The Days Will Soon Be Getting Longer! ! ! !

SHIP'S LOG:

It is sad to say, but unless you are in the Southern Hemisphere somewhere, this is the awful part of the sailing season. Boats are out of the water and all wrapped up. All the stuff from the boats is stuck in garages, storage units or someone's attic or basement. The boat is usually too far distant to make regular, accidental, "just-happened-to-be-passing-by" visits. And you start to develop what good friend and sailing mentor, John Plante, called "flange foot," a terribly debilitating illness that can only be cure by walking the deck of a boat - preferably in the Caribbean!

It is also a time when you start spending Marine Units (MUs) like they were Monopoly money. If you are wise, however, you only spend them in your mind and not in reality . . .any that's where a lot of sailors find their minds at this time of the year, not in reality!

A new set of closed cell foam cockpit cushions to replace the old vinyl covered foam ones that came with the boat 31 years ago and retain water like a sponge - $1,200 + or -! 2.1MU!

Reupholster the interior cockpit cushions - $1,800 or so 3.2MU!

Charts from Bock Island Sound to the Canadian Border - $125 (cheap!)

Bottom Paint - $250 ( relatively cheap!)

New spinnaker Halyard - $160 with thimble and snap shackle

New Secondary Jib Halyard - $160 with thimble and snap shackle ( both halyards would be cheaper if I did the work myself, but I hate working with double braided line, but triple twist line stretches too much. It's a cost-benefit-ratio thing!)

Replace the four(4) deck hatches - $3,000 give or take - 6MU!

New Wind Speed/Direction Indicator System - $750 for the Unit PLUS $450 to drop the mast so the wring can be installed and putting the mast back PLUS $65 - $85 per hour for the installation - figure 5 hours minimum $325 - $425 = $1,525 - $1,625 or about 3 MU.

Two 85 watt Solar panels and installation kit - $1,500 or 3MU

Well, you get the idea. Nothing worse that a computer, a catalogue, a credit card and an itch at this time of the year! O course, I am lucky, well sort of, as I am going to have to come up with $1,600 again to pay the deductible sometime soon. And if Tow Boat/US and my insurance company can't come to an agreement as to whether it was a tow or a soft salvage or a hard salvage, I'll be on the hook for some or all of the $5,529 Tow Boat/US is looking for. That can put a real damper on any and all spending beyond the necessities. But then as the great American Sailor-Philosopher - Singer Jimmy Buffett notes, "Need is a relative thing these days, it borders on desire...."

MASTER'S PERSONAL LOG:

I am back into the books again, trying to comprehend the mysteries and magic of electricity. No matter which text I read and try to understand, no matter how the various authors try to explain it, it only seems to get more and more confusing. It doesn't help that ABISHAG is British built. After driving the MGB for all those years and dealing with the electrical system from Lucas Electric in it, I have already experienced that truth that the electrical system on ABISHAG is even more mysterious than on your average boat. After all, British car owners still refer to Lucas with expletives and curses, the mildest of which is to refer to the CEO as JOHN LUCAS - PRINCE OF DARKNESS in reference to cars with Lucas Electrical systems in them which have a tendency to just stop working at the most inopportune times. Hopefully, I will learn the proper incantations and spells by Spring.