I have decided to make a soundtrack to go along with your reading.  Over the past couple weeks we have been through a myriad of emotions and thoughts about whats next.  The videos with song will hopefully help you better understand what we have been feeling.

Immediately following our rudder breaking we were reminded of our time a couple years ago when we auditioned for Deal or No Deal.  The audition was just a few miles from our house and we thought we would just go over and hang out for an hour or so in the morning.  When we arrived the line was longer than we were expecting (the show was in its fifth season).  We thought we might be standing in line for two maybe even three hours.  After four hours in line (in 90 degree heat) we were committed.  It looked like maybe another hour or two and we should be in the door.  Two hours later we rounded the corner and realized that the line extended past the door, looped around a few times and then came back.  Thirteen hours after we arrived we were finally able to audition for 30 seconds.  I was actually asked to stay for an additional minute (because I’m apparently entertaining, but not THAT entertaining).

At a certain point, it really didn’t matter if it was going to take the rest of our lives.  We just kept telling ourselves, “Well, we’ve been here this long.  We might as well stay.”  After that experience we vowed never to let that happen again in any situation.

That is just the situation that we find ourselves in now.  We have spent so much time and money fixing up our boat that we feel like we can’t quit.  At the same time, we don’t want to waste time and money having another Deal or No Deal experience. A hundred bucks here, a few days there and we’ll be in that situation again. Long story short, we never signed anything in blood, so the vow to avoid the Deal or No Deal situation that we made wasn’t completely binding.

Feel free to play the next song.

After much “encouragement” (or something) from some friends, we decided to keep on going.  We decided to waste our savings and live the adventure that we have been working for.  Right now we are extremely close to having enough issues worked out so that we can try it again.  We have been here long enough now to have some idea of what to expect from the tides and current.  Its actually probably for the best since Beaufort SC sometimes has 12ft tides.

Since being here we were finally able to change the name of the boat.

We were able to repack the stuffing box.  Something that clearly needed to be done.

Here are some pics of the rudder repair.

Halfway there!!