End of phase 2??

I think I'm just about at the end of being useful here. Unfortunately it appears that the replacement batteries will have to be put in the week before we set sail. That should be straightforward, but there is always the risk of something going sideways.

I have had a chat with a leading commercial compass adjustor and he suspects my 30 year old compass is dead!!...he says they may last 1/2 that time. He also found that by doing a simple test he gave me to try, he has seen as many as 50% of "new" compasses in a marine store that are toast; the pivot points don't travel well apparently. This is about a 1/2 boat unit hit if this is the case and one more item for the TODO list....

Oh yes, the "secret" test: you take a tape measure, extend it and approach the compass slowly with it until the compass rotates about 2-3 degrees, then remove the tape. do this in opposite direction also. If the compass doesn't return to the original start point, the pivots are shot.

By this point I think we are well down the priority list of SSCC [ Seaworthiness, Safety, Comfort, Cosmetic] and are closely approaching "cosmetic" items; such as painting, varnishing,etc. The only remaining major purchase now is a life-raft.

The TODO list will never  be empty, the question is when is it close enough?

This will be last posting until "phase 3", pre-departure in July when I'm back from Saudi, then the wedding of my niece in Nova Scotia.

Over and out for now,

Bruce

Photos

I'm having trouble formatting these, so bear with me.... the titles should be obvious and my time is running out here...so that is it!

cheers

Working with a bad memory

For this little saga to have its full impact, I need to provide some background.
Last fall, we bought new VHF radio on sale, along with remote microphone to mount in the cockpit. I took c areful measurements of the nav station to build a faceplate to mount the radio over top of the SSB radio at the side of the nav station. The old VHF was mounted underneath the nav table which took up leg room and was akward to use.

I built a faceplate in Calgary out of sheet Aluminium. While researching on the best method of preparing aluminium for painting I stumbled onto a whole other sub-culture -- the art of polishing Aluminium [Al]. There are guys who take hours and hours to take Al parts off their cars/motor cycles and with various steps of grinding/polishing turn them into a polished finished that rivals chrome or stainless steel. I tried to mimic it but in my usual minimalist [ i.e. lazy] way and got my faceplate looking 'good enough'.

When Robin and I were on Tatoosh in April I did a test fit and all was well. I put the plate away until I got to the TODO ite m "install new radio"; that happened this week. I spent a day tearing apart the electrical and removing the old VHF, pulling new cables [ a challenge for one person!] and getting reading to install the radio. [ you can see the mess in the photo's]. Then I started to look for the faceplate; and look and look.... i tore apart every storage location. But there was no sign of the plate; and no idea where it is. The only good news was that I found the missing camera cable and now can upload some photos.

Today, I went to Industrial plastics in Victoria, got some black plastic and spend the morning remaking the faceplate. I finally got the radio installed, the remote control/mic in the cockpit and some semblance of order. I still need to put everything back into the nav station and the various cubby holes which needed a tidy/sorting in any event. You can see a before and after shot of the nav station below.

I expect to spend tomorrow cleaning up, putting away tools and putting Tatoosh to bed until July.
I've also uploaded some shots of the new bimini.

Over and out from the boat: it will be good to be on the boat with sailing in mind and not a long TODO list.