STILL IN PORT

We were all set to pull out this morning...having had the AC fixed(but it isn't). We even drove to Jacksonville (6 hour round trip)on Monday to pick up a part, so we could get going. We finally had had enough and decided to just get on the water. Lines were dropped and all we needed was a little bow thrust to get us out of the slip. However, there was no thrust! We don't go anywhere without a working bow thruster, not with these currents! So.....we had a diver come to check out the thruster holes, all clear. John has checked everything, so another guy will come by later this afternoon to check things out. So here we sit, our car is already in the storage unit a few miles away. We are 6 days off our scheduled departure date. We will grin and bear it, as that is the mantra of cruising/boating. Hmmm...is it 9 yet :-))

HERE A GNAT, THERE A GNAT, EVERYWHERE A GNAT GNAT !!!

We have been invaded by gnats in the boat. I guess they came in on fruit and decided to stay and be fruitful (make babies) . I looked online and found a home remedy. You put vinegar in a container, poke holes in the lid, and the gnats are hugely drawn to it. They enter the holes and can not get back out. It is our morning entertainment to count their floating carcasses from the night before. Who says boating isn't just full of fun!!

BEAUFORT,SC

Since we were unable to head North, we decided to drive over to Beaufort for the Water Festival. We enjoyed the ride, and had a great burger at Luther's....where we had dined on our last stop here. Beaufort, as I have mentioned before, is such an historic town. Beautiful old homes and lots of confederate cemetaries. I took some pictures, but only one turned out. You see my new DUMB PHONE changed a setting on my camera so that it took the pictures facing me...so I had 10 really ugly head shots of myself :-(( Note the date of the cemetary!

Drop Box

OK, this is a test. After my total frustration yesterday on posting pics from my phone.... we headed to Best Buy. Zena the Samsung Wonder Woman was there to
 help. I shall now attempt to post a pic of John hoisting the heavy house battery onto the boat.

Ok, now........after 20 minutes of trying and hitting a hundred enters, the picture has appeared. How, I have no clue. That is all the fun I can stand for today :-(

STILL IN PORT

Well, here we are, still at Hilton Head. Turns out we need a new AC compressor. That will be put in on Monday....hopefully. Remember, all plans are in pencil when boating.
Our house batteries were 5 years old, so we have gone ahead and replaced them. It was a challenge getting them on and off the boat, as they are HUGELY heavy...160lbs each. Thankfully, John figured out that he could use our dinghy crane to do the job. I had hoped to put in a picture, BUT MY DAMN NEW PHONE ISN'T WORKING AS IT SHOULD TO DO THIS!!!!!! As many of you know, getting a new phone has its challenges.  Anyhow, I hope to be able to figure it out.
As it stands now, we will be here until Tuesday AM. We are happy we have our car here.
I had better stop posting now, as I am very crabby dealing with a phone that won't post pictures to our blog.

BACK TO THE BOAT!!!!

We just got back to KNOTUGAL in Hilton Head. We stopped on the way here for a fun week at Panama City Beach with our family. (see pic below).
We got our insurance straightened out so that we can be here until August 1 if need be.
Everything is in good shape except for the forward AC unit (which is in our stateroom). John has been trying to figure out the problem non stop. It isn't a whole lot of fun sleeping in 80+ degrees. We can run the other 2 units, which helps for the rest of the boat. We have had several guys look at it (been a chronic problem for the last 6 months). They all come, fuss with it, charge $150. and leave with it still not fixed :-(

Right now, we are in provisioning mode. We are headed back up to the Chesapeake, hopefully, by the end of this week. .

CARILLON BEACH

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