Monday 22 October: Herrington Harbor North, yard day #6 – VHF and SSB antennas check, and birds poop fighting.
Frost on the windscreen this morning, 1degC outside temperature. That is below chilly! And when we get to the boat, frost on the decks, and 9degC inside temperature. Heating goes instantly on, and we seal ourselves in for breakfast.
It’s full on phone calls early morning. Best Buy’s customer service center was very helpful. And after an hour on the phone with them, we get a return label for the Dell PC, and the promise we will get the replacement within a week, on time before we leave USA. So we drive to an UPS store and drop the faulty laptop. We can only hope for the best now. Our departure date from the US will be after we receive this replacement PC.
Then we call several local companies to get quotes for the soda blasting of the hull. For our piece of mind mostly. As in this temperature, even if we decide to soda blast, the epoxy coating afterwards will not dry properly. And sure enough, the rate seems to be $35-45/ft (which we kind of suspected anyway), not the $54/ft we were quoted by Osprey. But when we inquire with the yard, we learn 3rd party soda blasting is not allowed due to environmental concerns. So that option is now officially out. We guess Osprey kind of have the upper hand in this price negotiation … given they are the only company possible to do this operation in this yard.
We walk to the docks to check the tide. We’ll need to pay attention to water level and weather forecast. Today the water is as high as when we arrived last Monday. So that would make it the frequency once a week. At this rate, maybe we can leave next Monday. Last evening we had a look at PredictWind forecast, to plan our passage to Bermuda. The wind is not good till the end of the week anyway. So looks like we have this week here in the yard.
Electronics: Steve from MTS comes to have a look at the SSB and VHF. He instantly finds a loose connection in the main VHF unit next to the chart table. And once connection tightened the signal on VHF was good. Hm, we should’ve caught that one, it was so silly to get an electronics technician for such a simple task. He also checks all the other connections related to the VHF and SSB antennas.
We agree to change the SSB antenna cable. It’s 10 years old anyway and better to start new. Putting the new cable was quick and easy, and Steve is done in no time. But then Glen is left to connect the upper end onto the backstay and adjust all the stand-offs. For the upper connection he needs a 12mm cable clamp, which we find one of in the hardware store. Not quite the right size though. Grinder comes out and the hole is increased enough to be a perfect fit on the backstay. And after a bit of fiddling, the new cable is secured in place. Looks good. And after few more minutes it looks perfect, once the backstay fittings are polished and shiny. To get to them we have a tall step ladder on the back deck. Not everyday we have one of these, so we take advantage.
The birds here are driving us nuts! Today they bombarded our deck more than any other day. Absolutely covered in purple splatters and stones. While I am inside attending to my usual tasks, I hear the stones landing on the spray top and on the the deck. And I am cursing. When Glen comes up from underneath the keel (where he did a bit more wet sanding to finish it off), he says “that’s it!” and seems determined to do something about it. Late afternoon I winch him up the mast, and he ties tie-raps at the top, where he noticed birds are landing on the head of the mast. Hopefully that will discourage the birds from landing there and save our deck and canvas from turning mottled purple. And while at it, he also removes the windex. Back down, washing the decks is in order as it was so dirty. Plus, we want to see if there are new poops tomorrow.
Polishing guys didn’t show up today. So no progress there. And Tony (Shiver Me Timber) called to say he can’t braze-connect the fridge pipes. So dead end there.
It’s the last evening we have booked in our temporary accommodation. Very nice place, but unfortunately we used it only for the bed. We head for an early-ish night, to do laundry and some admin (last orders on Amazon). And we feel we deserve a relaxed evening, so we watch a movie on the big TV screen. What a life 🙂