Return to Seasons

The following morning, when we awoke on the Calabash River, we intended to get going early as we had a number of miles, and the dreaded Rockpile, to cover before we arrived in Georgetown, South Carolina. Moreover, we wanted to get to Georgetown early enough to enjoy a few beers and dinner ashore. We quickly got the cabin situated and figured we would eat breakfast underway. All ready to go, I turned the key on the engine, but rather than it effortlessly turning over, only a little clicking occurred. I waited a few seconds, and tried again with the same result. Finally, on the third try, the engine started with only a moment of hesitancy. The instant relief quickly disappeared, however, as we realized there was no water coming out the exhaust, meaning the engine was not being cooled. More than a little concerned, I shut down the engine and started to troubleshoot.
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Today, Margaret and I drove up to Madison, Wisconsin with some of her students for a conference, so I did not get around to finishing my daily post (besides the driving, I was distracted by too much good beer and cheese in this city!). But I did want to share this New York Times article on the history and possible future of North Brother Island. Anyone who has transited the East River will remember North Brother, just east of Rikers. As you are heading downriver, North Brother appears just before you start slipping down into Hell Gate. Its trees and tangled vines, barely hiding the remains of a few buildings, really captured my imagination as we passed by. The guidebooks, as well as the Times article, detail how Typhoid Mary was quarantined on the island in the early twentieth century. But the article also goes into some other aspects of North Brother’s interesting history and details the potential, and difficulties, of building a park on the island. It is a short piece, but well worth the read for anyone who has slipped passed North Brother on an ebbing current.

I just found this post that I wrote back when we were still looking at boats. Since the boat is still for sale, I figured it might be useful to some folks out there if I put it up. I had written up my comments on the boat shortly after we saw it, but I guess we were still waiting to put the pictures in and for Margaret to add her comments when we both got sidetracked with Bear.

While we were en route from Indiantown to Harbortown Marinas, we realized we would be done looking at the four boats Wally was showing us by the early afternoon. So, we decided to call another broker and see if we could get on one more boat before we headed back across the state again to my folks’ place. The Fort Pierce-Stuart area seems to be the epicenter of used boats, not just in Florida or the United States, but really the entire world. So, we had a couple boats to choose from once we consulted our spreadsheets. Margaret was still rather high on the Bayfield, so we decided to inquire about a well outfitted model in Fort Pierce that had just been reduced by 18,000 dollars. The broker had no problem fitting us in that afternoon, so it would be a five boat day.
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