Fall in the NC has been quite dreary with gray skies, rain, cold and gusty winds. I don’t think we’ve actually seen the sun since we got back from our Arizona vacation last week. 🙁

This week alone we’ve seen about 5″ of rain accompanied by 30-40 mph winds. Bosco is constantly thrown into the dock; creaking and groaning with each hurl, day and night. Inside, the boat is cold, damp and soggy. Outside the weather is cold, damp and soggy. There is nowhere for the humidity to escape so it seeps into our bones (and all our linens, clothes, pillows, cushions, etc). Needless to say, we haven’t been sleeping great at night, or very comfortable during the day.

Oriental is almost completely flooded; roads, neighborhoods, parks, even docks are submerged. We’re lucky that ours is a floating dock, so it rises and falls with the water-level. But everywhere else appears to be under water. The town is sinking! 😉

The worst part of all this is that its impossible to get anything accomplished in these conditions. All of the major boat “projects” we have in motion are now on hold. We are also starting to feel the pressure of the departure date creeping up. Anymore delays now could push that back…which is bad. Sounds like a similar tune we sung back in Rock Hall, MD, leading up to our first cruise departure (which was 3 weeks later than we hoped).

There have been some good things to note. Jake finished most of Bosco’s larger plumbing jobs (that we’ve had on the list since Day 1). He installed the new Seagull IV water filter AND just yesterday, our new water hand-pump. The old pump was broken, so we got a brand new (pretty and shiny) one in its place! The manual pump is perfect for conserving water and power. A really great asset!

Jake also signed up for a scuba diving certification course. He’s been gone most of the week at his classes leaving me here to brave the boat by my lonesome. But its been great for him and will be awesome once he’s certified. It means we can have dive gear (including o2 – or rather ‘compressed air’ in a tank) onboard. This will come in handy for boat jobs like cleaning and/or inspecting the hull for damage and retrieving a stuck anchor in deeper waters.

So at least Jake has himself occupied. I’m just working my butt off to help pay for all of these things (mainly the new engine), which is not super fun, but its better than sitting around twiddling my thumbs. 😉

All we can do now is try to keep our spirits high and busy ourselves as much as we can. Maybe [rhetorical] tomorrow will bring some sun (wishful thinking!!!).