Sailing, Sailing, Over the Bounding Main! ! ! !

SHIP'S LOG:

Who knew that it was going to be such a beautiful day? The morning was pouring rain and all I planned to do was haul the various tech manuals for the boat systems down to the boat and spend the day hunting for the infamous "fuse' to the inverter. However, when I got down to ABISHAG, the sun was out and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. A perfect day for sailing . . .a least a short trip as I still need to do a few things, but as a friend of mine once said " a little something is better than a whole lot of nothing." It was one of those put the helm over and head for Bermuda days!

On to the more mundane! To begin the search for the fuse, I had to empty out the "In-Law Apartment" . . . . . the locker in the cockpit that is big enough to crawl into, which houses the battery banks and the Inverter.Out came the sails and the life jackets and the extra lines etc,etc, etc . . . . .I am going to have to get neater in-laws. Opening the housing for the battery banks, I found the cables that ran from the Inverter to the batter terminals. No fuse evident. You know it couldn't be that simple and in the tradition of English electric system designed and installed by LUCAS Electric of Great Britain, know also a "Lucas, Prince of Darkness . . . anyone who has ever owned an English car will understand that reference . . . . I first ran back the "BLACK" ground cable just to see if there was a fuse on that. No joy there. Then I tried to trace the "Black not RED! ! ! ! ! " positive power cable ( a real sign of LUCAN influence) and found, well I'm not sure what exactly. It could be a fuse, a fused inline, a fused block . . .it was impossible to say because it was covered with a frosted plastic cover that I couldn't remove and didn't want to break by forcing it. My best guess is that this is the golden prize so to speak but I am going to have to wait for Don the Magic Electrician to let me know what I am dealing with. He was busy and since he helps out for free, I didn't want to push it.

I did reset the wind vane in proper working order. The drive system looks a little off centered, like it's been twist but before I fool around with it . . . .a lose a bolt or two overboard, I will see how it acts underway. I checked out the windlass ( it brings the anchor rode up and down . . . .very handy when one sails a lot by one's self) and while the switch that operates it works, the solenoid actually, the windlass doesn't. Another day of tracing wires with a meter coming up.

I mended a tear in the mainsail with Mighty Mendit, flogged on TV by the late Billy Mayes. It seems to be working just fine! Thanks Billy! I greased all the turnbuckles with PT BLaster, a penetrating oil, in preparation for tuning the rig. The amount of sail and corrosion on them makes it pretty clear that they haven't been done in a while.

The weekend will be for sailing . . .weather permitting. Please permit!!!!!!!!

MASTER'S PERSONAL LOG:

ABISHAG is becoming more homey and hopefully fairly soon will be home. the lack of real sailing days isn't even a problem . . .at least not yet . . . as just being on the boat that the mooring is glorious. The sounds, the smells, the sights . . .all of it is fantastic. It makes all the crap I had to deal with in Black Rock worth it. I am praying that God provides me, and all the local sailors, with a few more days like yesterday. What a joy! !! !