I’ve often heard sailors say that “cruisers plans are written in the sand at low tide” and I’ve been witness to it many times over. It may be weather that holds you up, tides not in your favor, family issues, or mechanical failure but if you spend any time on a boat, you should be prepared for and willing to accept things that might slow you down or stop you completely.
When I last posted, I was heading to the train station in Savannah GA to head home for the holidays. I had located a marina in Hilton Head SC to keep Infinity while I made the trip north. It was also an easy place to continue moving south to meet up with Pegu Club after they had their brand new engine installed. We hadn’t written anything in stone as to where we’d meet, but the discussions were along the lines of Pegu heading to Vero after the engine install and then they would travel back up to Hilton Head to make the run from there to Vero on Infinity.
The ride home on the train was another first for me as I’d never been on a train before except for the one at Clark’s Trading Post in the White Mountains but that really doesn’t count (so how many of you are going…”oh yeah, I know that train…🤔?). It was…interesting…to say the least. It’s easier to get onboard than a jet, more comfortable, and quieter but it takes forever to get anywhere and they’re notorious for being late. I have a round trip ticket so I get to try it again!! I was doing good timewise until we got to NYC and then things got delayed. I wasn’t sure if I was going to make the connection from New Haven to Springfield so I was on the phone keeping Denise updated so she didn’t have to sit in Springfield for half the night. It turned out that we were so late getting to New Haven that they had to bring in another train just for the people that were late coming out of NYC. My brother in law even volunteered to drive to New Haven to pick me up but his generous offer didn’t need to be put into action (thanks Rick!!). Overall, I ended up being an hour late into Springfield.
I was really happy to be home for Thanksgiving and to see all the family and friends!! In between all the festivities, I was checking the weather in Hilton Head so I could adjust my stress levels to how hard the wind was blowing…🤣🤣🤣. I was also staying in contact with Jeff and Kimberly on Pegu Club to see how things were progressing. Over the next week or so, they made their way down to a marina just past Savannah GA where the engine exchange would take place. The company that was doing the change had the new engine at their place and a mechanic was scheduled to do the swap.
The Monday of swap week came and the mechanic was at the boat on time and ready to go. The Pegu Crew had done a bunch of prep work prior to him showing up so the engine was totally exposed!! It, surprisingly, took the mechanic only 3.5 hours to get the engine out of the boat and heading back to the shop where the next day he transfered all of the external parts off the old engine onto the new engine. On Wednesday, the new engine was back in Pegu Club, started, aligned, kissed a few times, and celebrated in birth as the “Son of Big Red”!! There was much joy in Mudville if you’ll allow me to change the saying a bit!!
And then the tide came in…..
I got a call from Kimberly on the next Friday morning that, after the formalities of starting a call, went to the proverbial “So………”. It’s never a good thing when the “So……” is used and I immediately thought that something had happened to the engine. As the story unfolded, it was quickly established that SoBR was doing just fine (yay!!). The next statement, though, kinda made me pause for a few seconds as Kimberly explained that she had been approached by a marina in Beaufort SC with an offer to be the dockmaster there. I quickly asked if she would start after we got back and she said they asked her to start the next week. This was followed by a slight pause as I said the proverbial “Oooookkkaayyy”. I then asked “so you’re not going any further south?” and she said no. I know you guys probably won’t believe me when I said “good for you!!” but I really did say something in those regards and I really meant it too (still do!!). Even though Kimberly thought I was going to hate them for this, I was instantly very supportive of their decision to accept the job. I knew that Beautiful SC is their #1 favorite spot on the entire east coast and that the dockmaster position is Kimberly’s dream job so how could I be mad. Of course, after we hung up my thoughts immediately went to what would my next steps be with this trip. I had a few options I could execute so I had some thinking to do.
So I guess there’s a lot of truth to the saying I started this post with. The tide came in and now the plans are being rewritten where the old ones were. A lot of you have said that this has been quite the adventure and I’m here to tell you that this adventure is far from over!! I’ll drive a bit deeper into the decision that’s been made in the next post (even though a lot of you know what it is…) but I do want to end this post by saying this…
I completely accept and support the decision that Pegu Club’s crew made and I’m super excited for their future in Beaufort!! I’m also super excited for our plans over the next few months (and a bit nervous…😬) as the adventure continues with the crew (yes, crew) of Infinity!!
❤️❤️❤️
Sailing Infinity 