Friday, April 22, 2016

Small Steps

SHIP'S LOG:

     Well, it has been over a week now since I have been able to get up to "visit" ABISHAG, however, I am going up today. I will be dropping a few coins on the remainder of my bill which is a little more than "1 Marine Unit." I will also take the opportunity to talk with their Metal Fabricator about what it will cost to straighten the bow pulpit. That is the most obvious part of the damage remaining. The furler and forestay are well on their way to wholeness, but the bow pulpit sort of got squashed. There is only one serious bend and the rest is just "out of true."  Stainless steel can be a pain to work with when it comes to bending and re-bending, getting it back to way it belongs, can, I imagine, only be worse.

     There is routine maintenance that the yard will be doing, mostly with the engine. I always want them to work on it so that if it blows up or something, I can blame them. Electricity is voodoo to me and internal combustion engine are a pretty close second. Navigation and sailing I can do but things mechanical and electrical are out of my league. I also have to have them re-affix the wind indicator unit at the top of the mast. It is non-functioning having it dangling by its wires looks bad. I also want them to check the antenna and install a new windex and extender. All these things got whacked during the "incident "last" June and need to be fixed one way or another.

      I have been putting as many hours into the loft as I can but there are not necessarily a lot I can put in. Basically, the accounts are empty, all of the down-payments used up to buy cloth and pay for a few of our hours. But as people come in to pick up their sails that should change and hopefully, they will start coming in.

     We have a new "diver" for the club.Mooring inspections, parts replacement and other fixes will be handled by an outside contractor. It just got too much for Mark for whom it was a part-time-sort-of-hobby. I hope there are no surprises lurking there.

      If all goes well, ABISHAG should launch before Memorial Day weekend and I pray that all goes well.