September 1, 2016

It was a pretty productive week despite more than the usual amount of socializing and a day or so feeling under the weather.  I completed the series drogue with the last of the eye splices, got the hardware for the new jiffy (slab) reefing mounted on the boom, installed new LED engine room lights, and eliminated leaks in the bilge pump discharge hose and engine coolant reserve tank hose. Felt good to check off several items on "the list."  To celebrate, I had a fun afternoon giving some friends from the Delta an official Ventour.  A good time was had by all!

June 30, 2016

Another mixed week, jumping from project to project depending on which gear arrived and which vendors were ready to work. I got new charger connectors for the scooter wired in and mounted, and it finally took a charge and worked. Yeah!!! Even got a storage bag for it. More of the line and shackles for the drogue came in, and I did some more eye splices for the bridle. With peak loads on the drogue bridle up to 14,000 lbs, getting gear that is up to it takes research, care and money. But it may save my hide some day, so it's not a place to scrimp. Still no action from the sail-maker, and I'm still battling to get hull identification numbers for my documentation. I thought I was home free until I read that it would take them 4 to 6 months to issue the new documentation. I hope that won't really be the case as that would be too late. Still trying to find out what to expect.

I hired Jose (who did the painting of the deck and cabin) to buff and wax the hull. He's including waxing the cabin and deck for the same price. So far he's done one side and it looks great. He even was able to get out many more of the scratches than I thought possible.

On Saturday I went to a second boaters swapmeet this month and got rid of some more stuff. So, things are moving along mostly. Who knows, I might even make it! 

  

May 12, 2016

It was a pretty productive week: the weather was mild and I took care of a couple of items on the list.

 I finished converting the nav lights to LEDs and chainplates for securing the Jordan Series Drogue to the transom were installed. The chainplates are massive, but they each need to be able to handle peak loads of up to 14,000 pounds! They are so big and so well secured that the only way for the system to fail would be to tear the boat in half. Not likely since the Salar is such a tank! I also got some answers to an officialdom problem: Circadian, although documented, does not have a hull identification number (HIN). That could be a serious problem in Mexico. After quite a bit of research, some false starts and a trip to the DMV, I finally got some answers from the USCG Vessel Documentation Center. It seems I just need to make up an HIN that meets the legal guidelines and submit a form 1258 with a check. Hopefully I'll get to that next week.

I spent the weekend in LA with Carol and we did a nice hike up to the Griffith Observatory.