My sister, Nola's perspective (she and Ed are visiting)

We interrupt this blog for a different perspective!!  This blog is being written by Pam's land-loving, city-dwelling sister to give you non-sailing type a picture of what is going on.

While I'm not totally without "rustic" skills (we went camping when we were kids, and the Army was nice enough to provide more outdoor fun and excitement over my  22 year of service) I've decided that my new definition of "roughing it" means that my 5 star hotel's concierge called in sick!

The weather in Georgia today is absolutely perfect!  Pam doesn't give enough props to the weather here. We had beautiful blue sky's all day.  The drive down was country as you have to go cross country to get here.

We picked Pam up at the coffee place where she was spread out working on something.  She had a large ziplock of cables that turned out to be a satellite phone. My husband is over the moon as he's been a tad concerned about them having trouble "in the middle of nowhere".

Off we went to the boat.  We walked by their collapse able bikes locked up on the rail, down the ramp to the dock and around to their boat (the only non-white boat in the place). I was happy to see the solar panels on top as that means electricity!  (electricity good!  Things can be plugged in while on water).

This is the first time I've actually seen Cricket actually in the water...  It looks much smaller with its underbelly hidden. Since they are still in provisioning mode, stuff is everywhere (like the Beverly hill billy truck on water, only much newer!  Not saying that they are hillbillies but at this point they are definitely are hillbilly-esq).

Lila ran to greet us and was happy that we didn't bring our brat Cammi with.  Ben was waving and showed off his new boat pants. They are pretty cute Ben!  He calls them bug and sun protection.

We were starving so we went for lunch. Their boat is right in the thick of the historic district of St Mary's. So we walked to a cute little restaurant. After lunch we went on a golf cart tour of St Mary's. Ed really enjoyed the tour. Our tour guide was very informative without being boring.    Then it was time to get things done.

We went to the boatyard to see where they have been living. I've been to two boat yards do far and this was the third. Because of my past experiences, my expectations were low.  Boat yards have a "junkyard" feel to them. All these sad boats hobbling on crutches, with the boat doctors (and owners) trying to fix them up.  This yard had lots of genuinely nice people just wanting to help. We met all the boat doctors and nurses, and dogs.

To comment on the bugs, while I wasn't as bothered, I could see the buzzing little varmints creating little halos around everyone else. The British couple were sporting matching portable screen tent shirts, quite stylish.  Robin had peeled his zippered full front mask to talk to us.  Pam aspires to have the full body version one day.

Pam mentioned candles and one of the guys starts unloading all these mason jar candles. No lie! About 4 boxes of candles appeared like magic!  With essences like "monkey farts", how could I resist?  I opted for cucumber.

We checked into our "hotel" on the naval base. Not 5 star but not bad. It's transient housing for navy guys. I'm used to roughing it in hotels. Ran by the class 6 (liquor store for you non military) for more important provisioning; and buy the time we finished all this, it was time for dinner.

We ate at seafood and more. Almost everything in St Mary's has "and seafood" at the end of it. I love eating at the coast! Fresh, cheap, great seafood! For $22 total, we had heaping plates of shrimp and scallops. Fat and happy, it was time to get to work.

Back to the boat we walked by the bikes and then came to the really steep ramp...  Wait!!!  It wasn't steep earlier...  Pam explained that this beautiful concrete dock is floating and pointed out the crustations that were now on the cement poles.  Somehow tons of concrete float. Cool.

At night there isn't a lot of difference between the black dock and the black water so thanks to Ed and is handy flashlight app I was doing good.  I'd not want to try it after a few drinks!

"permission to come aboard" said Ed, "granted" chirped Pam, and onto the boat we went. I had been on the boat before only from a ladder on hard. I thought it was tricky then but thought it would be better on the water.  Nope. There is a flimsy rail that I was sure wouldn't hold my entire weight that prohibited you from putting your foot in the area that would make it easy to get on board. So you have to put a foot in this area that is barely wide enough to accommodate said foot, figure out how to get the other foot past the railing, around the boat housing and into the navigation station.  Whew!  I made it!  Being known for some rather artistic falls, I didn't want to add to that string.

There isn't a lot of room for 2 let alone have company. Top that due to provisioning efforts it did sort of look like an episode of hoarders with all the food and stuff everywhere. Pam and Ben seem to move effortlessly around... Ed and I... Not so much.

I felt like we were playing a human version of that little puzzle game with the numbers you have shift till you get them in order. Pam and I went in first with Ed and Ben behind. To get Ed to the bench you put Pam in the kitchen, me by the back, Ed on the bench, Ben off to the side and me back to the kitchen. This was repeated in various routines throughout the night.

Kitchen= enough square footage to turn around. On one side small shelf, next cabinets and nooks ( one that is about 4-5 soup cans deep) , next side is two sinks (one salt water, one fresh) and the last the opening. Pam and I did fit in this space but didn't move around much.

For those of you that have read about "natures head".  This the the toilet that you poop in peat moss. At first descriptions it sounded gross, but it's no worse than an airline toilet and actually smells better!  It smells like potting soil and I equate it to more like kitty litter for humans only you don't do any scooping. It was much cleaner than the airline throne.

Pam and I proceeded to reduce the family sized packages of pancake mix, coffee, wheat thins and various flours into reasonable sized packages. We had my food saver and were sucking the air out (when it worked) and sealed it in thick plastic. It seems that if water gets in you don't want a 5 lb bag of pancake flour to be goo. This way only the opened ones get ruined.

While Pam and I did packaging, Ed made a proper inspection of the helm and other stuff.

We were completely pooped by this time so we exited to the hotel where we promptly passed out into a deep sleep.

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