I always look forward to climbing around on boats I will never be able to afford. My friend Bruce joined Kim and I for a visit to the Seattle Boat Show to do just that. The nice, or at least interesting, part of this year’s visit was the tour of the booths at Century Link field. This is the first year that I actually felt we didn’t need anything for the boat. I, of course, am a bit conflicted about that. I am always looking for new and nifty gizmos.
I removed some old instruments from the salon wall recently. A barometer that said it was always sunny — which is not necessarily a bad thing in the northwest, and a wind speed gizmo that wasn’t connected to anything outside where the wind is. I relocated the clock to a more convenient location. As you can see from the different wood colors, these instruments have been on the wall for quite some time.
Now what to do? I don’t think I can easily make the dark spots light, and I doubt it’s practical (or affordable) to make the light spots (pretty much the whole interior) dark. I guess we’ll just hang a picture.
Here’s a video I put together from our trip in the Gulf Islands this last September. We broke out the kayaks and took a spin around Montague Harbour on a fine, fine day.
Fair warning. This is not a great video. You may regret the 13+ minutes you spend here … if you sit through the whole thing. It’s shot entirely handheld on my iPhone. The horizons are crooked. It’s not particularly exciting. And I’m not much an editor.
But … the weather was so fantastic that day, and the water so amazingly calm. And it was such a spectacular trip around the harbor, and just so damn nice to be there. That’s why I posted it. 4:50-8:00 is probably the best part.
While working on another project, I cleaned up a a fair amount of broken wire strands from inside the bottom of the lower helm. These all came from the steering cable. As you can probably see, it is pretty beat up. I put tape on part of it in the hope that it would diminish damage to the existing cable where it enters the tube until I could repair it properly. I don’t think it really helped.
Lower helm
It is clearly time to replace the cable. At first, I thought I would need to have this done by a professional. I posted about it on the Grand Banks forums and received prompt responses on how easy it was to do. Don Dahl was even kind enough to send me an email with complete instructions. Continue reading
We asked Canvas Supply to whip up some new mesh window coverings for a us a couple weeks ago. With all the holiday activities, we just had the opportunity this past weekend to swing by to check the work out. I think they did a great job.
The idea behind it was to give us a bit more privacy when we wanted it without having to have the curtains closed all the time. We still want to be able to see outside and enjoy the view. We also wanted to be able to decrease the bright sun from time to time and give a little weather protection to the windows and frames.
The front panel includes zippers to accommodate the opening center window. They fit perfectly. Continue reading
Well … for anyone returning in anticipation of a new, witty, and thoughtful post similar to what you have come to expect from the previous few weeks, I apologize. There is not much interesting to report.
We spent yesterday at the Point Hudson Marina in Port Townsend cleaning the boat. We washed down the kayaks and inflatable, cleaned the anchor and bow, washed the salt water off, and completed a few other minor projects. I added water to the batteries.
This Blue Heron hung out on the pilings near us most of the morning.
The anchor came up at 8:05 this morning and we were on our way to Port Townsend. It was another beautiful morning in Garrison Bay. This the first time we’ve been here. It was pretty shallow when I got up in the morning. Low tide. Seven feet.
