Insatiable Enabalist
12 November 2020 | St Marys, GA
Cap'n Andy | Tropical Storm
Because I had stepped on my Panasonic Toughbook CF-C1, the screen was a shattered mess, but the laptop still worked. I was going to replace the display, then realized I just had to swap the batteries and hard drove into a spare chassis, and now I have done so and I'm writing the blog on it.
.
The starboard forward solar panel, the one that had 0 output, was quickly repaired without removing the panel. The negative lead had corroded to powder. It looked like tinned wire, shouldn't do that. Trimmed back to good wire, maybe a foot was removed, reconnected and now had full power at the charge controller. The batteries have not recovered from going flat, who knows how long ago. The longer AGM batteries sit uncharged the more likely hard sulfation will occur and it can permanently ruin the batteries. There is a device that pulses sulfated batteries to break up the sulfation, so I bought one on eBay for under $30. It is unlikely it will fix these batteries, but the $500 or more replacement cost makes it a good idea.
.
We had the usual Monday night Pizza Night, but no longer in the Breezeway. I baked the pies in the communal kitchen and we sat around on the communal porch eating the pies. I made a pepperoni, a mushroom, a Canadian bacon and Swiss, and a pie with all three. It was the first Pizza Night in the boatyard since I left to go up to Maryland.
.
Tropical storm Eta was forecast to pass through the Florida panhandle and head NNW, but the update has it crossing North Florida and going right through the Jacksonville area, which includes this boatyard. It will probably be gale or near gale strength. I've had my share of gales this year. There is also another tropical depression forming.
.
The mainsheet on SUNSPLASH bothered me. It was sheeted to the binnacle guard, a sort of stainless tubing feature, not meant to be a mainsheet anchor point. This thing held up under a lot of stress when the boat was flattened by gusts during the gales and microbursts when I sailed it. I only sailed it less than a week in total, let's say 5 1/2 days, we were hit by 2 microbursts and 3 gales. One afternoon and night included a microburst and a gale force front.
.
The dodger on the boat had no canvas. I wanted to stitch a new canvas dodger, but also wanted to add a bimini above the helm. I envisioned a two bow bimini with a couple of solar panels on it. Additional canvas would make it rain proof.
.
Catalina made an improvement years ago after introducing the Catalina 30 as a tiller steered sloop with the mainsheet sheeted to a traveler at the front edge of the lazarette. Customers wanted a wheel helm, so one was added and the mainsheet was moved to in front of the dodger with a midboom sheet. SUNSPLASH had neither of these arrangements. I thought I could add a mainsheet arch in front of the binnacle. The mainsheet would be up out of the way of the cockpit and the arch could have the dodger forward of it attach to its front edge and the bimini behind it attach to its aft edge.
.
Riding through the now much bigger boatyard gave me a good look at mainsheet arrangements. Later Doc, of Doc's Chop Shop, drove me around in his utility vehicle and I saw the ideal arch on an older boat that may end up on the chop schedule. This arch was aluminum plate about 6 inches wide and about 1/4" thick bent into a large upside down U. The top was mostly flat and a mainsheet track was mounted on it.
.
The other arrangement was found in a bunch of photos I had saved of a C&C 30 from the same group of boats I bid on when I bought the Catalina. The mainsheet was sheeted to a short traveler across the cockpit in front of the binnacle, mounted low between the cockpit lockers. This may have been our Catalina's actual traveler back in the day. I had a similar traveler on the Coronado 34 I had before KAIMU came along.
.
It is Veteran's Day and I watched a WWII movie, a farce of sorts, Kelly's Heroes. It's hard to read extensively about the Third Reich and the horrible war they brought about with disastrous ends for themselves and for many of those who opposed them without a sense that this must never happen again. But we have just seen a government that is scary and obtuse to any reality. Lies, all lies, and it continues in spite of a public mandate to put it to an end. The era of those who served in WWII, survived the privations of the Great Depression, but persevered to rebuild a great country that continues to be great, is dying out. We need to appreciate our real heroes, and see that there are charlatans who may claim to be great, but the greatest is the one with courage and grit. There are such people, even young people, and when the country throws its youth into conflict, we must have a just purpose for them. They will go, as the young will go where the old are wise not to. The old and wise must be careful not to waste the youth.
.
On Pizza Night I was surprised to hear from a Veteran that Donald Trump won the popular vote. This is an alternate false scenario, totally discounted by officials who have integrity, something that Donald Trump doesn't seem to have. The governors, and I mean those who govern, abide by certain rules and accepted behavior. It is hard to lose an election, to lose favor with the populace, but in a democratic society it happens to someone every election. What do you do? You go back and quit or try again. In football, losers can become winners later, like Bill Belichick.
.
Eta came through in the morning with gale force winds and steady rain. By noon it was on its way out. I took a photo of the sunset, setting over Ron the Carpenter's new Cape Dory 25 sailboat.