When I got back to Zephyr yesterday afternoon, I found Gordon and Nathan hard at work on getting the stem fitting( holds the anchor rollers and genoa at the bow) attached. As a matter of fact, it was already bolted on!!!! Six weeks after it was taken off, it's back home again.
We did some changing of the setup of the roller furling system. In the past, it was connected relatively low on the bow causing the anchor to bump it as it was lowered and raised. We raised the fitting so that there is now plenty of clearance so the anchor won't bump it anymore. Instead of there being several fasteners holding it to the stem fitting, there is now a long heavy gauge stainless steel bar. The base of the roller fitting is now several feet above the deck. The other advantage to setting it up this way is that the genoa will be much higher on the deck when it is unfurled. Setting it up this high will allow us to see under it easily. Instead of it being a "deck sweeper", it will now be high enough to clear the bow pulpit(that shiny piece of steel that is at the bow of the boat so you don't fall off). A much better arrangement.
The aft stay(big wire at the back of the boat that holds the mast up) is still not installed, but Brion will be installing it next week after he gets back from his conference.
Jack, the electrician, got the "steaming light" and "deck light" connected so now we have lots of light on deck when we need it. It really lights up Zephyr nicely. I made sure to buy spare bulbs for when these burn out. Better now than not having them when you need them. Jack changed some more of the wires out and now I have several to strip out this weekend. It will make the area behind the electrical panel cleaner.
With the rigging being almost done, I'm going to try and get the jib sails "hanked" on. That's sailor talk for attaching them to the big wires that guide them as they are raised. I will be attaching new "sheets" to the sails. "Sheets" are actually rope that control the sail while the boat is sailing. One "sheet" goes to the starboard(right) side and one "sheet"goes to the port(left) side of the boat. Depending on the direction of the wind, you either pull the sail in or let it out. There are none attached so new ones are called for. We brought the "storm sail" from our boat in Colorado. It's TINY compared to what is on Zephyr but I am sure there will be times where just a bit of sail will be needed to keep up sailing in bad weather.
My beard is growing nicely since Tracy left. No reason to shave with her gone. But if you see her( you folks in Colorado) tell her I'll be shaved before she gets home next week.
Today started out cloudy and has now cleared up nicely with nice weather forecast for the next few days. YEAH!!!
It took three hours to get my navigation software installed on my MacBook yesterday(why I was late getting back to Zephyr). I'd installed the windows operating system on it and while the navigation program developed some hiccups as it was getting installed, it finally took it and runs just fine. I got the GPS up and running on it also so now I have two different computers set for helping with navigating. Add the Garmin chart plotter and the Raymarine chart plotter and there is no way we can get lost. At least not until we get back in the water.
Well, off to West Marine. I need more toys for Zephyr!!!
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