It's been a hectic, stressful week, with not much to show for it; but
at least it ended on an up note. All the various venders I had been
nagging for weeks all decided to get moving this week. So, while
that's good, it kept me hopping. Double booking myself didn't help.
The sun awning is done. I now have the chemical cleaning cartridges
for the watermaker. Ace Sails in Connecticut is making the extension
for my Jordan Series Drogue. Gary from Ullman sails checked out
Circadian's sails and came up with a good solution for downwind:
keep the old genny just for running twins downwind; use the new
same-size genny the rest of the time. The main is not in bad shape,
just too light and not well made in the first place. Hope I don't
have a coronary when I get a quote! My friend/crew Steve and I tried
roller reefing the existing main, and found it to be a real pain.
Actually takes 3 to do it. So, I'm thinking I'll try to find a way
to do slab (jiffy) reefing. It will definitely require some
additional gear and work, but should be worth it. We also tried to
take down the genny, but ran into problems. The sprocket on the
bottom was frozen, but I eventually freed it by removing it. Fortunately the bolts securing it came out without a problem. Also
good, the sail slid down the slot easily, meaning the shiv at the top
is free and so is the cable in the slot. Still couldn't remove the
sail, however, because the pin securing the tack was corroded in
place. PB Blaster, torch and sledgehammer all failed to break it loose. I now have PB Blaster soaking in overnight while a clamp is
applying pressure to push it out. If that doesn't do it, I'll have
to cut the ring on the sail's tack and replace it with a shackle.
I spent a couple of days shit-shifting
and working the boaters swapmeet. It was a slow day, with cold and
drizzly weather, so I didn't sell much. I even had trouble giving
stuff away. After throwing away a bunch of stuff, I was at least able to cut the total volume in half. Only thing I bought was a $10 propane bbq in bad shape
and missing parts. A friend noticed and offered me a bigger and
better one. It seemed complete (even had a cover), although the
burner and spreader were rusted. I gave him $30 for it. As of an
hour ago I was able to get it together, mounted and working. Nice
way to end the week: $40 gets me a $189 bbq!
As a consequence of clearing out the house, I had a whole truckload of gear to unload and stow on Circadian. Since it was a hot day, the first item on the day's agenda was to see if I could make the awning I had made for my previous boat work on Circadian. It did, but seemed to have shrunk significantly when in place on the much larger Circadian. Once the awning was up, I did the pack animal thing, and carried hundreds of pounds of gear down the rickety docks onto Circadian. I managed to get everything on board, but it's clear a lot of weight is going to end up in the wrong places until I complete more of the restoration.
I had also brought along a hunk of 3/4" plywood to use to extend one of the two single v-berths so that it can be used as a double. The previous owners had simply put a filler piece between the two berths. While it's simple and makes for a roomy berth, it makes access to the drawers and lockers below the berths extremely difficult. I measured and cut the filler piece, and removed the teak side board from an old extension that no longer fit the v-berth. Later, I'll recut and refinish the sideboard at home, and install it on the new extension. Once the new fill piece was cut to size, I put it in place both to check the fit and to assess access to the drawers and lockers below. Access to those under the remaining single berth was pretty good. To get to the drawer under the extended berth, the extension will need to swing up. I expected that, and plan to make the new mattress in two pieces to allow it.
The afternoon was devoted to finishing up and securing the wiring for the instruments I had mounted on the new ceiling panel last week. It turned out to be one of those "up hill" projects in which nothing fits or works the first time. For example, the power supply wires for the VHF turned out to be literally one inch too short, necessitating splicing in a new section. While I was cutting the wiring to the old ABI dome light so that I could reconnect it to the supply wire now routed under the ceiling panel, one of the switches simply fell apart in my hand. It was so flimsy, that reassembling it was impossible. Nonetheless, I eventually got all the wiring routed, secured, and hidden behind a new cable cover on the pillar between the doghouse windows. In addition to looking better and preventing problems caused by loose wiring, the neat wiring also makes removing and reinstalling the instruments much easier. It was a lot of hot, sweaty work, but with the help of some cold beer, I eventually got it done. After I've mounted all the instrumentation I plan to have on the ceiling panel, I'll cover the wiring with a panel covered in the same black marine vinyl as the ceiling panel. I also added a supply wire for a new cockpit light. The wiring inside the cabin is still loose and unsecured, and that too will be need to be taken care of before I cast off. 
