Not "Looping"
Whenever we visit our house in New Jersey, we pack as much activity into the event as possible to make the most of our time there. This time, in addition to a week of doctors' appointments for the two of us, we included a trip to Connecticut to babysit our granddaughter Lily. She's a real doll! The picture below shows Lily with her "jungle gym". She really gets a workout hanging from the rattles and spinning herself around as she does so. Playing with the gym keeps her busy for amazingly long periods of time given her young age.
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| Lily with her jungle gym |
The day we drove to Connecticut we celebrated 36 years of marriage. What better way to celebrate our lives together than spending time with our newest grandchild!? On the drive to see Lily, we went over the Tappan Zee bridge and got to see the progress on the replacement bridge under construction. Clark was hoping to see the finished bridge or almost finished bridge, but it looked to me like they have a ways to go to get the job wrapped up.
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| Driving on existing Tappan Zee Bridge (under construction replacement on left) |
We had a great time with Lily as she is easy to care for as long as she gets regular feedings. The time spent in Connecticut just flew by. Clark is an expert at rocking her to sleep. He sways like he is on the boat and she goes out cold.
The next week we had a real juggling act with doctor appointments, car repair, and lunch / dinner engagements. It felt like almost every minute of every day was planned. Ironically, on the one-year anniversary of setting sail from Rumson to start our Great Loop Adventure (6-17-2016), we found ourselves in New Jersey albeit without the boat. Comparing notes, we found that we both missed the boat and were anxious to get back to South Carolina to continue our boating trip. I guess that means we are enjoying the experience very much!
To make up for not being on Sea Moss Clark announced that day that he was going for a row-boat ride to see if the markers were in place to greet us when we come sailing home. Sadly, they were not in place.
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| Red Marker - almost down - typical after a harsh winter |
Generally the markers have been restored just in time for the Fourth of July. If that doesn't happen this year, I guess we'll have to follow the "Slow Speed No Wake" barrels. Since we typically find them anchored smack dab in the middle of the channel, they should help guide the way home.
June 18, 2016
Wishing we were on the boat
We spent the day driving from New Jersey back to the boat in Georgetown, South Carolina. Google Maps predicted a little more than eleven hours with a cheery "you will reach your destination at 9:35 p.m." message. The actual drive took fifteen hours. At 3:30 we were still in the Baltimore / Washington D.C. area with many more hours to go to reach the boat. We finally arrived at the boat just after midnight. After dragging the bags to the boat from the car and getting ourselves settled in just enough to go to bed, the clock read a dismal one a.m. Even so neither of us felt sleepy though it did not take long before I was out like a light.
Day 330
June 19, 2016
Father's Day
No Boat Travel
Given the long drive the day before and the late night, we eased into the day with a lazy start. Clark's agenda for the day included engine repair and mine included boat organization to settle back into our two-person mode of living. Besides moving items back into the second stateroom for easier access, I needed to store the clean clothes and provisions we brought back from New Jersey and do some laundry (mostly towels) that was left over on the boat from before we left.
While I tackled the stateroom situation and laundry, Clark worked on the engine. He changed the transmission oil cooler on the port side because it was leaking raw water and changed the cold-start cable on the same engine because it was cracked and needed replacement. On the starboard engine, he replaced the transmission over-temperature alarm switch because the lug on the sensor had corroded off making it impossible to get a good connection.
We finally finished all our tasks at 7:00 and decided to go out food shopping before we made dinner instead of after since I wanted to buy food to make for dinner. As we pulled away from the marina in our rental car to drive to the grocery store, Clark remembered that he had seen some historical markers / sites on the next street over, so we swung by there on our way.
We parked on a side street to walk back to read the historical marker and quite by accident found the oldest commercial building in Georgetown County circa 1765
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| Sailboat flower bed |
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| Sign reads "Flower Power Boats" Pretty clever idea for a boater's garden |
On that same street we also found the Shrimp Dock Independent Seafood store. Unfortunately it was closed on a Sunday, so we could not buy fish for dinner. Clark suggested coming back in the morning for tomorrow night's dinner.
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| Shrimp Dock Seafood |
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| John and Mary Perry Cleland House (for sale!) |
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| Historic Georgetown, SC |
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| SC Winyah Indigo Society Intellectual Center Used by Union Troops during the Civil War |
I love the picture below ... it definitely captures the moment.
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| Sunset over Publix Food Store Pawley's Island, SC |
We got back to the boat at 9:00 and by the time I unpacked the groceries and put dinner on the table, it had gone on to 10:00 - glad we each had a few grapes as a snack before we went shopping! During dinner we watched the news to get the weather update and discussed travel plans for the next few days as we move out of South Carolina and into North Carolina.
Tomorrow (or should I say today, since it is now 1:45 as I finish this blog entry) we will be "... on the 'road' again ... just can't wait to be on the 'road' again" ... la-la-la-la-la-la ...
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