Day 292 Up goes the antenna.

Our new TV antenna showed up yesterday and made its way up into the rigging this afternoon.   I'd sent several emails to Shakespeare who makes the antenna to see if I could drill a hole in the center of the antenna to run an eye bolt through it so I could easily run her up into the rigging.  After a few emails, they finally said it was safe to drill through it. 

Care to guess what happened next?  Yeah, that's right.  There is a piece of metal that goes right across the center of the antenna.  I drilled the hole and ran smack into it.  Luckily, I stopped before any damage occurred to the antenna.  I put a nice 1/4" hole right through the top.  Out came the silicone sealant and voila, hole sealed.  

Since the bolt idea was out, I used a vegetable net that is normally used to hold veggies inside boats.  It snugged right in and with the antenna cable attached, up it went.  With a line attached to the bottom, I should remain nice and stable.

I set up the TV to find channels--analog and digital HD.  Boy, it sure gets a nice picture on our TV.  Now at least while we are out at anchor, we will be able to watch any TV we can find.  Our Direct TV dish is great if you are tied up to a dock where the boat will stay in one place and not swing around.

Our microwave has started acting up.  Some of the buttons work when you touch them and some don't.  It's getting harder to start it up when we need it.  The hunt has started for a replacement.  We'll see what we can find.  Given the size of Zephyrs galley, a big one is out the running.  If we get lucky, we'll find one that is small in size but big in power.  

Our friends, Randy and Sharon on S/V Blue Heron started their voyage this morning.  They are off to Alaska.  With any luck, we'll be about a month behind them.  

I called Sea Marine up in Port Townsend about cutting and installing the new lid for our refrigerator box.  They don't think there will be any problem.  They told that it would be a lot cheaper if I found the prefabricated lid and had it shipped in.  This way, all they have to do is cut the opening in the box and epoxy the new lid in.  Tracy and I will install the new refrigerator system once Sea Marine gets their part of the project done.  Once that is done, we will finally be off for the North.

We found fleas on Snowshoe late last night.  If one has them, they all have them.  Now these fur people don't associate with other fur people so heaven only knows where they got mixed up with this seedy crowd.  We went to the pet store this morning and bought some flea killer.  It's a mixture of oil and peppermint that gets put behind the kitties head.  Tracy picked several off Snowshoe this afternoon.  The boys were not thrilled with the treatment.  Shadow drooled like there was no tomorrow.  It stopped after a few hours and now they are back to normal.  They get another treatment in a few days.  Now we have to start debugging everything on Zephyr.  It's going to take a while but it has to be done.