Thursday, March 10, 2016

Bits and Pieces

March 9, 2016

The deadline for leaving our marina is fast approaching.  (Actually our first deadline has already passed!)   It is admittedly an arbitrary date but without it we could easily extend our stay until the sailing season was over.   The marina is full of really nice and entertaining people, there is a long list of things that could and/or should be done to the boat and one project just seems to lead to several more.  I guess we have finally accepted the axiom that we will never be ready....we will just GO!

The last blog left Jim atop the mast dealing with the wind indicator.  It took two more trips up the mast, but the missing piece has been replaced and we now know from whence cometh the wind!  

Relaxing after the "ride" down.

Here are a few things we have been working on:

The autopilot.  Works well while motoring, but gets a little balky when sailing.  After wiggling a few cables or whatever magic he purports to do, Jim wanted to check it out.  So in 21 knot winds we headed out mid my usual nervous trepidations at leaving the dock.  We did manage to get out to Tampa Bay and do some sailing in rather rough water only to confirm that the autopilot was still not working right.  The sail was a little more exciting than necessary (my opinion) and coming back into the dock was most "entertaining" – we were blown forward towards the dock while the engine was working away in reverse!!  Thanks to some neighbors who saw the challenge and came to help, no damage to man, boat or dock transpired!!

Hundreds of nuts, bolts and washers
Apparently we had not stowed everything into its proper place before taking off and when we arrived back at the dock and ventured down below, strewn across the floor were the contents of a medium sized container of screws, nuts and bolts.  A fine evening’s entertainment was provided and a lesson was learned!

Another project has been sprucing up our toe rail – the wooden trim with a metal stripping which surrounds the top of the deck.  The first priority was to reset some screws.  Some had stripped out, some were glued in and some missing.  In the process Jim had bought some clamps and pretty much before he even got started, one of them fell into the water.  He pulled out his trusty magnet pole but couldn’t find the clamp.  (The diver found it the next day)  It is things like this that slow the work down.  The next step was sanding the wood and then applying two coats of sealer.  We had debated between the matt finish of the sealer and the shiny look of varnish and opted for the sealer.



Clamp overboard (toe rail before sanding)
The new toe rail



















It is not all work and no play.  We took a day off for a lovely visit with my cousin and his wife.  He and I are the youngest and closest in age of a passel of cousins and even though we lived relatively close to each other in Minnesota and now relatively close in Florida the visits have been too far apart.  It was great getting caught up despite nearly freezing while eating lunch outside at the river side grill.  Who knew it would be so cold??



Cousins Joann and John

1 comment:

  1. Thanks for including us. It's great to see you are learning the nuts and bolts of sailing (pun intended)

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