Returning North to Autumn

Returning from South Carolina was a shock. Our yard was covered with leaves - maple and elm. The linden hasn`t dropped yet. Cold and rainy, 10C. Brrr! Our visit to Myrtle Beach started out cold (it`s all relative I know) and we had some great golf weather. Then it warmed more and we walked the beach and touched up our tans. Water 74F but I never got up the nerve to swim in it. MB has wonderful long, fine sandy beaches you can walk for hours. Sadly Ocean Annies closed the moment we arrived one evening - apparently the cost of a live band and licence was too high for the small numbers of tourists. (At Easter it`s a happening place on the beach, which beach condo owners have mixed feelings about.) Then it started to drizzle so we gave up and went back to the condo.

It`s odd not to have the sailboat to work on in the fall. We used to spend weeks taking our sailboat apart for winter, removing sails, canvas, rigging, lifelines, etc. then rigging the mast cradles fore and aft to hold the mast. We unloaded the boat and winterized the engine, cockpit drains, holding tank and water system. Then after Thanksgiving we took the mast down. We rigged frames for the tarp, then wrapped the boat like a sausage with lines holding the tarp to the steel boat cradle. This year we went golfing and walking the beach instead and wondered how the new owner was making out. (We got an email from him in SC asking a few questions, but you can`t put 24 years of experience in an email)