Wednesday 11 Nov HHN, boat winterizing day 42:
As forecast, the warm front comes through in the morning with very heavy rain all day. When it does rain here, it really rains! The result is that I don’t get off the boat all day. At last, I can start my inside jobs list which has been mounting up.

First priority is to put back together the Sailor 250 FleetBroadband satellite system. In contrast to previous day’s rugged work, this is fine and intricate, using my new magnifying glass. I know I have chunky hands and fingers, but when magnified I muse that they could belong to a horror movie! How I manage to use them for such fine screws is beyond me. Years of practice, I guess.
First, I replace the handset lead that I just received from AST in UK (excellent service and delivery – just 5 days from order). I’m actually amused that it comes with clear pictured instructions on how to replace it. Which of course I ignore. I have an infamous moto: “If all else fails, read the instructions”. Actually, with age, I’m finally getting wise to this moto and I do actually read instructions more regularly now. But you do learn a lot more when you have to work things out by yourself (even with its pitfalls). It’s a bit like using satnav to go somewhere new. It’s easy, but you don’t learn how to get there without the satnav.
Once the new lead is installed (with a glace or two at instructions), and still with its original plastic protective layer on the screen, the handset looks like new.

Next, is reinstalling all the PCBs (printed circuit boards) back into the newly painted antenna base. This is the part where my fingers amuse me. But I fit all the pieces and connectors back in easily with no screws or parts remaining (always a good sign). And while doing so, I remember not to touch my (chubby) fingers on any of the components of the PCBs. Delicate electronics hate either static charges or dampness.
Once back together I marvel at the engineering in the antenna and how all the components still look like new, even after 12 years on that radar pole getting all manner of weather thrown at it. It really does make the other yacht systems look low cost and low technology. No wonder these professional sat-systems cost an arm and a leg to buy.
And once I arrange the complete system for a photo shoot, a little voice inside me says: “You should keep it”. If only, if only, airtime was more reasonably priced ☹, I’d love to keep it. But alas, we are never going to pay $400/month for just 40Meg of data (minimum package possible). If you want a package that relates to even the smallest mobile phone data package, it’s thousands of dollars a month (example: 1Gb/mth = $2,000). Our Iridium-Go will do us just fine.
Lastly, I decide that I’d better test it actually powers up OK. So I set it up with our grab-bag emergency 12v battery (a motorcycle battery) and halleluiah, it fires up and self-tests OK. I realise this is the first time I’ve actually turn the system on. I look at the calls made and received, menu. Only 3 calls made in its lifetime, all during the time when the newly born Cloudy Bay was sailed from the factory in Sweden to Canary Islands, in August 2008. Just 3 calls in 12 years. Wow, that must be a record. I can legitimately advertise it as “lightly used”.

This takes me to mid-afternoon. Next, is electrical wiring work in the engine room. I will use a small bilge pump to flush antifreeze through the many systems in the engine room (generator, engine, aircon, watermaker). This is the same mini-bilge pump that I use for the annual anti-calc flush of the raw water systems. But up till now I have just wired it in by a rather micky-mouse method. Before I use it this time, I want to install a 12vdc outlet to plug it into. I also want to extend the wires on the pump and add a 12vdc male plug on the end. This all takes me till mid evening. Sometimes I find soldering a real pain. But I watched several You Tubes on the subject over summer and picked up quite a few tips. This time, end-to-end joining of wires (solder and heat-shrink) was a real pleasure. It’s so nice when things go right and you can go to bed with jobs fully accomplished with no loose ends.

Tomorrow, I start the multiple antifreeze flushes.