Winter in Charleston

Mar 4 thru Mar 7

—Blogpost written by Bob

Monday, March 4

It was windy and raining most of last night!  Not a great night for sleeping!  Fortunately, today started out sunny.  It is still a bit windy but I can live with that.

Last night, I read most of Robert Sherer's 2018 ICW Cruising Guide and I, as a regular traveler on the ICW, was very impressed with the accuracy and thoroughness of this guide.  I learned about several new spots along the ICW where I would like to stop and explore.  I purchased this guide as a Kindle edition (for only $10) and still prefer my other ICW guides for use in the cockpit as we are traveling.  However, I highly recommend this guide, particularly for those travelers with mast heights approaching 60 feet or so.  (I will probably use this guide as research reading the day before entering each area of the ICW, as opposed to a cockpit guide.)

The cover of Robert Sherer's
excellent 2018 ICW 
Cruising Guide.

On my agenda for today was (1) lightly sanding and adding a coat of varnish on the teak trim on the port wing of the dining table (it's in the cockpit), doing some clean up on our dinghy (scraping any loose paint off the hull, etc.), and going out for lunch.

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Before I got started with some physical work (or even showered) I tried to catch up on some Amazon product reviews--I must have reviewed 20 products or more.  I think the customer reviews are one of the greatest benefits of buying from Amazon and I am glad to participate.  I generally read the reviews of products before buying them.  Many times I get good advice that make me rethink my purchase.  My product reviews are mostly positive.  I hesitate to give negative reviews--rather than providing a negative review, I just don't provide a review.  I know this is probably wrong but it is what I feel comfortable doing.

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At mid-day the sky was completely overcast and there was a persistent threat of rain, even misting lightly at times.  It was a cool and damp 57 degrees, a little too cool for my clothes.  At noon I turned my industrious work ethic on its head by having lunch before doing any boat work.  I caught a ride on the marina's courtesy van to the Brown Dog Deli on Broad Street and took my big (Nikon D-700) camera along for the ride.  (It is a little strange going out for lunch without Maggie.)  The light rain began more earnestly as the van made the wide sweeping turn from Lockwood onto Broad Street.  

Broad Street after the light rain stopped.

I'm writing this portion of today's blogpost on my iPhone and "in the moment."  (Usually, I write in short spurts during the day on my laptop.)  Can you tell any difference?

Something intrigued me about this intersection
of Broad Street and Church Street.

An interesting balcony overlooking a small
parking lot behind Broad Street.

The roots of this tree actually conformed
to the pavement in its search for
moisture over the years.

Over the last several days I discovered an excellent video blog called "Sailing Magic Carpet" which is about a young couple cruising in Europe.  Besides being the narrator, she is an accomplished violinist from Canada and he is an apprentice boat builder from Switzerland--they are both in their twenties I would guess.  I am fascinated by their attitudes toward life and their thirst for adventure, despite not having much money.  Her sailing life started out by buying an old wooden sailboat for $1 as described in this video.  (I encourage you to watch more of their videos--simply go to YouTube and search "sailing magic carpet".)  

When I was their age I was already indoctrinated into the 9 to 5 routine, working hard to pay my home mortgage, car payments (and eventually sailboat payments), and to advance my career.  I (foolishly) never even considered my life could have been different.  If more people would have followed their heart instead of doing what everyone else was doing, I can't help but think that the world would be a much better place.  I think I have finally followed my heart but it took me a long time to learn to do so.  I sometimes wonder if I had followed my heart when I was in my 20's how my life would have been different.  I may not have the same sailboat I have today but I may have been the captain of a fishing boat.  Who knows.  It definitely would have been something to do with the water and I would have been my own boss (as I was most of my life anyway).

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Well, I really didn't accomplish anything today (except going out for lunch) but I did share some of my thoughts about life and some of my photographs of Charleston.  Maybe I will get more done tomorrow...

Tuesday, March 5

The rain woke me up at about 5:30 this morning—it wasn’t actually the rain drops hitting the cabintop that woke me up, it was a heavy drip that was out of sync with the outside rain. Like a drop falling on something hollow—the top of the stove or a pan. I never found that hollow dripping sound previously and I wasn’t going to look for it while I was still sleepy. I pulled the warm covers over my head and went back to sleep.

About 8 AM came along and the cats were getting restless--they wanted to be fed.  As I got up to feed the cats I noticed that the heater was running but it wasn't getting any warmer inside the boat--plus the raw water pump seemed to be working very hard.  So, I turned off the heat and pulled up the floorboard panel in the aft cabin to disassemble the raw water strainer.  I found a white gelatinous biomass nearly the size of my fist in the strainer basket.  It looked like a jellyfish but it didn't have any stinging tentacles (fortunately for me).  Once I cleaned out the basket I couldn't get water to flow in the intake hose, meaning that there was more to the biomass than what I encountered.  I connected the dock hose to the raw water intake and blew the biomass back through the seacock with the dock water pressure--this worked great!  I then reassembled everything, turned on the heat again, and by 10 in the morning had my breakfast. The heat felt so good this morning after I fixed the water intake!  We have two other forms of heat if I couldn't fix the problem: (1) an oil-filled radiator and (2) our propane fireplace.

It was noticeably cooler outside this morning (48 degrees) and according to the weather forecast it will only reach 50 degrees by the afternoon.  The chance of rain is forecast to diminish as the day progresses.  Now, will I get more done today than yesterday?

An image of the back of a large house on
Rainbow Row taken yesterday.

The only time that the sun 
appeared today.

I managed to apply another (the second) coat of varnish to the teak trim on the port wing of the dining table today.  I have two more coats to go and this project should be completed on Thursday.  My next project involves cleaning the dinghy and repainting the bottom.  Now, I'm going into the main salon and sit in front of the heater vent...

Wednesday, March 6

The outside temperature was 36 degrees F early this morning!  It is so cold (even in the enclosed cockpit) that I had to postpone my varnishing until after lunch.  Fortunately, it is very sunny.  This cold weather is a reminder that we must go further south for winters from now on. (I was able to get caught up on my much needed sleep last night and early this morning.)

Since the cold weather wrecked my day's plans, I decided to catch the courtesy van at 11 AM and go to Harris Teeter across the river in Avondale.  I needed cat litter and breakfast cereal and I picked up a few other things as well.  I also needed to get out in public for a little while--my conversations with the cats were getting a little weird.  (Captain Jack, our oldest orange long-haired cat, has complained that Lola, our 1-1/4-year old Maine Coon, is a little too slutty.  I really didn't want to get involved in this discussion.)

A photograph of Elliott Street as it joins
East Bay taken on March 4,
a couple days ago.

I applied the second to the last coat of varnish
to the port wing of the dining table
late in the afternoon.

Thursday, March 7

Today is my birthday--I'm 72 years old!  When I was young I never imagined I would someday become this old.  For those who say age is just a number, I have to respond "yes, but an extremely large number in my case."  I think I will go out for lunch to celebrate the first day of the birthday week.

I applied the fourth (and final) coat of varnish on the teak trim on the port wing of the dining table first thing in the morning.  With the warm sunshine, it was warm enough in the cockpit enclosure for the varnishing. (I'm glad I got this done early!)

I couldn't ask for a prettier day for my birthday but it could be a little warmer--it was only 54 degrees outside at lunchtime.  For my birthday lunch I had two slices of pizza and a local ale at New York City Pizza on East Bay Street.  (I'll have another birthday lunch or two when Maggie returns from Sarasota.  I've been known to celebrate my birthday for an entire week.)

After lunch I rode my bike from East Bay Street to CVS on George Street to pick up a prescription that was ready.  When I got back to the boat I took a nice long afternoon nap. Today was just real simple and relaxing.  Stay tuned for a little more excitement next blogpost...

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