Boat Yard Blues

We've been here for a week now. Since I last wrote, we have done quite a bit. On Friday night we met Janet and Tom, friends of Pat's. They picked us up and we went out to dinner at El Zarape in Beaufort. We had an excellent time, especially Michele who had a 16 oz. Margaritta :).

On Saturday, we decided to go for a walk. It was a beautiful, sunny day - chilly at first, but warmed up nicely. As we started walking, we thought we would try to walk all the way to Beaufort. We thought we were only about 5 miles away from the waterfront, but it turned out to be more like 7 miles. After about 4 miles into the walk, a woman pulled over and asked if we'd like a ride. We graciously accepted it. Thank goodness, because just after we got into the car, we saw the sign that said Beaufort 3. We spent the day at the waterfront walking around shops, going to a flea market and checking out the Maritime Museum. It was a good take and we couldn't beat the price - free! As we were coming out of the museum we bumped into a couple of friends that we met in Annapolis at one of Leighia's parties, Ans and Gerjan. It was great to see them, and also nice to know that we're not the last ones to get south. After a long day in Beaufort, we took a taxi home.

On Sunday morning (yesterday), Michele met Erika who lives aboard Moonshadow here at Jarrett's. Later in the day, we met her boyfriend Ryan and invited them over for dinner and drinks. Great kids... I say kids because they're in their mid 20's. Erika is getting her Master's degree at North Carolina State in Marine Biology and Ryan works at the Atlantic Beach Sheritan where we stayed last February when we drove down here. Ryan is from NC and Erika is from CT. They are really nice and quite interesting. We are impressed with their lifestyle aboard. They plan to head south to the Keys when Erika finishes her master's degree.

Today, we were hoping the boat would be worked on, but there was no action there (at least not that we could see). The prop shaft is still being fabricated at the machine shop. Hopefully, tomorrow they will start the work. At this point we don't really mind. It wouldn't be terrible to be here for Thanksgiving. We learned about the Back Street Pub's big Thanksgiving potluck dinner. The Pub a big hangout for cruisers, so it will probably be pretty fun. Ryan and Erika are planning to attend (along with another couple we met today at Food Lion that we've seen before). We were able to go to Food Lion and do laundry today because Ryan let us use his car since he didn't have to be at work until 2:30. Things always have a way of working out.

Another big achievement today was running new wiring to the new shower sump. After installing the new pump a few days ago, the sump still didn't want to work. As it turns out the old wiring was not tinned which probably made it deteriorate. As we worked, the boat was trashed because we had to pull everything apart and twist and turn into small spaces to run the wire. So thankfully that project is finished. Sometimes it's nice to be at idle. It gives us a chance to work on projects that otherwise would be more difficult under way. We also had groceries to put away. The bed was also stripped to clean and dry out. We also pulled off all the ship shades to wash and bleach. We put in full 8 hour day today, if you can believe that!!

So for now, we are comfortable and happy. We have electricty and hot showers, and we seem to get transportation when we really need it. And we still have each other . . . what else could you ask for? Nuthin. That's it for now blog fans.