Across the harbour
03 November 2018
• SMT
by Mike/blowing up a storm
We have been hanging on the mooring all day Friday, relaxing, reading books, and listening to music, and generally pretending that we are following the cruising lifestyle, and to a large extent, we are. It's just that it is wet and cold outside. We are missing the balmy tropical breezes, the white or pink sandy beaches, and the turquoise waters. Oh well. I have also been occupying myself with working on some of those pesky trouble shooting problems that you have aboard. We changed the oil on the engine and intended to change the filter too but when I looked the cupboard was bare. Odd. I could have sworn that we had a couple more. Oh well. Off to a Yanmar dealer to buy a half dozen or so when we get a chance.
The solar panels do not seem to be adding their charge to the house bank and I have managed to eliminate the charge controller as the culprit, I think. The solar array is putting out 37 VDC which is seen by the controller and yet when I bypass the it there is still no current flow registering on the meter. I think that somehow the ammeter itself has gone although I don't understand that either. After some research I have discovered that you can buy a 24V solar charge controller for less than $100 that does both regulate the charging and display the current. I think that one of them is in our future.
I also took the RAM mike apart to see if the problem was something obvious. It wasn't! Or, at least whatever the problem is is beyond my ability to repair. So it is off the the marine electronics repair shop over the winter and or buying a new one.
The problem with the wind instruments is not readily obvious either. When we get up on the hard and it isn't pouring down rain and blowing 30 knots I will pull the control panel open and see if it is something simple like a disconnected wire. It is a Raymarine product which means that it is talking to its friends through SeaTalk protocol which involves a three wire connection. Just one wire would do it. Let's hope it could be that easy.
Meanwhile I'm getting a fair amount of reading. With the political atmosphere south of the border right now I am finding it particularly interesting to be reading a book called "A Team of Rivals", written by Doris Kearns Goodwin. First I never cease to be stunned by the depth of research that must go into writing a non fictional account of a historical period that is written for the laypersons consumption. Details pertaining to the principals must be readily available and to scholars of that particular subject probably well known, but to discuss the details of the characters on the periphery and how they added to or took away from the successes or failures of the main characters, for me, is mind numbing. The level of research, reading letters, newspaper accounts from the day, other scholars' works, etc., etc., is astounding and then to have the skill to put it into a chatty tome that rivals a novel is impressive almost beyond words. This particular book traces the careers of Abraham Lincoln, William H Steward, Salmon P Chase, Edwin M Stanton, and Edward Bates all of whom were rivals for the 1860 presidential nomination for the newly formed Republican Party. Yes I said newly formed. Prior to that year the Democrats main rivals were Whigs, and even the current form of the Democratic Party was only formed shortly earlier. The main theme of the book is the brilliance of Mr Lincoln in being able to get consensus and in being able to get his convention rivals, the guys who had lost to him, to work with him in his administration. It's also interesting to read that the "dirty tricks" that you read about in the paper or watch on TV today, the outright lies to try to damage an opponent are not new. They were doing it all back then. That's a very brief overview of what I am enjoying. If you get a chance I recommend you read it too.
On a very positive, albeit bittersweet note, the final stage of me acting as executor to my brother's estate finished off yesterday when the sale of his property, two doors down from us, closed. Hurrah! The new owner is from Arizona and will be up here for a couple of weeks getting things sorted to suit himself. We will have to introduce ourselves. All we have left to do is a little work with CRA and closing out the whole issue with Probate.
I have spoken to Ken about hauling the boat this afternoon. We are both in agreement that today is not a good day for that chore. We originally looked at 08h00 tomorrow but from looking at the weather forecast We decides that won't do either and are now looking at Monday. We decided that it would make sense for us to head on over to the Marine Terminal and tie up alongside so we will be even more sheltered and we can get ashore when we need to. We were OK behind Josie's Island but we were stuck on the boat and it will be nice to get off if it is going to be another couple of days before we get put up on the hard. Nelleke was moving around enough on the mooring that my cell phone kept thinking that we were driving in a car and kept telling me that it won't give me messages or emails or respond to phone calls while we're moving. I had to keep telling it that I was not driving so that I could get our emails. On that note, we also noticed that we crossed the geofence at about the mouth of the harbour which turned the furnace back on at home. We are tied up alongside Mukluk, the Austrian boat. That's them on the left in the accompanying photo. All of the other boats are over here too with the exception of the Belgian boat that we have no idea where they went. Mukluk, Sauvage, Grace and the smaller boat from Quebec are all planning a mid day departure tomorrow. It is a very small weather window which they pretty much have to take. If they don't, from what I see in the future, they will be here for at least another week.
The worst of the wind event is forecast to be tonight so I am very glad we are tucked up secure. Tomorrow's post will tell whether or not we were able to haul or if it is postponed to Monday.
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