubber thingies) 
for personal communicators
arrived today.  (I think Lola
swallowed the originals.)

Later in the day I crossed off another small task on my "to do" list by reinstalling the refilled propane tank.  This was an easy one!

My new birthday hat was
acquired today.

Wednesday, March 13

According to the weather forecast, today and the next several days will be partly sunny and highs between 65 and 75 degrees!

I got started early in cleaning the topsides of our dinghy.  Using Amazon's Inflatable Boat Cleaner, the job was easy.  I sprayed it onto the tubes in small (2-foot x 3-foot) areas at a time and then rubbed it off with a course rag.  I was finished by 10:15 AM.  Cross off another small task on this week's list!

Completely cleaned topsides!

A close up view of the cleanliness.

This morning I had trouble charging my iPhone--the problem seemed to be the charging cable connection inside the iPhone.  Maggie got it to work by taping the charging cable in one position but that was certainly not a permanent solution.  So, a visit to the local Apple Store was in order.

As we biked to the Apple Store on King Street I was getting mentally prepared to shell out some money for a new iPhone.  The technician at the store knew exactly what the problem was (and it didn't necessitate a new iPhone!)--the problem was an accumulation of lint in the charging cable socket that didn't allow the connector to protrude in far enough.  In a matter of minutes the problem was solved at no cost and I was on my way!

----------

The other small task I wanted to accomplish today was taking some underwater pictures of the boat's propeller and strut, looking for marine growth.  (If there is marine growth, we need to schedule a diver to remove it before heading north.)  I decided to accomplish this by fastening our GoPro camera to our longest boat hook and put in the water (from the pier beside the boat) and try to get close to the propeller.  (I last used this technique successfully in Wrightsville Beach a couple years ago checking for damage to our rudder after a grounding.)

My first video showed some barnacles on the propeller and on the strut.  I ran the engine in gear for maybe 15 minutes, hoping that the marine growth could be dislodged by the motion of the sea water.  I made another video after running the engine and the barnacles were still rigidly in place.  So, I ordered the services of a diver to clean our bottom before we leave Charleston--the diver is scheduled to clean the bottom on Monday (3/25).

A single frame from the second video I made after
running the engine in gear for 15 minutes.
This amount of growth on the prop 
would slow us down a little.

Thursday, March 14

Maggie reminded me that today was "pi" day (3.14)--not "pie" day!  Today was also Einstein's birthday as I learned on the morning news.  The weather today was absolutely beautiful, sunny and even a little warmer than yesterday.  We decided to catch the 11 AM run of the marina's courtesy van to Harris Teeter in Avondale for some grocery shopping.

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The second can of Aquaguard bottom paint for the dinghy arrived earlier than expected--so I was able to get the second (and last) coat of bottom paint on the dinghy in the early afternoon (allowing over 24 hours until the next rain).  This was the last of six small tasks I intended to complete for the week!

The red bottom paint is drying in the sun.  The
paint is water-soluble and, therefore,
must be completely dry before
exposure to the water.

As of the end of today, we only have two weeks left to our time here in Charleston.  We learned on the local news tonight that there are four seasons here in the low country: summer, hurricane, (college) football, and allergy.  We recently started allergy season.

Friday, March 15

Today was an absolutely beautiful day with a nice warm 10 to 12-knot sea breeze.  The seagulls were out in full force in the morning when I made the very long walk to the bathhouse. 

The big thing (well, the only thing) on our agenda for today was having lunch at Cru Cafe--one of the restaurants we have heard so many good things about but haven't had a chance to try yet. However, after riding our bikes to their location on Pinckney Street, there were no seats available for an hour.  We decided not to wait an hour--we'll come back some day next week and we will make a reservation beforehand.

We expected some rain later in the evening--so, we covered up the newly painted dinghy bottom to keep off the water for another couple days.   Stay tuned for our last two weeks in Charleston... 


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