Le Premiere Poste!

The Gypsy Danger in her old berth near Folly Beach, SC

Greetings and salutations!

Welcome to my latest literary project, a journal of a year spent living aboard my latest acquisition and project, a 32-foot motor yacht!

I found this little diamond in the rough on PopYachts.com while I was still over in Afghanistan, and made an offer on her when I returned to the U.S. in mid-July...

It took a while to get everything sorted out, but I finally took her on a maiden voyage last weekend from her old berth near Charleston to our new home at the Lady's Island Marina in Beaufort, SC. This was a 66-mile cruise through the Intra-Coastal Waterway, which proved at times peaceful and relaxing (cruising with both engines) to worrying (losing an engine) to white-knuckle terrifying (docking for the first time at night in tight quarters with one engine and the horrifying prospect of crashing your floating home into someone else's!)

All's well that ends well, as the Bard said, and now we're happily ensconced in a cosy berth walking distance from a great restaurant, a couple of dive bars, and a yoga studio. Downtown Beaufort is just over a tall bridge, a long walk or a short bike ride away, and work is a 15-minute drive with no traffic to speak of... All in all, it's a pretty great spot, and rent, when you're living on the water, is quite inexpensive - I'll probably pay less than $400 a month, including WiFi and electricity.

This whole week I left and returned in the dark each day, and wasn't able to do much besides sleep and fix lunch - work has been terribly busy of late and shows little sign of abating. So, this morning it was quite nice to sleep until I felt like waking up, spend the morning cleaning out the salon, going to a yoga class, and then sunbathing on the forward deck with a good book.

During the afternoon I got a haircut and signed some papers for a real estate transaction, and then enjoyed a light supper, poured a glass of Apothic Red (a rather delicious vintage, to which I was recently introduced by my lovely sister Kaiti) and got cracking on putting up this blog.

I spent a good bit of time putting together the art for the header, and a few more minutes before bedtime in scribbling out this little post. Tomorrow I'm making a run up to Charleston to say hi to the nephews and my lovely sister-in-law, and to catch a matinee with my brother Joe, pick up some stuff I had mailed to their house, and come on back down to (hopefully) do a bit of writing before bedtime.

I'll be updating this blog weekly, putting together the material for another future book, perhaps...

Wishing everyone a wonderful weekend!

Cheers,
Edward