Catching up

 Well then, I guess it's time to figure out where we've been and where we go next. 

The shed project moved along nicely. Quite, in fact. Conduit was run in that trench from the last post, and a little while after, the electrical permit was passed. From there, I added a floating plywood desk to work from, which then led to drywall, a laminate floor, and a TV mounted on the wall with futon to watch from. And so I didn't freeze during the winter months while working from home, a mini-split AC?heat pump that has been able to keep up nicely, as long as I had a supplemental electric heater for when it was below zero. Next up, is the drywall compound, but still a bit of waiting until the outside temps creep up enough. After having fully loaded the shed up, a security system will be going in this weekend for extra peace of mind. 

    There's also one more piece of neat gear that I did end up with, which could hopefully translate to boat things. 

    Ah, the boat things. Now, I will fully admit that I have no idea if my boat is still even standing after this winter, but since the marina hasn't called to say otherwise, I'm just going on that. Granted, it's under new ownership (more on that in a bit), so who knows what that actually says - or doesn't.

    I've told myself that this is the year I sell the boat. I fully tell myself, that I'll get it in the water for the season, and put it up for sale halfway through, I might be able to even get close to what I paid for it. Honestly, I'm sure with some effort, I could double my money, but that takes effort. I did pull my Raspberry Pi 4 chartplotter out, along with the 24" monitor it was hooked to. The Pi literally just plugs in, so that doesn't take any effort, and I'm sure I could probably just output it to a cheap screen for this year instead of taking that whole monitor back up. I'd like to get a replacement fixed VHF to put in place for it though, and maybe clean up some of the cut countertops, and things like that. 

    I did just purchase a used Mainsail and cover, that came from a Newport 28 MKII, which mine isn't. As mine is a late 70s model, it puts it in the original, or MK I, designation. The nice part is that the rigging never changed - the MKII models updated the topsides, new portlights, and a redesign of the fin keel that kept the ballast the same but dipped it to a draft of 5' 2", versus the original 4' 6" keel that I get to enjoy. And anyone that thinks that eight inches doesn't mean anything, well... I'll just leave that alone.

    The reason for the purchase dates back to the purchase. I never had a chance to examine the sails, so imagine my surprise when I hoisted the main for the first time, back in May of 2018 - wow, so almost 4 years now - it was a main from a Newport 27S. The cut of the 27S is a bit different so that hoisted on my 28's Mast, the boom hangs down quite a bit over the cockpit. Now normally under sail, there's enough tension to kind of pull the boom back upwards, unless there's no wind. Oh, and it's almost twenty square feet smaller overall. So even knowing that I'm hoping to put the boat up for sail, I decided it was a purchase worth making. It's supposed to arrive tomorrow, actually. 

   I mentioned the sale of the marina to a different ownership group. That happened at the end of last season, and rather unexpectedly. The marina and attached campground had been owned by a couple for quite a few years, and I have no idea the reasons behind the sale, but we basically got an e-mail with a month or two left in the season saying effectively "We sold Fair Point, thanks!" and.. then left to question what on Earth happens next. Unfortunately, the answer was predictably obvious. Rates were instantly raised for this upcoming season, the deposit required was increased, and it was all held off until the last possible minute where it really felt like members had zero choice. You cannot store your boat for the winter if you aren't paying for a slip the following year, that was a new rule that went into effect the last year to avoid turning into a boat graveyard, and to free up space for additional camping spots. However we never were given any information regarding the winter fees or anything until it was effectively too late for any of the boaters to search for an alternative - basically meaning we had no choice but to pay the increased rates and, for lack of a better phrase, deal with it.

    See, Fair Point has always been one of, if not the most affordable marina in the region, and selling out of every slip every year. So it stood to reason that the new owners - a corporation/group/whathaveyou - would decide well hey, if the other marinas can charge X dollars, why are we only charging Y? We can charge X too, make more money instantly, and there's still gonna be plenty of demand anyway so anyone that does leave will be replaced. Real feel-good vibes coming from that place. Oh, and they put into a place immediately upon sale, restrictions on the campers allowed in the campground. Basically if was older than a certain age, you were gone, regardless of how long that they have been a customer there. In order to stay, it basically had to be a flawlessly, spotlessly kept camper, and you had to appeal for a review, and at the end still be at their whim. Think.. campground HOA. 

    As you can imagine, my original plans to sell the boat someday seemed to make a lot more sense given the state of the marina life there. I do love the area, it's a great marina, but if the ownership is that completely uncaring towards the customers that support it, it means nothing to me in the end. My goal is to look for the next boat, perhaps even in a different location. Sure I won't be able to go every weekend perhaps, but maybe once a month or so? And if it's in a more temperate climate, heck, maybe I can go year round!

    Oh, and that new toy I mentioned at the beginning? I have a StarLink dish that arrived for my shed (which is currently fiber fed, the StarLink is to play with). What are the odds it works on the boat? We might just have to find out before I hand over the figurative keys to the next owner this year.

Peeing again

    Before I get to the titled topic, I'll give a recap of the last, oh, month or so. We left off last post just after having moved the shed, and putting a few pieces of flooring down to sit the simulator rigs onto. Well, shortly after that, I was able to rent a trailer and borrow my dad's Kubota tractor.

    

    The trailer was a little overkill - it's an equipment trailer from a local rental company but meant for heavier machines. Fortunately it didn't put me over the rated weight for my GL, and other than the lights not working (even after the gent that hooked it up at the rental place gave me a thumbs up and said all good), it did the job fine. I'll admit, while I've driven an older model around a little when I was much younger, I've never worked attachments on one, or any other machine. I had a good teacher, though, and it wasn't long before I had managed to make myself a long hole in the ground leading to the shed.

    I managed to get everything done between the afternoon I got the tractor home, and the following morning, and was able to load it and return it back to my dad's in PA. Over the next couple weeks, I managed to get the conduit laid, and some 2-2-2-4 Aluminum MHF cable run from end to end. I fixed the decrepit backing board where my meter is mounted, and filled most of the trench back in. 

    I purchased and mounted a structured media panel which is like a plastic version of an electric panel in which people normally mount tv, phone, and internet connections. In my case, it's strictly internet. This allows me to feed all the Cat6 that is run through the walls through a Linksys router and Netgear 16 port switch. I also mounted a patch panel in the mix. Part of me thought I should just put ends on the cables and plug them into the switch, but in the event I ever need or want to change it out, I'm a step ahead I guess. 

    My intent is to create a full series of small jumpers to bridge the panel and switch, but as you can see there are two full 2' cables tucked in there at the moment. They work, and with the panel closed you can't see them, but eventually I'll get the new ones made, unless anyone knows where to purchase a dozen 3" patch cords. 

    I also added in the rest of the lights, so there's a full set of eight now, and purchased a new 55" 4K TV to act as the flight sim monitor. That took a little wiggling to fit, but it works, and after recently building a new desktop PC to run it all - although using my older video card as it was the only one I had or could get my hands on - and now both rigs are fully functional. It only took two days to download all the games and updates and whatnot. 

    So now that I've caught up to that with the update, let's get back to boat things. A couple weekends ago, I was able to get up to the boat for the first time in a few weeks and go out for a while. Great wind, and other than a moment of panic when I saw the forestay was very, VERY loose, it was a good time. Not to fret, it was when I first hoisted the main, and realized the backstays were a-floppin', so I dropped sail, and ran to the bow with pliers at the ready. I suspect what had happened, was the previous outing on the boat, ended with me taking the time to re-tension my shrouds at the dock. I must've forgotten to re-check the forestay/backstay tension afterwards, leaving it a little looser than it should be. At the dock, I must not have even noticed it, but once there was a load it became apparent. No harm done, thankfully. On the way back in to the channel, I also noticed there was a drastic lack of water shooting out of the tell-tale on the outboard. For those that remember, and for those that do not, my dad and I never did get the lower unit to budge, so my first concern was that the impeller - of which I had no access to - was shot. Strange since it had been pumping very strong all last year and this, but things happen. 

    I felt the motor, and it wasn't running hot, but now I had that in the back of my mind. No issues getting back to the dock, but I also decided to put off investigating until I had more time to myself.

    

    That time, as it turned out, was this weekend. I went up Saturday afternoon, where the weather was breezy but a good temperature. I had stopped along the way and picked up a spool of trimmer string, and a can of compressed air. As luck would half it, I didn't need either. I dunked the motor down into position and started it, and sure enough, hardly any water from the tell tale. A couple drops, maybe. Well then. I pulled the cowl off after shooing some spiders away, and set it on the dock. I pulled the hose from the cover on the side of the engine, and tried blowing through it, and zero airflow. This was actually a relief as it pointed towards a blockage in the hose versus an impeller issue. Ok, so let's pull the hose off what the parts diagram calls a "Water Nipple" that fits through the lower cowl. Well wouldn't you know it, the only thing holding that nipple in place is the hose. So without realizing it, I pop the hose off and promptly watch the little white piece of plastic bloop right into the water, and sink. Great. I figured while I was there, I might as well test my theory, and hooked the hose back up. Started up the motor one more time, and sure enough there was a steady stream of water. The blockage, whatever it was, was in that now-gone piece. Could've been spiders, could've been anything, but either way it's gone now. The only problem was that now I can't route the tell-tale hose back out of the cowl. The hole was just barely big enough for the fitting, and not enough to shove or squeeze the hose back through. Not wanting to leave it, a trip to Lowes was in order. Best I could find, was this.

    Now even this wasn't perfect. The inner diameter of the hose, is 3/16". The closest fitting they had in plastic, was 1/4". And as it turns out, the hole for the fitting in the cowl? Well it's barely over 3/16" itself. What I ended up doing, was heated up one end with a lighter, then used a pair of pliers as a hammer and tapped it in from the outside. This actually, somehow, worked. The barbs squeezed into the hole, and I was able to still push the hose on. I originally wanted to cut this piece off, so it didn't stick out, but I would've had no leverage to do it. I suppose a pair of diagonal cutters would do the job now, but I've also just found that part number 353-01138-0 is all I need, and is about seven dollars. Is it stupidly overpriced for something that is, in effect, half of the piece I put in there? Yep. But, it's also OEM, and doesn't look out of place or anything, and in the event that I ever need to sell the motor, I'd like to have that normalcy. So I'll order one or two of those, and keep them on hand. In the meantime, I'm pleased that upon motor startup, a nice steady stream of water once again flowed from the tell-tale. 

    Due to the breeze, and it did kick up overnight, I didn't do anything beyond that, and some light cleanup. And by cleanup, I mean pest control - note to self: Get stronger spider spray. I settled in and watched a couple movies, and before I knew it, it was 3 AM and I had to tell myself to get to sleep. It might not have been just me though - there's a Hunter two slips down with a furler that was slightly coming unraveled, and flop-flap-flupping around when the winds would gust up a little. Unfortunately, at 3 AM and a boat I'm not familiar with, I wasn't really in a good position to go try to remedy the situation. I didn't think they were up for the weekend, though this morning it did look like it was tightened back up. Could've been a yard hand, I'm not sure. I didn't wake up until 10 AM, and honestly after I fell asleep, I was out for the night and no sounds awoke me. 

    I nearly went out this morning, but alas, responsibilities called - the lawn was only half mowed at home thanks to rain nearly every day. But as it wasn't raining, but instead hot and sunny, I knew that I would have limited chances to finish it off before the rains come again. So instead, I grabbed a couple bottles of water - still cold, so my wiring fix is still effective - and headed home.

    But at least my outboard can relieve itself once again.

Kinda floored

    This past week or so, I've turned attention back to the Shed/Office/Whatever it's called, and made slight progress. This does to happen when paychecks arrive, I'll admit.

    A couple months ago, a county Building Inspector popped by to take a peek at the shed, and left his card for me to follow up once I was able to get it in the final resting place, as well as finished out. Well, as luck would have it, Monday I was able to have a local mover fling the shed from where it sat in the corner of the yard, over next to the driveway where it will live out it's days. 

    Surprisingly, it was nearly level from the get-go. I had to raise the side closest to the driveway about two inches, but lengthwise was already spot on, so that was nice. Five minutes with my floor jack, and a couple of concrete spacer blocks, and we're level all around. Coolness. Next up, was mapping out a plan for internet. As I've been planning for a desk on one corner, gaming on the other, and a TV in the middle, it was just a matter of deciding upon a number of jacks. In the hunt for that answer, I came across an item called a Structured Media Enclosure. These apparently are popular already in built homes, but I had never heard of them. More importantly, the ones I found also offered a composite or plastic vented panel which allows for WiFi signals to pass through. This means I can put a router inside it, and keep it off my desk. Neato. Added that to my Amazon cart, and then used that to determine in the building, where it would go, where lines would run, and then pulled out a bunch of Cat 6 cable through new holes in the wall. 

    Ultimately I settled on a 6-port jack at anticipated desk level, and another 2-port jack underneath on the right, which might eventually house a server under the desk, or who knows. Two more jacks on the far end to feed the gaming computer - One for the PC, and a 2nd as a spare, or in the case I build a second and the last port on the opposite wall, at about a 40" height for a behind-a-TV location. A few staples, and now that's all run. 

    Next up, was tossing in a 6500 BTU window AC unit in the end nearest the electric panel, as that is the end the sim rigs will be in, and the end that I would be wanting the most comfort if I was out there in the meantime. Well, if I had internet, obviously. I also remembered three boxes of Bellafina laminate flooring in my old, OLD shed. It was just a shade over 60 square feet worth, so I thought you know, the floor from wall to wall is just a shade over 10' wide, so if I put 6' worth down, wall to wall, it would give me a nice look at least for the sims to sit on. So, I did.

    Since this is only temporary, I didn't put a lot of effort into it (note the one extra inch on the 3rd row from the right), but I wanted to give myself some sort of finished look at least. I don't know if this is the same color I'll end up with when I get around to doing the real floor later, but for now it'll work. 

    Next up was the beginning of the racing rig move. First up, the triple monitors. Taking them off the stand was cake, moving it was a trick due to the legs being as long and wide as they were, but I managed. And Saturday morning before heading for the Poconos, I managed to muscle the rest of the rig out of the house and into the shed. Enlisting help, we slid it underneath the monitor stand into it's resting place, including the floor pads beneath it. I still have to re-mount the wheel deck and upright arms, and all the rest of the gear, but having them side by side is a nice victory. Good spacing between them, and I'm happy with how it looks together. Now if only I can get the rest of the electric trenched, and get some walls in this thing.

finally, motion!

    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.

    That is an inline fuse holder for the socket. It houses a mini-glass fuse, and as you can see, it be busted. I'm not sure how, or what happened to it honestly. But right after this photo was taken, I went to move it, and the upper section completely pulled away. The spring you can see is what contacts the top of the fuse, and since the housing had broken, there was nothing to hold that spring in place, so it was losing connection to the fuse and subsequently to power. The solution was simple enough - remove the fuse holder and just splice the wires together with a waterproof heatshrink butt connector. Both sockets are the same, but they are also fused at the main fuse block, so these inline ones are just extra. Since the line is fused, there's no reason not to just go direct, so I did, and power was restored instantly to the plug, and the fridge. No warranty claim for me, it seems. I'm just happy that when I get back up, maybe this upcoming weekend even, I'll still have cold water waiting for me. 

Like a bobber

    I woke up Friday at my usual time - five minutes before I needed to start work. Imagine my surprise when not only was my mast already stepped, but the boat was already in the slip. I also received at almost the same time, a text from the marina to let me know it was in place. I had hoped to get to watch over the glorious internet, but it was not to be. Oh well, I then went about my work day, the last before my slight vacation, and waited for the post office and UPS deliveries containing the few goodies to put to use on the boat. 

    Saturday, I put one of the items not meant for the boat, onto the deck of my riding mower to replace the broken tensioner spring. Turns out, it wasn't the same anyway, and as it was too wet to really mow as it was, I just left it with the new one just in case. I made a mental note though, to see if I could find anything at a hardware store that might work better. Finally, around 2 PM or so, I gathered up what I had, and a half hour later I headed out the door to begin the drive up. What surprised me was that it took me the better part of 5 hours to complete my journey, between stopping for lunch at Longhorn Steakhouse to use up a gift card, Lowes for some goodies like a spring, a couple of mixing buckets and sticks, and a couple crimp on lugs, Harbor Freight for a set of jumper cables and more lugs, and Wal-Mart for some food for the stay. 

    My plan was to make up a set of replacement battery cables for the outboard with the jumper cables, which warrants an explanation. I don't remember if I mentioned, but I had picked up a panel mount disconnect and a wiring plug, to then turn the outboard's existing cables into something more manageable. As it was, I couldn't hook up the motor to it's battery without removing the battery from the hatch and moving it closer. My original plan last year was just to make a small buss bar to jumper one end to the other, but then I had this brilliant idea strike me. Like many of them though, putting it into practice revealed weaknesses. Let me show you the two pieces and then see if you spot ahead of time, the issue. And no, it's not the wire gauge.

    At first glance, they look perfectly fine. I cut the existing battery cables from the outboard, lined up my positives and negatives and hooked everything together. I plugged the outboard line into the panel connector, and pressed the button. Nadda. Ok, I thought, battery is probably dead from winter. Eh, whatever. It wasn't until this week, that I decided to look closer. It's very hard to tell, but if you follow the pos/neg orientation on the panel connector, follow the wires and see which side each is on leading into the back, and then try to match up the pigtails with the same... well, they get their signals crossed. It quite literally reverses the polarities. Ok, fair enough, let me try reversing the battery connectors, to see if we can get somewhere. And nope. My guess, judging by a quick diagram scan, is that there's a fuse under the cowl tucked away that blew the moment I had it hooked up backwards. Anyway, I'll get back to that.

    I arrived Saturday evening, before the sun had fully set, but barely. First order of business was to empty the cabin, notably the boom, and the three pressure-treated 2x4s that I had stashed after abandoning my motivation last season to build a stern crutch for the mast. I could probably trade those for a full tank of gas on the way home... The boom went on relatively easily, and then I pulled my solar panel out, set it across the seats in the cockpit and hooked it in. Low as the light was getting, it didn't capture much, but, it did start trickling into the battery bank and assured me that the controller was still functioning fine. Right about then, the rain started yet again, so I retreated back into the cockpit.

    I will say, the battery life on a new iPad for video playback is impressive. I probably rolled through a good few hours of Netflix, without dipping under 50 percent. My phone had been spared any torture, as I wanted to keep that as well charged as I could for the overnight. I had decided that I could live with the iPad dying out, but until I got more juice in the tank, I didn't want to have to charge anything just yet. I also laid out some Spider pouches and sprayed some stuff I had found, to see if it would have any effect. Other than smelling pretty, I think the cold weather was doing far more than these remedies. Short of a flamethrower, I'm really not confident in a good extermination plan.

    Sunday was another overcast, rainy day. Actually, most days in the forecast were calling for that, because of course it would. In between drizzles though, I did manage to get the solar panel fully mounted, allowing for a little more angle control, and even through overcast skies, it was still capturing enough to keep a stream of atoms incoming. There wasn't much else to be done, so it was another afternoon of Netflix and Chill. Mostly because it had dipped down to the upper 30's overnight and the day really wasn't far into the 50s either. 

    Monday brought reprieve though. That would be today. We had mostly sunny skies for a good chunk of the morning until around 3 O'clock when the clouds started rolling in again. This gave me quite a few hundred watt hours into the battery bank, which was welcomed with open arms. The more, the merrier, I say. I took advantage of the slightly warmer weather and sunshine by replacing 5 of the clevis pins in my standing rigging, and giving it a good baseline dock tune. For some reason, every year this thing goes up, it has quite a Port-favoritism issue. I think I did pretty good keeping it in line this time though. But more importantly, now I have proper Stainless Steel clevis pins in place, instead of the generic multi-hole 2" long things that had been there before. They worked fine, but eventually I would've really started getting nervous about them. Now, I'm less nervous. I replaced the one on the forestay, the upper shrouds, and one of the two lowers. I still need two more for the other lower shrouds, and I need two additional ones for the split backstay. I hadn't ordered them yet, because they are a smaller diameter than the rest and I wasn't sure what size they were. I'll measure them before I head home and add them to my next order. I'd also like to replace the one that is tying the mainsheet to the traveller too, but again, measure twice, order once. 

    After taking an afternoon walk down the road and back, which was probably about a four mile round trip, I hopped over to the next town and grabbed some lunch, and a couple snacks for tomorrow. And now, I'm sitting in the guest house area, which has heat, and power, procrastinating before venturing through the rain and chilled air back to the boat. The rain is supposed to stick around until about 3 AM, pause for a couple hours, and then rain pretty much until Wednesday evening, including scattered thunderstorms tomorrow afternoon. To me, that seems rather boring. I've been stuck inside the boat enough already this week/weekend, and I have my second COVID shot on Thursday anyway. Tomorrow, I'll head home, refresh with a few good showers, and see what the weather for the following weekend looks like.

    It's weird having all this time ahead of me to look forward to. Today was the first day off, but looking ahead, I still have not only the rest of this week, but next week, AND the one after that. That seems like an eternity at the moment. I can't even begin to imagine how it would feel to be starting a chapter of retirement or casting off for long-term cruising. Guess we'll see when I get to that step.

     What a difference two days makes, eh? Normally I would expect a statement like that to allude to a weekend, but nope, not today. I posted just recently how they were starting to get things moving on the boat side of the marina. This was because I saw them launching a sailboat off a trailer, stepping the mast, and then it vanished to parts unknown. Yesterday was spent mostly putting the last dock sections in, save one or two, which they got around to this morning. And then the rains came on the lake. According to the weather channel, it was a band that looked like it would last a few hours, so I had stopped watching the camera during work for a while. Imagine my surprise when I checked back at 6 PM (they would've long gone home by then), and saw this.

    There's no mistaking the silly blue hatch. Yessir, that would be my boat in the slings, floating merrily in the loading slip and awaiting it's departure. Granted, they had all ended their day after getting it this far, but it'll be interesting to watch tomorrow and see the mast go up. More interesting than that however, will be where it ends up, and how. 

    Last season was the start of the marina launching boats without owners present. It saves time, and in the Covid clutches, was safer for the staff to not have lots of people clamoring over each other on the deck. Unfortunately, this did lead to a couple hiccups that I had posted about. To recap - the halyards were run through the spreaders, which left them unusable until I was able to get them to go up and straighten them out when I was gone the next weekend. And I had run them on the wrong side of the forestay tang on the masthead. Now, both of these were my fault, though had I been able to attend the launch, I would've caught them immediately and fixed them within five, maybe ten minutes. More concerning was where and how the boat was slipped. 

    You can make out a white fishing boat on the opposite side of the dock just behind the travel lift in the picture. My boat was slipped on this side of the dock, directly opposite. That already was a little strange, as the depth there isn't really ideal for a 5' draft, but ok, it managed. However, they parked it stern in, likely due to not being able to start the outboard. Fair enough, except they pulled it so far inward that the outboard was quite literally getting banged off the dock for a couple days until a neighboring owner noticed and did me a favor by pulling the boat forward a little bit. Don't get me wrong, stern in was fine, and it made it easier to mount the solar panel. But the outboard getting thrashed was a little upsetting. And that was the old Mercury outboard, not this newer Tohatsu that I really hope isn't subjected to the same fate. This one does have electric start, with a dead battery, but should also start just fine once the gas line is hooked up, with a few good pulls on the cord. On a related note, I've already started ordering replacement cables to run from the outboard to replace the one I tried splicing in, in the event that it doesn't hold the amperage correctly once I've got the battery topped off. We'll see as the season goes, but at least this one does start more reliably than the Merc did, even with the pull start. The only downfall is that it takes more effort to yank this cord, even though it takes less pulls. Tradeoffs, I guess.

    I'm not sure if I'll be able to get up there for the weekend, or just waiting until Monday or so, but that might also just depend on the speed of UPS this week. I had to order a new spring for my riding mower so I can chop down the budding forest that is my lawn, and also ordered a new deck gland for the battery cables when I get to that. I also ordered some long overdue new clevis pins for my shrouds. I've been using generic 3/8" pins from the hardware bins of Lowes - I'm in fresh water so being high grade stainless wasn't a priority, but I've been meaning to replace them ever since I got the boat. So I've ordered the shroud pins to take up with me and swap out, and then after I get to double check the forestay and backstay sizes, I can order those too for the next trip up, probably in two weeks.

    My plan so far, is to stay up for the better part of my first week off, then come back home for a few days in the middle of my vacation, and then follow it up with the last week up enjoying the floating fun. Granted, I haven't looked at the weather upcoming, but then again it changes so quickly on the Great Lakes as it is, I don't think it would help much. As long as I have a cooler full of water and some munchies, I'm good.

Getting there

    Saturday morning, I gathered my goodies together for the trip - ladder, the LED bulb for the mast light, as well as my Total Boat fairing compound and such, and loaded them in the car. After a quick glance at the web cam assured me that there wasn't any work happening around the docks, I hopped in and began the drive up. It was a nice day, no jacket required, and a good amount of people trying to get some boat bits tied up prior to launching this year, and I increased that number by one upon arrival. The build replacement took me the better part of about three minutes. One screw at the base, then two more to remove the upper lens cover to allow the base to lift up enough to access the bulb base, plop the new one in, and then reverse the procedure. Unfortunately, I can't test anything with the mast not up, but I'm fairly certain it was just a bulb issue. Either way, as long as the steaming light still works, that's what matters. I don't usually kick around in the dark but you never know.

    I also wanted to try to test out using my panel connector idea for the outboard battery cable. Like a fool, I didn't think it through ahead of time. I did, but I didn't. It's a relatively small outboard, only 15 hp. And the battery cable looked plenty thin, probably about 8 gauge. Unfortunately, I didn't realize that at the time, and envisioned them being smaller. So my panel connectors are only 10 gauge. However, there's only about a foot and a half of total small wire in line, so maybe it'll still hold the current? The motor has always started quickly using the electric start, so it doesn't need to sit and crank, so perhaps, just perhaps it'll work. Alas, I won't know until the boat is in the water. The starting battery, alas, is dead. BUT! Hey, I thought, I have a plan for that!

    I have this little solar panel and it's original charge controller and everything. My idea was to use this disconnect in the cockpit, to do double-duty. The battery runs to the back of the connector mounted near the aft section of the port side seat. From there, I have the matching plug on the end of the outboard cable. I also have a plug I intended to put on the end of the wiring from the charge controller, so that I could just leave the little panel out in the sun, unplug the outboard, plug in the panel and trickle charge the battery. Unfortunately when I did a test run of the panel without messing with plugs, the controller never lights up. This could possibly be why the end of the wire from the panel itself had been cut off - maybe they had it just wired direct. At 5 watts, it's hardly in danger of frying a battery in short order, but who knows what they had done. All I know, is that it didn't work when I hooked the controller up. I decided to abandon messing with it until it's in the water. And pray that the small section of slightly smaller gauge doesn't interfere with starting. Either way, I'm searching for a better more robust wiring solution. Same concept, better material.

    That was really all I accomplished up there this weekend, I was only there for a little less than an hour. Five hours of driving for one of work. Well, at least the light is ready for when they put the mast up, assuming they don't destroy it upon stepping the mast this year. So, I came home and decided to wait.

    I have a week left to do work things before I have a few weeks off. It's a rare event for where I work, between seniority and other factors that a person in my position can snag more than a week off, and most of the time the only available weeks are either pre-Summer, or.. October. Usually I aim to take a week off towards the tail end of April or early May to hopefully enjoy the boat early in the season prior to weekend duty. Unfortunately timing has not been on my side the last few years. We had the flooding the one year that delayed launches by many weeks, which negated my taking time off. I should also mention that in my job, our vacation time must be scheduled in the fall of the previous year. So for example, my week in May? I chose that in September. It makes it a challenge, because really, who knows when they want to take a vacation NEXT YEAR? It's annoying, but you do what you can do. Last year, I was able to take a week off, but the boat didn't go in until afterwards due to the Covid delays. This year, as I said though, I was able to schedule my first week off, and then fortuitous circumstances allowed me to secure two more weeks, so I have the first three full weeks in May to myself. 

    I had a pleasant surprise this morning, seeing some more boatyard activity on the camera. The guys were splashing a sailboat. I expected it might be a little extra windy, but there were a good number of guys on hand and the mast went up fine. Surprised that it took the better part of an hour to get the mast up, and I saw the boom go on afterwards. I usually do that part myself, but after the boat was tidied up, it went off to parts unknown. 

    Hopefully I'll get my shot soon. I would love to have the boat in the water at the beginning of my vacation time. Been awful windy up there lately, but still would be nice to enjoy some floating. Right now, the travel lift is parked next to my boat while the guys tinker with something on the end of the crane. It's like false hope, seeing it next to my boat while I'm probably not next. Miracles can happen though.