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Published: August 29th 2009
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Bob the mast climber
As you can see everything has to be strapped on as it wouldn't be good from this height to have anything drop (as Janice is down below taking care of the safety line for Bob) Bob / sunny, rainy and cool
07/15/2009, Sackets Harbor, New York
Janice retired on Friday, June 26, I had graduation on Saturday the 27th and after a few graduation parties on Saturday and Sunday (the duties of the principal) we got to the boat Sunday evening and started a week of vacation.
Without the transmission we were not going to go out sailing, but I have a long list of jobs that need to be done and this would give me time to focus on them. Now that I had the chart plotter in place and powered we were able to turn it on and find out that we were not in fact in Sackets Harbor, New York but were, according to the chart plotter, about 2500 nautical miles south of Ghana, West Africa. After about an hour of frustrating efforts with the manual, the wise and wonderful Janice suggested I call tech support. I called and within 15 minutes I was back at Sackets Harbor with the chart plotter that was working perfectly. My hats off to two great guys at Furuno tech support. Chris on the East Coast and Larry on the West Coast did a great job of talking me through each of the problems, were patient and very knowledgeable. Furuno, your manuals may not be the best but your tech support is well worth the price of the equipment.
Next step was to hook up the wind instruments which required a trip up the mast. With the steps this is a relatively easy task, however significantly strenuous for an old guy. We ran the new wire and installed the wind instruments and in no time things worked like a charm. After that it was time to install the heading sensor that I got from Furuno. Unfortunately it was not NEMA 2000 and was going to require me to run another cable up the arch support on the helm and there was no room. So again I talked with Furuno and got a NEMA 2000 heading sensor from Maretron (also outstanding tech support from these people) which is NEMA 2000 compatible. It was a very easy installation and excellent compatibility with all my new Furuno instruments and the chart plotter. I'm really getting the hang of this NEMA 2000 stuff and I really like it. As a result of all this my boat is pointing in the right direction on the chart plotter and I now have extremely accurate heading information.
By Wednesday the new transmission arrived, unfortunately it had the wrong bell housing and by Friday the correct housing was in place and we have a brand-new transmission and clutch plate. Of course now I'm choking on the over $4000 bill but considering the fact that the transmission was $2700 I guess I can't complain too loudly. But hey, it's done and I probably will not have to worry about it for as long as I own the boat, so once again life is good.
Then of course Saturday, July 4, the weather was rainy, windy and cold but by Sunday, our last day of vacation, it was sunny, windy and cold so we went sailing. First time this season and it was wonderful. Wind blowing 18 to 22 kts and Tsamaya handled it beautifully. With Janice at the helm we had a great sail and a great day.
Back to work on Monday which was Janice's first real day of retirement. Of course I'm off at work sweating and toiling for the betterment of education and she's home with her feet up eating bonbons and watching her favorite soap opera. She is now standing over me threatening me with bodily harm if I leave that statement in. But that's the beauty this is my blog. To be truthful I don't even think she knows any soap operas and what are bonbons anyway?
Last weekend was rainy and miserable on Saturday so we went up to Cape Vincent, New York and spent the day at their French festival. Great fun, really nice people. We started with French pastries and an all-you-can-eat pancake breakfast at the Episcopal Church. We met a very nice Canadian couple, Linda and Jim who were sailing through with a group from their yacht club in Kingston, Ontario and had stopped for the day to enjoy the festival. There were several great bands from both Canada and the United States and it was a very nice day. Spent Sunday installing the new radar which required me to go up the mast and drill out the rivets from the old radar support and install the new support for the larger radar dome. Ran the cable, connected it to the ethernet hub and viola nothing happened. Once again the manual was of no help. So I will have to call the guys at Furuno because I'm certain that after about five minutes they'll figure it out and have me all straightened out. That's the plan for this coming weekend and if the weather is good or even mediocre we are going sailing and anchoring out all weekend!
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anonymous
non-member comment
Bob, I loved your blog. You are right I can't see my sister eating bondons or watching soap operas. Hurray, for the tech support. It sure is great when you are only a phone call away. Thanks for making this blog, it really helps to keep us informed on how, and what you, and Janice are doing. So sorry, that the sailing has come to an end. Next year will be another story. Love, Sue