SHIP'S LOG:
It's a new day. We have a New President, the sun is shinning and I am one day closer to launching (100 days even!)! ! ! ! !Now if the temperature will just climb a few more degrees and stay there for awhile, all will be well with the world, or at last my little corner of it.
I am actually going to have to start judiciously buying a few items next month for the spring work. Nothing major of course as I can't do major but a few maintenance items nonetheless. The actual work will be more sweat equity type work. I have developed a new project . . . as if I needed anymore to do. Access is always of major importance on a boat, not just for maintenance but also for safety, ie. being able to access the seacock attached to that badly leaking hose for instance. But maintenance is also a key and to that end I want to get all of the wiring out of the bilge, from behind the headliner and as much as possible, run it through cable raceways along the sides of the boat where the headliner(ceiling) meets the bulkhead (wall). Done the right way it will mean ease of access and the ability to add or subtract circuits as needed. Some small portion may still have to go behind the head line as as when a light is located away from the bulkhead and that will be fine, but having 90-95% of the wire instantly accessible, support and high and dry will certainly be an improvement, and a safe one at that.
I spent yesterday going over all the manuals for all of the equipment that is on ABISHAG - Windless, refrigeration, etc. It will all receive the proper maintenance and be up and running by launching or it will be gone. It is sort ridiculous to have stuff on the boat not working and taking up space. I also went over the wiring diagram from the owner's manual. Tougher to understand that someone explaining differential calculus in Chinese. To make matters worse, the diagram is spread over two(2) different pages and is very, very tiny making it almost impossible to read and/or follow. Add to that the factors that a.) it is 31 years old; b.) the boat has had two previous owners who added and removed equipment; c.) that neither was an electrician and so the wiring they added is really follows no logical plan; d.) that rather than pulling out old wire before installing new (no I didn't get it all out last year); e.) that few wires are labeled or even the correct colors ( different colors for connections to different items) - well I could go on but you get the picture - I could probably do as well with a wire diagram from another boat entirely.
O, by the way, I bought (virtually) another boat yesterday. It is a 50' Scarelli Schooner made in Italy. It was for sale for a mere $109,000, and a mere $99,000, and a mere$95,000. The same boat was websites for those three different prices. "From the pictures" it looks a beautiful boat and it is down in Miami. However because the owner is obviously hot to sell it, putting it up for sale at three different prices, and it is a Florida boat ( probably not a lot of sailing or maintenance), and since I don't have even the $95,000, I had to let it go. It was really nice, very well appointed and equipped, and, if I had turned Debbie Soudan loose on the broker, she would have gotten the price down to $80,000 if not less. It was just one of those summer flings in the middle of winter. Once I can start working on ABISHAG, everything will be just fine.
MASTER'S PERSONAL LOG:
Boy, it sure seems that I have been doing not much other than "waiting patiently" for the last two years. I am getting pretty good at it but it is a drag. I want to go sailing. I way to go cruising, I want to go somewhere I have never been before. I haven't been down to the boat as I don't want to see ABISHG snow covered reminding me that this is winter and not just a bad dream or an illusion. Still, i can do no more than wait patiently, preparing for the coming spring work season in anticipation of going sailing and cruising and going to somewhere I have never been before.