Heat and Confusion

Wednesday June 22, 2016

The furniture people called last night with good news - the new couch was ready to ship. If they got it on a truck tonight it would probably arrive on Friday. The delivery consisted of two boxes on pallets, each about 3' by 3' by 7' long and about 200 lbs each.

So I called Ryan (my go-to person for stuff) and he said he had two furniture dollies available and he would drop them off Thursday. We would dismantle and remove the old love seat (this thing must weigh in at about 300 lbs) on Thursday so we would be ready for Friday's delivery. For Wednesday I had already borrowed two work horses from Ryan to use for refinishing the two Pilothouse doors.

We are now in full blown Charleston summer. Its hot - 90 to 95 degrees every day with plenty of humidity with a Melbourne North wind (but from the West). Wednesday was no exception, and with the two pilot house doors off (on the horses on the dock) there was no point running the a/c so we were just going to be hot for two days. And we were.

Working on a door

 Lo and behold the phone rang at about 2PM Wednesday with the news that we had a furniture truck with two large boxes waiting for us in the parking area. Apparently the shipping company had driven thru the night and were here to deliver, two days early. So our relaxed plan turned into a frenzy of activity in the 95 degree temps, and by 5 PM I was buggered and Deidre was feeling faint.

New cushions and all.

Thursday we bolted the two pieces together and started to clean up the mess on the dock. Gave the Pilothouse doors and the door jambs two coats of varnish and planned to reinstall them in the AM.

Big trip north

Sunday June 12 thru Saturday June 18, 2016

Deidre had a doctors appointment in Durham on Monday so we headed north after breakfast on Sunday. The doctor's visit went OK so after lunch we headed towards Cleveland. We were in no hurry so stopped for the night in Marietta, Ohio. Its a very pretty and historic little town. I took advantage of the long summer afternoon by getting my steps along the path following the Ohio River.

That evening we enjoyed a pleasant meal on a veranda overlooking the river. Was a perfect balmy evening.

We arrived at Adam's house in time to head off to one of Indy's many baseball games. Adam is the couch.  (Actually, as Deidre reminds me, he is the "coach"!)

Wednesday the kids went with friends to the Cedar Point amusement park so Deidre and I spent a nostalgic day wandering around our old neighborhood, followed by dinner out with Kathy and Adam.

Whenever I had some down-time I walked around the local Cleveland Heights suburbs to get my steps. The "old money" in the form of beautiful homes and mansions in this part of Cleveland is just amazing. They were mostly built in the early 1900's and in general have been well maintained. I took lots of photos.

Thursday we took the kids on a picnic and in the evening watched the Cavs beat the Golden State Warriors and even the series. Much excitement in Cleveland!

Friday was my birthday. It was also Ruby's dogs birthday ("Leo") so Ruby had organized a dog birthday party and invited the local mutts, and me. Grandma Deidre helped her cook some "dog muffins" for the party, and Ruby agreed to bake some "Grandpa muffins" for me. I felt very spoiled.

On Saturday we made a late start for the 725 mile drive back to Charleston. Another beautiful day all the way. Home in bed on Tide Hiker at about midnight.

New Home for Tide Hiker

Wednesday June 8, 2016
32 47.208 N
79 54.567 W

Very exciting day, we moved Tide Hiker 11 NM to her new home at the Charleston Harbor Resort and Marina. Magnus from "Swede Dreams" was crew and Deidre drove so that we had wheels to get home. It was a calm sunny day and the trip was uneventful.

 The marina is in a new touristy area and next to the WW2 Maritime Museum. We slept on board Friday night.

The Yorktown

The resort

June Progress

June 1, 2016

Deidre has been walking for 4 weeks now and is doing well.She still has pain and she still tends to favor her left leg. She started physical therapy last week and likes the lady ("She says my name correctly") and feels that she will make progress improving her gait with this attention. But, other than walking long distances she is able to function pretty well.

Based upon that progress we have decided not to exercise our option for another month n the house and plan to move back on Tide Hiker in a week or so. Unfortunately we have not been able to find a new slip at the IOP/Wold Dunes marina and so need to move. Casual 50' slips are not easy to find these days so this weekend we signed a 6 month lease for a slip at Patriots Point. This is a resort facility with a fancy hotel, pool, golf course and etc and the slip will cost us $850 a month - ouch!

We are now starting to put Tide Hiker back together and cleaning up my mess. The sanding and varnishing in the salon is basically complete and looks great. The carpet arrived yesterday (actually we had to borrow Ryan's truck and go pick it up) and the new carpet looks fine in the Salon, Master State Room, Vee Berth and the vestibule at the bottom of the forward stairway.

Today I finally placed an order for the new "L" shaped couch for the salon, but that will take 6 to 8 weeks to arrive. But now that the order is in place and the color finalized we can start the process of selecting the fabric we will use to recover the 8 vertical blind valances. We want to get this done before we vacate the house as we will need a bench and some room.

I have asked for Ryan to loan us his back and his truck tomorrow so we can carry the refinished "office desk" back to Tide Hiker. That will be installed on the starboard wall of the salon - previously it was attached to the aft wall of the salon. And tomorrow I will start reinstalling the galley cabinet doors that I have refinished in the garage here. That should be rewarding.

We plan to move Tide hiker to her new home over the weekend, subject to weather and tides. Summer arrived yesterday, right on time. It was sunny, 90 degrees with 90 humidity.

I test started the engines and navigation etc on Friday and I was delighted that after 3 months rest both engines fired up instantly.

Monday June 6, 2016

Tide Hiker is now reasonably spic and span and ready for us to move back on board. We now have 5 of the 8 window valances ready to mount, 3 to go. We did not move Tide Hiker this weekend as the weather was a bit ugly.

Putting the desk back together

June 7, 2016

Big news today - we received notification that our Immigration interview is scheduled for June 28th. That was fast! The window valances are now ready to mount! We hope to move Tide Hiker tomorrow.

We got to boy-sit today!