Steve and Marianne have arrived! Now I have friends aboard to share the trials and triumphs of preparing the boat for (hopefully) tomorrow’s departure. I picked them up at the airport at noon, then took them grocery shopping. They were well-prepared with lists, but Marianne kept having nagging thoughts, wondering “will this really be enough for 30 days?”. In the end, I think we’ll be fine, and the boat is now stocked up for the long voyage.
After they got all their stuff stowed and familiarized themselves with the boat a bit, we got to work. One of the last items on my list was to install the masthead transducer, that wand with the anemometer on the end, that provides electronic wind data. They hoisted me to the top of the mast, I starting drilling the mounting holes in the thick aluminum plate, and then somehow in my wrangling around the wand slipped out of the bosuns chair and gravity did its thing. I heard the sound of it sliding out of the pocket, and though to myself “what is that sound, its like something sliding out of the pocket”, and a moment later I heard the thunk as it hit the deck 60 feet below me. Surprisingly, the damage was not too severe, but what did break were the electronic connecting pins that extend from the mounting socket, and this is something I cannot repair myself. We spent some time trying to mickey mouse it, but it just wasn’t going to work. So, maybe we wont need that after all. There is a Raymarine dealer across the street, so I’ll check in the morning, but I don’t have much hope in finding the right part here. Ah well… it wasn’t critical, just nice to have.
If we get the 3rd air conditioning unit fixed in the morning, I think we will be good to go, maybe departing around mid-day. Some of the other little jobs still on the list, like installing pad eyes on the deck for the spinnaker turning blocks, can be done at sea, and we’ll have plenty of time at sea.
Keep your fingers crossed for us, and this may be our last night at the dock!
-David