Spent the weekend at Carol's. Did some photo work and went to LA's Grand Central Market for lunch. Interesting place. Got the verdict on my skin biopsy: benign as expected.
August 29, 2013
Got quite a bit accomplished this week: finished refurbishing the oars and the cockpit sole, painted the line wrapping on the steering wheel and mounted the last two pieces of trim in the doghouse. As part of re-doing the oars, I tried sewing my own oar leathers. Not hard at all, and it came out fine. I also experimented with coating the oar tips with PlastiDip rubber. It looks fine now, but I don't think it will work as it doesn't seem to adhere well. Time will tell.....
Spent the weekend at Carol's. Did some photo work and went to LA's Grand Central Market for lunch. Interesting place. Got the verdict on my skin biopsy: benign as expected.
Spent the weekend at Carol's. Did some photo work and went to LA's Grand Central Market for lunch. Interesting place. Got the verdict on my skin biopsy: benign as expected.
August 22, 3013
A busy, diverse week. To make sure the boat would be ready for sea soon, I asked my circumnavigator friend Joseph to help me tune the rig using his Loos tension gauge. Very easy. Now I'd like my own gauge, but the one I need is $250, so not in my immediate future. I continued work on the oars and in the process once again proved that haste makes waste. On the plus side, I was able to solve a problem that I had erroneously thought I'd already solved. My autopilot once again failed to power up, despite my recently having installed and wired a new ground bus that seemed to have fixed it. After a good deal of head-scratching and electrical sleuthing, I noticed a connector seemed to have moved slightly on the wire. A slight tug and it popped right off: bad crimp. Hard to find; easy to fix. To relieve an idiosyncratic personal irritation, and do a quick project that would make a visible difference, I decided to refurbish the dorade vents. After cleaning and prepping them, I sprayed them with Plasti Dip rubber coating. It looks fine, but I have no idea how it will hold up. Check back in six months or a year and we'll know.
On a personal note, I took Carol (in the new Mini) to a very romantic place for her birthday: the Ranch House in Ojai. Lovely setting, good service, great food and a singer/guitarist who seemed to be able to channel James Taylor. Most importantly, Carol liked it. On the other end of the spectrum, I had to have a biopsy on a mole this week. The doctor thinks it's benign, but we need to check it to be sure. Results next week....
On a personal note, I took Carol (in the new Mini) to a very romantic place for her birthday: the Ranch House in Ojai. Lovely setting, good service, great food and a singer/guitarist who seemed to be able to channel James Taylor. Most importantly, Carol liked it. On the other end of the spectrum, I had to have a biopsy on a mole this week. The doctor thinks it's benign, but we need to check it to be sure. Results next week....
August 15, 2013
With it being my birthday last week and Carol's birthday this week, it hasn't been one of the most productive boatwork weeks. Lots of foggy days didn't help either. However it was not without it's compensations, including a couple of great dinners and a new car. With my old truck starting to show signs of age and becoming less reliable, I thought turning 65 was a good excuse to get a fun new car while I'm still young enough to enjoy it. And, since I did alright in the stock market this year, I could just manage it if didn't go crazy. I settled on a low mileage 2010 Mini Cooper. It took about four days to complete the selection, purchase and car juggling. It's lots of fun, but I'm still learning how to drive it and use the computer than runs everything. Because I can play music from my iPhone through the car's stereo, I also spent a good deal of time struggling with iTunes to get more music onto the phone. It's worth it though because the new Geneva stereo on the boat also uses the iPhone as a music source.
With the doghouse just about done (two more trim pieces to varnish and install) and a cruise coming up, it was time to turn my attention to getting the boat ready for sea. The dinghy needs attention that includes replacing the drain plugs, refinishing the oars and getting rid of the old outboard fuel by burning it in the truck. Most of that is still in process. I also had to repair and refinish my outrigger paddle after it got banged up somehow.
There will be more celebrating in the next few days for Carol's birthday, so I'm really going to have to buckle down next week!
With the doghouse just about done (two more trim pieces to varnish and install) and a cruise coming up, it was time to turn my attention to getting the boat ready for sea. The dinghy needs attention that includes replacing the drain plugs, refinishing the oars and getting rid of the old outboard fuel by burning it in the truck. Most of that is still in process. I also had to repair and refinish my outrigger paddle after it got banged up somehow.
There will be more celebrating in the next few days for Carol's birthday, so I'm really going to have to buckle down next week!
August 8, 2013
Other than a couple of pieces of trim that still need varnishing, I finished up the panels in the doghouse this week. With the new overhead, varnished "dashboard" and teak trim, plus the refurbished breaker panel and shift/throttle lever, the doghouse is looking a lot better. Still have all the fiberglass to fair and paint, but that's a long way down the road. But heck, today is my birthday, so it's time to take a little break and have some fun!
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