The Jib, The Rain, And The Wind Things: Windlass, And, Alas, The Generator.

The summer is upon us. A hot day is when the temperature is above 90°. A nice day is when the temperature is over 90° and there's a breeze. Ya only gots two alternatives unless it rains and ya gotta factor in humidity. The weather on the computer says that the high temperature is upper 80's. I don't know how many declinometers that is in metric,  but on the boat, no thermometer reads below 100. Some discrepancy.

And thanks to Ken, ATW, for commenting on the threat of sunburn when naked sailing. Maybe the mutual application of SPF 50 could become a sailing ritual.

​It's been a week of small victories and small defeats. A week where everything is a chore and I accomplish bits and pieces. I search for solutions and storage. I pack things away. I take them back out and repack them. I decide to do something and it rains and I have to wait while stuff dries out.

Hey, I made a new video. It's in 4 separate clips and needs editing. I forgot how to edit (again) and along with all the other pile of stuff I Need to do, it won't be done. Otherwise you would get 30 minutes of junk in 4 sections. Yeah, I know, it's easy and you just need to learn it, along with all the other stuff that's easy and I can learn, like making soft shackles, handling a schooner rig, perfecting knot tying, sewing, dancing to electro swing music, and baking a good pumpernickel.

I had a calm day. I decided to go for it and install the jib sail. I started up on the deck reaching out over the abyss trying to feed the sail into the furler. I didn't like that so I went down and found a ladder. I wrestled it for 15-20 minutes until a guy watching me said "aren't you trying to feed the wrong side of the sail?' Duh! You get so close to something that you cannot see the obvious. After I turned the sail around, it fed easily. There is nothing so simple that man can't screw it up!

I spent a lot of time trying to put the bulk wire away. First I put it all into snap lock containers. They wouldn't fit where I wanted to put them. Then I put them all into grocery bags you buy fur a buck at wallyworld. They wouldn't fit easily. Then I stowed all the spools individually. The big wire pictured above was on spools that were made of cardboard.and all floppy soggy from the rain. I unspooled, coiled and ziptied it. It then fit with the rest of the wire. Enough to make you run around the yard screaming and flailing your arms.

We had a nice day. I left the hatch open to air it out and went to lunch.

Of course it rained like hell and drenched the cabin. I had the fan running overnight to dry out the cabin. The new fans are pretty good. They're Caframo (like a sound something makes when it hits the fan) Caframo!!!!!

I bid a fond fare-thee-well to the workbench that was between the hulls. You may not know it, but this is major progress. I gave it to Nat down the way who thinks he can stand on it to access his hull. Recycled wood, built, utilized, and given away to be used again. We throw away too much stuff.

I bought some snap lid plastic paint cans to pour all the paint I had from the rusting cans. I filled up 2 gallon cans with what was left of the 5 gallon bucket of green paint. I got 2 containers in each snap lid box and crammed the spaces with brushes and spray paints and varnish. Everything fit into 3 boxes

I snapped strapped and stowed the 3 boxes of paint.

I bought a 50" length of chain for the main Rocna anchor. I ordered another 50' for the Fortress anchor.. I have 600' of  nylon rope on order, 300' for each anchor. That crap is heavy!

I did some electrical work. I disconnected the battery and connected the last two solar panels as well as the wind generator. Budge had it all laid out, so it was easy.

There it is, the wind generator in all it's glory..............it doesn't work. The charge controller registers zero amps. There is 12 volts at the connection. Another thing to do later, another heartbreak.

So I spent days drying things out, It rained like crazy today and this bag of straps and things has to be re-dried. I had a river running under the hulls. 

After having such great success with the wind generator, I finally got all the paraphernalia assembled for the windlass, I decided it was time to install it. You remember (?) that I lost two studs and the alignment key. I special ordered a windlass mounting kit from Lewmar, which means "bend over" in some forgotton European tongue. The new studs were too short and I took the whole kit and caboodle back. I then ordered a length of M8 X 1.25 all thread and nuts and washers. They came in this week. I was good to go. I cut off two new studs to match the existing two studs. I put the windlass on and decided to dry fit everything. I looked underneath. Those studs were sticking out a bit too much The motor clearance was smaller. I thought we measured these. I guess we didn't. I took it back out. Of course, I did the job properly and put the studs in with locktite. Oh well, cut them in situ. Now the procedure  for cutting a threaded rod is to thread a nut on the rod, cut the rod to length, file the burrs off the cut piece and un-thread the nut to make sure the nut can be started. It's a bit of a pain in the butt.  Ah, studs cut. Oh yeah, the control arm spring is broken. Lewmar only sells it as a $70 control arm kit so you have to buy things that you don't necessarily need. I think we can circumvent this. The local West Marine found the correct part number and ordered just the spring. 

Next put the motor on. Budge did the fit. It was a tight fit, but he worked it all out.............Until we glued the two strips of wood to support the end panel. The motor would not clear the two strips. Much creative linguistics ensued involving canine ancestry and sexual practices. I dug out the saws and multitool. I cut out one small section then enlarged it enough where a bit of manipulation and bowelship language produced safe passage. Now all I have to do is figure out how to hold the heavy motor in place and start the nuts. That's next week.

So that is this week's adventures. The boat yard guys are slowly coming around to me and the motors. They just need a couple things done and we can install them.

Again I thank you two readers for continuing to put up with this folly.

​The Music ♫: Sylvan Esso "Dress"

Take your time with this.........