Savannah

Savannah – April 28 - June 7, 2006

Home again..

After stopping at Ft. Frederica and St. Catherine's Island for the night, we made it back to Savannah on May 1st. We missed Ray Greenlaw who had been back from Thailand, but happily he lent us the use of his car when we arrived in town. It was great to see family and friends again. We spent the first week at Isle of Hope where we got our new anchor roller installed. We also finished re-provisioning. We then moved the boat to Delegal Creek Marina (in the Landings) and caught a plane to the west coast where we spent two weeks visiting son Wil, daughter Lara, Barb's five brothers, Chuck's cousin Keith, and friends Jim and Carol. This was the first time we'd left the boat for any length of time. We were a bit nervous but friend Jerry Coleman watched the boat for us while we were gone, so all was well. Upon our return back to Savannah, Barb headed to Knoxville to visit son Jeff while Chuck stayed behind to varnish the cap rail of the boat and to fix a water pump problem.

We had not varnished the teak for over five months, so Chuck put lots of coats on the boat using both the wet sanding method and varnishing techniques learned from Tom Davenport (Cocoon). Tusen Takk II is looking quite nice these days. Unfortunately, the water pump problem is a different story. Everyone (except Barb) was convinced that the problem was not the pump (since this type of failure had never happened to this type of pump before), but elsewhere. Chuck spent days changing all sorts of fittings, hoses, and strainers before everyone agreed it might be the pump. We were days late from leaving Savannah and anxious to start our journey north, so decided to speed things up by driving south to Ft. Lauderdale to have the pump tested and fixed or replaced. The factory (Headhunters) declared it was indeed a defective pump within 15 minutes of our arrival. They apologized, immediately gave us a replacement pump, as well as numerous golf shirts, t-shirts, and nice bags. They were very accommodating as they realized we had driven seven hours down and had seven hours yet to go. When we arrived back at the boat, Chuck installed the pump and discovered a leak. A plastic fitting inside the pump had cracked when he screwed the hose barb into it. Grrrrr! Whose fault? It's hard to know, but very frustrating, especially since -- coincidentally -- our marina is having plumbing problems of its own and currently has no water to the dock. They sprung a leak on the pipe to the dock, and their efforts to fix it while we were gone were not successful, so we have no water.

On another note, we had a nice visit with our former neighbors Gene and Pat Hahne. We were sad to see that the bulkhead that collapsed in December is just now being repaired. They have had a devil of a time getting it done and it has been outrageously expensive. We sure felt for the Hanes -- and for the current owners of our house. It certainly makes our water pump problem seem trivial.

Barb has been spending as much time as possible with Danielle and the granddaughters, as she knows she won't see them again until November. Abigail has become quite attached to her and Barb will be very sad to say good-bye.