October 14, 15,16 2006 First Mate Notes

Finally have service, but questionable for how long. Left Midway Marina on October 14 and faced our first lock in three miles. Had a total of four for the day and things got better as we went along. A little frustrating, but we got it and headed down the river. We traveled with "By Design", a 50 foot Azumut with three couples delivering it to Ft. Lauderdale. They were very nice people and seemed to be having a great time. It was quite cold when we left port, but warmed up nicely as the day went on. We arrived at Columbus, Miss. at the marina and went to our dock/slip. Our boat is 15' 4" and the slip is 16'. If you do the math you will see that the captain had 4" on either side of the boat. He did a great job and we wedged ourselves into the slip. Obviously there was no room for fenders, but we are secure and comfortable.
Sunday October 15th the First Mate actually beat the captain out of bed for the first time. I did notice however that the rule....last one up makes the bed....did not apply to the captain. In his defense...he has made the bed three times in the last 5 weeks. We put on our "Sunday go to meetin clothes" on and went to church. A lovely church in town with very friendly people. It appears to be a wealthy church since they had six pastors to support. We got there a little early and enjoyed watching the 4th, 5th and 6th grade choir practice for the service. We enjoyed the service and needed that I think. After church we went to lunch and enjoyed some Southern type food. Not sure we had a lot of choice. Pretty much grits, jambalaya, creole, etc. on most menus.
Came back to the boat for a little football fix. Wanted to watch Ben with Pittsburgh, but we got a little more of the southern coverage. What a surprise!!! Beautiful day..around 79 or 80 degrees. Nice relaxing day!!
Oct 16, we woke to rain. A lot of rain!!! This is definitely the most rain we have had since we left home. It hasn't let up all day and the wind has kicked up as well. We had the car reserved to go to town this morning, but we also had an appointment for someone to change the oil in the engines. Now I know you won't believe this but.........our pump for doing the oil change was broken. Cooperation from the service with Cruiser was nill and so we ended up calling the manufacturer and he is overnighting one to us. Hopefully it will arrive, but one never knows!!! In the meantime it took the poor guy 5 hours to do a one to two hour job. Don't even want to know what that bill will be.
We did take the car to town to buy groceries, but were only gone an hour. Someone else had signed up for the car and needed it. We do have it tonight however to go to dinner at Harvey's. It is suppose to be a good restaurant in town. Will let ya know next time.
Naturally with this rain came the leaks. My galley looks like a laundry room with every dish towel I have soaking wet from the leaks in the windows. If CRUISER had put the corian up before we left (it was ordered at the beginning of the summer and arrived the week before we left...not cut to fit I might add) the leaks wouldn't be doing further damage to the wood. In case you haven't guessed.............It will be a cold day in HELL before we even think about another Cruiser. Great designs, poor service and lots of defective parts.
We did get good news yesterday from Steph and Louie. They are going to join us in Mobile for a few days. We are really excited to have them on board. Then Oct. 27th Ward and Ingrid will be joining us in Pensacola. It will be nice to have someone else on board to talk to. Craig and I have done very well however and nobody died or was killed yet. Must be love. Hope to be in a port tomorrow with some service, but if not....next time. Hugs, ML