02/17/2025 ICW Day 48 : Heads Carolina, Tails California

Finally the rain stopped and we left the hotel. It is nice to take a vacation from the vacation. In particular, this break was very productive. Doing California business from the East Coast is easier due to the time difference, and I’ve been able to transfer my prescriptions to East Coast pharmacies. Shopping on Amazon via lockers is easy too.

We took an Uber this morning with Shirley. As we drove along, I could see her phone offering her jobs for $6… $10…. I was thinking how it would be difficult to make much money as an Uber driver. She did say that she used to do Uber Eats and Door Dash… but she preferred to pick up people. With the other endeavors, people would say they didn’t get their food. “And you know fo-sho they got it,” she explained. It made me kind of sad that people would rip her off. Then again, this is what happened to me when I had my paper route. Lots of people wouldn’t pay me for the newspaper- though I had to purchase the papers from the Mercury News. I think the people thought they were sticking it to the Newspaper… but in fact, they were ripping off a little kid.

She didn’t have all the bad luck, though. A tornado had come through her Eastern Georgia neighborhood and taken out everyone’s house except her’s. Even though her house was spared, She moved to Savannah after that. “I musta’ dun sometin’ right,” she explained.

The boat was still at Renee’s place and Janet gave her a generous tip which made Renee quite animated by the time I came into her office. We were very grateful that she let us park the boat there.

Sailing today was surprisingly good. We had our share of head-currents… but also some following currents as well. I think we have gotten a little better at squeezing every ounce of energy from the wind that our boat is capable of. If you lose focus, though, the efficiency drops noticeably. We listened to “Yo no soy tu hija Mexicana perfecta” on audiobook, and the day passed quickly and placidly.

We landed on a mud flat in South Carolina. For a week and a half now, it’s the “bad side” of the moon where you arrive and depart on a low tide. It is much more fun to come and go on the high. This meant we had to drag the boat up through quite a long stretch of mud. But now we are in our cozy camp wearing the new (to us) clothes. We look pretty motley with none of our clothes matching… but this ain’t no fashion show.