Monday, April 20, 2009

26 days to go . . .

This morning, I woke up very wary of the time going by. Today is my birthday, 69 years gone, and I wonder where some of it has disappeared.
Anyway, up to now, I was thinking that I had plenty of time to prepare Papy Jovial. Today, I have changed my mood, and I am now thinking that there is no more time to waste.
Not that nothing has happened during the past week, but for stuff that I strike off the list, new items show up. Like the saga of the broken dog on the hatch in the main cabin. I took off the left dog on the forward hatch, thinking that this might give me an idea on how to modify them to fit the other hatches, as those dogs are available on Internet. This is when I discover two small cracks in the plexigass, under the cover of the bolt going through the hatch. Obviously, I have to take care of those craks.
But there is hope. After the Bomar distributor in Florida had told me that those Nibo hatches were made 25 years ago and parts for them are no longer available, I think I found a source in Canada. I have ordered them but it may take two week before I get them and I know for sure that they fit.
Then, there was the saga of the part for the generator. There was a mix-up between Northern Lights in Massachussett and those in Florida, and I was given the roundaround about the whereabouts of the part. This morning, I am told that it is in Norfolk and should arrive today.
On the safey side, I now feel quite comfortable. Extinguishers, Halon system, flares, EPIRB, Life Raft, emergency rudder, ditch bag, have all been checked, certified or replaced and everything is working and up to date.
For the freezer, I am expecting a new Thermostat, as the technician who checked it had replaced the old one (which worked fine) with a generic one, which turned out to be a refrigerator and not a freezer thermostat, and then discarded the old one. It comes from California, so I suppose another week to wait and make sure that everything works the way it should.
Among the many things that happened, on the one hand, I got a new neighbour, a ferro-cement ketch with an old-fashion rigging and a very nice couple on her (Mick and Bee).
On the other hand, for my birthday, someone backed into my car and destroyed the rear light on the left side. I did not need this additional headache, but that's life. Shit happens and you deal wiht it.
Hopefully, this coming week will be the week where the genset is repaired, and the lazy bag with openings for the three reef lines on both sides is back. With luck, I might even get some work done on the electronics (installing the Advance Tracking transponder).
I managed to put in two rides last week. I will go for 3 or 4 this week.

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