The 24th rapidly approaches, as in forty five minutes from the time I started this sentence. With it, the end of my three week hiatus from the working world. For myself, I decided to spend a few days up at the lake one more time, get some quality time in, and try to relax before the stresses pile back up again. I remember after the first few days of time off, I was thinking goodness, how will I ever pass the time and not feel bored? I thought to myself, that retiring someday would be a nightmare if I felt that bored after only a few days - how would I manage YEARS of not working? Turns out, that feeling washes away pretty quick, and sure enough, now it feels like it was just months of weekends all rolled into one. Luckily that isn't the case, or the summer would be pretty much over by now.
I had come home at the beginning of last week, yard work awaited and I felt like taking a little breather from my Netflix binging in the cabin. Admittedly, it does get lonelier when you're alone on a boat, even on a dock, which makes time drag on. I'm glad I came home for a few days though, as our elderly Golden Retriever, Zoey, had decided that her time had come, and passed peacefully in her sleep Tuesday night, or rather, very early Wednesday morning. I'm glad I got to be here for her goodbye. So after getting through Wednesday, I waited on one last delivery from the UPS guy on Thursday, and then headed up. Unfortunately, that meant arriving around 9 PM or so, just after dark. But at least I had a new toy to learn now.
A few years back, I had purchased a couple of ActiveOn CX action cameras - cheap GoPro wannabe cameras that did ok for what they were, but cost a fraction of the price. Not surprisingly, I couldn't tell you where any of them had gone. Now don't get me wrong, I do believe that GoPro cameras are great quality, and worth the cost for what you get. But I'm also cheap. Plus, if I screw up and drop this thing, I'm only out sixty bucks, not three hundred. I picked this up on Amazon, it was Crosstour's middle of the road offering in their lineup, this being the CT9500. There's a 9700 that steps up to a touchscreen, and a 9900 that gives dual displays. Considering this was more an experiment than anything, I went with the CT9500 instead. It claims up to 4K video at 50 FPS, which I haven't fully tested. I have some doubts, but I did record plenty of footage in 1440p resolution at 60 FPS, and that looks just fine, even more so considering it was a very overcast day. But that's getting ahead of myself.
I woke up to some bright sunshine on Friday morning, but no wind. Of course not, why would there be wind when there's sun. That's actually more common than it seems on the lake - The hotter and sunnier the day, the less wind there is. So instead of motoring out to float around and bake on the lake (sounds like a seafood extravaganza), I looked for something to occupy myself with. Since I had finally tracked down the paint I was looking for, I finally got around to painting the majority of the remaining cabin with white to cover the beige splotches. There's still a little area behind the chartplotter computer area that needs it, but it would've required removing all of the equipment to get to it, and well, it was already getting very, very warm. I was glad to finally have a single shade of color on the cabin sides however.
It certainly isn't flawless, but it's miles above where it was. So that made me kind of happy. I also threw a few coats on the outside of the cockpit where I had finally gotten around to starting to fair the old openings that were there. Even though this is a finishing paint, I treated that section as more of a guide coat to better see where more sanding is needed. Unfortunately, I didn't bring my vacuum with me, so I skipped the sanding for now but again, at least it's now mostly a single color. Interestingly enough, the Semi-Gloss White color seems more grayed in comparison to the factory coat on the boat, but at a glance, it's fine. And at least it isn't rough fiberglass, or green blotches. This picture highlights the shade difference, but thankfully it's less noticeable in person. Either way, it's better than it was, and will only get better once I get real paint. You can also see that I threw a couple coats on the already-in-rough-shape companionway boards just to brighten them up too.
It does highlight a need for new varnish though, so.. maybe this year is the year I finally do that. I spent most of the rest of Friday between walking around a bit, down the pier and back, while watching the paint dry. As it turns out, I was also getting a little bit sunburnt to start my summer tan off properly. I really didn't feel it until later Saturday, so I was ok with that. I did decide to run to the store (and Wendy's) Friday night, picking up some snacks, a pair of cheap sneakers in the event I wanted to do more walking on Saturday or Sunday if the weather wasn't cooperative, and a few other things. Then, returning to the boat, finished up a Netflix series, and passed out in bed.
Saturday, what a change. For the first time this season, there was an actual breeze that wasn't being accompanied by either frigid temperatures, or rain and misery. For the second time this season, I forgot to relocated my spinnaker halyard from the toe rail and had to go do that after hoisting my headsail so it could actually fly out properly. Yes, that also implies that I went out and did actual sailing things. I've never been a good gauge of wind speed, or sea state. I haven't ever had a measurement to compare to what I feel, so until that happens, I just go with it. I do know that it wasn't brutal, I didn't need to be reefed, and was fine sailing with full main and jib. The wind was coming from the West, which gave me the chance to sail out of the channel, with only a brief moment where there was a lull due to cover, but recovered almost instantly into the breeze and glided out into the lake, action camera mounted to the stern rail and recording. Once I get the videos all sorted out, I'll probably make a YouTube video of it, but it looks at a glance to be decent enough footage. The wind stayed pretty steady but shifted slightly as I got further into the lake, so I just went out and back and forth a few hours, before deciding to call it a day, and was able to sail back in, too. I finally saw some others on their way out as I came in, and dropped my sails. There was just enough wind to screw up my first attempt at docking, which left me just a hair further from the finger as intended, but there was another gent standing right there who volunteered to grab the bow and save me the trouble of a re-do. Tied up, all spring lines attached, and bam, all tucked in again.
One thing that I noticed Friday evening, was my Joytutus fridge had a couple instances where it completely powered off. This is not normal. In fact, in my original Amazon review I even mention that when it's plugged in, the display stays on 24/7, with no option to dim or darken it, even when the compressor isn't running. This has held true in all the hours of operation I've put into it, as well. At least, until Friday. I just happened to look over, and nope, totally blacked out, as if it were unplugged. It just plugs into a 12v receptacle, so I unplugged it, waited a few minutes, plugged it back in, and it came back on. Weird, I thought. An hour later, it did it again, but then after a couple more minutes it once again powered back on. At that point, I was on Amazon looking for my order history to see if I was still under warranty. Granted, I don't like the thought of buying something that only makes it a year, but I know things can happen. I also didn't remember spending as much on that as I did, which irked me even more that it was acting up. Saturday, it pulled it's trick again while out under sail, so when I was fully docked, I decided to look further. The plug itself doesn't have a fuse, because there's one on the cooler itself, a 15 Amp blade fuse. I checked it, and it was fine. Then, for some reason, I swapped my phone charger into the plug the fridge was plugged into, and wouldn't you know it, no power. Well then... I opened the engine (battery) compartment cover, and peeked at the wiring. The issue was immediately apparent.
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