Feb. 12 – Mardi Gras

Ashley Marina (Charleston)

The last few days have been windy, cool and wet! We’ve had 4-6” of rain…mostly at night, but doing anything during the day outside has been very difficult. Our boat is about ¼ mile from the parking lot…plenty of time to get wet if it’s raining! Stan is still working on boat maintenance, mostly inside now, but a few things under the bimini where it’s dry. We needed a distraction from the weather so we decided to have a small Mardi Gras celebration tonight. I made a wonderful pot of shrimp gumbo and Pam made a great salad and some amazing New Orleans bread pudding. We even had beads and masks to make things a little more festive! It was a pretty good way to pass a rainy evening.

A little foggy today (2/13)

Feb. 10 - Road Trip

Ashley Marina (Charleston)

Stan and Donny have been busy working on boat projects all week and needed a break...so Donny had the idea we needed a road trip. We drove up highway 17 to Georgetown; we stopped in McClenanville and looked around on the way up. Georgetown is a nice old town about 60 miles north of here. It was our last stop last fall when we brought the boat to Charleston. We met some other friends of Pam’s for lunch at Buzz's Roost. It definitely wasn't the best food we've had, but the company was fun and we enjoyed meeting Joe and Flo. It was a beautiful day and we sat on the deck. After lunch we drove over to Pawleys Island to their home. It was our first time on the island...what a beautiful place. Joe and Flo have a wonderful home, decorated with memories of their time sailing and thousands of shells (and shark teeth) Flo has found on the island.

Pam, Flo and I spent a little time walking on the beach, unfortunately by that time the weather had gotten cold and grey. In the short time we did spend on the beach we (mostly Flo) found six small shark's teeth. I would love to go back when the weather is a little nicer and we had more time. I see another road trip in our future!

There were quite a few cute little churches in McCellanville

I just love the oak trees in South Carolina

On the deck at Buzz's Roost - Pam, Susie, Stan, Joe, Donny and Flo

The shark teeth we found...small but so neat.

Feb. 9 - Process on Projects

Ashley Marina

Stan has finished installing our new TV in the saloon. It's mounted on the ceiling and folds up flat when we're not using it. Donny gave him a wall fitting that he installed on the deck of the boat, next to the electrical hook ups, so the cable wire doesn't have to come in the window. Very nice. Stan also has the new radar installed, which meant moving some of the instruments to make room. Our new Golight spotlight has also been installed, it looks much better than the old light and is a lot more functional. This light is controlled by a small joystick installed on the instrument panel. It has a 370 degrees rotation (which we don’t need) and 135 degrees tilt.

While Stan has been busy being an electrician, I've been busy cleaning, shopping and running errands.  It sounds like all work, but we've still had plenty of time to visit with people on the dock and play a little.Last night we sat on the dock and visited with friends until it got too chilly.The boat overlooks the Ashley River...it's fun watching the water, boats, pelicans and especially the dolphins.

To install the wiring and cable to the TV, Stan had to remove the headliner.

What a mess!

We're going to enjoy having a TV in the saloon

Our new spotlight