Days 163 to 168: Ocean and Mountains

Charleston Maritime Center and Reno, Nevada & Granlibakken Resort, Tahoe City, CA

June 27 to July 2, 2022

Living in such close quarters for the last 5 months has bonded us very tightly. We haven’t been apart for more than a few hours since January until I left to lead a workshop in Tahoe City, CA. After all of our time together, it feels very disconcerting to be away from one another for an extended period!

This is also the first time I have flown since early December. I gave one of our sons my suitcase when he visited at Christmas and we never pulled John’s out of storage. It didn’t make sense to Uber to the storage unit from the marina to get the suitcase, so I practiced minimalism when I packed for my trip by getting six days of clothes into packing cubes and then into a totebag. The Tahoe area gets cold at night so I had to bring a coat, too (even though Charleston temperatures were in the 90s).

Getting to Tahoe from Charleston is not direct – I left a day early to fly to Dallas/Fort Worth and then on to Reno, Nevada. I met up with some other workshop leader friends there. We walked around downtown Reno which was surprisingly pretty with its public art and the Truckee River running through it.

For years I have been hoping to see a bear in Tahoe. I still haven’t seen one but I did get to see a cool statue of them downtown. The “fur” is made from coins inset on their sides.

Lake Tahoe is huge, cold, and calm. It’s surrounded by mountains and the air is really dry. It’s a great place for a workshop because we can use the patio for breakout groups and enjoy the weather all day. The food is very fresh, too.

Back in Charleston, Tropical Storm Colin blew up. This storm sort of appeared unexpectedly (which is weird in this day and age of computer models for weather forecasting). Charleston Maritime Center is not very protected, so the wind and wave action was dramatic. There was no danger at the marina but John added more lines to keep Lailia secure. It was definitely bouncy.

I did get to spend a little time on the Tahoe Rim Trail before I headed to the airport. This was good since I was in airports and planes for about 24 hours on my way home – going through multiple time zones isn’t easy.

John did a massive amount of boat maintenance while I was gone. He cleaned the raw water strainer which had a collection of detritus. The raw water system uses sea water to cool the fresh water in the engine. The strainer catches all the stuff before it clogs this system.

John replaced the Raycor fuel filter. Sludge from the fuel tanks would ruin the engine so this is very important. Diesel tanks can get water from fueling or condensation in the tank. Algae and other bacterial life grow in the water.

John also replaced the secondary fuel filter.

As if that wasn’t enough, John changed the oil filter, too. It’s also in an awkward location and requires him to pump the oil out of the dipstick holder. I have helped John change the oil filter in the past – it’s a job that really takes four hands in two places. He somehow did it solo.

Lailia has a 160 gallon water tank that we refill pretty regularly. Now that we are are out of the Bahamas (with the crystal clear water) we use water from marinas. We filter it as it is going into the tank, then through a whole-house filter. We also have a Brita filter mounted on the sink. John replaced the whole-house water filter, too. Our water does taste a lot better.

In between all of the work that John and I did, we were able to see some of our friends. John was able to walk from the marina to downtown Charleston, which was a bonus. I was able to catch up with workshop leader friends. We both wish we were able to be in both places together, though.