AH SUMMER! ! ! ! !

     We have had almost an entire week of beautiful, perfect weather, really what summer weather is supposed to be. Moderate temps, low humidity and even the rain co-operated, showing up only at night. And the sailing has been wonderful. But all good things must come to an end and end this weather will tonight.

     Actually, the weather began to turn this morning as the wind started early and kept building all day. Down at TYC, people came down and all said some variation of, "Wow, great wind. Can't waste this!", and went off for a sail . . . and most came back within an hour of leaving. It was great wind, growing to 20 knots with gusts to 25.  It doesn't sound like that much but if you don't sail a lot, that's a lot of wind. Add to it the waves it creates, choppy water when it is blowing against the tide, and even getting to your boat can be a bit of a thrill.

     I had some work to do to get ABISHAG ready for the cruise that begins next Saturday and I had to bring her into the dock. The wind and waves made it the first time in a long time that I actually needed help docking.  I had to get her propane tanks filled and the thought of transferring the tanks from ABISHAG to the launch to the dock, get them filled and then reversed the process was a bit daunting. So it was best I get on the dock for that task and the others that needed to be done. Being on the dock in a blow isn't all that pleasant. Rather than move with the wind and waves, a boat will fight against them and it is a lot less smooth. Still the dock has access to water and power and so it was a necessity. I only stayed at the dock a couple of hours before returning to the mooring, which was an interesting evolution in itself. Pulling up to the mooring pickup stick, cutting the forward thrust, running to the bow to pick up the pickup stick, hauling it in to get the pennants and put them on the cleats in now 25 knots of wind was "exciting "to say the least. I was able to do it in one shot, but like I said, "exciting."

     However, the "gremlins" have struck again. for some reason, there is a problem with the batteries. There are three batteries broken up into two "banks." The battery selection switch (OFF-1-2- BOTH) works on "1" and "BOTH" but not on "2" and this is new, something that showed itself for the first time today. In addition to that, the electric bilge pump is not working, neither in automatic mode or manual mode. That means that it is not just a matter of the float switch being screwed-up, it means there is no power getting to the pump. The bilge pump still works if I use the pump handle, so it is not an absolute emergency but not having the pump work automatically, when I am not aboard, is not a good thing. Troublesome also is that the bilge pump is wired directly to the batteries so that they will, or should, operate whether I throw the power switch or not. So I will spend tomorrow trying to figure that situation out.  It should not be a very complex problem but all things electrical are voodoo to me. So long as I get it squared away beforethe start of the cruise, all will be just fine.