I removed the two old transducers. One was for sending speed and the other for depth. The nut on each was size 2 1/2" so I needed a huge wrench. The remaining hole is a bit bigger than it needs to be for the new transducers so I will need to research whether that can be safely filled with sealer or should be filled with fiberglass and then drilled at the proper size.
We have a boat! I repeat, we have a boat! The 1996 Hunter 376 named Retriever, not sure if we will keep her name or not, is ours. Yesterday we received a call from John telling us the boat was unlocked and we are free to do as we like. We stopped by West Marine to pick up some cleaning supplies and a padlock for the companionway. Next we went to Lowe’s and picked up a few other supplies. Then we grabbed Louise from the camper and headed off to the boat. Louise was pretty apprehensive and skeptical of everything at the marina from the oysters on the dock pillars to the boat itself. Once lifted onto the boat she walked around and explored a little. We did find out that she will need loads of training in becoming a proper boat dog. The areas that need the most work are getting on and off the boat and going up and down the companionway stairs. We’re hoping with time she will learn to love the sailing life as much as we do.
Last night we spent four hours bagging up and throwing out things the previous owners had left behind, which was a lot! We filled up 12 trash bags full of mildewy sheets, sunscreen with an expiration date of 2014, the full bag of trash left in the trash can, and lots more. Now that the boat is rid of the items we did not want to keep, it is time to start cleaning! Over the next few weeks we will be spending our time cleaning, updating, and making the necessary repairs to the boat. After the repairs are done and Aaron’s parents come to take the car and camper back we will start heading south on the ICW.
Saturday morning we went to check out the south beach on Tybee Island. There is a big pier there and it was a little cold but there were still 20-30 people fishing. One person caught a 40" red drum while we were there. We also saw many jelly fish in the water when looking down from the pier. Back on the beach we lounged on a hanging bench for a little bit. Aaron decided to walk back to the campground along the beach. Anna read a book for a while and then when she started the car to drive back to the campground the check engine light went off. Anna picked up Aaron who had made it halfway back and went to a mechanic who diagnosed it as a misfire on cylinder 4. We had noticed a slightly rough idle so that explained it. The mechanic figured we could wait and see if it would trigger the light again.
Sunday we moved the camper back to Charleston, and the engine light came on again. The James Island County Park is very nice, with amazing bathrooms. There is a holiday light show going on in the park with all sorts of illuminated displays along the road and people pay to drive through and look at them. The campground is full many nights while this is going on. Even the campground guests seem to be in the holiday spirit, as many of them have Christmas lights up and a bunch of inflatable decorations. The park has a huge dog park that we spent about 90 minutes at. It was very busy and there was tons of dogs! There was a dog named Kirby that looked very similar to Louise so naturally we talked to his owners for a while. Their Sunday tradition is mimosas at the dog park--two bottles worth of champagne apparently!
On Monday we took the car to a Mazda service center. They checked it out and told us the ignition coil was broken and the spark plugs were at the end of their life. The failed ignition coil had resulted in a buildup of gas residue in the throttle body. They fixed all of those issues while we cruised around in a new MX-6 loaner car. Anna loved the head-up display and Aaron was excited about the automatically adjusting cruise control. While we waited we walked around a nearby mall while it poured cats and dogs outside. Both of us got haircuts from a lady who's daughter is an anchor for a news station in Bismarck. Don't worry, Aaron's hair is still long, it just has a little more style now!
On Tuesday we did the boat survey. We met Randy (seller's broker) on the boat at 9:30AM and motored 30 minutes up-river to the Cooper River Boatyard. Their pier for the travel lift had collapsed so they used a huge crane to lift the boat out of the water and place it into the travel lift. This process took three times as long as it normally would because the employees were hung over, stoned, and unorganized. Once the boat was out of the water we could see that the bottom was as unmaintained as the top. It was covered in barnacles, oysters, and other growth. There were even crabs crawling around on the propeller. Nick (the surveyor) and Randy were unimpressed. We were informed that the bottom will need to be scraped and repainted. After Nick tapped on the hull to verify it's basic integrity they put the boat back into the water and motored back to the marina. During that trip, both of the sails were raised and the autopilot (broken) and instruments (some broken) were tested. After we docked, Randy left and we followed Nick around as he surveyed the deck and interior. We will have the full written report of the survey by Saturday and will proceed as needed.
Today Aaron went to get coffee and a newspaper and came back with a vase full of beautiful flowers. Then he went over to the lake in the park where he had seen people setting up their remote control sailboats. After watching for a few minutes, one guy walked over and asked Aaron if he would like to try. Aaron sailed the boat around for a few minutes and then gave the controller back as they were starting a race. After the race Aaron sailed some more including 5 races, each about 5 minutes long. Most of the time he placed in the middle of about 10 boats except for one humbling race which he didn't even finish before the next started. Then Anna, Aaron, and Louise went to the dog park and played for about an hour. Louise was terrorized by two Boston terriers but there were some other good dogs for her to play with. She was so exhausted that she actually stopped running and just stood next to us as the other dogs played. After that we went back to the camper and made mac and cheese with brats for lunch. Then went to a place that sells a few brands of dinghies and learned a lot about them. We stopped at a dessert place after that and they happened to be filming an episode of season 6 of Southern Charm there (TV show on Bravo about the socialites of Charleston…I guess). We signed some waivers so that if we are in the background of an episode they won't have to blur our faces. It was dark by the time we got home so we drove around the full park loop to see the holiday light display.
Tomorrow we will do laundry and get groceries. Friday we will check out of the campground on James Island and check into the Mount Pleasant KOA which we stayed at a couple weeks ago--same site even! Louise will go to the vet Friday evening to get boosters for the shots she received three weeks ago. We are trying to set up a time view a used dinghy in Mount Pleasant on Saturday. We are planning to visit James Island County Park again on Sunday to check out the next RC sailing event which will have larger boats, and to check out the dog park again as there will be many more dogs that day.
On Monday we visited the Charles Town Landing Site, where the first settlement in the area was established for 10 years. After that they decided to move across the river where current Charleston is in order to have better access to large ships for trading. There was a 3-mile walking path going through the grounds, surrounded again by live oaks and Spanish moss. There were many interpretive signs and reconstructed buildings, all pretty interesting. Also there was a large replica of a ship that was used by the first settlers, about 60 feet in length, which was staffed with a very good re-enactor. It turns out that this ship was actually sailed from the factory on the north east coast to its current location. Louise was able to join us for all of this too, and learned a little more about how squirrels can get away from her up trees. It was kind of rainy all day, and humid. Back at home we threw some stuff in the InstantPot for chicken Alfredo, had a Caesar salad, and watched SuperTroopers.
Tuesday morning we received the purchase agreement from our broker for signing. So we signed it and sent it away; very exciting! We started looking in earnest for a campsite for the next few days as it was time to leave the KOA in Charleston. We had checked around a little the day before but didn't have any easy answers. We had visited the campground on James Island the day before and really liked it but they had no immediate availability. When we called again to check availability they didn't have much for this week but we were able to get booked for a stay starting on Sunday the 11th for four nights. Now we just had to figure out Tuesday night until Sunday! We hadn't spent any time in the Savannah area yet so called the campground out on Tybee Island and they were able to fit us in after shuffling some other campers around so that we could stay in the same site for the whole time. We packed up and hit the road.
We set up on Tybee Island in the early afternoon. It was sort of hot and very humid (was 79, felt like 85). We went for a walk with Louise as it was just too hot in the camper. The visitors center recommended a restaurant that was closed, so we walked some more to Huc-A-Poos which turned out to be a great choice. They had very cold $2 beers, Aaron had $5 nachos that were twice what he could eat (soooo good), and Anna had a $4 "slice" of pizza which was actually about 1/3 of an extra large pizza (and sliced into 3 slices). Louise was able to hang out on the patio with us and made friends with a Lab/Shar Pei mix named Stella.
When we got back to the camper it was still hot and humid, and all the cushions and beds and everything just felt wet. Towels seemed to get wetter when we hung them to dry. It was forecasted to cool down a little bit but would still be just as humid. We decided that a portable air conditioner with a built in dehumidifier would greatly improve our situation so we went to Savannah and picked one up. Much better!
Wednesday morning Aaron went on a walk along the beach on the north end of the island, from the Polk Street entrance around to the entrance just south of the North Street Boardwalk. We received a call from John telling us the sellers had countered our offer so we countered back with one of our own. About 15 minutes later we received another call from John with the seller's “bottom line price”. We agreed on this price and John sent us the final purchase agreement which we signed and sent off to be signed by the sellers. Next we talked to a recommended sailboat surveyor and decided he sounded like a smart competent dude so we have him scheduled for Tuesday the 13th. Hopefully we will have his written report in hand by Monday the 19th. If everything goes well we should have keys in hand before Thanksgiving!
We had a late breakfast that morning consisting of potatoes and company again, then headed out to investigate a marina near Savannah. Isle of Hope Marina ended up probably not being the place where we will live for our estimated month or so of repairs/modifications, but we got some really good info from the manager there. Then we spent the afternoon in Savannah checking out the touristy historical district and river walk. We had lunch at Crystal Beer Parlor where Anna had an amazing Caesar salad and Aaron had homemade onion rings. Right as we walked down the road to the river there was a huge container ship passing (possible highlight of Aaron's day). We stopped in a hat shop along the river walk and decided to get some hats. Upon returning home we dumped out a full bucket of water from the dehumidifier and took Louise on a walk to the dog park. We lounged around and relaxed for the rest of the night. Around 11pm it started to rain which progressed into a full blown thunderstorm with lightning, thunder, and pouring rain.
It has been a few days since an update so things will be a bit more terse, both to keep the length reasonable and because the memories do fade after a while.
10/30
Took Louise to doggy day care, did laundry at a laundromat. We ate lunch at Dick’s Wings. Back at the campground Aaron had a fleeting gambling addiction with a quarter waterfall machine in the recreation hall.
10/31
Took Louise to doggy day care again (only $10 for the whole day), walked around St. Marys, ate lunch at Bessie’s and went to the submarine museum. Then had a campfire and some brats back at the camper. We decided that we want to start getting serious about the Hunter 376 in Charleston, SC. We also decided that we want John who showed us a couple boats in Little River, SC to be our "buyer's broker" and represent/guide us in the transaction. The seller's broker didn’t like that and said that we can't have a buyer's broker because of how he and the seller are set up (probably doesn't want to split the commission). There is maybe some gray area since we contacted their broker to arrange the first showing instead of our broker, but we don't like the idea of not having our own representation and John thinks he can get it figured out.
11/1
Louise to doggy day care again, then we got on the ferry to Cumberland Island (a barrier island that is mostly National Seashore land, but has a few private properties on it and also a few old Carnegie mansions) at 9:00. It travelled at 12 knots and dropped us off at the Sea Dock on Cumberland Island at 9:45. We met Ann and Ralph, who had camped there overnight, and they took us on a nice hike. First we went to the Dungeness ruins which has the concrete and brick remains of a Carnegie mansion that burned down many years ago. There were many outbuildings too and some interesting historical interpretation signs. At the Dungeness site we also heard from John and he let us know the good news that he had gotten ahold of the other broker and convinced him that he should be allowed to serve as our broker.
Then we took a boardwalk towards the beach, stopping in the middle to have some sandwiches for lunch. At the beach we walked along the ocean for about a mile to the north. Dry sand was blowing onto the wet sand flats near the water and that reminded us of snow blowing across the road back home. We found several horseshoe crab carcasses and learned a little bit about them. Next up was the campsite that Ann and Ralph were staying at to have a couple beers and wine for Anna. The campsite was incredibly beautiful with a full canopy of live oak and Spanish moss, and palmetto shrubberies everywhere. There were also a couple tangerine trees there which someone had planted. Aaron was able to reach the ripe ones higher up, otherwise they are really sour. Then back to Sea Dock where we sat around for about two hours until the ferry took us back. Thank you for showing us around Ann and Ralph, we had a wonderful day!
11/2
We packed up in the morning to move to the Charleston, SC area again. We had some trouble finding a campground with availability but finally did. First we stopped at the marina where the boat of interest was located. We spent an hour examining nooks and crannies of the boat until the salesperson said he needed to go pick up his kids. He seemed mildly annoyed by the thorough examination, "you guys are going to have a surveyor go over everything, right?" We are, but also wanted to examine to the best of our ability because a surveyor costs about $1,000 and it would be better to find a deal-breaking issue ourselves than pay someone to find it. Pizza for supper and Ocean's 11 for entertainment.
11/3
We took Louise to orientation for a doggy day care here so that we have a place to take her if necessary. Then we got her some dog food and a cone of shame because she has been ceaselessly licking at some sores on one of her paws. We also stopped by a Krispy Kreme for some fresh donuts and got the car oil changed. Leftover pizza for supper, and we watched Frozen for entertainment (Aaron had never seen). Anna seemed to know the words to every song in the movie.
11/4
We started the day with breakfast bowls (cubed potatoes, sausage, egg, onion, cheese, avocado). Then we went to a bar/grill with a dog-friendly outdoor patio to watch the Vikings (SKOL!!!!). Louise was too energetic on the patio so went back into the car after about 45 minutes. We got back to the camper just in time to zip up the windows before some rain started, and Aaron went to the nearby library at Charleston Southern University to get some quality Internet time. The campground Wi-Fi here is terrible (most others are mediocre) and there is a huge fair going on just a mile or two away so cell data is somewhere between terrible and mediocre. It is probably good conditioning for what we will experience on a boat!
On Sunday, Aaron had planned a trip to Fort Clinch State Park where there are a lot of trails for hiking and biking, a beach, and Fort Clinch of course. The drive from the entrance of the park to the fort was absolutely beautiful, with a full canopy of live oaks with Spanish moss hanging down over the road. We even saw a baby deer cross the road with it’s momma! We arrived at the fort around noon and ate our sack lunches on a bench outside the visitor center. Construction of the fort started in 1847, though it was never completed, and it is classified as a Third System Fortification. It was used during the Civil War, Spanish-American War, and World War ll. The fort is in the shape of a pentagon and has a set of walls surrounding it. We spend a good part of our time there going through all of the buildings inside the fort and walking along the beach. After seeing everything at the fort we headed to another beach at the park where we walked along the waters edge and played in the sand and water.
After leaving the state park we tried to visit a lighthouse which Aaron found on Google Maps but it turned out to be on private property and there was a gate blocking the road. So we headed to the historic area of Saint Marys. We walked around the town and enjoyed the views of the water and sailboats before heading back to the camper for the evening. We had set up an appointment to view another Hunter 376 in Port Charlotte, 5.5 hours away from the camper, at 11AM Monday morning. Anticipating the early morning, we heated up some leftover spaghetti and meatballs and called it an early night.
Today we woke up at 4AM to get ready for the drive over to Port Charlotte. We took Louise with us since we were going to be gone for the entire day. Upon arrival at the boatyard we met with Skip who brought us to the boat which had been on the hard for the summer and was very interesting to see out of the water. We were not impressed with this boat and are still in favor of the other Hunter 376 we looked at on Saturday as it is in better condition.
Once done looking at the boat we started the drive back to the camper. On our way back we kept seeing these billboards advertising free fresh-squeezed orange juice and baby alligators which compelled us to stop. The orange juice was refreshing but the alligators were pretty boring. After a quick stop at Dairy Queen for a pup cup for Louise we continued on our way.
Finally back at the camper 12 hours after we set out for the day we were exhausted and hungry. We had leftover spaghetti again for dinner and will call it an early night again tonight.
Friday morning the rain came but nowhere near two inches. After breakfast we spent a few hours looking at online listings for sailboats in the Jacksonville area. At 2:00PM we left to drive to the Cooper River Marina for an appointment to look at a boat. We walked to the marina office by way of a very long pier and had some ice cream while waiting for the broker to arrive. There was a large, multistory, run down, boat named "Fathom This" parked on the end of the pier which we couldn't resist asking about. It turned out to be owned by Bam Brown from the TV show Alaskan Bush People. The boat even has its own Twitter account @FathomThisFairy. Aaron thought that was kind of interesting.
Randy, the broker, showed us a 1996 Hunter 376. First impressions were that the outside was dirty with the deck and sides of the boat needing a good cleaning. The boat is normally washed monthly but due to the recent hurricanes the last two cleanings were canceled. We started to really like the boat as we got past the fixable cosmetic issues. The boat has a very large aft cabin with two big hanging lockers, lots of storage on three sides of the bed, two empty storage areas under the mattress, and access to the head. The galley has separate fridge and freezer areas and lots of storage. There is a reasonably large v-berth with good storage, a comfortable cockpit, walkthrough transom, more storage on the transom, etc. Basically there is a lot of room to store all of our crap! For downsides it doesn't have a windlass for the anchor nor in-mast furling, which we have learned is a possibility in our price range. This is the first boat that has an interior which we could imagine ourselves living in.
After that we followed Randy to a marina about 10 minutes away and looked at a 1999 Beneteau Oceanis 352. It was OK but again light on storage and it did not have the best headroom for Aaron. It did have in-mast furling and a manual windlass.
That evening after a dinner of great Mexican food Anna went to bed early, probably dreaming of Hunter 376 sailboats. Aaron spent a lot of time reading Hunter 376 information and reviews, and investigating how much it costs to install a windlass.
This morning we packed up the camper and headed to the next campground in St. Marys, just north of Jacksonville. We ate at Bojangles, a popular chain in the south, for lunch and it was pretty good. Aaron liked the "bo sauce” for dipping his chicken tenders and Anna liked the biscuit. The gas station attached to the restaurant sold boiled peanuts which appeared to be peanuts in the shell sitting in some hot water. Someone had told us about them at one of our departure parties but we can't remember who. We were not bold enough to try them.
We liked that Hunter 376 layout a lot so while driving today we started working on plans to view other Hunter 376 boats. There is one for sale in Port Charlotte, FL that does have a windlass and is reportedly kept up better cosmetically. The salesperson told us it had been run aground, keel damage professionally repaired. He also said the boat had been tipped off or floated off of its stands during Hurricane Irma where it took on water and caused an electrical issue which was supposedly professionally repaired.
We are planning to stay in St. Marys for 6 nights. During that time we will spend a day on Cumberland Island visiting Ann and Ralph, potentially drive five hours each way to Port Charlotte, look at some boats in the Jacksonville area, and partake in some tourism activities. Regrettably, we did not see much of Charleston except the marina so we have promised ourselves we will park our sailboat at the city dock and see the town in the future.
On Tuesday at about 10:30AM we drove over to Wrightsville Beach as we heard that's where the sailboats are. We tried visiting a couple yacht sales offices in person but they were not staffed. We didn't see much for sailboats around that spot either, just power boats. So we looked at satellite imagery and picked out a different marina about a mile away that looked like it had sailboats in it. We went over there and it was a yacht club and there wasn't really a sales office. We talked to some members in the parking lot and they invited us to walk the docks and see if there were any sailboats displaying for sale signs.
We found one boat with a sign but it was a power boat. The aging man working on it said he had previously had four sailboats and then this was his fourth power boat, and that it was time for him to get out of the boating business. We also found a 30 year old guy washing his 32 foot sailboat, and he told us that it was for sale. We went on board to check it out and as suspected due to the length being less than 35 feet, it did not have enough headroom inside for Aaron. It had a carbon fiber mast--first time we had seen one of those. We didn't find any other boats for sale, but it was a pleasure to enjoy the sunny weather and gaze at all the boats. We always learn something!
After that Aaron noticed a point of interest on the map named "The Mailbox at Wrightsville Beach". It appeared to be a mailbox that people leave messages in, just to say hi, to vent, or whatever you imagine. We drove down to check it out. There were some letters in there of people writing to each other, and a log book where we wrote a little something. Then we spent about 45 minutes to enjoy the beach. Aaron didn't want to take off his shoes but Anna did a little wading and got her jeans wet. We weren't really wearing beach clothes but it was still nice. There were probably 20 people total out there in the mile plus of beach in our immediate area. We went back to the campground to do some laundry and some camper wiring repairs to get the fridge working on 12V, then had some leftover soup and watched a few YouTube videos before bed.
On Wednesday we did some housekeeping and Aaron had a 2 hour conference call. Anna did a couple hours of research and scheduling boat showings, and then we drove into downtown Wilmington to check out the historic district and the Riverwalk located there. Part of the Riverwalk is facing the city docks which charge $1.25 per foot if you want to park your boat there for the night (power and water provided). It would be cool to park our boat there in the future as it is right along the Intracoastal Waterway and would be a nice stop on our way up the coast next spring. We had appetizers at Front Street Brewery and then pizza for Anna and a calzone for Aaron at Fat Tony's Italian Pub (that food was amazing!). One brewery we stopped at didn't serve food so they could have dogs inside and there were 4-5 very nice ones hanging out with their owners.
Today was an early morning, getting up at 6:30 so that we could leave the campground at 9:00 and be in Little River by 11:00 to look at a boat. We met Captain John there and looked at a Beneteau America 343. This was a very lightly used boat, the newest we had looked at so far, and we liked it overall. It is on the expensive side (the listed price at least) and doesn't have a lot of storage. We keep thinking "where would we even put xxxx!?" Probably we will end up downsizing even more from our pop-up camper lifestyle. We also went on a 2012 33-foot Hunter just to see ($120k or something so way out of our consideration) and it was very nice, but no headroom for Aaron. John spent an extra 20 minutes or so talking about our plans and giving us advice, so we tried to soak it all in. He even offered to show us a catamaran but didn't have the key so we just saw it from the outside.
Then we drove to Charleston and set up for two nights. We are formulating plans to meet Ann and Ralph who worked with Anna in Medora and part of that involves putting Louise in doggy day care for a day. For that she needed an additional vaccination so late in the afternoon we found a vet and they were able to get that done. Now it is time to heat up some dinner. It is supposed to start raining in the middle of the night and continue all day tomorrow accumulating two inches. We have two sailboat viewings scheduled so we will definitely need our raincoats!
Yesterday we went to grab a few groceries at the Piggly Wiggly near our campground. Then we decided to drive over to Emerald Isle and drove the whole length of it over to Morehead City. We stopped at a Ben and Jerry's right away where Anna loved the cows on the walls, and then on the other end of the island stopped at an Ace Hardware to pick up a few things. On the north side of the bay we stopped at a visitor's center, checked out the water, and chatted with the guy staffing the place. He recommended a yacht salesperson down in Wilmington so maybe we will meet up with him.
Back at the campground we set about making some repairs and cooking supper. First up was the left taillights of the trailer which happened to be working at that moment, so we moved on to the fridge. The 120V switch had melted one of its terminals loose so once that was replaced we had a working fridge in the camper again. We still need to get the 12V part of it working though. Then we watched a movie and had a great supper of creamy chicken wild rice soup along with chips and salsa and some sangria given to us at the farewell party in Rosemount (thanks Mike and Jo!).
Today we met Ken from Neptune Yacht Sales at the New Bern Grand Marina. We looked at four boats there.
After we finished looking at the boats we debated taking a free ferry ride for fun but the timing didn't work out. So we drove back to the campground and on the way Anna researched some campgrounds in Wilmington and booked us at the KOA there. At the camper we ate sandwiches, packed up, and drove the 1.5 hours or so to the new campground. The new campground is glorious compared to the previous one. Drinkable water, dog park, laundry, friendly neighbors, level camp site, free coffee in the morning, swimming pool (Anna was sad that it was not open, and the staff laughed at us when we asked, because "this morning the temperature started with a 3!"), etc.
We spent about an hour at the dog park and Louise played a lot with a boxer named Luke. Luke was about 10 months older than Louise and played very well with Louise so she is exhausted now. We talked a lot to his owner who had a house nearby that had about 1 foot of water flood his house so he was staying at the campground while it was repaired. He recommended many things to do, places where boats are, and things to eat. We had some Japanese food and now are back at the camper to research where we want to go tomorrow. No appointments are set up so I guess we will just crash some marina sales offices!