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.

Countdown

    The marina sent out an e-mail last night to ask members to reach out as soon as they're ready to launch, so that they can get the list moving as soon as possible. They want to avoid a mid-May avalanche of requests all at once, and I for one am all on board with that idea. Naturally, I sent a reply saying I was good to go. Granted, I knew the time was coming, I've been watching them get the docks in over the last week.

    There are still a couple of fingers left for the C dock as well as D, the East wall. Tomorrow should be a nice day though, so hopefully they're able to get those in too, and get some of the launches started. I'm certain I won't be in the water tomorrow, so I'll be using the day to run up and install the new LED bulb for my deck light into the fixture before it splashes. While I believe that a ladder would give me plenty enough reach to reach it after the mast is stepped, there's no reason not to just get it done while I can. It'll also give my car a good chance to prove to me that it's fixed.

    I drive a GL series SUV, and last trip up caused me to notice that an issue that I had been avoiding diagnosing had become well, needy. A bunch of months ago, I went to take off in a spirited manner from a stop, and heard a crunching/grinding noise briefly in what seemed like the driver's side front wheel area. Normal driving however, was fine. While concerning, obviously, I deduced that as long as I just drove normal, I could just put off having it looked at. Unfortunately, it was not meant to be. I noticed it happen one more time during my last trip to the boat, under what I would consider less-than-spirited takeoff. Now, I could certainly baby the vehicle off the starting lines of stop signs and green lights, but I also decided that it was less safe than practical; if I needed to quickly accelerate on the highway out of potential danger, it would be a problem.

    We have a newish garage locally that I've found relatively reasonable and pleasant to deal with. They're also one of the few places around that will install parts you've purchased yourself, at least within reason. Of course, they can't guarantee those and nor would I expect them to, and generally I would rather they get the parts anyway, but the option is nice. They've done some work on other cars, and honestly I'm just at a point that I hate spending free time during nicer weather under or beside a wheel well. I called at the middle of last week, and dropped it off for diagnosis, hoping it was something as simple as a bad CV axle, or maybe a wheel bearing. 

    One transfer case, and twenty-two hundred dollars later - which included an oil change, mounting two more tires I had purchased already, and a renewed state inspection - we'll see if it's fully fixed and trustworthy of a longer journey this weekend. To be fair, it's the first major issue I've had, and going through the service records for the 160k miles of it's life, seems to be about the first major issue it's had at all. Shocks, batteries, but this was the first biggie. No complaints.

    On the order of other projects again... the tiny-home shed is no longer going to be a tiny home. It's still a shed, though I've been working on some of it. I've run electric throughout, although right now it's all powered off an extension cord. Once I get it moved over to the driveway, I'll run a dedicated feed into it's panel. It will ultimately be finished off inside and turned into half office/work space, half playroom for my toys, like the Sim rig, and the other simulation that I've built in there:

    

    I can't remember if I've mentioned or not, but one of the bucket list items I have in life is to learn to fly, to progress towards a Private Pilot's certification. This would be done by training on likely a small Cessna plane, a 152 or 172 perhaps. So I've built myself a flight simulator cockpit that somewhat replicates a generalization of one. I do have a different throttle assembly coming in the mail, either tomorrow or Monday that will effectively round out the experience, but so far, I'm happy with it. I'll do a full breakdown in another post. Right now, it sits in the shed, pre-move, but functional. 

    I've made the joke, that since I have a racing sim cockpit, a flying sim cockpit, a Venture 21 sailboat on a trailer outside I can go sit in while a breeze blows, now I just need a submarine to put in my pool and all my bases will be covered.

    I did also order some fairing compound to finally work on solving the ugly cockpit bulkhead where the gauges used to be, and a new block for the port rail to feed my jib sheet through. I did also order some wiring to use to do a better job with the outboard electric starting. Currently the battery sits in the cockpit locker, and I have to pull the battery out and set it on the seat so that the wires from the outboard can reach it. It's annoying, but at least it works. I'm hoping that this panel mounted connector will let me make a disconnect for the wiring, but also enable me to leave the battery in it's container in the locker without having to manhandle it up, cause tripping hazards, and such. As a slight bonus, I can also use a spare connector to wire up a small solar panel to act as a trickle charger for that battery if need be. I still have a small 5 watt (I think) panel and it's controller that were on the boat when I purchased it, so I can retrofit that into working for the outboard battery, and just set the panel on the seat when I leave, letting it keep the outboard battery topped off in between trips. Even though the outboard has an alternator of sorts to keep the battery up, I don't usually run it long enough to make much difference. I'm sure it does something, but if I can regulate the battery better via solar in between outings, why not. I might even be able to start working on that system tomorrow while I'm there.

Untangled

 It's official - I'm ready for the season. At the very least, the boat is. Whether or not the yard is as ready, that remains to be seen.

I woke up this morning, beating my alarm by an hour for the third day in a row - not a fan. I hopped onto good ol' trusty Amazon, and decided I better order up a couple things quick. I can't remember if I had mentioned it, but my steaming/deck combo light had an accident at some point. Personally, I believe they caught the deck light half with the mast sling when attempting to step the mast onto the boat at the beginning of last season, or banged the light fixture somehow in the process. I remember getting to the boat, and seeing an LED circuit board laying on the deck. So, assuming that my cheap fifty dollar combo had reached an early grave, I wanted to replace it. Now, I'm a cheapskate for some things, and I didn't see the need to spend hundreds, potentially several hundred dollars on a light for a boat that wasn't in a financially sensible value to warrant it. I did decide, however, to step up to a Hella Marine model.

There were two models I came across, an 8504, and an 8505 model. Hella Marine themselves only list the 8504 on their website as far as current products go. It's not too shabby, however it's fully halogen including a blinding 100 watt deck light. That's nice and all, but I don't need sunlight at 10 PM on the deck. Bugs are bad enough as it is. The 8505 uses a much more practical output, and can easily accept LED equivalents. So, a little under a hundred bucks later, that was on order, as was a new block for my port-side jib sheets, and some wiring to add a panel connector that I can use to hard-wire the electric start for the outboard without having to move the battery in and out of the cockpit every time I go out. Granted, none of this would arrive instantaneously, but at least it was on order.

I arrived at the boat in wonderful weather, just shy of 80 degrees and mostly sunny. First order of business was going to be to string the halyards into the mast, but as I walked the topsides, I realized that my cheapy light had a few screws on it's face. Hmm, I wonder... Yep, sure enough, the three screws allow for the top lens to be removed, as well as the lower housing to bend up out of the way to replace the bulb. The wait, what? Oh. Yep. Turns out the LED array I found on the deck last year was from the bulb that was in the unit, but the whole bulb could be replaced. So I ordered a whole new light when all I needed was a bulb. You would think I would've looked further into that. Cheap, yes. Smart, not so much so often.

So now that I had a plan for the light issue, I went about my time fixing and arranging the halyards. It takes three bolts, and a half turn of one nut in order to swing the top plate on my masthead off to the side with enough clearance to run the halyards up through the sheaves. This time, I took extra care to make sure they were actually run correctly, instead of over the forestay tang mistakenly like last year. I also triple checked that nothing was crossed up or tangled in the spreaders or upper shrouds. I'm confident that everything is finally settled and ready to go, barring the wasp next in the base of the mast. Not my problem, they can vacate when the yard steps it.

I also took my fancy new iPad and it's case, which arrived yesterday, to the boat and tested that claw mount. As I was remarking to myself, and to my dad on the phone that the mounts were very reminiscent of the RAM style mounts, I actually saw the RAM stamp embossed into the side. Go figure, but I guess that explains their robustness. And just as I had hoped, the claw mounts perfectly onto the handrail inside the companionway hatch. I guess I could've read the description better, but I'm quite happy with how it works. Now if I can only find a navigation app that I like, we'll be in business.

Lastly, I brought the fridge/cooler thing back into the cabin and placed it where it should go, got the fenders ready, and called it a day. Packed up my ladder, bundled up what was left of the tarp (really only one corner had ripped away, so it could probably be salvaged for.. the Venture!), and headed back home. I stopped at Wal-Mart for a couple quick things, like numbers for the other side of my mailbox. I've lived here for twenty years, and it didn't dawn on me until just the other day that the only side of my mailbox with my house number is on the opposite side of the mailbox from where the mail route comes. I have it it on the side facing the driveway, but the route comes from the other side. And since I had another ipad ordered which was quite literally dropped off at the neighbor's porch yesterday (the good neighbor, at least), I figure it was probably time to spend two dollars on numbers to put on the other side so that there's no excuse for drivers to not find the correct house. Whether or not they actually perform the duties beyond that, well... baby steps, I guess.

I also bought a new window unit air conditioner to finally replace the decade-and-then-some old 220v unit that I have installed now. I went with a 110v version, only 10k BTU but I'm also relocating it to a more central location on the opposite side of the house with a much better airflow path into the living area, instead of kind of tucked into the corner where the old one is. I believe that this will actually work out better, even though I think the old one was rated higher from it's time. Then again, it's so old and rattling while it runs, I'm certain that's a good chunk of missing efficiency there. And the old one is on the South side of the house, wide open and taking the brunt of the sun full force during summer. I'm not an expert, but I remember reading that if your AC is shaded, it's more efficient. The new one is now on the North side, center of the living area, which will be shaded until late in the evening, so that should help too.  Plus with the new shed being moved soon, I can get the race rig out of the spare room, which means there will then be two rooms that can be basically shut off from the rest of the house, helping out. And worst case, I get a little 5k BTU deal to stick in my bedroom window and tag-team the heat. Can't wait to drop that old out out of that window that it's lived in for years now, with the added bonus of having a freed up 220v circuit! I guess I could start a welding business in the dining room?

Tomorrow is supposed to be rainy and miserable, so I guess I won't get to tell Google to turn my AC on for a little while. At least in the virtual world, the race tracks will be dry. 

Oh, Hello Spring

I keep telling myself that this year, I won't need to really spend much on the boat. Turns out, all the excess spending I'm doing for everything else is more than making up for that. However, at least one of those purchases might be boat-handy anyway.

I've dabbled in the racing sim stuff, as you've seen recently. I'm putting together a flight simulator rig (budget minded, let's not get all multi-axis full motion crazy yet), which I'll outline soon for kicks, and I've decided to start taking lessons towards a private pilot's license this year, as soon as the weather can make up it's mind. It's the latter that might lead to more boaty things.

One of the things I've purchased ahead of flight lessons, is a new iPad Air. First, let me stress this, and I cannot stress it enough, I do not like Apple. It's not because of the products, which I freely admit are quite high quality. As far as that goes, I prefer the customization and such of Android products, and I can't stand that Apple can announce a new feature that Android has had out for years, and the world touts them as innovative. I'm not a fan of some of their legal tactics - there was a case not long ago where they realized no one had patented the slide-to-unlock gesture on smartphones, that had been in use by basically everyone at that point. So they did, and then sued everyone. Really? My thoughts are, win by being better, not by trying to belittle and undermine the accomplishments of others to lift yourselves up. 

I'm also not a very big fan of their.. I don't know what to call it, exactly. But for example, I once had an iTunes account to download music. I didn't use it much, I think I bought a handful of songs once, and never used it again. I hated that I had, HAD to use iTunes for it because there were no other options for what I was doing. I then ended up buying an iPhone X for someone to use, ended up taking it back when they moved South, and tried setting up the phone using my standard fare of free apps like Pandora. I couldn't even get it to let me download free apps. It took two hours on the phone with customer service over the space of three phone calls, to find out that there was a rogue application at some point, that was trying to charge my account (which is why I refused to put any default payment method on file - why should I need a card on file to use free apps?). Had I put my card on, it would've instantly been charged. Ridiculous. Even now, I said ok, I'm buying an iPad, let me see what apps I can--- oh, you can't access or browse the Apple App Store without an apple product. At all. 

So why do I buy an iPad then? Seems strange for someone like myself that is anti-Apple, no? Well the short of it is, I'm not an idiot. At least not always. When aviation started trending towards the digital age, the apps that paved the way were initially created for the iPad, because it was THE tablet to have at the time. And over the years, that's how it's stayed. The iPad is the tool of the trade, and while there are some Android based alternatives for many of them, I've resigned myself that an iPad it is for it. It's just a fact that there are some apps across all genres of activity that are just iPad only. Take sailing for example. Many people have found great success with iSailor, and other similar apps that generally work better on an iPad than an Android equivalent. 

One thing I'll note, is also the outrageous prices of Apple products. Fortunately, I ordered my iPad through Verizon, so that I can spread the payments out as well as have a Cellular model that has internal GPS instead of WiFi only. But if I wanted the fancy pencil to go with it? $129 dollars. Seriously, it's that much. I can buy much cheaper alternatives if I wanted, that charge separately and don't have all the functionality of whatever this piece of plastic does, but still. I don't think I need that.

What I do need though, is protection from the elements, and my own mishaps. A nice rugged case, but also a way to mount it in a plane cockpit. I've settled upon this, a Pivot case:

Now before you ask, it's not cheap. And that seems a little funny from someone that was just complaining about the price of a pencil. But, this uses a lot more plastic than that pencil, lets be honest. It also allows for the addition of accessories like suction cup mounts, and another one, a claw mount.

The best part about the claw mount, is it would allow me to easily affix that arm to the handhold just inside the companionway, and give me a perfect view of the iPad in the cockpit of the boat. See, told you there were sailing applications to be had. So in a roundabout way, I guess I bought an iPad for the boat. In seriousness though, it's a really rugged, heavy duty case with a wonderful yet easy to use latching and switching mechanism, and for what it does, I can't really find many better alternatives. It does add some heft to the iPad, sure, but the versatility it adds outweighs that, no pun intended. 

In other news, the slip is fully paid for, and I'll be going up next weekend to get my halyards in order, and straighten things up, and then she'll be ready to go in the water whenever the marina is. I haven't heard of a planned start date, but the bay isn't frozen and we're already well into pandemic times so hopefully not much of a delay. I really hope not, I have most of the month of May already taken off from work. Checked the marina cam, I see there's the dredger parked over on the other side, and the marina even left one of the floating docks in for the winter that just needs fingers added to make room for boats. Who knows, maybe we'll have an early season.

Are you not entertained? Or immersed?

    Since the boat doesn't have a huge laundry list this year involving large purchases, it's been pretty obvious that I've been spending that money elsewhere. I can blame COVID or any number of things, but it's just how it's been this year. My last post showed a newly constructed Sim Racing cockpit. Unfortunately, I can't claim that it's ended there...

    As you can see, things might be getting a little out of hand here. Surprisingly, this is all actually still working off that poor defenseless laptop I bought. I had to get creative, employing the use of an external docking station by Plugable that somehow uses magic to make pictures come out in threes. Without getting into too many complexities, I'll just say that I built the stand out of some more of that 40-series profiles, and a couple of TV wall mounts bolted to it. I added a keyboard tray, mounted my tablet on the side so I could use an application to show me all the same gauges that I can usually see on the screen anyway, and obviously have upgraded to three monitors wrapping around me. I also purchased another set of studio lights, telling myself that of course, OF COURSE I can use that for regular photography and such. As if I'd actually get around to doing that again. 

    All of these things are done in the pursuit of immersion. Now, I will admit that I plan on going not much further in that pursuit. Certainly not to the extremes that some do. That isn't to say that the idea of a full motion rig that tilts, pushes, pulls, yanks and throws you from side to side isn't captivating. But at half the price of my next boat, I can't justify it. Hell, I don't even think I have the electricity to power it. I will offer this reflection though. I've watched many YouTube videos and read lots of reviews talking about how a certain feature or addition, or product, adds to the immersion factor of Sim driving. There are vibration motors that bolt to your seat and other places, there are the motion platforms to simulate sliding or losing traction, there are actuators you can bolt to your equipment that rise up and down as the car bumps and dips. There are bigger screens, and VR headsets. 

    And I just don't get it.

    All of this to increase immersion into what is always going to look like a video game. Regardless of which game or simulation it is, at the end of the day it's still pretend. I have not once sat in front of these screens and thought "woah, I totally forgot I was in a chair in my spare room and not on the racetrack!" I'm not saying that it's not entertaining, or that it's all stupid if it's fake. And it's certainly (usually) cheaper than trying to race real cars on real tracks. Oh, and you just yell at the screen when some idiot in front of you or beside you blasts your pixels off the road, instead of riding in an ambulance. I would also like to present if I may, Exhibit A in this defense.

    Meet Emily Jones. See that view? No, not the horrible line through the screen, but the fact that it looks like someone just chilling in the corner of a room at home, against a wall, relaxing and having fun. No big monstrosity enclosing them, or any such dramatics. Now, I don't know how up-to-date her Twitch page is kept in regards to her gear, but I would imagine it's pretty close. A wheel setup not much different than mine, on a homemade wooden stand setup, a simple 27" monitor, and a modest computer with lesser specs than my desktop here at home. And yet she is one of the quickest persons around the 911 Cup Cars that I've watched, and the one to beat in the Porsche E-Sports All-Stars circuit. All without dumping multiple thousands of dollars into gear to do so. Full disclosure, she did race Karts when she was younger but then switched to Sim. I'm not trying to do an Emily history lesson but just wanted to show that you don't need to go all out. In comparison, Boosted Media's Will has a genuinely insane rig, with three 4k 65" screens and all the trimmings, but as he does a lot more content for creating, and reviews, and as such doesn't have the full speed that others do. I enjoy both sides of it, but it does show such a range in what can be done, and that it doesn't have to cost a fortune to go fast, and likewise, spending a lot doesn't just make you fast.

    But why, I hear you say, have I spent as much as I have and then turned around and said you don't need to? Because I don't know any better. Plus, it does mean that I have more resale value. Ok, it means I didn't save as much. Judge if you will! I kind of wanted to go for the experience, and aside from a new set of pedals that I ordered, I don't know if I'll toss too much more at it. We'll see.

    All that said, it is still cool as Hell to play on.

Going nowhere fast

    Well, since it's been a handful of months, I guess it's time to recap. Didn't do anything for Halloween this year, since I was stuck at home. Christmas for the family actually didn't go too bad, though a bit limited in whom could visit and be visited. We were some of the fortunate ones not terribly affected by the COVID pandemic. It almost feels bittersweet in that we were able to have a good ending to our year, while knowing that even helping others as much as possible couldn't possibly restore what some had lost.

    There hasn't been a lot in the sailboat realm to speak of. The marina has already informed members that they have pre-sold all the slips for the upcoming season already. No doubt people want to make up for what they missed last year. I was able to enjoy it a bit, but I'm sure many others weren't. They've made other changes there as well. No longer will the yard be totally strewn with vessels on the hard. In an effort to tidy the appearance up and make it easier on staff and guests alike, the marina is no longer offering storage for boats that are not paying for a slip in the water. Now, there will surely still be some boats that don't make it in the water, even after paying for the season, but that's the nature of boats and working on them. Many boats have been removed from the property though, including that C&C 37' that I had secretly hoped to make a deal with the owner on. Oh well. Plenty of other boats to be put in the sea.

    I do have my deposit fully paid, and will be paying my slip fees this month and next. Then the only thing I need to do is go up to the boat sometime prior to launch and re-run my halyards the correct way. Surely third time is a charm? I had purchased new main and headsail halyards when I purchased the boat. The first year, I had them on backwards. Last year, I got the orientation right but messed up and ran them over the tang for the forestay on the masthead. It was usable, and fortunately for me it didn't chafe the lines over the few times I was out last summer. I do plan on doing it right this year.

    Otherwise, it'll be creature comforts. I really don't foresee any major purchases this year. Last year, I purchased the replacement outboard, put extra batteries and a larger solar panel on, a 2nd anchor and a Raspberry Pi computer for navigation. There was also the replacement Richie compass, and the fridge/cooler. I probably have been spending approximately fifteen hundred, to two thousand dollars each of the last couple years. This year? I could pick up a new fixed VHF, dedicated depth display, finish putting covers on the cushions and purchase new material for the cushion backs in the salon and still be way under budget. I guess we'll see how that ends up. I'm hoping that this year I can finally convince myself to tackle the manual labor style projects. It is hard though, to go up and have sunshine and winds and not leave the dock. But, I do want to finish the cushions for the cabin, finish up the painting around the trim, and just generally get things in shape. Spoiler Alert - This could very well be the last year of ownership for this particular sailboat. More on that later.

    Ok, that's all for anything sailing related. Back to stuck-at-home-itus news. In October, I upgraded my computer and bought a fancy foldable racing cockpit to play with. At the end of that post, I mentioned wanting more. To recap the hobby timeline:

    I purchased my first steering wheel and pedal set in the middle of August. After a handful of times playing with it clamped to my desk, I ended up upgrading at the end of October to the new wheel and cockpit. And prior to Christmas, I placed and order and received...

    Welcome to my GT Omega Prime aluminum profile sim cockpit, and it's new home in a freed up spare room in the house. Ok, the walls need work, and it echoes pretty fierce with the carpet gone, but it is now basically my hobby room. Certainly that picture isn't the final resting place, nor configuration. It actually looks like this now:

This is more how it stands now. You can see in the back of the desk, the 3D printer has a new home. I picked up that GS66 laptop used for a good price, which is being used to run the iRacing. Eventually I will have a dedicated desktop built for that duty, which will then power triple 32" monitors. I actually bought one of them, but since the 35" ultrawide in that picture works better for racing then a single 32" will, they've temporarily swapped duty. I am pretty excited though. I started a second YouTube channel - I think I have 4 subscribers now? Well, ok, 1 is me, but still. It'll be a place to just upload random stuff whenever I feel like it. I also managed to get my first win in a race! I'll likely make a post specifically to detail that process. The build, not the win. 

    Let's see, what else. Oh, a 12x28' shed has arrived just before Christmas as well, which will eventually be turned into essentially a tiny home. 

    It wasn't long after it was delivered that we were hit with a pretty hefty snowstorm, leaving over a couple feet of snow blanketing the hillside (and yard). So it's sat pretty much untouched since then but will be revisited soon. There's a lot of work to be done, and a lot of it that can't be done for a while anyway. First order of business though will be to do all the measuring, and sorting out what goes where. That will then let us layout the electrical system, and go from there. Then there's the matter of electric and plumbing - electric is easy enough, but plumbing might need to get creative. 

    Also in the very beginning of December, I managed to finally finish rebuilding the front end of the Mustang after a run in with a deer. Geico wanted to total the car due to mileage and condition versus their estimated repair cost. Instead, I fixed it myself for less than 1/3rd their estimate (which was missing things anyway). The only minor thing is that the bumper cover was reused with a crack in it, instead of a replacement. Too cold for paint anyway.

Before:

And here's the after:

Not too shabby I guess, for a backyard DIY-er.