Rig Check

With the help of my crew, I went up the mast to clean the spreaders, and perform a final rig check. We head out to sea next week!

Anchor Chain

I decided to inspect the anchor chain, so I ran out the complete length of the chain. This chain is over 20 years old, so I wasn't completely surprised to find the corroded chain ball pictured here, lurking at the bottom of the chain locker. It's definitely past time to replace this, so today, I bought 200 feet of new chain. It only weighs about 300 pounds, so it shouldn't be a problem to get it aboard. ;)

Mainsail Furler

Today, we successfully replaced the electric motor that drives the mainsail furler. The new motor works great, and it will be so much easier to reef the mainsail now. This is the last major job that needed to be completed before we leave, so now we can focus on provisioning the boat with food for the crew!

Short List

There are just a few items left on the "must do" list before we depart. Tomorrow we will drop the mainsail, remove the boom, and pull the gooseneck out to replace the mainsail furler drive. This electric motor failed at the beginning of this season, and it's an important system to have. With the electric drive working, we can take in the mainsail or reef it from the cockpit by pushing a button. Without it, we have to send someone to the mast to wind it in manually. It's not too hard, but imagine doing it on a rough day, or worse, at night in a building breeze. So, it's worthwhile to get this working.

The next, and really final safety task, is to inspect the rig from top to bottom. I'll go to the top of the mast and take a look at each and every fitting on the mast, looking for any anomalies, like missing cotter pins, or any cracked fittings. I don't expect any issues, but it's an important practice to check everything before going offshore. I've heard many stories of disasters averted by a simple inspection. And, I've heard the other stories, of disasters at sea caused by a single failed piece of hardware. I always say that I want to be at least two failures away from disaster!

Liferaft Aboard!

Today we installed the life raft. May we never need it! The list of things to do is growing shorter, as is the time before departure. We're almost ready to head north.

Mast Climbing

Today I went up the mast to repair the steaming light, which was out. It turned out that the bulb was fine, just a little corrosion on the contacts. It's all good now!

Starting Battery

The engine starting battery has been a little anemic lately, and I have suspected that it's failing. It's reached the point that it only holds a charge for a few days, so today we replaced it. These 4D size batteries weigh about 100 pounds, so I enlisted the help of my friend Scott to heave the old one out, and bring the new one in. Thanks Scott!

When I took the old battery back to the store for the core charge, they told me that my old battery was purchased in 2005. So, this old battery went 16 years! That's the most life I've ever seen from a battery.