Out and about in Beaufort, SC

While we have waited on weather, mail,and our new canvas Tom and I have been keeping busy. Tom is going to put in a new faucet in the Galley sink. That is his project today, I am escaping the renaming of plumbing parts by doing last minute shopping. We celebrated early community Christmas with the live-aboards at Lady's Island Marina yesterday. I went in search of the perfect prime rib roast on Monday and found in at the Whole Foods Market on Hilton Head. 

We are waiting on the new AIS unit to arrive and for the Rain to move off and away. I know it isn't snow but really the high tide has our dock ramp going up and sticking the gate.  NOT SNOW, temperatures are still decent. 

I will post photos from Christmas and preparations to leave --- we see a weather window coming at the turn of the new year. 

For now

JOY and BLESSINGS

TOM AND LAURA

FELLOW TRAVELERS AT LADY'S ISLAND MARINA 

I just think the live oaks are so cool

this is normal tide

fog, rain, water water everywhere 

FINISHED --- NEW LOOK --- waiting on Holidays and weather

12/24/14

Cool Hand Too has her new dodger and full cockpit roof, we are now relatively dry. The work was done by Journey Marine Canvas and we can't praise them enough.Tom and I are still debating the "full enclosure" so wind and rain come in through the open sides. The crew of Journey Marine Canvas have worked around 4 days of adverse weather to complete the job before Christmas. 

We used Top Gun material, a high count woven polyester coated on both sides material. The specially formulated polymeric coating will not harden, crack or peel after outdoor exposure or extreme temperatures. This coating ads UV, mildew and water resistance and carries a 5 year warranty. We are hoping the random bird strikes will be easily cleaned off as well as adding longevity to the whole cover. 

When we leave we are heading for Fort Lauderdale and we will have a new Doyle sail cover made. Then off to the Bahamas (fingers crossed.)

Old Canvas leaked worse than a sieve and was tearing

tape was holding the glass together 

we could not see out of our sail window

Tom helping with the pattern making

almost all sewn up 

finished with covers.... Covers are Sunbella material. Top Gun is
not a good cover over the strata glass

fitting of dodger 

our new sail window has a cover that we can pull closed from in
side of the cockpit with a cord, like a roman shade
COOL 

almost as snug as a bug in a rug

SITTING AND WAITING-- PUTZING AND FUTZING

Hello from sunny Beaufort SC.   12/17

Yep we are still here  Weather really has not been outrageous like last year.Temps drop to high thirty's at night then climb to the high 60's in the daytime. I have actually put on shorts. Still knitting, however my new 'to do list' is getting things organized to leave for the  Bahamas. Following the rule "if you haven't used it in three months it's gone" I have decreased some of my kitchen clutter. 

Tom has ticked off several of his projects. He went up the mast to change the light and figure out what was going wrong with our wind vein. Both are fixed now. He installed new outlets at the bottom of our salon seat and we moved the portable cooler out of the aft cabin and in main salon. He also hooked up 12 volt so it can run while we are underway. 

Our AIS is still a work in progress, we returned one unit only to get one with incorrect connectors. The company is sending us a new unit.... again. Hoping that we will have that all tweaked and working by Christmas. 

The new canvas is coming along. Today they are fitting the Bimini and will measure for the connector... again hope to post photos by the end of the week. Next project will be a sail pack, but that will be in Fort Lauderdale.

Friends from Kemah are with us here now Tom and Joy... they are staying through the Holidays and we hope to leave together to find warmer weather.

pocket scarf finished 

we have had several foggy mornings. 

The first measuring and pattern making  for new canvas

packages all packed and ready to mail

it seems like everything thing that needs to be
fixed on the boat requires all the floor boards to
be taken off.  Shower pump working so can't
complain too much

At dinner with Tom and Joy.... I'm tired as you can see

Tom up the 63' mast

Tom and Joy coming in to their slip here
at Lady's Island

river otter tracks. Elusive creatures, but determined to get a
photo

Our neighbors ( our wind break) finally their paint job finished
and they left for Savannah

my unobstructed view now

Dolphin fishing across the way at low tide

WAITING IN BEAUFORT, A VISIT TO CHARLESTON

Wednesday November 19th

For all our friends shoveling out in Michigan and all points north rest assured we do have cold days here. In fact yesterday we took a open horse drawn carriage ride through Charleston then took a car ride through the light show on James island, windows open. It was 26 degrees.... no snow.

We are doing quite well. The reverse cycle air is heating our boat and we are comfortable, a world of difference from last year. Tom is staying busy going through his 'to do" list. The shower sump pump is working an we have a new macerator pump for the front bathroom. We are still waiting for our "new canvas project" to start... latest estimate is still the first of December. Meanwhile it is suppose to be back in the 70s by Thursday  

The Crew of Monarch arrived in Charleston and we spent the day with Diane, Grant and Dan. Even roasted marshmallows over a fire. 

I will report more as we move closer to leaving.

Laura and Tom

CHT

Live oak with moss 

this is the style of carriage we rode in. Our horse was a Percheron
named Facebook

I loved the wrought iron balconies on this house

this home was built in the 30's it was so clean

the gates on the churches and homes are works of art

from the light show

Morehead City and beyond

With a 32 hour weather window and an aversion to the ICW round Camp Lejune we dared the Atlantic. Weather was suppose to be SW winds 10 to 15 with 2' seas. I think it was like that for about 15 minutes. We could not sail unless tacking back and forth and with our weather window shrinking we just motored. The wind was straight out of the south, waves southwest - steadily increased to 3' 4'. We had a rolling, rocking, roll-splat, roll ride. We arrived at Wrightsville Beach after dark... bummer... The channel is marked but sandbars shift and are marked with can buoys. The wind switched from the NW we motored towards the beach and dropped anchor. The night we spent is now in my top 5 of miserable nights. With the sun we realized how close to the ROCK jetty and beach we dropped anchor.
We pulled up anchor and went in the channel, dropping anchor to reorganize, get coffee and breakfast, planning for the rest of the day. We were inside, I made some chicken soup to cook all day in our shuttle chef and Tom started us out with our goal being Myrtle beach. ALL WAS WELL.
I decided to make some Scones and was just putting in the second batch where I noticed smoke ... panic... I quickly turned off the oven, thinking I was the one setting fire to our boat. Smoke is pouring out from around the sink and stairs, I start yelling at Tom, engine way overheated..... We are adrift in 45' of water with a shredded fan belt.
Good news we have an extra and Tom changed it in record time, we also found that a bolt was the cause of the shredding, and a antifreeze water line had broken. It took about an hour and we both needed to chill,Tom wanted to get another Fan belt or two. We went to Southport and spent the day. Tom made additional checks and walk to town getting fan belts.
Leaving Southport we made Barefoot marina in North Myrtle Beach and COLD weather. We stayed the weekend. Today we was a cool sunny trip down the river, no drama. Two more days and we will be in Beaufort, SC.

Pancakes and sausage, rolling in the Atlantic

latest completed Knitting project 

Dinner at the Brick Oven in North Myrtle Beach

Dinner in North Myrtle Beach

Fireworks in Barefoot Landing

Could not believe the fender on this tug

Warship going into Morehead City 

sunrise on the Atlantic

Aircraft carrier off Camp Lejune 

This is just silly, had to be higher than anyone else
'Top of the world ma"

Buzzards sunning themselves , had to be over 25 with more
arriving