October 31, 2011

Happy Halloween!  No scary costumes or decorations for me...a fast-approaching departure date is scary enough.

Much of the effort this week was devoted to purchasing gear and provisions and getting it all stowed away.  I cleared out about 200 lbs of gear and supplies from the aft cabin and stowed it in plastic bins for later transport south in the truck.  Unfortunately, the aft quarterberths are still stuffed to the ceiling.

I bought an AIS and antenna splitter, and a personal locator beacon (PLB) for safety.  Still need to install the AIS.  I got the faulty WH autopilot electronics back from Wil, and they were repaired at no charge under warranty.  It now seems to work fine, with the lock-to-lock electronic limit working and the lock-to-lock time now 6 seconds or less.  With the autopilot set, I needed to build a sturdy guard around the motor and hydraulic pump to prevent shifting gear in the lazarette from getting caught in the drive belt or damaging something.

I also decided to replace the ship's batteries which are of unknown age and have been neglected by me while I dealt with other projects.  House bank is done, and I'll do the other bank if I can get some more of the cheap Walmart (Johnson Controls) deep cycle marine batteries locally.

If all goes as planned, I will be enroute by this time next week.  It's exciting, but I'll definitely miss the friendly folks here and the beautiful sunrises and sunsets.  Future blogs will need to be posted when I have access to wi-fi, so they might not be as regular.  Might be more interesting though....