Marina life

It's another hazy, hot, and humid Georgia day with a health advisory as the heat index is expected to reach 109 today.  While we wait for a new echo charger to arrive tomorrow, I'm catching up on the blog and David is fixing a winch (not very exciting news to report today).

100 degrees in the shade on Sunday

There is a ~10' tide change on this portion of the ICW (Wilmington River).  This is high tide just before sunset on Sunday evening.  Water was spilling into the parking lot to the left.  To view our exact location, click here.

Same view at low tide the following afternoon.  The docks float with the tide so we don't have to constantly adjust dock lines.

We had a delicious dinner and fun evening on our neighbor's boat the other night.  Pictured here are two Michaels, two Lisas, David, Bill, and Susan :)  We missed Julie!  Michael & Susan and Michael & Julie both had lightning strikes on their sailboats :(  Photo courtesy of Michael Baumgarthuber.

Martin getting to the bottom of our electrical mystery

While we wait for a new part to arrive tomorrow (Tuesday), David decided to disassemble, "unfreeze," and clean the port winch on our mast.  Mission accomplished!

Scrubbing pieces with a wire brush

I usually opt for blogging in the air-conditioned comfort of our salon.

Another aspect of "home life" on a boat is that we don't have a washer and certainly not a dryer on board.  Some of you may know that my absolute FAVORITE chore is doing the laundry.  Back home on land, dirty clothes never piled up and we always had Fresh Sheet Friday and Towel Tuesday.  David starting referring to our laundry room as the Magic Room -- clothes go in dirty and quickly appear clean, dry, and folded :)  Accessing facilities at marinas really messed with my OCD laundry "problem," but I am adjusting.  Prices vary from as little as $3.50 per load ($1.75 to wash and $1.75 to dry) to as much as $11(!) per load (in the Bahamas).  My satchel of quarters weighs almost as much as the laundry itself ;)  We often hand-wash items that dry quickly on our lifelines, but I do like the absolute clean from machines and don't mind hauling our clothes to and fro.

Sheets, towels, lights, darks all ready to go

Some places, like Fernandina Harbor Marina pictured here, even have wagons or trolleys.  The ramp from the dock to land is steep at low tide.

And I had the place all to myself.....bliss!

Tonight, we're looking forward to getting together with David's cousin and her family for dinner!