Boat Chores

There are always chores on a boat.  I guess, in fact, there are always chores on a house, too.  It’s just that the house doesn’t sink if you don’t do the house chores.

Provisions

Wow!

We moved to a lovely anchorage near the boat yard.  If we have to, we can dash back there for any too-big-to-handle maintenance issues.  We’ve got the sails on and have checked that all out.  Managed without threats of divorce or death.

Sails

So, we are afloat and choosing our chores.  Two at the top of the list… We have issues with our wind direction indicator and also with our speed transducer.

The wind direction indicator is an important tool for sailing the boat properly.  It’s good to know how close we are to the wind in order to manage the sails properly.  Ours was acting up so at the end of last year we took down the masthead unit and brought it home for testing.  The technician tested it and sent it back.  It’s working fine.  So now we’ve checked all the wiring… it’s fine and now we are looking at the display being the culprit.  So that problem is not solved.

Wind vane shows direction, spinny thing gives us windspeed

Display unit problem?

The speed transducer was fine… until I decided to clean off some marine growth.  I also cleaned off one of the fins on the paddle wheel…. like right off as in 6 fins down to 5 fins.  So, this little thing, the size of a quarter is $56.  Installing it will be fun when we get the new wheel.  We have to pull the transducer out of the housing… change out the wheel… and reinstall the transducer.  Never mind that the housing is low in the bilge, under the water line… so when the transducer comes out there will be a mad dash to put it back stopping the torrent of water that will be flooding into the bilge.  We do have a plug to stop the torrent while I change out the wheel… just not that excited about opening a 1 inch hole in the boat.

Speed transducer

$56 paddlewheel

Pam decided to test two different waxes on the non-skid.  After the first little squall it was clear which one was the champion.  Now I’m waiting for Pam to finish the rest of the boat.  Hurry up!

Hardly any left to do!

Water beads on the waxed side

We’ve come down to Jolly Harbour to get our empty propane tank filled… and hopefully get the valve repaired on our full propane tank.  Actually we aren’t right in Jolly Harbour but over the spit in Five Islands Bay, right across from the “high end” Hermitage Bay Resort.  The internet here is blindingly fast.

Have enjoyed getting to know Paul, Tony and Trish.  Hoping to run into them again in the next few weeks.  Maybe then we'll get a few more photos.

Paul's boat, Snowball

We are looking at heading out to Montserrat… but the weather is iffy over the next week so we might just sit and do chores.  That will give Pam the time to wax the rest of the boat.

Not great sailing weather