Deja Vu, All Over Again
21 January 2008 | Moorings Marina, Carrabelle
Day 8 - Saturday, 1-19-08 - Carrabelle
Another dark and stormy night was followed by cold rain and howling winds. Wisely, we elected to ride out the storm tied to the pier in lovely Carrabelle. Sometimes it seems the storms are following us around. If we can just get out of here heading south, we are sure that we will leave the cold, wet weather behind. As it is, we are doing more camping in a boat than we are doing boating. Oh, well, everything will be better when we are warm, dry, and moving. It could be worse. The Moorings is a very nice marina, and our berth is located near the restroom/showers and the laundry, which is very nice indeed when the cold rain is howling around you. Thank goodness for Roger's little ceramic heater. It heats the boat up nicely. The only problem with having a warm boat and a cold exterior is condensation on the interior hull and overhead sections of the boat. We have learned how to handle that, and now have a much drier boat. The rains have revealed some port leakage, but we will have to wait for warmer and drier climes for the guys to attempt to fix that problem.
As the saying goes, cruising gives you the opportunity to do boat maintenance in ports all over the world. Roger and Gerry spent a good portion of the day doing various maintenance chores to the engine. One of them was to change the belts, and it was a good thing they did since one of the belts was in pretty bad shape. We feel like we dodged a bullet with that one. Of course, that's what maintenance is all about - dodging bullets.
Sara and Jean discussed doing some wash, but decided to wait until tomorrow to see whether we will be staying here or heading south to Martha's and Dave's house in the Tampa area, where we plan to do a big wash, not just a load or two. Not once, but twice, Jean's leftover crab cakes from restaurant meals have enlivened our daily fare. The first time it was a breakfast of scrambled eggs and crab cake. Today, it was a lunch of gumbo and toasted cheese/crab cake sandwiches. Other than preparing meals, it was a day of cards for the "girls." Maybe we'll see the sun tomorrow. (JGR)