1/14- 1/22: Arriving Brunswick Marina, GA

Thursday, Jan 14, 2010
Well, the good news at the boatyard came to an abrupt halt today. We found out we have termites – courtesy from the boat’s stay in Ft Lauderdale during the month of June (we've since learned that termites bloom in June/July in FL). Dan also discovered that the suspected holes in the head holding tank are indeed holes, rendering the holding tank useless. We have no choice but to have the boat fumigated as soon as possible and then address replacing the holding tank. These are the first unexpected expenses, coupled with additional time in a motel. This marks our third whammie of the week, and I sure hope this curbs our run of bad news for awhile. Temps today are in the 60’s and it feels like early Spring in MN ... and its January!

Friday, Jan 15
Today we checked out of the motel and packed the GMC for our weekend in Savannah. It was a gorgeous day, and I spent the afternoon with Dan at the boatyard. Even though my job was scrubbing the zincs with a bronze brush (thankless task!), it was sure better that working in an office on PowerPoint tutorials! Good news is that they finally got the prop shaft off; even though Dan thinks it would have been cheaper to just replace it … it still seemed like a win. The bug company showed up in the afternoon, as did Dan’s new best friend/cousin, Joe Parker. Joe helped negotiate the deal which he assures us is a good one -- $1200 for the fumigating and probably another $1200 for BLM to shrink wrap the boat. However, they cannot do the job until Monday, Jan 25, so that will cost us another week of delay. Joe Parker has a rental home on St Simons Island which he says we can rent for $250/week, which would save us money and provide a gorgeous setting to hang out. At bit of good news to curb the tide. We left for Savannah about 4:30 and it’s a fairly straight drive. Arrived at Craig’s place around 5:30 … great to see them both!

Jan 16, 17, 18:

Spent the weekend in Savannah with Michelle and Craig. What fun even though it rained all day on Saturday (which led us to discover that the wiper motor on the GMC is shot and needs to be replaced). Sunday was game day, and we thoroughly enjoyed watching the Vikings beat the Cowboys! After the game, we planned to go on a trolley tour, but we managed to show up 10 minutes after the last scheduled tour. Dan and Craig were going to go to the gun range, but that was closed too. So we settled on a Ghost Walk tour of SAV at 9pm, but after no tour guide showed up, we decided to go to the Mansion at Forsethe Park instead. This is one of Savannah great historic homes that overlooks the beautiful Forsethe Park. Great bar with great martinis …. Too bad they are so damn expensive b/c they were yummy!

On Monday, Martin Luther King Day, we were able to watch the parade forming on the street outside of Craig’s apt, and we went downtown to watch the parade and go on a sightseeing tour. Even though the tour was quite disruptive due to the MLK parade, the weather was great and afterwards, we went to Vics for lunch. By 3pm, it was time to load up the GMC for our return trip to Brunswick as Michelle packed for her return trip to Mpls.

Tuesday, Jan 19 – Thursday, Jan 21

Beautiful 70 deg weather in Brunswick. Dan heads out early every day to the boatyard, where they are letting him work on the boat, as long as it’s inside work. We are still waiting for the new stuffing box to arrive (actually, the 2nd one since the first part to ship was the wrong one!). The prop shaft is being straightened and then the cutlass bearing work can be finished. The current plan is to remove the holding tank following the plans Dan found at the Bayfield users group. This option enables Dan to do more of the work himself – and he was able to use the new tools we got for Christmas to remove the panel behind the head (BIG thanks to Dan, Renee, Robert and Jim! Did you guys ever think that the tools would come in so handy, so soon?!). Joe Baker finally called back about the rental at St Simons Island. It’s a tempting offer b/c it would be a beautiful place to hang out, but at the same time, we’re not sure we want to commit to 7days since we are still debating whether we will return to SAV for the weekend. We cannot work on the boat over the weekend, and since the fumigation will happen on Monday, we won’t be able to get back on the boat until Tues or Wednesday (hopefully, then we’ll be in the water at least). Craig has graciously invited us back to Savannah for that time which is a warm, welcoming relief! Especially for Dan who has been a major worker-bee every day over at the boatyard. So we’ll head back there on Friday.

Friday, Jan 22

Today marks one month into our retirement!  YaHoo!. It was also a day to celebrate the final removal of the aluminum holding tank for the head! A great payoff for all of Dan’s hard work. We also prepped the boat today for the fumigation on Monday. We removed all the bedding and cabin cushions and bagged them for storage. Dan has finished checking all the through-hulls and I’ve obsessively cleaned the bonding plates on the keel. There seems to be no end to the list of tasks we want to complete before the boat goes back in the water (such is life on a sailboat, I’m told!). It looks like we won’t be able to get back on the boat until Wed or Thursday next week, but we’ve still got our fingers crossed that the boat will be ready to in the water next Friday … just a 2 week delay. So we are off to Savannah to stay with Craig and enjoy the sites there … a city with much to see and do (unlike Brunswick!)