After getting organized a bit we decided to take a road trip which encompassed 4 days (10-13th) and many Looper friends. A great trip! Our first stop was in Myrtle Beach
where we visited Ken and Lois (Camelot). We met them on the river system in the Fall of 2015 and other various spots through 2016. We had a delightful dinner at Chuck's Steak House and then toured their wonderful condo in North Myrtle Beach. They have sold Camelot and are enjoying golfing, etc in SC. It was great to see you Lois and Ken!
Next stop was St James Plantation near Southport, NC. We stayed at Jim and Kathy's (JimKat) beautiful recently purchased home. We toured the area, had a great lunch on Oak Island, took a nice bicycle ride around the neighborhood, grilled some wonderful steaks and played a little euchre before having a great roaring outdoor fireplace fire. Thanks so much for the hospitality Jim and Kathy! We hope to see you on the water once you decide to exit the Tennessee River area!
Next stop was New Bern, NC. We took a wonderful walk around the community before we had a great dinner at the Bay Leaf with four other Looper couples. Ralph and Linda (Mazel Tug), Gwen and Chris (Davali), Pat and Dick (Dream Catcher) and Paula and Jim (Palmetto Paradise) were all in attendance. It was a great reunion of our joining this group at Joliet, IL in Sept 2015 which at that time was only our fourth travel day or so on our adventure.
We were only missing two other boats from our gang there 2 years ago. It was so nice visiting with everyone and then going to Pat and Dick's temporary condo for a quick dessert. We wish the entire group good health and safe travels. It was so great catching up with you all!
It was nice to get back aboard. One thing about staying at a yacht club facility is you are not referred to as a transient. We got a promotion and are now "visiting yachtsmen".
Another visiting yachtsmen. Wow, what a vessel. New Grand Banks 60.
We had some more wonderful walks around the neighborhood. Discovered a street that Kevin B will like after spending most of his career as a millwright!
A fixer upper on the street for you Kevin!
We had one of the heads malfunction and the technician came, ordered parts and installed them. It works again but is sure was nice to have the second head while it did not. Then when we were testing all systems on the 24th, we found the inverter inoperable. Found a technician, tore things apart, called technical support and they advised with 80% confidence it needed a new control board (hundreds of dollars of course). So it was overnighted, installed and yes you guessed it, same problem. We disconnected boat wiring and wired in some AC load directly and it works fine. So the problem logically lies somewhere in the boat wiring. So we will begin a cat and mouse game to find the issue. Well after writing this, the inverter is being shipped to a repair facility. It acted completely different today and would not hold an inverting state even directly wired like yesterday. So...no inverter for a while. We'll have it shipped to Jacksonville and hopefully pick it up and have it installed there. It's only a boat and it can be repaired. We are thankful for our health.
Also spent a good deal of time getting all our insurances changed due to our changes in status, retired again, live aboard again and Florida (not Michigan) residents again. Health, liability, umbrella, and oh yes, the deer damage claim, all took a great deal of time to chase down. Still working on excess umbrella at this writing.....
Here we are entering the lock to dinghy to the grocery store.
Well, at least till we figured out is was a 3+ mile no wake zone to get there, a mile walk each way to the store....so, we just did not have that much time before dark. So grocery run will be later somewhere in Georgia.
This afternoon as we just finished lunch we had a knock on the boat. Wow! Another small world story...Denise and Mark (Island Office) were on the dock! We first met them two years ago on the river system heading south. They are returning from a summer in Maine, headed for their home in Florida for a while and are stopping for one night here at Windmill Harbor. We had a nice visit aboard before they went next door to inspect the new Sabre 45 being prepped by the dealer here. Here they are on their next boat...well dreaming anyway!
Looking forward to getting on the move again on Monday October 30. It is supposed to be 42 degrees here tomorrow morning, time to move south! That will be four months almost to the day that Sum Escape was slipped in Hilton Head and has not left the slip since! Almost like winter storage in Michigan...feeling a little rusty on electronics and general boat operations.
We will anchor out one night on the way to Brunswick and then stay at the Brunswick Landing Marina and hope to visit our long time Hudsonville neighbors Becky and John who reside nearby on St Simons Island.
More soon....
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