Tuesday - November 30

Its so nice waking up on the boat, I do miss the usual company though.  Easy day today, put things away, straighten and clean up.  Then the long boring drive back to Atlanta.  Its raining and am I not looking forward to the drive.  I will be glad to be back with Beth.

Have a small laundry list of things to bring back to get the boat ready to sail which I hope happens on the next trip down.

J

Monday - November 29

Well Hurricane season ends in two days and Second Chance will be sitting at the dock.  She isn't quite ready to tackle the high seas just yet.  Progress was made today toward that goal but still, not quite ready.  The AIS is up and working but I will replace the upper antenna's when i get a chance. I am just not happy with the performance I am seeing.  The SSB installation or re-installation as it were, went very well.  The GEM antenna is up and apparently working well. I have received several weather broadcasts but have not actually talked with anyone.  I managed to get the generator mount fixed without any great drama.  I tested the generator for about 15 minutes today just to check that all was in working condition.  I also ran the main motor for about 15 min to keep it from gumming up and keep everything lubricated.

I have been putting things away, trying to find space for all the crap, and organizing all day.  I will continue "cleaning" this evening and head home in the morning.  The new tempering valve on the shower works great, the temperature stayed constant and I had a good shower this morning.  For the most part, we are about ready to take her out of the slip for a test run, maybe next weekend.

J

Sunday - November 28

A decent nights sleep on the boat and woke up to a beautiful sunrise.  It was quite cold and very windy.  The plan for the day was to get the AIS working which entailed running 2 antenna cables from the mast to the starboard aft berth.  That part went better than expected although I had to take apart 1/3 of the boat to get it done.  Once I made the connections I turned it on and of course, it didn't work.  Tracing it back, there was an issue with one of the connectors on the wire coming down the mast.  Replaced that and 5 boats popped up on the AIS and I even watch one go by.  While very cool, it didn't report to the AIS reporting station that would show our position on the web.  I played with it most of the evening but made no progress.  I looked up the issue and it may be an actual antenna issue so I ordered a tester.  Tomorrow will be further organization and clean up.


Still enjoying life on the boat but I miss Beth, if things go well tomorrow, I might head home.

J

Saturday - November 27

Ah, Life on the boat.  Its a great escape from the real world.  Managed to get the genoa back up and continued to get some things tidied up on the boat.  The baby stay needs a new turnbuckle and a new clutch is needed on the mast. I started on the mast wiring and will finish on Sunday.  Island time makes everything different.  Things that should take an hour takes two or three.  Its easy to get used to.


J

Friday - November 26

Drove down to Savannah today. Its a long drive but even more boring alone.  Beth stayed home because she wasn't feeling well and we both realize I can get more done without her and the dogs aboard.  I closed the storage account and brought everything down so I spent most of the afternoon unloading the car and now the boat is so stuffed, its hard to walk around.  I worked on the fishing gear and will mount it out of the way tomorrow as well as work on the electronics.

It is supposed to get below 40 degrees tonight so I have made sure the heat is working.  A nice dinner, some TV and off to bed.

J

Sunday - Nov 7

Nothing like a good nights sleep on the boat.  Woke up and checked the port hull for signs of the leak and very little water was there, most likely seepage from where we were not able to get it all out.  It looks like the head was the culprit and it needed rebuilding anyway.  I tackled the shower sump pump as the manual overide wasn't working.  Unfortunately its in a very difficult place to get at but the culprit was a splice in the wire that had broken.  I replaced the entire wire with a new one but the problem was getting it back up to where the switch was.  A job that should have taken 1 1/2 hours turned in to a 3 hour job but I tightened all the hose connections, cleaned the pump and all is working well.

By the time that was done it was time to pack up and head back to Atlanta.  A three day trip is right on the edge of not being worth a 9~10 hour drive. 

Upon getting back, we had a light dinner and were cleaning up when I found myself in excruciating pain.  This started about 8 pm, by 1 am we were in the ER waiting to be diagnosed with what I was quite sure was a kidney stone.  The cat scan proved me correct and I have a kidney stone that hasn't passed.  So, many drugs later we returned home.  The pain subsided now its just a matter of time waiting for it to pass.  I didn't realize the amount of pain such a little thing could cause but that was the worst pain I have ever experienced and hope, with the drugs, it passes without another episode like that.

J

Saturday - Nov 6

After a pretty good nights sleep, quite warm and toasty with outside temps in the mid 30's, we started the day with Beth preparing a nice pancake breakfast.  I started on the tool room but only got about 1/2 way done when I found the wrench I needed to fix the head.  Needless to say, refurbishing the head is a pretty shitty job.  I am pretty sure I found the leak and believe it to be fixed.  It will be tomorrow morning to see if there is additional water in the port bilge.  Beth got as much as she could out with the shop vac so we will see in the morning.

I managed to also get the arch GPS unit hooked back up and actually powered on the Raymarine C70 unit.  It took it quite a while to get a fix but once it did, the chart plotter function showed us everything around us and the Radar unit was very cool.  This was the first time it had ever been turned on and worked perfectly.  While we will both have to read the book on the fine art of reading radar, it will be a most useful tool aboard the boat.

It has remained quite chilly all day so most of the work was done inside.  Beth keeps complaining that its too cold and as night falls, it gets chilly quick.  We had a nice hotdog lunch and will have BBQ chicken for dinner then retire to a dvd movie.  The dogs seem to be enjoying the boat fine.  We take them on frequent walks, about as often as we do at the apartment, and they seem to snuggle up in their little doggy beds and not have a care in the world.

It looks like my cold symptoms have abated for the most part. I am a bit achy but enjoying the boat too much to let it get me down.  Only a few new scrapes on my hands from the days labor.

Life is good on the boat !!

J

 

Friday - November 5

Well this is our first trip back to the boat since we splashed it in salt water.  The road trip took about 4 1/2 hours with stops for the dogs, gas, and lunch.  Its also a dreadfully boring ride.


We arrived at Sail Harbor at about 3 pm and the first order of business was getting the boat ready to sleep on. That was my job to put stuff away, organize while Beth went shopping for dinner and essentials that we forgot to pick up before we left Atlanta.  The temps were set to dip into the mid 30's overnight so making sure the heat was working was essential.  No problems there but a leak in the port hull apparently still exists and will be the job on Saturday.  We did get the mast lights hooked up and tested , the radar wiring as well as the anemometer.

It looks like I am coming down with a cold so I don't know how ambitious I will be on Saturday.


J