Sometimes you see the darndest things...
Right now, we're waiting for a weather window to make progress northward... either offshore straight to Beaufort, NC (40 hours or so) or offshore to Cape Fear inlet, anchor at Wrightsville Beach, NC then out Masonboro Inlet to Beaufort, NC. SE US weather is supposed to blow like stink this weekend, potential hurricane force winds offshore and highly conflicting forecasts here...but we have the 55lb Delta on 150' chain and our 66lb Bruce on 50' short scope to reduce swing radius and act as a very heavy kellett. We'll sit tight, put together a jigsaw puzzle, and read.
SUNDAY MORNING UPDATE: It looks like up to 96 hours we'll have 30+ winds. Thankfully not much rain so we can still go about things normally onboard but this is a tight system offshore...it may be up to a week before things settle down enough to get out of Dodge.
We finally got our mail...including the much awaited/needed paycheck. Our mail has been "missing" for about 10 days which is one reason we're still in Charleston. Before we arrived, the Charleston City Marina was given a ring and we asked if we could have our mail delivered here. "Sure, here's the address." No questions asked. Well, it turns out that since we didn't take a slip (@ $2/ft/night = $80/night, about $75 a night above our means) that we were not welcome to have mail sent (which is just dumped in a room, not sorted, no work on their part...) and we were told so by some dude who had more authority than sense, quite rudely and forcefully, I'd like to add. He proceeded to tell us that our mail was not welcome. So we proceeded to go to the General Manager of the Marina who was horrified. We informed him that we'll buy our ice elsewhere, we will go the extra mile upriver to fill our diesel, and we will make sure everyone knows that transients are not welcome. Needless to say he apologized profusely once I laid out our financial contibution versus the effort they put into lumping mail onto the floor. I think he wants our business now, Sorry Charlie, the damage is done, you are not a monopoly.
We went to the Charleston Farmer's Market today... strawberries, cucumbers, tomatoes...yummy. Also had the freshest, hottest beignets (tiny donuts-type things) since New Orleans almost 10 years ago. A bluegrass band was plunking away adding to the ambience and a florist had enormous bunches of eucalyptus for cheap, so now it's hanging all over HP and making things smell wonderful!
We've had terrible luck catching the buses in this town...the bus stops are not where the bus stop signs are posted...go figure. After missing multiple in one day and several in previous days we walked into the CARTA office and asked for a refund on our passes and he handed us cash in return for our passes. What service! We're happier walking anyway. So we re-couped money... $10 goes a long way...well, actually 8. We had used one ride each so I have him $2 back to be honest...he looked at me like I was selling crazy, but we both felt better...he was fair to us, we were fair to him. C'est la vie.
For those who are following our (mis)adventures we'll try to do well by you. No more broken things and those that are broken are healing nicely. Heather is back to her old self and getting tired of continued restricitons. I'm going to put on a pot of tea and sit back with the midday rain...not much of a better way to spend a Saturday. Holding Pattern is seaworthy and clean (all stainless and brightwork looks A+ perfect.) On one final note, we will return to the American Cancer Society Hope House to do one more day of volunteering before we skip town.
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