Be the "Willow"!

Our most recent cruise route--3 days from Charleston, SC to Georgetown, SC, to South Myrtle Beach, SC to Southport, NC.  Remember, just click on the following link and when the map comes up, just use the zoom buttons to see more detail.  Enjoy!
Charleston, SC to Southport, NC


Vicki writes...
Cruising has definitely improved my flexibility in a major way.  By flexibility I mean not muttering expletives when circumstances intervene to cause my plans to be modified.  This is a very good change.  My temperament is wired to plan ahead.  This is definitely and asset, but can get in the way when changes to the plan makes one irritable (perhaps an understatement) as it used to for me. 

Today was a good example of how flexibility is needed on the boat.  The alarm woke us up at 4:45am  (the earliest yet) to allow us to catch the Cape Fear River with the current in our favor.  We won't trave that river when current is against us because it's 3.5 knots, half of our cruising speed.  The first thing Norm said (after that thing he said that I can't repeat when the alarm went off) was "Is that lightening?"  Indeed it was.  So, we waited.  The storms cleared, but not early enough to catch the favorable current on the Cape Fear River.  So we changed our plans and went into Southport Marina, a stop just before the river.  


At the marina, we sought help with a fuel issue.  Norm has been having to change the fuel filters every day since we loaded on fuel just north of Charleston at Isle of Palms Marina.  The filters are getting black crud in them every day.  Not a good thing.  Maintenance personnel diagnosed the problem and half of the fix (the mechanical half) will be in tomorrow.  The other half (the actual contaminated fuel half) will be treated chemically and cleaned up, hopefully, from the inside.  Otherwise we'll require fuel polishing--that's where they pump all 700 gallons through an external filter and return clean fuel to the tank.  Wish us luck that the chemical treatment works.  So, it looks like we're here for another day - unplanned, but OK. 

Yes, boating requires one to bend like the willow.  Boaters' mantra:  "Be the willow!"