6/17/21- Hey honey….let’s buy a boat!

We had communicated early this morning with Larry, the owner of the boat we were scheduled to look at today, and arranged to meet him at the marina an hour earlier than originally planned.   After an hour or so of Renee working on math homework and Erik ATTEMPTING to catch up on our blog (frustratingly since his laptop that was being finicky now has taken a complete dump) we headed to the marina.  

Entering into the marina grounds we both already were excited and had grins on our faces.  This area of our cruising (Tennessee River and specifically Lake Telico) was probably our favorite area and holds many fond memories.  

Some irony/humor for the day was that the vessel we were there to look at is named ‘Wine Time’ with a graphic of two wine glasses beside the name…..lol.   No fears though….the name could be changed as necessary!   

on the water

'Wine Time' lol 

‘Wine Time’ was not in quite the pristine cosmetic condition that the boat we looked at yesterday was.   However, for its age and what we are looking for it was very nice.   It had a very recently installed radar and chart plotter system, a much larger fridge/freezer and a full enclosure on the fly bridge.  The exterior paint job was in surprisingly good condition as well.  The engines and generator started right up with a tap of the ignitions and seemed to check out well visually.  Erik could tell by Renee’s demeanor that for the asking price (significantly less than the one we looked at the day before and very fair based on all that we’ve looked at) this was likely going to be our new floating home away from home.  After some brief discussion a full asking price offer was made and accepted.  We wrote Larry an earnest/holding check and spoke about making arrangements for the final transaction within 3-4 weeks.

WooHoo....we will be cruising again comfortably again soon :-)  

Several short video tours of 'Wine Time'....soon to be renamed! 

We left Ft Loudon Marina both still grinning from ear to ear happy with our decision!  We spent a good portion of our remaining drive back to Columbus talking details and making plans for our upcoming adventures aboard.  

Riva continues to REALLY struggle with this traveling thing....lol

"maybe I'll try sleeping over here while momma drives"

New boat naming ceremony will be soon to come!  

Stay tuned or the next installment of ‘Aquaholics (….’INSERT NEW NAME’) Great Loop Adventures' !   Until then here’s wishing all our friends fair winds and following seas! 

6/16/21 - boat shopping in Nashville

We had drove for a couple hours yesterday evening and made it to Columbia SC before garnering a hotel for the night. This had put us about 7 hours drive to Cherokee Marina on Hickory Lake above Nashville.   We departed SC early and arrived at the marina in Tennessee about 3pm.  The owner met us at the boat, ‘Constance Sea’.   The bot had been owned by the same person and garage kept for 28 years prior to its sale to the current owners just last year.  It was in very nice condition.   Beautiful paint job and overall splendidly maintained.  It unfortunately had a covered aluminum dock collapse on its upper Bimini/enclosure last winter under the weight of a bunch of snow.   Fortunately, it was insured and Marinettes are very tough old birds so it really did not fare too badly.   The repairs to the upper Bimini frame are still underway and expected to be completed by mid/late July.  

the flybridge bimini frame was still be be put back on after repairs from winter damage
no full flybridge enclosure though

We did not care for the look where they had replaced the aft deck canvas with plastic panels

short video tour of 'Constance Sea'

We REALLY want an actual walk around bed 

storage galore in the galley and throughout, but no full size fridge/freezer

After spending a couple of hours starting engines/generator and going through systems closely the owners had arranged with a licensed captain to take us out for a sea trial.  Bubba (the Captain) showed up after work at about 5:30pm and we went out for a nice cruise.   The boat drove and handles nicely; just  as it should and we were happy with what we saw.  

sea trial of 'Constance Sea' with Captain Bubba

We knew that we still wanted to look at the other Marinette in the Knoxville area and had already made the arrangements to meet with its owner there tomorrow morning at 10am so we told the owners of ‘Constance Sea’ that we would be following up with them soon after looking at other boats we had interest in.  

We departed the Nashville area around 6:30pm and drove for several hours to within about 10 miles of Ft Loudon TN where we had the showing of the next boat arranged for morning before grabbing a room at the trusty Days Inn to get rested up for morning. 

6/15/21 - Hilton Head Island to Ridgeland SC (Aquaholic new home!)

 We rose today wondering whether the duplicate boat title we had ordered and had mailed last week to the home of the new buyer would arrive soon.  We sat around making plans for packing the boat and trying to make arrangements for how we would get a rental truck to bring things home.  The nearest rental truck of any kind that we could locate turned out to be in Savannah (about an hour away driving) and was a 12’ box truck (way overkill for what we needed).  We made contact with a family friend, Nancy McHale, who lives in Beaufort and she agreed that we could borrow her car to get to Savannah to pick up the truck. However, in the meantime Jennifer, the lady purchasing the boat, texted Renee with a picture of the new title that she had received.   In the interest of time and efficiency Renee took an Uber to Savannah to get the truck while Erik took off in the boat from Hilton Head and moved on towards Ridgeland and Jennifer’s home.   Renee met Erik at a small public bot launch with a dock in Ridgeland a couple of hours later and we spent the next couple of hours filling boxes and loading all our personal stuff into the box truck (which actually turned out to be a 16’ truck!....lol.....now it was REALLY overkill).    

Cruising Aquaholic to her new home 

out in the sound 

skinny waters through the marshes 

Turning over ownership 

William after driving the boat to its home dock with Erik's guidance

Renee had made arrangements while on her Uber ride to Savannah for all of us to meet at an attorneys office in Ridgeland at 4pm to notarize the bull of sale and title and exchange for a cashiers check.   This all went smoothly and right on time.   We drove back to the boat launch where Jeniffer and her son met us there.   We spent an hour or so going over the operation of the various systems on the boat.  Erik then left on the boat with William, Jennifer’s son. To navigate it the last few miles to their home dock in the marshlands of SC.  William had grown up on these waters and fortunately picked up on driving the boat effortlessly (Erik did still take the helm for the docking at their home). 

After a brief, bittersweet goodbye to our faithful Aquaholic we immediately got on the road toward home.  But wait...why go home now when we have the time and Knoxville TN is kinda sorta on the way and there is another boat we were interested in looking at there.   We called the owner of that boat and he agreed that he could meet us at Ft Loudon marina where it was on Thursday morning at 10am.   He is currently living in Atlanta Ga.   

Riva continues to stress the whole situation...NOT 

One of our prettiest sunsets this year did not come on the water 

About 30 mins into our drive towards Knoxville a fellow Marinette owner who had seen on the Marinette FB page that we had sold Aquaholic and were in the market for a larger Marinette messaged u stating that their 39’ Aft Cabin big M was for sale in Nashville.  Here we go again...altering plans.  The decision was made that we would drive another couple hours towards Nashville and get a hotel for the night.   We would then meet the the owners of the Nashville boat tomorrow early afternoon to take a look and have a good comparison of an identical boat.   

Whew!!!! What a day.   After grabbing a quick fast food bite to eat we checked into our hotel and settled in to ponder all of the craziness of the day.  

6/14/21 - Skull Creek Marina

We awoke bright (actually dark) and early.   Renee spent a couple of hours finishing up studying for her midterm exam scheduled for 8:10am.   Erik spent the cool morning hours doing a couple of boat preps to have it ready for transfer to the new owner; removing our chart plotter and installing power to the old one that will be staying.    

A little before 8 as Renee was logging on for her exam Erik and Riva set out on the bicycle to explore the island for a couple of hours.  They just barely made it out of “The Plantation” which is the gated community containing 4500 homes.   Beautiful area with bike trails winding throughout the entire community many of which are through shaded areas.    However, it is very odd and almost sterile feeling.   Not exactly our cup of tea.  

After Renee’s test and Erik’s ride we took off again on the bikes to ride about 3 miles to ‘Dolphin Beach’ which was a private beach still within The Plantation.  The beach was fairly small but very pretty and natural looking with driftwood, dunes and marshes behind it.  It was mid tide and falling so the exposed areas of much of the beach had muddy/shell covered sections.  There were many nice shells but they all were moving along with live hermit crabs occupying them.  After swimming in the saltwater Riva decided to plow her head down into the dune and cover herself completely in sand.....including in her face and eyes.  What a dork!   

Riva loves her beach

Hermit crab central

Renee and Riva love their beach

After the ride back to the bot in the hot afternoon sun (it was 93 degrees) we were all exhausted.   We showered up and took short naps before heading out for dinner.   Back onto our bikes we headed out the back gates of the plantation and to ‘Hudson’s Seafood’ which had been recommended to us.   We thought we were going fairly early but by the time we arrived it turned out to be almost 6:30pm and VERY busy.  They had a 1.5-2 hr wait.   There are three popular restaurants all in a row so we walked over to ‘The Boathouse’ and out our name in there as well (they stated an approximately 2 hr wait).  Fortunately, while we waited there was an area outside of the restaurants that was set up with chairs in the shade, cot hole boards, ping pong tables and other such activities.   We chose to laze in the Adirondack chairs in the shade.   The dinner was a bit pricey for Lambert blood but also very good.  Erik chose stuffed flounder (stuffed with crab meat) and Renee had a huge portion of chicken Parmesan.   The nice part about having had to wait for dinner was that we sat outside and the timing allowed things to cool off and we were able to enjoy a nice sunset.  We were too full for desert at the restaurant but not too full to bring some peanut butter pie and bread pudding back to the bot with us to enjoy later (or the next day as it would turn out).      

1.5 hour wait for dinner at Hudson's Seafood, but at least in a comfy chair in the shade

Hudson's shrimp boat 

The wait for dinner at least gave us a nice sunset dining experience

sunset behind the shrimp boat

full bellies and ready to ride home to bed

6/13/21 - Thunderbolt Marina/Savannah to Skull Creek Marina/Hilton Head Island

We slept well after the long, hot day of travel yesterday and the excitement of FINALLY being back on the water.  We awoke early but did not get to enjoy a sunrise because the clouds were pretty thick.  The weather forecast again today called for a good chance of rain, particularly in the afternoon, so our plan was to cruise a fairly short distance (30 miles) up to Hilton Head Island early in the day to hopefully beat the rain.  

We prepped a few things on the boat and pulled up to the fuel dock to top off the tanks.   At the fuel dock the dockmaster greeted us with a complimentary box of six Krispy Kreme donuts that we would enjoy a few of upon our departure.  The clouds stayed pretty heavy which was actually kind of nice because  early in the morning with the sun on the horizon reflecting off of the water it often makes it tough on the eyes.   Not this morning....it was cool and comfortable and the water was very flat.  

"Can I have one of those Kripy Kremes momma?"

One small group of many shrimp boats we have seen along our travels
Erik is considering buying one and having a career change
"That's My Boat"

We had an uneventful 2.5 hour or so cruise with a couple of brief rain showers that had us retreating down to the lower, enclosed helm temporarily.   As we motored along we continue to see many dolphins surfacing but we have still yet to have them play in our wake like we have seen many times in other cruisers pictures and videos.....Renee really needs to work on her dolphin calling technique!  As we got close to our destination for the day, Skull Creek Marina, we came upon what appeared to be a large group of 30 or so small sailboats that we figured were having a sailing lesson.  As we got closer, preparing to turn into the inlet toward our destination, someone hailed us on the radio instructing that "there is plenty of water to the West of the race course for us to enter the creek".   Ah....it was a youth sailing race; a very confusing one to maneuver around at that.   After slowing up, making several turns and then finally just speeding up and powering through we eventually steered clear of the racing action.   

Many dolphin sightings but those darned things are so hard to get on video! If you look close a few seconds in you can see a couple surface briefly

a large group of small sailboats having a race as we approached our inlet to Hilton Head

Avoiding the sailboat race obstacle course

After our usual settling in, brief exploration of the marina facilities and bringing Riva up to potty Renee spent some time studying for her midterm exam scheduled for tomorrow morning.   Erik spent a couple of hours washing down the salt grime on the outside of the boat and bikes.  It has become apparent that we should have oiled the chains/gear mechanisms on our 'new to us' bicycles sooner because both of the bike chains are already covered in a layer of rust and were not working properly...ugh.   A good dose of chain oil worked into them solved that issue....for now.  Later in the afternoon we both spent a bit of time cleaning the inside of the boat as well as starting to go through and pack a few things in preparation for the transfer of the boat soon.   Each of us has now gotten a bit sentimental knowing that the Aquaholic chapter of our journey will likely soon be ending.

Bicycle chains do not fare well getting salt water sprayed up on them :-(

Chains and gears all freed up and oiled....ready to explore Hilton Head Island

All cleaned up from the salty grime the ocean spray leaves 

Aquaholic's resting place for a couple of days

We grilled out an early dinner of brats and rice followed by a nice walk through a mostly residential neighborhood just outside of the marina grounds.   The area surrounding the marina is odd.   There are many beautiful homes and a couple of condo buildings but there was virtually NO activity or sign of anyone around.  The best we can figure these are mostly winter homes for snowbirds and being June most people are gone.   Either that, or there has been a zombie apocalypse in the area that we were not made aware of.   We went with theory 'A' and continued our walk without fear!   

We ended the day with our usual coffee accompanied by a few phone calls to family and Renee studying some more for her exam until her eyes got to heavy to take in any more math causing her to drift off to sleep in the recliner.   This was our cue to retire to bed.   

Riva has found her spot on the back of the recliner again

We love the wide variety of birds that we see on the water and on the docks

Riva...AKA "The Bird Stalker"

6/12/21 Darien to Thunderbolt

Upon awakening from a good nights sleep at the hotel (hopefully the last one before we would be back aboard!) we grabbed a few breakfast bars and yogurts from the hotels breakfast bar and headed to Winn Dixie to do a small amount of provisioning for what will likely be our last few days traveling on Aquaholic before delivering her to her new owner.  We arrived back at Two Way Fish Camp a little after 8am and loaded all of our stuff back onto the boat and straightened things up a bit in preparation for launch number two of the trip.  

David, the yard mechanic and travel lift operator, was there before 8:30 and got right on maneuvering the lift around to us.  Since he was the only person in at the boat yard Erik helped out with strapping up the boat to prepare it for the lift and short move to the water.   The boat was in the water and systems checked out by 9:30am.  We settled up the finances with David making this by far the most costly week on the water we have had since our adventures began five years ago.  Oh well....most people know the acronym for B.O.A.T.... Bust Out Another Thousand (or a couple!).  

Aquaholic with her nice new STRAIGHT shaft and shiny tuned props

headed back to the water...Yay!

back over the water ready to get lowered in

At this point we had a decision to make; the weather forecast was calling for potentially strong storms to come in by early afternoon.   We both were pretty much done with Two Way Fish Camp and certainly wanted to move north to a Savannah marina but the trip today would be pretty long (about 75-80 miles) through a lot more of the Georgia low country marshland.   The other consideration for us was that Renee is scheduled to take a proctored mid-term exam tomorrow morning at 8:30am.   The WiFi and phone signals at Two Way have been sketchy at best which did not speak well to her taking the exam there.  After further consideration of options and more looking at the weather maps/hour by hour forecast we decided we would make a go for it.  Erik quickly drove our 'loaner truck' back to our new friends (whom we still have not actually met!) home which was only about 15 miles away and had his mother (Nancy) give him a ride back to the marina.   Nancy greeted Erik at their home with a bag containing a pound or so of fresh cleaned Georgia shrimp (yum!) as well as multiple ziplock baggies of an assortment of herbs freshly picked from her garden.  Tom and Nancy may be native to Pittsburgh but they sure have let the age old southern hospitality seep into their blood.  Thanks again Tom and Nancy for all you've done to assist us!  Meanwhile, Renee called ahead to Isle of Hope Marina in Savannah to attempt to secure us a slip there for the night.   Unfortunately, they had nothing at all available :-(  She made another call to option 'B', Thunderbolt Marina which was 6 miles further north up the ICW than Isle of Hope.  Unfortunately, she got no answer there at Thunderbolt.   She was able to submit a request for a slip on Dockwa (an online reservation service that many marinas now utilize),but, that did not ensure us a slip until we receive a confirmation back from them.  We departed the marina anyhow at 10:30 am with fingers crossed that the reservation would be confirmed shortly.   We really did NOT want to have to anchor out in thunderstorms later.  

Back on the water and cruising the repairs to the shaft and props had Aquaholic purring along and running as smooth as ever :-).  The first 30-40 miles of the trip had us winding through the channels of the marshes, fortunately at high tide, with the occasional passing of inlets out the open Atlantic.  A little greater than half way through the days trip the landscape started to change some to where there was now much more solid land in site with more and more homes popping up to be seen.   It is crazy to see how long the piers out to peoples boat docks are in this area; some have to be a quarte mile long or more!  The closer we got to Savanna the more frequent, larger and MUCH more expensive the homes got.  The skies continued to cloud over and at several points we could see the rain on the horizon as we continued to wind toward our destination.   Twice, it started raining and we would move down to the lower (inside) helm to avoid getting too wet.  Fortunately though we arrived at Thunderbolt Marina and were able to get tied up, checked in and let Riva off to do her business JUST before the thunderstorms with dark clouds and strong winds set in on us.....whew!   Shortly after we got settled in an 80' yacht 'Laid Back' came in directly behind us.   We helped catch their lines and secure them to the dock.  It was apparent that at least two of the people on Laid Back were crew only and this had us wondering if we should hire a crew....lol.    

Stately looking home with columns
quintessential Georgia 

The house got larger and more frequent as we neared Savannah

beautiful classic boat at a marina a few miles from our destination for the day

Some of the storms and rain moved through so Erik prepared shish kabobs with delicious veges, chicken and the fresh shrimp given to us by Nancy earlier.   Cooking the food on the aft deck proved to be quite the adventure in and of itself because more storms with rain driven by strong winds moved back in shortly after the grill was lit.   Erik stood on the deck by the grill with an umbrella shielding it from the wind and rain to keep it from blowing out.   The shrimp was as good and tasty as Erik had hoped it would be and WELL worth the trouble of cooking it in a storm.  

Ready for the Grill :-)

making up some fresh guac to go with dinner
We had not cilantro which would be typical but for a new twist added some fresh lemon basil and parsley from Nancy's garden 

It had been a long, hot day and we were all three very tired; Riva had already crawled into her doggie bed and was crashed HARD.  We showered up and had some coffee while writing on the blog for the last couple of days which we had neglected.   We finished off the evening with Klondike bars before turning in for a good nights sleep.   

Thunderbolt Marine services some BIG and spectacular boats
this sail boat is one of the more impressive and majestic ones we've seen

It is starting to sink in and is becoming bitter sweet as we realize that it is very likely we will be spending our last few days and nights aboard our beloved Aquaholic.  She has been awfully good to us as a vehicle to MANY life long memories!   Until tomorrow......sweet dreams!  

Settled into her slip for the night after the storms rolled through

Rest well!  

 

 

6/10/21-6/11/21 - Hanging in Darien/Brunswick/Jekyll Island continuing to wait for the boat repairs to be done

On Thursday 6/10 We left our hotel in Savannah to head back to Darien to check on the boat progress. No word yet on whether the shaft will be competed today yet.   We debated on whether we should attempt to stay on the boat for a night or two but by mid afternoon the heat and bugs got to us enough again and we decided by early afternoon to go ahead and get a hotel room again, this time in Brunswick.   Renee had a tutoring session at 2pm for her math class.   

It was a very uneventful day; so much so that neither of us took a single picture.   We are both anxious and ready to hear some news on getting the boat back in the water.   We did go out to dinner at Longhorn and enjoyed splitting  a 'Cowboy' steak that was very yummy.    

The hotel (Days in Brunswick/St Simon) was nice enough and had a nice pool but there were so many kids and people swimming in it when we got back to the hotel that it just did not look appealing.  Hoping tomorrow we get some news and things will be more exciting :-)   

On Friday 6/11 Erik awoke early and took Riva to Jekyll Island for a sunrise walk on the beach .  It was a very nice way to start the day.   Afterwards, he went back to the marina to check again to see if any shaft or props magically appeared.  Additionally, while the boat is out of the water he decided to go ahead and replace the anodes on the bottom of the boat.  We figured that would be the nice thing to do for Jennifer, the woman purchasing the boat, so that she would not have to worry about that for another year or so.   Erik tried to find the correct anodes (aluminum ones must be used on our aluminum boat) at a local hardware and boat supply house in Darien but they only stocked zinc anodes.   This forced him to go to West Marine and pay top dollar for what we could have gotten for half as much online :-(  When he arrived back at the marina with the anodes the new shaft had arrived...yay!   The prop/machine shop had also balanced and tuned both of our props making them look shiny and new.  Erik also removed the transducer for the Simrad chart plotter since that was not part of the sale of the boat but needed to be taken off while it is out of the water.   

Dawn at Jekyll Island 

Starting to get a little more color 

Ah...yes....God is good

She's such a good puppy

there she blows!   

The mechanics/boat yard guys were both busy putting a final coat of paint on another boat and needed to take advantage of the dry weather to get that completed prior to working on ours.   Shortly after lunch they had completed the paint job and came over to install the new shaft and the two newly tuned props on Aquaholic....Yay!   This work was completed at about 3pm and the main yard man debated on going ahead and putting us in the water .  But, it was decided that since we would not be leaving the marina at that hour, and tide was low, that we would just wait and be launched Saturday morning at 8:30am.   We are making progress!!   We were both excited and eager.   The only issue now is that the weather peeps are calling for a good chance of storms (some strong ones) to start by very early afternoon tomorrow.   hmmm....we will have to keep our eyes on it and make a decision whether to go or stay tomorrow after launch.   

We had a fairly early dinner at Cracker Barrel (using up our stash of gift cards) and after dinner headed back out to Jekyell Island to end the day with a sunset walk.   The beach was much smaller than it had been this morning due to it now being high tide.  It was a really nice evening for a beach walk which we took advantage of until after the sky had completely darkened.   By the time we made it back to the hotel we were both tired and ready for showers and bed.   

Back to Jekyll Island for a sunset/night walk
Interesting trees

We probably should have gone the the other side of the Island for sunset but it was still pretty

soft colors in the sky over the ocean even though the sun had set in the west

More intriguing trees