Day 150 Some day our boat will float.

Jack, the electrician, hooked up the wires for the mast head light.  That's the LED light we had installed on the top of the mast.  High tech and not cheap.  You never have to go up there to change the bulbs.  Guaranteed for 5,000+ hours.  Hey--guess what??? It doesn't work properly!!!  Jack hooked up the wires and the "anchor light"(white all around light) and the Navigation lights(red to port, green to starboard, and white at the stern) worked just fine but the "Strobe" light function doesn't work at all.  Eric--the electrician that installed it, checked to make sure it worked in the Anchor and Navigation but didn't check the Strobe feature.  Jack--the electrician, figures it is a defective light and has ordered a new one.  It should be here on Monday or Tuesday.  Then Jack has to go up the mast and replace it.  This could have all been avoided if Eric had simply checked all the features of the light.  It even has a photo cell that turns on the light automatically when the Sun goes down.  It did look cool seeing it burning at the top of the mast last night.  Joan has got to be laughing her head off.

The photo shows the new winch that was installed on the mast.  Above it is the boom with steel toggles coming out the bottom. They look like white pieces of metal just to the right of the blue rope.  Now when we need to reef the main sail(make it smaller), we can take one of the lines that makes the main smaller and wrap it around the new winch and pull it in.  It's a lot tougher doing it by hand.  We had originally had the reefing line lead to the cockpit but now it is attached to the mast.  This way, I can release the Main halyard--raises the main sail-- let the sail come down some, then winch in the reefing line and fasten it with the toggles and then raise the main back up as much as I can.   A lot faster and easier.

Here is a picture of the rudder post with the stuffing removed.  As I said yesterday, they had installed much to much stuffing material and the wrong size to boot.  Now it is all repacked and will just need to be observed after we get back in the water to make sure it doesn't leak.  It took a few hours to get to it and get the old out but now it's all set to go.

The riggers installed another cleat on the mast yesterday afternoon so now we have four cleats to hold the new lines Brion installed.  I sure hope there is room on the mast for the metal steps I will be installing so we can get to the top of the mainsail after it is lowered so we can strap it down.  Not sure.

I've started installing navigation software on the MacBook as a back up in case the Acer computer should fail.  I've already gotten the GPS unit set up and a set of local charts that it will work with.  This afternoon, I'm going to try and install the Nobeltec VNS software and see how that goes.  It's a bit of a bear to install even on a regular PC let alone a Mac running alternate software that make it run like a PC.  It should make for a fun afternoon.

I've made reservations at the local vet for the kids to get their shots next week(one a day).  They all have to be set up with the rabies stuff so we can get into Canada.  While they won't be going ashore, it is required.  We're not sure how Shadow will do as he is now 16 and a bit frail.  He's not been vaccinated in a long time.  Since he doesn't go outside at all, it just didn't seem necessary. 

It's supposed to be nice this afternoon.  Cloudy now so how knows.  They say the weekend will be nice.  I'll believe it when I see it.

Have a great weekend everyone.