Last Supper

I worked on my Raymarine autopilot ST4000+ this morning. It was quite easy to get apart in the end. I guess it needs to be almost impenetrable to keep out the salty air.

It was the same as my Fynspray water pump in that the barrel unscrewed from the body. Anyway I took it apart and manually hooked it up to my 12 volt battery and hey presto the battery turned the little motor.

I carefully put it back together and tried it out in situ and it worked! Moved the  tiller backwards and forwards easily. Funny how sometimes when something doesn't work, you just pull it apart and put it back together again and it will work.

I slipped on my stairs this morning and even though I caught myself I decided to do something about their grip. While I was adding another layer of epoxy to the rudder, I also epoxied down these rope twirls that a previous owner created.

I did some spring cleaning and took all the smelly stuff out of the boat's middle section. So now the rule is, all epoxy, paint and engine lubricants go in the locker at the aft end of the boat. Now I do have a small collection of non-smelly household glues in the galley like T-weld and what not, that normally reside in a kitchen.

I painted this sign on the hull so that when the boat is moved, they will raise the bow. I have problems with water pooling in the boat if the bow is too low.

I helped my neighbor, Frode from Sweden to assemble his dinghy. He bought a 35' Beneteau in NY for $21K and is sailing it down to Trinidad to meet up with his girlfriend. Super nice guy and he even shouted me dinner at a fancy restaurant Thursday.

I wrapped up the windlass with plastic to protect it from the elements while the boat is in storage.

Finally when working outside in the hot sun, where I can, I use this shade material to protect myself.

This is the last blog post for a while. Tomorrow the fun is over and I head back to the big smoke to earn some dough ray me.

Avocado salad for dinner and blueberries for dessert. Makes a change from yesterday. Friday I ate just bread all day long because they were giving it away at the office and I didn't have time to run up to the store.