The trip started out with the best of intentions of getting many projects done, and we started yesterday morning on the right foot. We got out to breakfast before 10 (ish), and stopped off at West Marine before heading to the boat. Our intent at West Marine was to acquire a new chart plotter, as our trusty GPSMAP 4310 has been misbehaving recently. In the end, Bob decided to let me have another go at the 4310, and we headed off to the Black Dog. It would not be our last trip to West Marine that day.
Once we got to the boat, we jumped right in to the task of fixing the aft head. The nylon tubing for the sanitation system was causing us some struggles, and we did everything up to and including using a heat gun to make it more pliable, but in the end, we felt like perhaps we didn't have the right fittings, so back to West Marine we went.
By that time, it was getting a but late (and we hadn't had a cocktail all day), so instead of heading back to the boat, we headed to the supermarket for supplies for dinner, and retired to the Greaves residence to dine. While we were out and about, Ronda cooked a roast beef of some sort. I have to say that for someone who doesn't eat meat at all, she did a bang up job with the roast! Bob and I accompanied our dinner with some gin and tonics made with Irish Gunpowder Gin, and garnished with thick wedges of grapefruit. We felt ready to hit the town after that.
And hit the town we did! Waffler friend and associate Ashly (Ronda's sister) got us tickets to the Forte Jazz Lounge. The had a nice wine and beer menu, and the performers were top notch. We met Ashley and her friend there, and we enjoyed ourselves for the final two sets of the evening, after which we stepped out for one last libation before calling it a night.
It was a pancake breakfast this morning and the straight to the Black Dog to finish up the two projects that we started. Unfortunately a third project cropped up. The heat pump for the A/C failed (yes we have the luxury of air conditioning while on shore power). Bob tackled that issue while I went to work on the chart plotter.. I am happy to report that one software flash upgrade later, and the device seems to be working as expected again. Bob was equally successful in getting the A/C working as well.
We resumed our previous days project with the aft head, which resulted in another West Marine visit and lunch at the East Bay Deli, and we continued to make progress on getting things repaired until we tried to install the new pump. The rigidity of the nylon tubing continued to frustrate us. Out last act of the day was to remove the whole apparatus to give us room to work on setting the hoses in a better position. The idea was to return tomorrow with the right tools to widen a hole in the cabinet, but it is not to be. Because the South Carolina Governor has ordered mandatory evacuations for some parts of the state, we are shifting gears, and I will be helping Bob make some preparations around here. The good news is that so far United says my Tuesday flight will not be impacted (Dorian is not due to arrive until Late Wednesday or early Thursday, and the current model is the impact being not to severe here). That is a good thing, because getting an earlier flight out is next to impossible.
The upshot is we may have a small informal hurricane party tomorrow!
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