Skip not skipwrecked nor aground, in St. Simons Island, GA

How very interesting that you should care to check on me. Makes me
feel very secure should I run into trouble :{))


Just checking in, for those of you who expected us to be in the Keys
by now...


One of my Angels, whom I'm assisting with various of his boat chores,
in St. Simons Island, GA, just bought the SPOT based on having seen
my
travels, land and sea. He did it solely to allow his wife to allow
her to see where he was. He's a NetJets pilot, and flies all over
the
world at the drop of a (very well endowed; the ownership is in the
many millions and the operating costs in the hundreds of thousands,
sometimes, per trip for the celebs and ultra-rich he flies) hat, not
knowing where he'll be during his one-week-on (other week off) shift.
The other Angel, whose assistance I provided early on, and who also
is
buying one for similar reasons, is also a pilot. I'm enjoying his
slip during my stay here.


Weather a couple of weeks ago (the one which blistered the NE with
gale winds; here it was about like Hanna without so much rain) busted
our trip south in time to pick up Lydia's mother who's been staying
in
N.GA with her granddaughter and great-grandson. She fell and broke
her wrist in 4 places just after I went up to fetch her, so I
returned
to the boat, taking advantage of the time to do some more boat chores
while we wait for the first cast to come off; then we'll shove off
for
MIA and the Keys, thence to the southern Bahamas for the winter.
Barring weather difficulties, we'll do SSI-MIA direct, staying as far
offshore as to allow a rhumbline trip, but avoiding the Gulf Stream,
our former benefactor on our trip north. I'll do my usual sailmail
updates from offshore during that trip.


I'm just finishing up a very tedious (including a bad connection
found
on testing and much troubleshooting - and including a blown fuse
inside the computer itself, requiring un-installation and disassembly
of the unit during the troubleshooting), cramped (what's not cramped
when you're working on a boat??) and contorting (it's behind a
challenging panel and under a salon seat) rewire of my computer
related transition from inverter-powered to ship's power. 20 cables,
10 individual switches, 60 individual connections and terminations,
most of which are done upside down and overhead, later, it all (4
dual
voltage HDs, the separate filtered 5V power supply [the filtered 12V
comes from the computer], the powered hub, wifi router [if you ever
look for a signal and see the SSID Flying Pig, you'll know we're
nearby - I leave it open for the other cruisers, many of whom we meet
as a result] , wifi adapter at the top of the mast over 12V POE,
Vonage VoIP router [it's a computer router and wireless phone tx
combined] base and handset chargers) works. I'm in the last stages
of
dressing it all, thence to reinstall the computer, which is also
built
in. The end result shows nothing to the eye other than the switch
panel, the computer face, the printer and the flatscreen, mounted on
the nav bulkhead. No wires, an obsession with Lydia. The only things
remaining inverter-AC will be the printer and the flatscreen. In the
meantime, I'm enjoying NPR's classical music over the sound system,
both in the salon and in the cockpit (I leave the aft cabin speakers
off as I only sleep there).


The other computer-related chore is to retrieve the necessary files
to
start over from a HD crash. While we don't know the cause, the HD in
the computer first failed to start multiple times, then, so briefly
that I didn't have time - !@#$%^&* - to back up the files from the
time between the last time we went north and now, it restarted, only
to fail entirely. An examination of the drive shows it full, no
space
available. I'll take the time at a later point to attempt to
extract,
with various geek tools, those lost files, but before we leave I'll
restore the basic programs I've got on our backup. Among them will
be
our sailmail offshore email program, and the couple of navigation
programs we use, along with the thousands of electronic charts both
on
disks from vendors and the massive downloads from NOAA, available
free
over the internet.


Other chores include sorting through, and segmenting into trip areas,
the cubic yard of paper charts we have aboard. That's only sort of
been done in the past, and as I'm obsessive about having the paper
charts for the areas we're going to at hand (despite the chart
plotter
and two computer nav programs mostly used under way), and Lydia's
obssessive about neatness, the ability to easily extract the
appropriate charts, without upending the entire salon (they're stored
under the salon seating) will be achieved. When I fetch Lydia and
her
mother (watch the SPOT as I make excellent way up the highway :{)) in
a couple of days, in the borrowed car from the NetJets pilot), I'll
go
up the mast and change out the current 48V, AC powered, POE for the
bridge up there, change the angle on the hailer (another recent
installation chore) horn to further forward, and install a new
halyard/
sheet for the spinnaker pole slider (pull one side of it to lower,
the
other to raise it). Before then I'll (also) install a new phone jack
for the Angel who's slip I'm enjoying, take advantage of the shore
power to defrost the freezer with the assist of the heat gun, relash
a
dinghy hoist turning block to the arch, redo the exhaust pipe
modification under the platform which got whacked on the dock during
that aforementioned blow, fabricate a dinghy all-around solar light,
scrub the impellers for our various speed sensors, restow the hookah
rig and other dive gear (and all the stuff which came out of the
lazarette in order to get to it), and generally get the boat
shipshape.


We both look forward to getting back on the water; shore life isn't
for either of us. While her mother (from England, but following the
election as closely or more so than any US resident) has thoroughly
enjoyed the TV, it's anathema to both of us. She'll enjoy escaping
the always-on (her daughter and son-in-law use it as a baby-
captivator
- ALL DAY LONG - YUCK! - while Lydia's mom watches CNN in the
bedroom)
TV and getting back to our gently-rocking home, and I'll be very
happy
to finish the boat chores! :{)) And, not to ignore the other member
of our crew, Portia, while she's enjoyed catching some mice and is
more tolerant of the 3 dogs there after her couple of weeks of
enforced shore leave, is ready to go offshore again, too.


For those so obsessed, watch for the SPOT to head up the road again
in
a day or two, and then back down :{))


L8R


Skip, Lydia and Portia, the seagoing cat


Morgan 461 #2
SV Flying Pig KI4MPC
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it come true. You may have to work for it however."
(and)
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hands. You seek problems because you need their gifts."
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