Kaimusailing

The ride up to Crisfield in the GMC Canyon pickup truck included a strange phenomenon. At 2000 rpm’s a vibration could be felt, almost like running onto the rumble strip at the side of the road. I thought it was caused by having the air conditioner on and the fan turned off, so I turned off the air conditioner. The vibration ceased for a while and I thought I had cured it, then it happened again. We ended up being on the road for 12 hours, so I was able to dissect this noise down to the rpm when it happened and that it was intermittent if using cruise control, but came on infallibly in manual mode if you brought the truck op to 2000 rpm’s bit by bit. 2000 corresponds to 78 mph on level ground and maybe 73-4 on a grade. It was like the transmission was doing something at that speed, like a lock-up torque converter locking up. Also the shifts from the transmission were sometimes abrupt. I was afraid we might be stranded, we were only about 215 miles into a very long trip.
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On local roads at speeds down below 70 mph there was no problem. Running around Crisfield with its 30 mph limits was fine. I also rode the Serotta bike around to the Dollar Store and to the City Dock. Crisfield declares itself to be The Crab Capital of the World, also as a Great Place to Be. After stowing, or more correctly, shoving items down the companionway, I took a break, posted the previous post, listened to WBYC, the local low power radio station, and had some Malbec by Black Box, an excellent wine. The clouds were low and there was rain possible which was why I was scrambling to stuff the boat with my junk. The sun was getting low and the clouds lighting up with their shades of blue, red, orange, puple, yellow, and gray. The music on WBYC is eclectic, I hate country and western, but when it’s interspersed with Stevie Winwood and John Lennon, et al, I can appreciate it. Just not a ton of it.
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The mainsheet traveler that Doc of Doc’s Chop Shop gave me (well, I had given him a couple of genoa tracks that were worth something) was still mounted on its fiberglass from Blue Eyes IV’s cockpit. Doc did not remove the traveler from the boat, he cut it out of the boat. The individual flat head machine screws along the length of the traveler had to be removed, and they were peculiarly long, like 3 ½ inches, yet they were only #6 or #8, very skinny and much too long. The effort to unthread all those screws looked like an awful job. I used a Harbor Freight needle nosed vise grip to start the nyloc nuts, then broke the screws free of the traveler and the fiberglass with a straight edge screwdriver, then used the Makita cordless drill with a straight screw bit to quickly remove the screw. It still took a long time and some of the screws were damaged, perhaps by someone needing to cut off the long lengths to allow access or room. After I dealt with the screws that did come out relatively easily, I had to remove the toughies. I broke two off, they wouldn’t budge. In the end the traveler was free of the fiberglass and the traveler car was off the traveler. Now I have to disassemble the car to repair its mainsheet attachment strap. But all these jobs will be unfinished for a while. I am working on what I can get to right now.
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The eBay instrument panel with the Fariah gauges had come in and I can’t believe I got 6 gauges for 60 bucks, free shipping. Also there are fuses and switches, even a red pushbutton. I removed the wiring from the gauges and the gauges from the panel. The only gauge I can’t use, or doesn’t make sense to use, is the 55 mph speedometer. CM can use it on her skiff. It only needs a pitot tube. All the gauges have little incandescent bulbs to light them at night. Of course on a power boat incandescent is no problem, but on a sailboat LED’s would be better. I tested all the gauges. The tach needle moved but needs a running engine to really test it.
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I went out on the bicycle for a shopping trip to get steak knives and a mixing bowl. This is a great town to cycle around, the big crab logoed windmill towers above the shore and can be seen from most of the town, and I passed it to get to one of the dollar stores and got steak knives and some mixing bowls, then went to the town center to the other dollar store and got a small cast iron skillet. Back to Sunsplash at slip K21 and a text from the artist, Eve, was I in Crisfield. Yes, I replied.
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She came down to the marina and I shared some wine with her. She had some lamb chops and invited me to come up to upper Cove St. for dinner. We were commiserating in her vehicle while rain came through now and then. She left to prepare for dinner and I left to gear up for a cycle ride up Cove St. I didn’t feel safe to drive for me, for other drivers, or for answering questions to an officer. Cornelia Marie had given me a present of bicycle lights, for safety, and I now attached them to the bike. I soon set out on the climb up Cove St. to Eve’s house.
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We had been listening to WBYC in her vehicle and she had it on the radio in the house. She was making cauliflower, lamb chops, and a salad. We talked about taxes and her young dog, no longer a pup, but very active and needing attention. We went outside and the grill was fired up and brought up to temperature. Later the lamb chops went in. The dog demanded attention with its play ball. The lamb chops were done and we went back into the house. Dinner was served and consumed. What a meal. Not in any restaurant nearby or even at some distance could you order grilled lamb chops, to perfection, mashed cauliflower, not like this, and a great salad. Kudos, Ev, for she didn’t want to be known as Eve in the blog anymore. OK. I promised to reciprocate at the Pink Pussycat when it reopens.
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The next day I went to the marina office to find out about the gold cards that I get as a member and can be used to use the pool or for a discount at the Red Shell Shanty (Pink Pussycat). I asked when the bistro would open, the rumor was Cinquo de Mayo, or Friday, but the young lady managing the marina that day did not know. I’ll even go there without the gold discount cards.
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I was on hold for about an hour in two stints, one about 15 minutes and then another about 45 minutes. This was Dollar Rent a Car, me reporting the impending demise of my truck’s transmission, and them shunting me off on dead phone lines, but I persisted. I wanted to know that they knew the truck I rented had the engine light on and the transmission was making noises at 2000 rpms. If they condemmed the truck, maybe I would not have to drive up to Baltimore to deliver it to the airport, only to have Cornelia Marie go out of her way to bring me back to Crisfield. They said, yes, engine light, transmission noise, don’t drive it, do I need a replacement vehicle and did I need another pickup truck. I replied no, I would be happy to terminate the rental, maybe I could assist them by limping the truck to a nearby location, but someone would have to ferry me back. They sent a tow truck and flat bedded the pickup, Goodbye Pickup, off it went. It looks like I will save 2 days of rental, 6 hours at least of travel, CM will not have to go about the trouble to bring me back, win, win, win.
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A package came in to the house, a laptop for Rough Rider Lynn back at the boatyard, a CF-C1 Panasonic Toughbook. I think she paid 90 dollars for it. It came with a blank 128 gig SSD drive, just like the one I’m using now. I installed Navigatrix 64 bit on it and had the same boot loader problem I had when I was installing it on this laptop. I looked at my saved folders with what I did to fix things like this, also old blog posts that document important things. The stuff I found didn’t help. Way back when I installed it on this laptop I just noted in my blog that it fixed itself. Well, maybe tomorrow it will work. Cinco de Mayo.
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I had a great meal of cheap steak and salad, Food Lion Vinaigrette, $1, not that bad. The Coleman camp grill device is about twice as expensive as the ordinary camp stove, but I was grilling a cheap steak and it came out OK.
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I was alerted by winds and I found roll clouds, sun trying to set, something was coming fast. I started taking pictures. The old EOS camera by Canon just had its batteries recharged and I took a couple of shots with it. The Galaxy phone was more wide angle and got more of the cloud involvement, more shots there. Then the storm hit. The first real rain since I’ve been back. Pouring rain. No leaks.
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We had peculiar power issues, the radio died, then my small flashlight died, the storm hit, and then everything was working again. Later the AC power on the boat was dead. It had started raining again, it was dark, I turned off the phone, down to 11% power. The radio was dead, the vibe from WBYC was gone. Silence and darkness. I slept to around 4 AM.
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I set up the phone to charge from a brick battery with clip leads and the cigarette lighter plug and charging cable. I slept in till about 10 AM. Then the usual breakfast with ham and cheese omelet fried in the new cast iron skillette. It is small.
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Investigation into the AC problems revealed that the boat side of the twist lock connection to shore power was loose. When you twist to twist lock, the socket turns. Not good. But it is working for now. The laptop did not repair itself. I went to the marina office where the internet is “strong”, not. I would have to go out into town to MacDonald’s or the Library for internet. I could have gone to MacDonalds and had some lunch, it was about that time, but I decided to try the library and it was nearly empty, the internet worked great, but ultimately, when I returned and tried the suggested remedies, failure.
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The problem is that the install continues OK to the point where it asks where to install the GRUB 2. GRUB is the boot up folder. It is already on the hard drive. I could not change permissions to allow me to write new boot data on the hard drive. I guess that is the real problem, the installation drive can’t do it either. Is there some superuser designation, God, that can override this sort of thing.
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The rain drenched my last remaining toolboxes on the dock, so I opened them up, drained out as much water as I could. Also the bike was getting creaky, needs lubrication. I did a lot of riding around with stupid errands. The sun was out and I should appreciate how the weather had turned. I had the music from the radio back in the cabin. Although I was thwarted by the computer, I was able to size and order a new cleat for the starboard winch and a cowl vent for the dorade box. Additional expenses.
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I made a simple salad with some luncheon ham and cheese, spring mix, and the aforementioned Food Lion $1 vinaigrette. Wine was some Franzia Cabernet, better than no wine. I kept wrapping my mind around the laptop problem and a gust of wind hit us, I looked up, a massive roll cloud was scudding across and I went up on deck to take pictures. The big Crisfield wind turbine was in lockdown, in this wind it was just barely turning. Then the rain hit. My open toolboxes were ideally placed to be filled again. Damn. No leaks in the cabin, though.
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The photo was taken a few minutes ago with the Galaxy phone, this is a second storm coming through.