"Look! No Hands!"
13 May 2009 | Gig HARBOR, WASHINGTON
Rick 14558
Ya gotta love autopilots... especially when they work! :) I was able to sail for 10 1/2 hours alone and work around the boat without worrying too much about plowing into something. The trick is to monitor the boats progress frequently!!!!!! I mean frequently! I was taking this photo and accidently kicked off the autopilot arm when I was moving forward on the boat... I was wondering why the wind was changing direction! Then I looked at the chartplotter and whooops! I was heading in the WRONG DIRECTION! another lesson under my belt!
I've been working on a few of the minor issues with the boat before heading out into the great white north (better be green now or I'm in trouble!) I got the heater working again (loose wire), replaced the bad masthead light, put the interior back together which took a whole day, but well worth the effort! It looks so much better now! I also finished up the wiring job, so no more spider web of wires everywhere!
I got the results from the MRI's of my knees... Left torn lateral thing-ee and right torn medial other thing-ee... (I forgot what they are called and thing-ee is pretty technical anyways!!!) I have to call the doc and see if they will want to amputate (at the neck) or just physical therapy and no more running and falling down the companionway!
I'm in a predicament now... a major time crunch! I was supposed to be in Alaska NOW, but I've been sick for almost four weeks and doctors visits ate away from my time off. I still have three weeks off to RACE to Alaska or stick around the Seattle area and prepare for a possible afgan deployment and miss out on Alaska AGAIN the year... (it will be Fall when i get my next break and I don't want to see snow while I'm sailing!)
I'm still trying to get the video I shot to upload on here... I took some video from up the mast while sailing wing and wing! It was AWESOME! Way better sensation than the scene from TITANIC!!!