Sunday 17 November 2019
Did I already post what a great place this marina is? I think I did but it bears repeating. Inexpensive, by comparison, and well appointed, and to have a place like this to tuck into when the weather turns nasty, well, there just aren’t enough words.

Last night I feel that the wind peaked at around two in the morning and then gradually diminished. Nelleke rocked and rolled slightly and with the wind howling it seemed to be much more but it wasn’t. Today the winds continued albeit diminishing and without as much rain. Kind of makes you want to tuck up and read a good book in the comfort of your cabin doesn’t it? It does for us. Fortunately we have both books and DVDs to while the time away. I should also, as Barb reminds me, renew my sketching and writing projects. I must admit with all the boat stuff to do I keep forgetting those. Also, although we have things to do aboard at this point we are either awaiting parts or they are outside and it’s too wet and miserable to accomplish.

What we really miss on these trips are our friends back home. It’s funny that when you are making the preparations all you can think of is the trip and then once you are under way what occupies your mind most is home. Are we weirdly wired that way? Perhaps that one reason why it is so wonderful when we meet new people and make new friends along the way.

We tried to book ourselves in to the Charleston Maritime Centre for Wednesday night but there was no room in the inn so we will be going to the Ashley Marina instead. A little more expensive but you take what you can get and we needed an address to receive the new macerator pump that we ordered from Amazon. Charleston is a bigger place so I certainly hope that there won’t be the sort of delay that we experienced in Oriental.

We ordered a new macerator pump through Amazon which initially seemed to be the quickest and easiest way to make that happen. Famous last words! I have never been so frustrated in making an internet order in my life. Because I hadn’t used the account for a while they let me place the order whereupon we made arrangements to get a berth at a marina in Charleston where it could be delivered and then they told me that since I hadn’t used the account for a while they assumed that it had been hacked and paused the order and put the account on suspension. Nice that they are looking after our security but it would be much nicer if after we called and spoke to them they could relax and let things go ahead again. That wasn’t how they do business. There was going to be a 24 hour hold on the order and they wouldn’t do anything to ensure that it would be at the marina when we were planning to get there. So we cancelled that order and replaced it through Barb’s account which was still active and which would allow us to get the pump when we get into Charleston. Then we tried to cancel my account and have done with it. After all, Barb and I are together and we really only need one account.

Well that is close to committing an unnatural act.

After going through all the machinations on line it turns out that I have to telephone them to talk to a live person. If I was a nasty suspicious sort of person, and I am, I would think that they are deliberately making it difficult to cancel an account because you are billed monthly and if you can’t get things done before the next billing cycle you get nailed with another monthly charge. After about an hours perseverance Barb finally manage to get the thing cancelled. We still have the pump coming but under her name and with her account.

The new folks that we met, Bill and Cathy MacKenzie, were gracious enough to invite us over to their home for dinner this evening. Very nice of them and something to break the tedium of waiting here at the dock.