Winter on the “Izzy R”– I Guess They’ll Never Learn

Hi All…Ben here freezing my tail off here in Myrtle Beach, SC!

You’d think after last year’s experience with the boat being frozen solid in the marina in Mississippi (see the January , 2010 post), that these two would have figured out that it gets COLD here on the east coast in January.  But Noooooooo!  Here we are again dreaming of Tahiti Beach as we negotiate the icy boat deck and docks.  I think Jeff and Izzy are wearing three pair of socks and all the clothes they brought along in this picture.   Luckily I have a fur coat. 

This is what the “Izzy R” looked like after the day of freezing rain.



  Yea, I know you are all thinking how pretty it looks, aren’t ya?  Well I’d like to see you navigate up that icy deck to the “yard”, in the 25 degree weather every time you had to do your business .  Even if I had thumbs and could reach that rail, I don’t think I’d hold on to it.  Good thing for Izzy and Jeff that  I have short term memory loss, or I wouldn’t try this a second time.
 
Yep, that’s snow…somebody’s gonna break a hip! 

Good news - while we were in California, Jeff bought a new motor for the dinghy so Izzy and I can get the thing started with a button, instead of pulling on a rope and getting a charlie horse. 
Bad news – we have to take off the old one, mount the new one on the dinghy and raise it back up onto the top of the boat…. in the freezing rain! 
Here’s Jeff trying to get the frozen puddle of water out of the dinghy while Izzy is up on the top deck scraping off the ice.   Jeff wanted me to help, but I pretended I couldn’t hear him. 

These two sail boaters had to walk up a long slippery hill carrying all their shower stuff to get to the marina showers.  At least Izzy and Jeff have nice warm showers on board.   Personally, I’m waiting till Spring.

We took a wild ride to return the icy car to the rental place

Then packed headed south down the ICW in the fog and freezing rain to find  warmer weather.  The trees were covered with ice making the waterway look like a fairy tale picture. 

Not much for me to do now, so I’ve been watching the news.  Seems the astrological charts have been adjusted.  Jeff’s sign used to be a Scorpio, and now it’s Virgo.  Izzy used to be an Aquarius, and now she’s a Capricorn.  Not sure what all that means, but as long as they still like dogs, it’ll probably be okay.  
If they’re changing signs, I think they should go with something like this…
 
This image is property http://www.roadtrafficsigns.com

or this – kinda like Prince, don’t ya think? 

“The Dog Formerly known as Ben”
But Jeff says my sign is Feces…and it didn’t change.

I’ll let Jeff and Izzy do the driving today, while I snuggle up with my pet rabbit. 

It’s good to be home, even in the cold.
Love,
Ben