Day 78 More installations

The wire for the wind/autopilot came in today and I spent some of the afternoon running wire from the wind instrument gauge down into the bilge and over to the autopilots interface panel.  Not a tough job, just removing lots of drawers, opening cabinets and removing floor boards.  Over, under, around and thru was the motto of the afternoon.  All went well.  The 25 feet of wire worked out just fine.  Even had a bit left over.  All the connections were straight forward--strip the ends of the six wires, loosen a screw and insert behind the screw--really tough. ;-)  After all the wires were secured with those popular strap ties--easy to put on but a problem if you ever want to get them off unless you use a pair of wire cutters.  I fired up the autopilot and with some button pushing, I had a screen on the autopilot that showed my wind gauge.  Not correct--wrong direction and no speed indicator but at least it was on the screen.  It's a start.  

Since dinner was ready--curried chicken on rice---I thought I had died and gone to heaven!!!  I stopped what I was doing and got down to dinner---YUM!!!  As a special treat, we even went out for ice cream.  Came back and visited with several other sailors that had just returned to the marina after being gone for the past few days.  Also talked to a new sailor that arrived a few days ago with a clas

sic 1980 38 foot Hans Christian sailboat.  A true deep water boat.  At 38 feet, it weighs more than ours does at 46 feet.  He's in the process of restoring it.  Bought it in Maryland and had it trucked across the US.  Unfortunately, it got involved in an accident and now the mast and all it rigging will need extensive repairs or replacement.  He's got a big job ahead of him but it sure is a pretty boat.

The Canadian boat that came in yesterday afternoon left at 8am.  They plan of motoring the rest of the way up the coast.  It's a 54 foot Hunter that goes by a model of HC50.  A high performance sailboat that is loaded with electronics and big boy toys.  It even has three water tight doors so you can't sink her.  Our boat weighs in at 38,000 pounds and is 46 feet long.  His at 54 feet weighs in at 20,000 pounds.  It's a lightweight fast boat.  Only carries a 45 horse power engine.  We have an 80!!  They are racers--in a hurry.  We are cruisers--in no hurry.  

The winds continue though not as nasty but Anchorage, Alaska was warmer than Newport yesterday.  Right now, we are shooting for Monday even if we have to motor.  The forecast is for much more stabile seas and better winds but it is only a forecast--not a promise.  We'll make the decision as we get closer.

I visited with the Coast Guard yesterday while running some errands and found that we were short some flares for Zephyr.  When you are sailing off shore--50 miles and farther out, you must carry bigger flares and more of them.  I bought more today while picking up the wire we needed.  So now we have a 6 person life raft, VHF radio, EPIRB beacon that send out an emergency signal if some thing happens, emergency rations and lot of big bad flares and floating canisters that make lots of smoke and even some rockets.   Should anything happen, we are prepared.

Tomorrow, get the autopilot up and running in "wind mode" and the CD for the VHF radios will be in so I can get them reprogramed for "land channels".  We plan on using them to communicate with each other as we dock and leave port so we aren't quite so entertaining to the people on the docks.  I started the day trying to clean up and organize my work bench.  With luck, I'll get it finished.