January 4, 2014 boat jobs

Another day of preparing the boat to set sail again.  Still battling the cold/flu.  I slept in, cleaned the galley and heads, napped, raised Dave up the mast, napped, joined Dave at the marina restaurant, went to bed early. 

Yes, I said "raised Dave up the mast".  He wanted to run another line up the mast, a gennaker halyard, and he placed a crane block at the top of the mast to hold the gennaker out away from the furler halyard.   That was for the sailor readers.  In the past, Dave used a climbing harness to tie into a line for me to raise him up the mast.  Now he has a bosun's chair with pockets for his tools.  And much more comfortable to sit in than having straps around his legs.  About half way up the mast, our electric wench tool died.  So I had to raise him with a wench handle the rest of the way. 

Dave had connected two lines with a knot and electrical tape.  This was pulled inside the mast and up to Dave.  Somewhere inside the mast, this was getting hung up.  We brought it down back to me several times to see if I could see where it was getting hung up.  Finally we removed most of the tape and Dave was able to work it through two areas where it was getting caught.  Things never go perfect the first, or the second, or the third time.

Dave changed the oil on the generator and the diesel.  He also tested the oil.  He put boxes over the back of the generator control panel that had exposed wires.  The generator is in the starboard lazerette where we store lots of things.  This will protect those wires, which have been disconnected accidentally already. 

We took the step of ordering a water maker today.  At this time, we can go about a week before we have to refill our water tanks.  With a water maker, we can change ocean water to drinkable water.  This water maker will make 30 gallons of water in about an hour with our generator or with our  diesel engine.  Dave found a system that was designed by a cruiser, CruiseRO (reverse osmosis).  He talked to him personally and he told Dave to call anytime. 

No fun pictures today.