February 15, 2010

Work on Circadian has been interrupted a bit by a trip to Los Angeles to see Carol and two weekend days spent prepping and showing my other boat (now for sale), By the Wind Sailor. I did manage to get a few things done in the shop and squeezed in one day at the yard.

In the shop, I've been sanding and varnishing the aft cabin head door and one of the hanging locker doors.

In my day at the yard I was able to complete the radar antenna installation, pull the new VHF antenna through the mast, and trace and check the existing wiring. Other than the normally obscure instructions, the antenna went on fine.

I used the old VHF antenna wire as the messenger to pull the new one through. In the process, I quickly found out why it was no good: it broke apart a few inches from the masthead end. As usual, the first 50 feet through the mast was easy; getting out the last 3 inches was the challenge. Removing the chrome exit tube fitting at the bottom of the mast finally did the trick.

I used my truck's battery and jumper cables to test and trace the existing mast wiring. I was beginning to get depressed when neither of the first two wires I checked lit up either the anchor light or masthead (steaming) light. I labelled them "unknown." Things changed quickly for the better, however. The next two checked out for the anchor and masthead lights, and were labelled accordingly. The two "unknowns" logically, then were for the two spreader light wires. I found and bought a new masthead light bulb at the yard's chandlery and installed it. I also installed the LED bulb I had bought at West Marine for the anchor. Both worked great and I left a happy sailor that day!