Pensacola FL Sailing Blog – sailingnightwatch

Now I can start worrying about what to do next year. The auto-pilot is high on the list, new sails are rising rapidly. 30 year old head sails are a sight to behold. When you look up at the sun through them, you are literally looking through them. Think colander. Then there is the generator, wind generator, solar panels, life raft and a water-maker. Chart packages for the Bahamas and the islands that go with my new system. That all adds up to about twice my net worth. The stock market needs a new bubble I can participate in.

Finally I get to go sailing. The water is still cold, so the wind is quite cool. That is why we have an enclosure. It can keep the wind off you plus you can open it up enough to be cool. Love it. 10-15 knots out of the SE. Sailed out to Pensacola Bay and back. About 15-16 miles round trip, a perfect day sail. Plus I got to show the wife how little I know about the new chart plotter and radar. Pretty much know what I need to know about the chart plotter. I still need to set somewhere and play with the radar to find out what all it can do.

I do not think the wife ever really looked at a real radar screen before. She was expecting it to look like in the movies. She never thought of clutter and seascape. Something new. We were both surprised that it could really pick out the sailboats with laminated sails, even the windsurfers and yet the larger sailboats with Dacron sails were harder to pick out. I like new toys.

The parts came for the john, went together in a couple minutes, don’t leak. All is well, life is good. Johns in homes are so reliable that you could pass through your entire life and never even hear of a problem. Say head problem to any boater with even a port-a-pottie and you get this simi-sicky look that all boaters know and hate. I guess one must think of it as part or the overall wonderful life expanding experience of boating.

The radar man showed up today. The connection at the base of the mast was completed and works, the radar was tuned and now points towards the front of the boat. Life is good. Another major project to check off as we get the boat ready to cruise.

Well, we are scheduled to do the fine tuning on the radar. I am slowly getting better, but still have a heavy cough. It was a rainy weekend, so I spent most of the time replacing a leaky joker valve. Never got it to stop leaking. Ordered a new elbow and flange. Figured after 10 years the fitting had deformed enough that I could not get it to seal. This was very frustrating. Now I am throwing money at the problem. I hope it works.

Although the boat has two heads, the forward head was designed to make anyone larger that a 5 year old uncomfortable. It worked. If that is all we had I would move back to land.

A bright day, I have received a call already saying they are on the way to install the radar dome. It happened, they got here went up the mast and installed the dome and hung the wires in side. They did not get the connections at the bottom of the mast working or did they have time to go out and check alignment. I did get out “Friday and it is about 10 degrees off. It is a neat system. It will take me forever to learn how to use it and I do not have half the items you can get. After being sick the weekend following installation, I will have to get back up with the installer to finish up the project.

This is the day for the installation of the radar and chart plotter. We hope. 9 A.M. and nobody has shown. 10 o’clock. One man shows up. Do not know how he is going to get up the mast. He says he will start with the antenna for the GPS and install the chart plotter and all the wiring. Should have that done by noon. I asked who was going to crank him up the mast. Said he would have to call the sales manager. The sales manager also brought their boson chair. Then there was not a pop rivet gun large enough to handle the stainless steel pop rivets for the radar bracket. Then there is also the question of weather the cable is long enough. The man doing the work was here a week ago and we measured with tape and with the boat blue prints and know it will take at least 50 feet of cable. And what about the connection at the base of the mast? Oh and how do we get the cable through the frames in the wire runs from the mast to the engine room.

Well at least I have a working chart plotter. If I could figure out how to get it to do the same thing twice in a row, that would be nice. Definitely on a steep learning curve. By the time I get the chart plotter half way figured out, the radar will be installed and I will have to figure out a different group of buttons and their functions. We await Tuesday. A, “maybe we will get it done then” day. I am not very confident.