A Hot Time in Georgia

Don't let anybody tell you that Georgia starts to cool down in September. It's HOT here.

Today, we took a road trip with our friends Val and Harold from La Buena Vida. They are having engine problems that seem to defy diagnosis, so they need to find a marina that will "haul" their boat and let them work on it themselves.

Cruisers are a self-sufficient bunch and we like to do as much work for ourselves as possible. In the case of Val and Harold, this means finding a marina that will 1) haul their boat out of the water using a huge crane with straps, 2) let them do the work themselves (or have their favorite mechanic do the work), and 3) allow them to continue living on their boat while it is "on the hard" as they say. All of this must be at a reasonable price.

Most port towns have marinas, but services and charges range from reasonable to astronomical. Our road trip today took us to Fernandina Beach and Green Cove Springs, Florida. Harold and Val wanted to see the marinas and talk to the dock masters. Green Cove Springs, just south of Jacksonville, turned out to be what they were looking for.

We all enjoyed the trip and it was cool in the air conditioned car. We stopped for lunch at a local place in Green Cove Springs and Phil and I split the Tuesday lunch special...20 wings for the price of ten. I washed my wings down with an ice cold beer.

We returned to the boat around 4:30 p.m. The thermometer in the salon read 98 degrees. We got it down to 85 after opening all the hatches (windows) and turning on all the fans.

Around 6:00 p.m., we met with a young man named Trey, who the locals say is very good at teaching folks like us the finer points of sailing. We arranged for him to come aboard for a couple of days and help us hone our skills.

We are still waiting for the refrigerator part to be delivered. In the meantime, we make daily runs for ice to keep our perishables cool. I am looking forward to having a real working fridge on the boat.

Tomorrow, I will begin my first project using the Sailrite sewing machine that Phil and I purchased this summer at the Sailrite factory in Churubusko (Indiana). A Sailrite is a special heavy-duty sewing machine that can sew through eight layers of canvas. You can repair your sails and do many other boat projects with a Sailrite.

My first project will be to make a canvas "coat" for our dingy. It will protect the dinghy from the UV rays, giving it a longer life, but most important it will save me from the dreaded "dinghy butt."

Life on board is good...warm, but good. We have been spared the ravages of the recent hurricanes and tropical storms. We are keeping our fingers crossed until hurricane season ends in November.

I hope we'll still be here the third week in September. Brunswick is having a Shrimp and Grits Festival. It doesn't get any better than that.