01/17/2010, Whortonsville, NC
Martin Luther King Weekend 2010
Happy New Year! It has been a while since my last blog entry. We had a great trip at Thanksgiving but our intended "Spirit of Christmas" weekend did not happen. There were multiple issues at home not to mention very bad weather. Since then, our "kids" Matthew wife Amber were home from the great frozen north for two weeks. We don't see them often and like to spend as much time with them as we can. Our next opportunity for a trip to the coast came when the weather was brutally cold. We enjoy mostly nice weather in Carolina and a cold streak that lasts weeks is very unusual, especially this early in the winter. We found a window of opportunity this weekend and took it. I am off work on Monday but the weather forecast when we left home caused us to plan a short trip leaving on Saturday and returning on Sunday. Both Judy and I are taking antibiotics for bad colds so an extended stay in bad weather seemed like a bad idea.
Saturday January 16, 2010
We left with home at about 7:30am. We had packed light and were planning to have dinner with our friends Richard and Frances. We stopped at IHOP in Asheboro and enjoyed two of the senior breakfast specials. We stopped twice more for gas and groceries and still made it in good time, about 5 ½ hours.
Richard and Frances were already there when we arrived. They had spent Friday night and reported that the weather had been great. Saturday's weather was nice but winter was still in evidence. The boat was full of Christmas decorations that we had taken down on Thanksgiving, so I had to transport them back to the car for the return trip home. My plumbing problem was the first thing on my agenda. In fact, it was the only thing except re-hanging a piece of Judy's framed needlework that fell off the bulkhead when it's Velcro backing failed.
I started on the pump project about mid afternoon. I had decided to replace the whole pump after I found a duplicate replacement on Amazon of all places. The price was 20% less than anywhere else. Nothing is ever simple and this operation was no exception. My fingers don't work well in the cold and it was just cold enough to affect them. I made several blunders but finally got a nice installation. Any time I make an electrical connection I use solder and heat shrink tubing if at all possible. I have spent lots of time tracking down bad connections in mechanical crimped connectors, especially when there is vibration involved. If applied correctly you never need to worry about a solder connection. Granted it is a little more trouble but worth it in the long run. Richard stopped by about the time I was finishing up. He was just in time to witness the new pump start and shut off as it should.
We closed the boat and turned on the heater. I sat in front of the heater until I finally thawed out and promptly went to sleep. We had been invited to Richard and Frances' Catalina 36 for dinner. Frances served spinach pasta and sausages. It was delicious and the company was great. We left before 10 and found our boat nice and warm with the heater working. We think the temperature actually rose during the night because we were plenty warm.
Sunday January 17, 2010
The weather report for Sunday had been bad ever since we left home and it was no better on Sunday morning. With the exception of a hurricane, I think the Sunday forecast was the worse one I had ever heard. All the following phrases were present in the forecast for somewhere in the forecast area. 100% chance of rain, Thunderstorms in the afternoon, Winds 25 to 30 knots, Gale warning, Fog warning and "Mariners are advised to use extreme caution when... We were not looking forward to spending the day in a cold damp boat, especially when we had not planned on staying. Judy brewed some coffee, which tasted unusually good.
We braved a driving rain and packed the car. A hot shower felt really good since we were almost soaked to the bone. The plan was to have breakfast at "Charlie's Restaurant" in Bayboro but it was raining so heavily when we got there we would have been soaked again by just going inside. We decided to proceed and try our luck further down the road. Richard called to check on us. They had decided to stay for the day. He reminded us that there was an IHOP very close to our route. We stopped for a nice breakfast.
By the time we finished breakfast, the skies were bright and sunny and the temperature had risen considerably. We figured this was a temporary reprieve from the bad weather. I know the weather is hard to predict but I can't imagine they could be that far off the mark. Later, on the trip home we ran into band after band of rain so we suppose weather at the coast would not be that great after all.
This was a very nice weekend even if it was short. We don't usually stay away this long and hopefully we will be at the coast more as spring approaches. I have ignored several maintenance tasks and projects last year so we may be making some trips that will be work weekends.
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