April 27, 2023 - Thursday

After my mast climb and sun exposure, I took it easier on Thursday.

I decided to get the dodger set up.  The dodger is a an enclosed structure designed to protect you in the cockpit area.  It shields you from wind, waves and spray.  You can keep snacks, drinks and other items safe on deck under the protection of the dodger.  Larger enclosures are also common that connect to the dodger and wrap all the way around the cockpit providing better protection in cold weather.

Dodger on Pierless

 My dodger consists of two large hooped bars and to smaller straight bars.  Upon assembly, I found some of the screws were partially stripped out where the hardware attaches to the deck, so I masked the area off and applied epoxy and some wood filler.  Once cured, I drilled out new pilot holes and reinstalled the hardware.  There were also two missing snaps on the deck which I fixed.  

Once those repairs were finished, I set up the stainless frame then covered it with the dodger material.  It was a tight fit, so I sprayed it down with water and this seemed to loosen it up some.  One step closer!

Shannon, my neighbor, has a cat (Blanca) and a dog (Oso) on her boat with her.  A couple of days ago her cat disappeared.  I helped her look for it but no luck.  Fortunately, Blanca came back today!  She is a small female black cat with a few spots of white.  She reminds me of my cat at home.  She and I have become acquainted and she will come greet me when I walk by her boat.  I am glad she found her way home.

I also worked with my new radar system. I got it integrated with the chart plotter a couple weeks ago, but I still have much to learn about using it.  Being in the marina is limiting, but I can follow boats as they enter or leave the area.  I have learned how to put it in intermittent mode.  This is important for use at night when the radar could run the batteries down if in continuous operation.  Intermittent mode allows the unit to go into standby for a set number of minutes, then operate for a minute or two to check the surrounding.  This should allow me to use it at night without depleting the batteries.  I also tried the proximity system where the radar will sound an alarm when an object gets within a set distance of my boat.  I can't really test it in the marina because everything is too close. At sea, this will be part of my safety/warning system to keep me from running into other boats.