Baby...It's COLD outside!

Tuesday, February 9. The unpacking continues, both inside and outside the boat. There's always something to do (note to our co-workers back at Mayo Clinic:  "No, we are never bored!").  And each accomplishment is a celebration -- like when Dan got the propane tanks hooked up so we could make coffee in the morning!  Dan is always busy with something -- he's got 2 of our 3 sails rigged, reinstalled the canvas over the cockpit, hooked up the hot water heater, and finalized arrangements for the replacement holding tank to be built.  His best news has been that the holding tank should be fabricated in a week instead of the predicted 3 weeks, so we could be back in business by the end of the month (which is fabulous news since the bath house is a 1/4mile walk from our boat!).  Even though it's nice having an isolated dock to ourselves, our first trip is going to be to move from Dock 15 to Dock 12 -- we'll get WiFi on the boat from there, and we'll only be a short walk to the bath house and boaters lounge.  I keep busy carting boxes from the suburban and fretting where to put everything (so that we can find it again!).  We went shopping and got provisions for our first meals aboard. It’s raining off & on, but the temps are OK.

Wednesday February 10: 
Temps got down in the 20 degrees last nite, and despite the warmth from cooking our first meal indoors, we FROZE!  BRRR. Coming from Minnesota, we hate to complain about the weather, but seriously folks, we are living in a tupperware container here, with one space heater!  Thanks goodness we hauled our down comforter from MN with us, so at least the bed is warm ... but beware if you need to leave that cocoon!  The winds are HOWLING around 30-40 knots, so it is truly nasty out there, even though the sky is clear blue.  Makes one appreciate being securely tied to a dock (what would life be like at anchor??).  The weather will probably stay like this for another week…very high winds and cold temps. Every Wednesday, there is a Happy Hour at the boat house, so we braved the cold and wind to see who really showed up for these events.  What a nice surprise to see the place was packed!  It was good to hear that the other boaters were as surprised about the weather as we are (and not leaving their boats either), and it was very cool to hear about their sailing adventures.  One couple has been waiting for a 48hr weather window to head to Miami, and they figure that they'll be in Brunswick for a month before that happens. They say that after you have been in a marina for a week, you may as well stay for a month b/c the cost drops so much ($80/nite vs $440 a month).

We found another space heater on the boat, and we are definitely getting creative in ways to insulate the boat ... we draped blankets over the door from the cockpit to the cabin; crammed blankets into every locker; wrapped the hatches in plastic; slept in our long underwear and knit hats. It usually stays around 66 degrees inside unless we are cooking -- then it heats up to a balmy 72 degree!  Dan has put his experiences winter camping with the boy scouts to good use for us!  I apologize for the lack of photos.  It just too damn cold!

Thursday, February 11:
Our frustration with the boatyard continues, even though we daily practice our chant that "people move slooooooower in the south!"  Marty, the boatyard mechanic, told us on Monday that he'd be back in 24 hours to work on the loose motor mounts and show Dan how to make sure the engine and prop shaft were aligned.  After practicing patience for 2 days, Dan walked over to the boat yard today to talk with him...and now the story is "give me another week".  Major bummer b/c we want to make sure the motor is secure and aligned before we start any of our practice runs learning to dock this boat by ourselves .... not that we'd be leaving our current slip with temps in the 30s and the winds howling at 30-40 knots.  But, we'd really like to move the boat closer to the boat house (remember, we have no head on board!) and I literally run at full speed every time I have to leave for the boat. 

Dan has been working on the canvas for the cockpit, and installing the plastic enclosures.  This lead to a realization that several of the zippers need to be replaced, so we had people come out and give us some estimates for that work to be done.  We have no sewing machine on the boat -- and we found out during our maiden voyage last June that it's very important for the zippers to work smoothly when you are trying to put up the enclosures during a major blow (remember those times, Jim?!!).  Salt air takes rapidly takes it toil; we've seen the canvas start to rip just from the high winds here at the dock.

Listening to the evening weather report on our VHS radio, we started laughing that we managed to leave MN winter for THIS!!  We also remembered that Craig (Michelle's ever-so-gracious boyfriend in Savannah) was travelling to Las Vegas for the long holiday weekend with his family, so we called and asked him if we could move back into his apt for the weekend.  He's a gem -- so we're taking advantage of still having a car with us, and we are heading back to Savannah in the morning.

Friday, February 12:
Cold. Rain. Snow in the forecast.  This is too much to believe!  Last fall, we had wondered how we would handle the "usual" Georgia winter temps of 40-60 degrees!  In a deluge of rain and 35degrees cold, we trudged back to the suburban for the hour drive back to Savannah.  In the spirit of Valentines Day, Dan managed to pack up our martini fixings, so we are indulging in our Friday nite tradition here at Craig's place; protected from the howling rain outside; getting ready to watch the opening cerermony for the Olympics on his 60" HDTV! Life is warm, and dry, and good!