" When Pigs Fly"

One of the things I’ve learned in the course of this trip is that Boating has its own sense of time.  Calendars and clocks serve no useful purpose on a boat, weather and repairs always take control. I guess that’s why they say boaters are always on boating or island time.  We had hoped to be somewhere around Myrtle Beach by now but the maritime gods have not been smiling on us too much of late, fortunately though nothing is broken this time that really ties us to the dock.

The late fall Norfolk weather has set in and we are both pining for the 80 degree days of the lower latitudes. One thing that is broke that we have no control over is the Great Bridge Lock, the only lock on the route south and it’s down for repairs. They are allowing vessels to pass at low tide with favorable winds. There is a period each day around low tide that lasts 3 to 4 hours when the tide is right to get through the lock area. The Captain talked to the lock master yesterday he said the lock was still down and with the current high winds the window would be missed for the day. He said there were 8 to 12 boats lined up to get through that would most like have to wait another day.  Sounds like quite a traffic jam 

Warmer weather is on the way in 2-3 days, with a little luck hopefully so will we. This will make all of  the crew happier than a fat kid with cake.

The good news is Captain Steve has gotten the Viking moved to Norfolk while Frank was on his way back from Missouri so we are finally finished with our trips to Maryland. The survey and sea trial for the Carver were completed after Frank’s return and everything looks great for the sale to be completed by mid December. 

After living on the boat now for awhile we have become a bit disillusioned with our surveyor of the boat. Seems he has missed some major items that will eventual cost us some big bucks. After we took possession of the Viking we found that the AC in the galley didn’t work. We decided we should have all 5 A/C’s checked out since our intent is going to warmer climates… someday.

The “old boat syndrome” kicked in spades. We knew it would someday, just not so soon.  The Viking is a 1989 model and the AC units, all 5 of them, are originals. Shawn, our AC guy seemed to discover a new issue every time he touched one of them; the compressor in the galley is in rotary lock and the V-berth unit had some burned wires in a couple of places, stuff like that. These are things the surveyor should have caught by powering up and checking if the compressor came on. Obviously this was not done on these two units. 

Then over the next few days we have had minor trouble with our units in both the salon and the master bedroom. We’ve had some good luck too, though. Shawn was working on another boat and was able to cannibalize a perfectly good compressor which matched the one out in the V-berth so he installed that instead of fixing the burnt wires. Shawn is quite the wheeler dealer and this time it worked in our favor, since the new unit has only a few hours on it. We’re not sure where all of this will end at this point as the work continues….

We also made contact with Seaport Electronics to install the Garmin and new Intellian satellite for TV. Again our new friend Bob McBride at Mile Marker 0 came through with some good recommendations. The Intellian Satellite is Frank’s Birthday, Christmas, Father’s day, Mother’s day, Easter, and Veteran day present for the next three years..he’s a very lucky guy. 

The installation of the Garmin has now been completed. Our installer Ron was able to make the boat’s existing auto pilot and depth transducer talk to the Garmin. This saved us a lot of bucks. 

Today the Intellian should be completed, it has been a deal too. Ron, knows what he’s doing but it’s still causing a little heartburn as he cuts in to panels around the boat to run wires. Ron just laughs and says he does this to brand new boats too! Ron has taken the time to show the Captain items that are buried in the depths of the boat and behind panels that you would swear were un-removable.

In between wind gusts this week we were also able to get the old jinx name (Fiasco) off the boat and rename her, “When Pigs Fly”, so she can go south. Hopefully by Sunday we’ll be on our way and our posts will contain lots of pictures of happy boaters in shorts and flip flops!

See ya on the water