This weekend has struck a good balance between boat chores and social interaction. Saturday was devoted entirely to completing some major boat projects. Namely, the installation of our new 'SSB' receiver and our inverter. Sunday was devoted to preparing for dinner guests and playing dominos.

The SSB receiver is actually an AM radio with USB and LSB capabilities in the range of 30 kHz to 30 MHz range. We decided that this was a good compromise to spending the money for an SSB transceiver or the time required to gain a ham operator's license. With this radio, we can not only receive audio broadcasts, but we can connect to our laptop and should be able to obtain weather faxes.

Connecting this radio required getting power to the receiver and running the wire for an external antenna. Fortunately, wires from a stereo we removed last year were still available for the power side of the equation. The active whip antenna needed to be mounted on the bimini rail and the wire run from the navigation station to the stern. Hence, the first emptying of the starboard cockpit locker.

Once that chore was done, and the starboard locker was re-packed, we emptied the port cockpit locker in preparation for running the wires to the inverter. The 400W inverter, which we purchased to plug in the few remaining items we have on the boat which require 120V AC power, would be wired directly to the battery in order to facilitate efficient current draw. Hence, the first emptying of the port cockpit locker.

After successful connection and testing of the inverter, we still had a considerable amount of afternoon time available to us. Sheryl decided to mark our stern anchor rode with flags indicating distance. This required the unpacking and re-packing of the starboard cockpit locker for the second time. Between which I cleaned up from previous project efforts.

With the sun still high in the sky, I decided to tackle the seemingly simple chore of addressing an issue with our stern navigation light. Several weeks ago, Sheryl had noticed that a small portion of the wiring exposed on top of the light was looking dried and cracked. I assumed that this was due to UV exposure and would require something simple like re-wrapping the wires in that section with electrical tape. Unfortunately, as I disassembled the light, it quickly became obvious that the issue was a little more dire. All of the wiring I touched crumbled to expose copper wire. Hoping to salvage something, I worked my way back to the point where the wire emerged from the stainless steel stern pulpit. Sheryl indicated that it looked like we were going to have to replace the wire running through the stainless tubing. I was not sure how feasible that would be, and proposed a back-up plan of running the new wire outside the tubing.

First, though, we needed to figure out which side, port or starboard, the wire came up through. I guessed port and unpacked the cockpit locker (yet again) only to realize that I had guessed wrong. I repacked the port and unpacked the starboard (for the third time), where Sheryl quickly discovered the wiring for the stern light. Following the wire, I found a junction where good tinned wire had been merged to the old copper wire (probably original to the boat back in 1985) which ran up through the deck and into the tubing. We tied a string to the old wire, pulled it through, and replaced it with good wiring. A relatively simple task (thank you Sheryl for your confidence in our abilities). Once the stern light was reassembled, I packed the starboard cockpit locker for the final time.

Before calling it a day, I checked the wiring leading to the bow light, and was pleased to note that some previous owner had replaced the original wiring to this light. A shower led us into a relaxing Saturday night, watching a movie on the computer.

After a big Sunday morning breakfast, we worked on cleaning the boat and went shopping for food for our dinner guests (Bill & Susan). You see, Sheryl is a vegetarian, and this summer (in particular) that has meant that I have been a part-time vegetarian. Having carnivorous guests means that I am able to cook up one of my meaty favorites...chicken cordon blue.

We played an afternoon of dominos, then returned to the boat so that I could start dinner preparations. At the time of this writing, I have prepared the chicken-cheese-and-canadian bacon concoctions and will be starting the oven momentarily. Since the box of wine is about to be opened, I thought I would put pen to paper (so to speak) and fill you in on our weekend, dear Reader, before our social life ran away with our remaining hours before the start of the new work-week. Until next time.