Well, it looks like our time in Charleston is coming to a close. The last few weeks has seen a multitude of projects completed on board Dream Catcher. Our current thinking is to head north towards Oriental and maybe stay there for a week or two.

On the work front, I have done major maintenance on both engines and fixed the transmission problems on the port side unit. I've also replaced the last of our non stainless stainless steel bolts that have been rusting for the last 2 years.

I finally found a source for the proper 5 millimeter bearings and rebuilt all twenty block that comprise the turning system for our running rigging. 1600 plastic ball bearings later, I was finished. This sucked mega hard.

Inside, I patched a small hole that we have been carrying around in a lazerette for some time. I also re-bedded both sinks in the kitchen because they have been leaking into the counter space below them. I also re-bedded the water neck filler that has been leaking into a starboard side cabinet since Georgetown. There was also a myriad of other smaller projects that also got completed.

We've both enjoyed our stay here, but we're both anxious to get moving again. It looks like we'll get a good weather window on Tuesday or Wednesday to jump offshore and overnight to Oriental about 200 miles away.

In other news, I was almost done in by an Egg-A-Mooby Muffin. Keep in mind, we are on the "Mega Dock" here at the city marina in Charleston. As the name implies, the mega dock is mega long (just over 1/3 miles) and as we are on the end of it, we ride bikes back and forth to the shore rather than walk.

Anyway, it started out innocently enough. I was coming back from a McDonald's breakfast run and I was riding my bicycle back to the boat. Then, disaster struck. My Mickey's bag of breakfast foods was hanging from the handle bars when suddenly the bag slid too close to the front wheel brake caliper.

A slight jostle of the suspension and WHAMMOO! A sausage egg and cheesie slid right into the brake system and locked up the front wheel. Uh oh.

In the next sequence, our hero, the biking action bozo deluxe, was sent careening over the handle bars of said bike whilst his two egg a moobie muffins, hash browns, and two small diet cokes plummeted to the hard concrete dock 5 feet below. Shitty death !

After a 12 foot slide on my head, the bike and I ended up laying on top of each other. My breakfast paid the ultimate price and ended up being spread out over a 20 foot radius in a classic, crash zone pattern. Shortly after impact, two dogs came running down the dock. I thought they were coming to rescue me, but it turns out they were only interested in breakfast.

I gathered up my now broken bike and more than slightly bruised body and hobbled the remaining 30 feet back to the boat. I am in fact a bozo deluxe.