January & February 2017 – Winter Is NOT Coming

Charleston missed out on winter this year.  Well, technically there were 4 days in January where the low was just below freezing, but then there were 14 days in January where the high was 70+ degrees.  Normally I reserve the first week of the year for business “busy work” while I wait for the boating market to thaw.  Not this year year though.  This year I had three pre-purchase surveys the first week in January.  I wore flip flops and short sleeves to all of them.

What does this mean?  As far as surveying goes it means business is good.  In fact everyone I know in this industry is summertime-busy right now.  But I fear that a mild winter means a miserable summer is looming.  So I’m not looking forward to that.

Environmentally speaking, I don’t pretend to know anymore than the NOAA and NASA articles I read every now and then, so I won’t get into that.  I will be interested to see what next winter looks like though.

The goal for this blog is to simply record random observations – both surveying and non-surveying related – throughout the year.  In theory, I’ll be able to see and track patterns in this obscure little niche of the marine industry.  Below, I’ve posted a few boat photos from surveys I’ve conducted so far this year.  As you can see, still a relatively diverse group of boats.