Adventures of Luck of a Fool: June 18-25, 2015 Brunsick, Ga Marina life

Thursday June 18, 2015
Mary-laundry and computer
Dave-boat stuff. After waiting most of the day to talk to an air conditioner repair man, Dave decided to order a new air conditioner. We have had trouble with the heat the last two winters, so it’s time to quit putting money into this one and just replace it. It will be here Wednesday.
Now as I look back to write this up, I can’t remember exactly what we worked on each day, but every project turns into taking more time than you anticipated.

We didn’t feel like cooking on the boat without air conditioning. So we went to the Thai restaurant, Basil, with Bob and Nina. It was nice to go for a walk. And the food and company were excellent. It took our waiter a few minutes, but he remembered us after Dave started giving him crap again.

Friday June 19, 2015
We had met Jim and MaryAnn from our dock yesterday. They had a car and were heading to the grocery store and asked if I would like to come along. We do the same, but it’s always awkward to accept rides. I wanted to pick up just a few things. But after I was there, I saw things that were heavy or bulky and decided to pick up more. I ended up with close to a cart full. They had 3 bags and had to wait for me. But they were very gracious and were fine, even though they had to put one of the back seats down. I didn’t realize they had their hatch back full or I wouldn’t have picked up so much.

Dave called Defender to see if they could get the air conditioner to us sooner. It hadn’t left yet, so we paid $50 extra to get it on Monday.

We ended up going to happy hour again, mostly to get out of the heat. I took my home made kahlua this time and made some new friends. After leaving the Yacht Club, we went to Bob and Nina’s boat to visit longer. They have a beautiful Island Packet. They are built to live aboard and have so much more storage area than we do. It’s depressing to see. But we like the way the Beneteau sails better than an Island Packet. Everything is a trade off.

Saturday June 20, 2015
Bob and Nina rented a car for the weekend. Bob was going to West Marine and Walmart so Dave went with him. After they returned, we took them to a neighborhood Taqueria for lunch that we had discovered last winter. Bob had lived in California, so he was excited to find real Mexican food. This was in the back of a Mexican grocery store, so most people don’t realize it is there.

After lunch, we decided it was too hot to do anything on the boat. They talked us into being tour guides for them to check out the area. We drove out to St Simon’s Island. We walked around the park with the light house. Then we found ice cream, circled the island and headed back by about 5:30.

Dave wanted to get started on removing the air conditioner. He hooked up a hose to flush it with fresh water AND it started working!! We still want to replace it, but at least we’ll be cooler in the mean time.

We went up for showers again while the boat cooled off. When we returned, we stopped the flush with the hose and let it run with it’s own fresh water intake. It ran all night!!

Sunday, June 21, 2015
I woke up early and walked to church for the 8:30 am mass. I could have taken a bicycle, but I didn’t get out dress clothes from under the bed and Dave was still sleeping. I had a dress out because it was the coolest thing to put on after showering these last couple days. After mass, I visited with Rosemary, the cantor, and Joe the director/organist. It was fun to know people there. Rosemary and I visited until about 10:30. She also had to cantor for the 11:00 mass. When I headed out to walk home, I was glad I had gone early. It was already starting to heat up.

The Marina had a Father’s Day picnic for us. They provided grilled chicken, beans, coleslaw, wine and beer. Then others brought sides and desserts. We met a man from Brazil, Ricardo. He recently bought a boat in Florida and is working on it here to clean things up and add what he wants. We met other sailors, too, of course. And several of us sat around until about 8:00 visiting. I turned to a boater sitting next to me and said "don't you have to work in the morning?" That got a chuckle out of a few people, since they were all full time cruisers. Fun day!

Monday, June 22, 2015
Dave found out today that the air conditioner wouldn’t arrive until Wednesday or Thursday. So he contacted the company. There was a mix up between the company and UPS. So they made it up to us by not charging ANY shipping.

We took the sails off of the boat and plan to have them cleaned and refurbished, as needed.
I was waiting for the new air conditioner to be working before I cleaned, but decided I may as well get started. So I cleaned the heads.

Tuesday June 23, 2015

I spent some time in the yacht club on the computer today. I always find someone to visit with, too. I also cleaned the floors and the galley.
Dave keeps busy getting the boat ready to store for a possible hurricane while we are gone for a month.
There were left over chicken wings from Sunday that we stored in the club house refrigerator. Dave and Ricardo offered to grill them this week. So about 10 people gathered on our dock and enjoyed chicken and some left over keg beer that had been kept on ice. A spontaneous pot luck appeared, too. It was fun visiting in a smaller group. Dave figured you wouldn't offend anyone if you changed your jokes to be about Zombies. So that caught on and we heard all kinds of jokes about Zombies.

Wednesday June24
The air conditioner arrived!! I wanted to stay out of Dave’s way, so I took bedding and rugs and some clothing up to the laundry and spent the afternoon there. I spent time on the computer again and visited with others, again. Getting to be a routine now.

By evening, Dave had the new air conditioner up and running. He was ready to set up the controls and realized he will need to cut a larger hole in the cabinet for it to fit properly. That will be another day. Or maybe we will change where the controls are mounted to have easier access to them.

Thursday, June 25
Today Dave put the dinghy Mercury motor on the motor mount on the stern. He is getting the dinghy ready to store.

I met with a couple other cruising wives to discuss getting a cruiser’s net going here in the marina. The marina is great at sharing the social life information. But we miss the chance to help each other out. On the net, you can ask for help or offer help. You can offer things to buy, sell, or trade. So we are going to give it a go 3 days a week. The trouble will be having net controllers because so many people come and go here. So we’ll see.

I also picked up a rental car. We plan to take our sails to Stuart, Florida for the cleaning. Then we’ll spend the weekend in Cape Coral with the Killions. They are interested in sailing their Catalina 25 to the Bahamas, so we’ll share some good tips with them.