Finally for the first time in many years I suspect, I had all of the lights on the boat working, and on at the same time. The starboard bow light was intermittent, and it was down to the contacts on the bulb, although they looked fine, they didn’t feel completely at home allowing electricity to pass through. A new bulb resolved that for now.
I was very pleased to fix the steaming light, after sleeping on it (the problem, not the light), I thought I had to investigate the end of the wire at the bottom of the mast, about a foot sticks out and sure enough the positive wire was corroded so bad it had parted. I might have hinted at the wire quality before and slagged of Ancor, the makers, or so I thought, but looking closer, this wire is standard 2 core american domestic wiring, just like UK twin and Earth 1.5mm2, but without the earth.
So with this wire patched up, I expect it will break again soon, all the lights now worked. I have the hose waiting to go on the water heater, but it’s not leaking now and can wait until I next feel in an engine work mood.
I heard the rigging shipped from Florida a few days ago so should be here by Monday, so tomorrow we leave to travel just a few hours north to Rebak marina so Kathy can enjoy the delights of a luxury resort, then on Monday if the rigging is here we will take the boat down to Telaga marina to have it fitted. This will be the last of the jobs planned for here so we’re off to Thailand, really, except we have to come back to Kuah to check out of the country. This may prove tricky as the boat has changed name, registration number, and owner so it wont be on the system as ever having checked in, they could just stamp us out on my passport, and give the boat an exit paper, or they could make life quite difficult, we shall see.
There’s nothing in Rebak for me, well the pool is nice, but I’m going to have fun playing with my new Signal K setup. I plumbed most of in tonight, and I can connect to it via wifi and see the data server (iKommunicate), but no data, I can see an LED flickering on the data server telling me it’s getting data from the AIS, so it’s just a computer thing I need to fix. Once this is going you will be able to connect to Sister Midnight from the internet and see all sorts of exciting data, like the obvious location, course, speed, depth, wind data, battery voltage, but soon I hope to add the dinner menu, latest fish caught etc. the possibilities are endless. However I read today that I have to watch out for foreign states taking over the boat and using it as part of a botnet, or is it a yachtnet/boatnet to bring down other governments. Exciting stuff!
I used to try to document stuff in word, or draw or some other computer package, but more recently I have gone for hand drawing with a pencil and paper and then taking a pic with the iPhone and storing this on the mac. I like this as I generally have the paper backup handy if the mac is in use. Also it’s the only way I practice handwriting these days.
So we had a farewell drink in the marina bar tonight, didn’t need to order the drinks, they knew our round off by heart, other than to check if I was on the diet coke or weak shandy option. Definitely time to move on.
A last sunset picture from here
Paul C.