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!

Work on Tide Hiker

Now that Deidre can walk around and is driving, I have resumed work on Tide Hiker. The current project is to update the Salon:

* New carpet has been ordered (also in the master stateroom and vee birth).
* Maybe a new "L" shaped couch. We plan to drive to Florida next week to look at "boat furniture"
* Remove and refinish the desk. Its ready, just waiting on the new carpet. I was able to work on it while Deidre was recovering.
* Re-varnish the teak woodwork in the Salon. Underway
* Re-cover the window valances.

The "desk" is in the garage at the house, ready to be re-assembled and installed.

The starboard side of the salon has been sanded and given two coats of varnish - two to go

The stairs to the Pilothouse and Bridge have two coats.

The big day! Mason's Birthday Party.

Saturday May 7, 2016

The birthday boy and some of the attendees

Mummy, Mason and Thomas

Grandpa Gene and Ryan

Six Week Visit

Monday May 2, 2016

Bright and early Monday we headed off to Durham for our 2PM appointment. Deidre's ankle was x-rayed before the doctor arrived. He seemed to be happy with the healing and instructed Deidre to stand up, throw away her crutches, and walk. Which she did to both our amazement! The doctor then declared her cured and was ready to leave, but then Deidre complained about her sore toe, on the same foot.

Turns out she has a bone spur plus arthritis in her toe joint and it was hurting. The doctor said he could have fixed that too in the same operation if he had been aware. Instead Deidre received a steroid injection into the toe, and that hurt a lot.

We were on our way home by 3:30PM and arrived 5 hours later. 'Round trip of 588 miles.


Walking

Deidre is now walking for short distances around the house, most times with the help of a walker but sometimes "freestyle"! Thursday we had lunch out and I was able to drop her off with her walker outside the restaurant and she made her own way to our table. Great progress.

The Hunting Lodge (AKA: Thank goodness they won)

Friday April 22 to Sunday April 24, 2016

The log house 

Fishing

On my walk

The Three Week Visit

Monday April 11, 2016

The air suspension failed on the Merc on Friday. So Friday night I reserved a car and Monday morning I walked the three miles to Enterprise and picked it up. So much for Plan A - buy a cheap car and avoid rentals!

We were on the road by 9:30 AM and arrived in plenty of time for the 4 PM appointment. A "Physicians Assistant" removed the cast and dressings and shortly thereafter the surgeon turned up and gave Deidre's ankle the once over, He pronounced it "good", answered a few questions and was gone. Time for the stitches to come out.

We grabbed some dinner and were pointed SE by about 6 PM. The weather was fine and the traffic light so I convinced Deidre we should forget the hotel plan and head for home.  We were home by about 11:15 PM. It was a 650 mile day.


Tuesday April 12, 2016

Off to the shop - again!