April 15-16, 2023 - Saturday and Sunday

The local motorcycle rally got into full swing on Saturday.  Music, races, etc.  They all seemed to be having a good time and the music did not play past 11 p.m., so that was nice.  I'm pretty sure I heard a gun shot early Sunday morning, but nothing seems to have come of it.

I dug out the main sheet today, got it sorted out and connected to the boom.  It is a little less complicated than the traveler, so it went quickly.

The boat has been pretty hot in the afternoons.  Being out of the water, the hull can heat up more, plus I don't have my tarp up to shade the deck.  I usually take an afternoon siesta with the fan on or go over to  the marina where they have A/C in the lobby.

I worked on the knot meter today as well.  It is a little paddle wheel that fits through a tube in the hull.  As the water goes by, the wheel spins and activates a sensor.  They can be sensitive to small bits of debris or marine growth, so I cleaned it up well and put it back into the tube.  If you don't get it set in correctly it can leak, so I am keeping my fingers crossed.

I finished the weekend working on the windvane.  This is a mechanical device that steers the boat relative to the angle of the wind.  It is a pretty amazing tool to have aboard.  To use it you get your sails set then turn the windvane blade so it faces directly into the wind and engage a clutch that ties the helm to the windvane control lines.  If the boat turns into or away from the direction of the wind, the vane flops over and activates a paddle in the water.  This in turn pulls on the control lines to correct the boat direction back to where it was set.  It makes no noise and requires no power.  It really is like having an extra person onboard.  You are freed up from constantly steering and can do other things like eat, read, take pictures or work on the boat.

This is the windvane.  It shows the structure and the paddle.  The windvane blade is not shown.

Living on the boat when out of the water is a bit of a pain.  I have to climb up a ladder about 10 feet to get onboard.  I can't use the head because there is no water for flushing.  I keep a pee bottle onboard to reduce the number of times I have to climb up and down.  This works well, but I am a little shy about carrying it to the restroom, so I usually put it in my backpack or a bag to carry it over.  Unfortunately, today I did not get the lid on tight, so had the unpleasant task of cleaning pee out of my pack....  I'll go back to using a shopping bag!  

The facilities also leave much to be desired.  All of the toilets are broken.  Half of the sinks are broken and the showers are pretty nasty.  I usually hike back to the marina to use their facilities.  It's pretty sad.  Many of the things that are broken were broken last year and have never been fixed.  It is worse this year with the exception that the floor is not covered with half an inch of water.  

I picked up my second bag of ice Saturday.  I think it will get me through until I splash on Monday.  I have become spoiled having refrigeration in the galley!