Bud is trying to stay warm. The nights in Charelston have been dropping into the 30's and with the boat out of the water Bud has only the little ceramic heater to use. He's able to keep the aft cabin warm while he sleeps, but then the rest of the boat is really cold in the morning.

We did have to send the propeller off for a rebuild. Not only was it too loose to try to just grease it, it is an older model and can't be greased once installed. I'm not sure why that would even have been done. We understand it can be retrofitted with grease fittings for the future, but we still don't have the estimate on the rebuild, or even confirmation that it can be rebuilt. That should come tomorrow.

So we still don't know when I'll be rejoining Bud. It will not be until at least the 17th. My daughter had to postpone her test by a week, as both she and the baby were sick most of this week. She lost a lot of study time and was also afraid she might not be well enough to take the test on the 7th. I would feel worse about the delay, but we're pretty sure we won't have the prop back before then anyway.

Bud sent this photo of a boat that came in for some work. It's hard to tell the size from the picture, but it's a 71 foot Dettweiller power boat with a planing hull! It has twin 1100 horsepower Caterpillar diesel engines. Justin, how's that for a boat? I can't imagine the fuel it must take to get that boat moving.