April 28, 2016

This was the week of the windlass and the wind. On Friday I drove a couple of hundred miles to bring the windlass from Ventura to Lighthouse Manufacturing in Riverside, stopping at Minney's Yacht Surplus on the way back to L.A. The traffic was horrendous most of the time, but the side trip to Minney's was worth it because I was able to find a pair of massive chainplates for securing the series drogue to the stern. And the price was a steal. Monday I reversed the trip, less the side trip to Orange County. I picked up the windlass with its new “gate,” new bearings, new seals as well as new paint and polish. $194. Also met and chatted with the 80-year-old owner of the company. In the process of remounting the windlass I noticed that the chain stripper had been rubbing against the gypsy, and it still was. While there was a little play available to adjust the stipper's position, it wasn't nearly enough. I ended up having to grind away quite a bit of material on the chainstripper. Unfortunately, it required a pretty tedious and time-consuming cycle of grinding and checking to get it right. The end result was good, though. The modification won't hurt its functionality and it's still plenty strong enough. It's also pretty much invisible, so it won't hurt aesthetics either.

On the weather front, (Did I really say that?!) two full gales hit the area this week. Trees were toppled, nesting herons killed, and boats and cars coated with sticky brown grit, inside and out. We even had to dig our canoes out of the sand and clean the sand out of them out before we could use them tonight. Yuck!