Because Carol was coming up for the long weekend to help me celebrate my independence day, I spent most of the week cleaning up the house for her visit. I even managed to get the last of the boat gear out of the living room and onto Circadian. Although that had the unfortunate consequence of temporarily turning the aft cabin into a store room, and therefore getting her slightly out of trim. I also squeezed in a bit more work on the plywood panel to convert one side of the v-berth into a double and started on modifying and refinishing the teak side board for it. I filled and sanded the plywood and put on a coat of stain-killing white primer.
The original teak side board for the v-berth was about a foot too long for the filler for the extended berth, and needed refinishing as well. I cut it down, rounded the corner and the edges, sanded it and got a first coat of varnish on it just before Carol arrived.
Bogle Winery in Clarksburg was having a small special event the afternoon of Carol's arrival, so we decided to meet there for a bit of a late afternoon picnic. It would give her a nice break from the long drive and be a delightful start to the weekend. The wine is good too!
Carol wanted special food for the special weekend, of course, so I took her to shop at the famous Corti Brothers Market. It's known for its variety of gourmet foods, expert advice, and, I discovered to my delight, a huge selection of beers and ales!
Because I officially retired effective July 1st, I decided to celebrate my own independence by setting off a couple of large, loud and colorful fireworks in the street in front of my house. Although a bit premature for our country's celebration, it was just right for mine, and I got no flak for jumping the gun a bit.
We completed our at-home celebration with a sushi dinner at Taka's, and the next morning headed for the Delta and a couple of nights on Circadian. Unfortunately, it turned out to be the hottest week of year, which made it a bit more challenging. With the temperatures well over 100, we were ultimately forced to fill up the air mattresses and retreat into the water repeatedly just to cool off. I ran into another problem when I topped off the the fresh water tanks. Fresh water was leaking into the hull from somewhere in the fresh water fill plumbing. After a couple of hours sponging out a locker and tracing the plumbing in the stifling heat, I gave up. It seemed the only possible places for the leaks were all hidden somewhere behind ice boxes, foam or other "permanent" obstructions. The "good" news: at least so far, it seems that it isn't the tanks themselves that are leaking, but the fill or air vent plumbing somewhere above the tanks. I'll dig a little deeper another time when cooler heads prevail. Carol had wisely prepared a cool and delicious salad for dinner that night, and we enjoyed it on the aft deck when things cooled down a bit in the evening.
The next morning I launched the dinghy for the first time since I had acquired Circadian. Despite the fact that I couldn't find the outboard key and its gas was now at least 18 months old, I tried pulling the start cord a couple of times just on the off chance.... Not surprisingly, no luck. No biggie. I had planned to pull it off anyway, and get it checked out and tuned. (It also needs a mounting screw handle to replace a missing one.) I spent another hour or so removing old and decayed lines, lock cables, fenders and layer upon layer of dried out duct tape that were all attached to the dinghy in one way or another. (May the gods eternally curse anyone who uses duct tape on boat!) Once that was done, another 30 minutes or so of scrubbing and the old dink looked pretty good.
By then I was pretty beat from the heat. Another couple of dips in the water and some cold Bitch Creek Ale, and I was almost human again. My last little project of the day was rewiring and mounting the former chart table light (which now had only one working switch-see last week's post) for use as a white-only cockpit light. (I have a new l.e.d. white/red chart light on order that I will mount on the new ceiling panel next to the instruments.)
By now, all three of us (Carol, the dog, and I) were truly spent, and had completely succumbed to Delta Fever.
Nonetheless, we were all up early this morning so Carol could get home in time for an afternoon appointment and I could get the dog home before the back of the truck got dangerously hot for him. It had been a fun, but exhausting long weekend. At least I don't have to worry about going into the office now. Weird, but good.
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. 
