January 16, 2010

Up early and headed back to Napa Saturday morning. The weather forecast called for rain for the next two days, which was unfortunate since I had Monday off for the Martin Luther King holiday. Clearly it wasn’t an auspicious time to unwrap the mast and start on the mast wiring and radar installation projects. So, armed with my trusty volt-ohm meter and a big set of wrenches, my goal was to determine if the non-functioning windlass was getting current, and if so, to dismount it and bring it home for further diagnosis. Since it had been taking a beating from wind and sea on the bow of Circadian for some 35 years, it was no surprise that it wasn’t working. I just hoped it was something simple and cheap, since the manufacturer in England was long out of business and parts were pure unobtainium. In order to determine if current was reaching the windlass, I had to remove it from the deck to access the terminals on the bottom. Thanks to its previous removal when the decks were recently redone, it was surprisingly easy. I was thankful that Jessie was experienced enough to know not to use 3M 5200 as the sealant. It is such a strong adhesive that it is impossible to remove something bonded with it without a chisel and saw. It didn’t look too bad underneath where the electrical connections were housed, but the meter told me that current was getting past the switch and to the solenoid, so I knew something was wrong with either the solenoid (minor) or the motor (major or even terminal). I disconnected the wiring from the supply battery and then from the windlass so I could dismount it and bring it home. The damn thing was just as heavy as the gas-powered emergency pump, so I lowered it to the ground the same way I had the pump two days before.
I spent the rest of the day cleaning up, removing old foodstuffs from the galley, and off-loading the loose locker doors to bring them home for refurbishing. I covered up the holes in the deck resulting from the removal of the windlass with plastic sheeting. Having found a head manual online yesterday, I had brought a couple of gallons of pure water to flush down the head to push all the stinkies through the hoses into the holding tank. I did that and a few other minor chores and I was on my way home. As tired as I was when I got home, I had to get the heavy windlass and locker doors down into the basement before the rain arrived, so I found myself still a beast of burden well into the evening.