A trip to the coast is always fun, even if you don't have anything exciting planned. I think the Very First mate agrees with me. If she doesn't she hasn't informed me.

Project Pictures

Saturday August 12,2006
This was a work weekend. When I hurt my back pulling the anchor several weeks ago, we decided to take action to make deploying and retrieving the ground tackle a bit less painful for the foredeck crew. These modifications are for the primary anchor system only. We always carry an extra anchor with an extra heavy chain and rode. The backup (storm) anchor is still aboard and still works as great although it is really difficult to deploy. The first order of business was to lighten the anchor chain. We were using 3/8" galvanized chain which is a more than we need in most cases. We decided to downsize to a 5/16" chain keeping the length the same. Next, the anchor itself. After doing some research, I found that the Fortress (brand) anchor is made of aluminum and the manufacturer claims it will hold twice as much with half the anchor weight. We shall see. I selected one size bigger than the manufacturer recommends which is about par for the course for me. Many of our dock mates use the fortress with great success. As a matter of fact, Richard had an extra Fortress FX16 that I acquired for a reasonable price. The last step in the anchor system improvements was a new anchor roller. We already have a bowsprit and there were two small anchor rollers mounted there, but the one on the starboard side had been damaged so it didn't actually work. The starboard side of the bowsprit had also been damaged so I put the good original roller on the starboard side and mounted a much heavier "Windline" brand anchor roller on the port (undamaged) side. Part of the installation was a 1/4" stainless steel backing plate under the new roller. Hopefully this (captain designed and built) plate will provide extra strength to the bowsprit so we can use the boat and it�s diesel engine to pull the anchor instead of the Captain's aching back.

Of course, on Saturday morning, when the time came to start mounting the new anchor gear, it was pouring rain. You know what the say, "A rainy day at the boat is better than a sunny day at work. Since I have experienced this situation on several occasions, I brought two inside projects along, just in case. The chart light at the navigation station was original equipment and was in really bad shape. It�s plastic globe was broken and it looked really bad. I replaced it with a spiffy new brass reading light that looks like it belongs on a proper yacht.

The next task was "tunes". Southern Star came equipped with a marginal stereo system. Which consisted of a car stereo system, with some fairly decent speakers. The car stereo went south shortly after we brought her to Whortonsville. I bought a deal on a marine stereo last Christmas and have been carrying the unit back and forth to the boat since then. This time it stayed on the boat. The installation was relatively painless and the only problem is that the speakers were not as good as I thought since one is not working. I�ll take care of that later.

When both inside projects were complete it was still raining so we decided to make a trip into town. We plan to install ?Lazy Jacks� on the boat and I needed to buy the necessary parts. I will explain ?Lazy Jacks� in a future log. We also needed to buy recharge kits for our automatic inflatable life jackets. The Very First Mate did not believe the jackets would automatically inflate so she asked our nephew and his friend to test them at the lake a few weeks ago. They worked just as advertised so now we needed recharge kits.

The weather had cleared to downright beautiful when we returned so I started the anchor project. It was fairly painless and went together as planned. I mounted the new anchor roller and got the new anchor from Richard. We assembled all the parts. As far as I can tell, the new ground tackle met or exceeded the expectations of all the dock mates. Whether the new system will hold the boat without dragging the hook remains to be seen.

We took a shower and cooked salmon on the grill. This is far and away my favorite meal. Salmon, brown rice and salad make a simply excellent meal that is also very healthy, We had a pleasant visit with Richard and Francis after dinner. We turned in long after our traditional dark-thirty bedtime.

Sunday August 13,2006
Sunday morning brought some of the best weather of the summer. We started getting ready to go home. We typically dock the boat with her stern to the dock, but I had promised our local sail maker that we would turn her around so that he could install the new roller furling system. This is another project that will be covered in a future log. The trip home was thankfully uneventful. We finished the Robert B. Parker novel on CD that we started on the trip down. It was a great weekend.

Project Pictures