On the hard!

Sunday August 14, 2016
On the hard.

We have decided to haul Tide Hiker while we are away. This is prime hurricane season and Tide Hiker would be very exposed at Patriot's Point. Plus the diver has started to complain about her bottom, plus we have accumulated lots of minor "war wounds" after cruising for 5 years, so a bit of yard time would be appropriate.

Sunday morning we had breakfast out with friends and then headed off to the boat yard as soon as we returned to the marina. "Slack" was at 1:40 PM and we were moving by about 1:50 PM with just a slight current on our bow as we headed up the Wando for the 10 mile run. The "Charleston City Boat Yard" is located on a pretty part of the river and we both enjoyed the run. We had to slip Tide Hiker by ourselves but all went fine. The yard had promised to haul Tide Hiker first thing Monday.

I hate being hauled, it seems so hard on Tide Hiker, but all went well and we were settled by 10:30 AM Monday. We cannot run the A/C unless we are in the water, so the heat became pretty intense rather quickly.

Once Tide Hiker was out of the water the crew immediately power washed her hull to expose the condition of her underwater hull and paint. After inspecting the hull with the yard manager and a bit of discussion I agreed to have her underwater hull "blasted" to remove the 25+ years accumulation of anti-fouling paint, and give her a fresh start.

The painter also paid us a visit and we showed him our "26 spots" that needed attention. He promised a quote by Tuesday.

By now Deidre and I were both dying from the heat so I found a local B&B and we headed for the air conditioning.

Naturalization Day

Monday July 25th, 2016

We are now US citizens - 41 years and a few days after arriving in Hawaii on July 4th, 1975. Its about time.

The process has been amazingly fast and painless. We submitted our applications in April expecting a 6 to 9 month process. Since then we have been finger printed and interviewed and received the call last week when we were anchored on the Wando.

The ceremony was held at the local USCIS office with about 25 others, from 19 countries in all. We were the only Aussies. Kylie was able to break away from work to attend and take some photos. Our local boater friends organised a celebration that night, which was fun.

Taking the oath

With our certificates

Our local boater friends organized a celebration on "Swede Dreams" followed by dinner out. Out of the 8 of us there were only 3 natural born Americans.

Celebration on "Swede Dreams"

The event has caused some pressure on us because we both leave the USA in 3 weeks and need US passports. We keep our Australian passports (so we can leave!) but we were required to hand in our green cards, and thus will need a USA passport to reenter the USA. So we spend most of Tuesday running around Charleston organizing expedited issue of our new USA passports. Now we just have to sit and wait.


Saturday July 30, 2016

Kylie called last night - our passports had arrived by express mail. Not bad - 3 days from apply to receive.

A few days up the Wando

Wednesday July 20 2016
32 52 057 N
79 52 216 W

We have been feeling a bit "dock-bound" lately so decided to take a short cruise. Things in boats tend to break if you do not use them and it has been over 6 months since we returned from Canada. So we "broke free" and headed a few miles up the Wando.

The Wando river is one of the three rivers that converge and make Charleston Harbor - the other two are the Ashley and the Cooper. The Wando and the Ashley are mostly tidal, but the Cooper reaches many miles inland. There are a few marked anchorages in deep creeks off the Wando, but we opted to anchor in the open so we could enjoy what breeze there was.

My goodness it was hot. There was some breeze, but it was hot too. But the solar panels did well - at one point we were collecting 48 amps!

Thursday afternoon some huge thunderstorms converged on Charleston. We were delighted when the sky clouded over. We were in 12' of water and I had 175' of chain out (with the snubber) so I was not really worried about dragging. The wind around the storms got up to about 30 mph in gusts. Water spouts were reported in the area on the radio. We were watching the storm cells on the radar and they all missed us - left and right. We did not see a drop of rain.

Only one piece of equipment failed - the bloody macerator - again.

Lazy Days

Not much going on here. Days are oppressively hot and humid so we tend to hide in the air conditioning on the boat.

Ryan has quit his job and is starting his own Video and Audio business. Over the last 6 months he has been quite successful picking up a few projects and feels he can make a go of it. I am helping him any way I can - setting up an LLC, setting up a bookkeeping system, arranging banking etc etc. He has a small backlog of orders and we are keeping our fingers crossed.

We get to babysit Mason occasionally. Last Saturday both Kylie and Ryan were working so  we  reported for duty about 9 AM. I spent the morning converting Mason's tree house to a pirate ship as well as making a few repairs. After lunch we headed to the hotel pool. Ryan picked him up at about 6 PM. Deidre and I went out to dinner and came home to bed!

Deidre is still visiting the therapist twice a week. Progress is slow, but the surgeon said it would take 1 to 2 years for the swelling to recede. But one great benefit is that her tossing and turning at night seems to be cured, and now she sleeps right thru the night.

I am keeping up my steps - averaging 17K + for July. This time in a month we will be starting our walk in the UK. Deidre and I both leave and arrive back in the USA on the same day - she to South Korea and me to the UK via Ireland.

July 4th

When I grabbed the camera I forgot to check the settings and this washed out photo is the result. The training ship is from Columbia and here for July 4th. If you look closely you can see the cadets standing on the spars.

Mason, Kylie and Ryan visited us for the July 4 fireworks. The fireworks are launched over the harbor from the Yorktown, right next to us. The marina was alive with people and July 4 parties. We sat on the upper deck and had a most perfect view. Mason had a blast.

This July 4th represents our 41st anniversary of arriving in the USA. Last week we successfully completed was our last interview (we hope) for citizenship. We are now waiting for the official notification.

Hilton Head for a day

Thursday June 30, 2016
Hilton Head

Last week when we were in Cleveland Kathy told us she had decided to take the kids to HH for a few days and stay with her sister. We told Kylie and she decided to take a couple of days and join them with Mason. Of course then we could not stay away from such a bonanza and drove down on Thursday for the day.

Sky is a bit washed out but otherwise a good photo

And that is Kathy's rear on the right.

Two weeks ago Mason did not like getting wet.