Edisto,, July 14th

Mom's Birthday today. Happy Birthday Mom!

Thursday we drove to Fairhope, Alabama. 10 hours one way, to pick up the new exhaust Today is Mom's Birthday. Happy Birthday Mom!

Thursday, we drove to Fairhope Alabama. 10 hours one way, to pick up our new exhaust manifold. It is a thing of beauty. Stainless steel, and they say they have never had one rust out. We will have to keep this address, as we have replaced one, but there are two engines. Wonder how the other one is doing?

Strange thing. We took cash to pay for manifold. They preferred a check, even tho' it could take up to 6 weeks to clear. With this kind of logic, there is no wondering why the US would be in a recession. Second reason ..... They had the order for 3 weeks and when we contacted them in 3 rd week for ETA, they said the order would be delayed because they ran out of stainless steel and it was on order. Now if this was your business and this material was crucial to production, wouldn't you be sure to have it on hand?

They continue to work on the engine installation. The boat is in the water. With a little luck we could be on the water heading north the first of the week. This probably means Tuesday or Wednesday.

It continues to be hot and humid, which is normal for SC at this time of the year. Hope the air conditioner works.

Peter had a little excitement on Wednesday. He had broken a fitting and water was coming into the boat. He stopped it up and we went to town to get replacement parts and returned to Jim and Linda's for the night. Everything under control. The bilge pumps could handle the small drip overnight. Oops! At midnight, Peter remembered that he had shut off the battery charger during the day as it makes a really annoying noise. No battery charger, no bilge pumps. He said he broke out into a cold sweat thinking about it, and couldn't sleep. He made the 1 hour drive to the boat to check it. A good thing too as the water was within an inch of the bilge floorboards. He pumped it out and replaced the fittings. Had he not gone to boat he thought he could have had water in his gas tank, in the water tank, and perhaps over the floor in the galley and the aft cabin.
Disaster avoided. He got back about 3:30 am. Needless to say he slept in a little in the morning.

Friday Jim and Linda were loaded to go to their new boat for some well deserved boating. They will be in the Rhode Island - Maine area for the first of their boating. We are hoping to meet up with them when we get there.