May 18, 2009.

We’ve been watching the weather and it looks like we’ll be here for a few more days. I had wanted to leave on Saturday morning but that would have led to an ass kicking off the coast of Georgia. So imagine my surprise when one of the other boats in the anchorage slipped their lines and headed out.

Not just any boat either. This boat is a fifty something foot schooner that’s been here in the mooring field every time we’ve ever been here. I mean this boat is practically a permanent fixture here. So this guy decided this would be the time to hire some crew and head out for North Carolina. I hope it works out for them but I’m pretty sure it’s gonna be ugly.

So while we were waiting here we decided to devote our time on Sunday to making the dogs look like Schnauzers again. Secretly I was hoping that all day Sunday would actually be enough time to make them presentable and if somebody was able to recognize them as being Schnauzers, well….bonus!

We started out with Christy watching our Schnauzer grooming video while taking copious notes. Then she insisted that I watch the video while she got started by cleaning the dog’s ears and trimming their nails. So I watched the video and committed all the subtle nuances and techniques to memory for possible later use.

We decided to do the grooming out on the aft deck and after about 5 minutes we realized that it was hot as hell out. We had to stop and hang our large shade screen so we could work in reasonable comfort.

Once Tucker was trussed up so he couldn’t move I picked up the electric shears to get started. That’s when I realized that Christy had been using the shears as a paperweight to hold something down. Once the weight was removed we both watched as her mornings notes took flight and landed in the water. In fact there was so much ink on the page due to the sheer volume of notes that they sank almost immediately. Oh well, I don’t need no stinking notes, I committed it all to memoryish, mostly, sorta, kinda…..

First Tucker and then Molly. We sheared enough gobs of curly hair to build a spare Schnauzer. We trimmed around the naughty bits, eyes and ears with nary a scratch. They actually came out pretty good and it only took about 5 freaking hours. Once they were trimmed we bathed them and made them smell as good as they look. Mr. Williams House of Hair and Fabulosity now caters to the upscale Schnauzer crowd as well.

Today we had to take the bus to town to run some errands. We got back to the boat just before the cold front arrived. We had just enough time to prepare the boat for the coming inclement weather. We closed this and that and hung a few weather shades that would enable us to leave a hatch and some ports open even in the driving rain. Remember, when living on a boat, ventilation is your friend.

This is actually the first real rain that we’ve seen since January. So once it started to really pour I stripped to my skivvies and went out on deck and gave the boat a scrubbing with the deck brush. Besides the rainwater is really good for my hair. Lol.

It’s now Monday evening and it’s raining steadily. The forecast was right, it’s a good thing we didn’t head out on Saturday, there would have been much sorrow in the village. As of now Wednesday, Thursday is starting to look like a go for launch. We’ll see….