Older Cruiser
21 November 2016
Wow. It has been so long and so much has happened since I last posted to this blog. There was a wonderful 2 plus months at our family mountain cabin in the mountains of Colorado with cabin projects, hiking, and time spent with old and new friends. Then there were two months sailing the coast of Maine with friend Cheryl on her lovely Cape Dory 31, Evergreen. Then, back to the cabin for 1-1/2 months of (mostly) deck rebuilding efforts – successfully completed well before it was time to rejoin Kelly Rae in Green Cove Springs. Whew. If it hadn’t been so much fun, just talking about it would be incredibly tiring.
I could write some long postings about these wonderful times and wanderings-about but, as always, this blog is about my travels and occasional travails with Kelly Rae.
Which brings me to the subject at hand.
I am not an “old” cruiser. This is something I believe to be true – and would even if my friends (perhaps a bit disingenuously) did not often reinforce my opinion on the matter. We all like to hear people confirm to us what we believe anyways. The fact is that I retired early, at 52, and, therefore, even though it has now been 10-1/2 years since I first moved aboard Kelly Rae, I am still only 62. This is not old.
I am, however, “older than I once was and (presumably) younger than I’ll be” and there is nothing like 2-1/2 weeks in boatyard mode to unequivocally make this point.
It hurts.
While the work is being done, the hands do as they are told, the body bends and flexes at least enough to get to that awkwardly located bolt, nut, valve, hose clamp or whatever and the brain generally functions sufficiently to get the job done without too many of the “sailorly swearing” class of mistakes. This is all good.
It is at night that the price is paid. The mildly arthritic hands complain at even the most basic of requirements. The previously “flexible enough” body is now not even close – and the aches make rolling over in bed an event mandating a full awakening. And the brain – well, its not good for much after 5:00 – beer can help in a lot of ways but it doesn’t help the brain function - unfortunately.
The morning brings no improvement until the lengthy To-Do-List brutally shoves all other considerations aside and another day of hard work begins.
Physical limitations aside, the bigger worry is the rapidly escalating early onset of dementia.
An example.
All easily removed electronics had been disconnected and placed in KR’S oven as I prepared the boat last February for 9 months on the hard – this in an attempt to minimize damage that might occur from a close hit from one of Florida’s summertime thunderstorms.
When re-commissioning each device was remounted and reconnected and basic testing performed. Case in point- The VHF radio was connected, powered and with the help of a fellow yachtie in the yard tested (at admittedly short range) using my handheld VHF.
It worked.
And yet, when KR was once again floating and we were moving north from Green Cove I wasn’t hearing any traffic and a couple of “Radio Checks” went unanswered. Then, one evening, it wouldn’t tune in any of the NOAA weather frequencies. There were a few grumbled expletives and I duly added “Troubleshoot VHF Radio” to the To-Do-List.
That evening, while digging out the popcorn popper from the Pot and Pan Locker, I noticed an antenna cable hanging down – not connected to anything. Even a tired “older cruiser” brain can do this mental leap as I realized that I had obviously disconnected the antenna cable from the AIS black box mounted to the top of the Pot and Pan Locker – I didn’t actually REMEMBER disconnecting it but… Clearly I had disconnected the cable to try to protect the not-easily-removable AIS unit.
On KR, the cable from the masthead VHF antenna connects to the AIS unit then another cable connects from the AIS unit to the radio.
I connected the antenna lead and tested the radio – all was now well. Except that I was still confused. The AIS had been working all along. I discovered that when I had (quite reasonably) disconnected that cable, I had not disconnected the lead from the antenna – but instead had disconnected the lead heading to the radio.
So, to summarize, I had disconnected the wrong cable, completely forgotten that I had even done so and only found the problem because it was in the way when I was extricating the popcorn popper. Not the sharpest tack in the drawer – you would rightfully be thinking – but not actually quite enough to justify moving into assisted living.
Read on:
A normal active 52 y/o brain would have reasonably considered what else might remain disconnected – but apparently not the 62 y/o version.
The Ham radio, once remounted and reconnected, powered up properly and seemed to be receiving just fine (I could easily hear our weather guru, Chris Parker on his morning SSB broadcast). Once KR was in the water, I tested transmitting by successfully connecting to the Winlink email server based in Virginia Beach on its 10meg frequency. All seemed well.
And yet, as I did some further testing I learned that it was only on that 10meg frequency that I could hit that site – not the 3,7 or 14meg options. And, I tried hitting Chris Parker for a radio check. No luck, and it should have been a bomber connection.
Once again, there were a few grumbled expletives and this time I duly added “Troubleshoot Ham Radio” to the To-Do-List. I never made the obvious mental connection to the previous radio problem.
The next day, I started the process of tracing down this latest issue. Thinking that the feed line connection to the backstay antenna might be corroded, I opened the propane locker and after moving some hanging lines out of the way was able to clearly see the stern chain plate bolts where the feed line attaches – the feed line that was disconnected and dangling right next to its bolt attachment point. Really?
Once again, I had quite reasonably disconnected this while storing the boat to try to protect the antenna tuner from lightning strikes. Once again, I had completely forgotten that I had done it. And, even more disconcertingly did not make the “not very athletic” mental leap from the VHF problem resolution to the Ham Radio difficulty.
So - dementia is an issue.
On the positive side, as with favorite books and movies, apparently I will soon be able to experience old favorite harbors with all the enthusiasm of the first time.
Best to all