On November 1, we took on fuel, moved our boat to a different T head, then began work on several things around the boat that would make us more comfortable taking it into the ocean. We placed a cover on the vent on our port side, so that in the event of rough weather, we wouldn't take salt spray in the vents, and ultimately inside the boat somewhere. We also, finally, put screws into our bow lights to secure them so that they wouldn't come loose and be flopping, in the event of foul weather. Finally, we pulled our sea anchor out of the lazzerette in preparation of running it. At lunch time, we took a break and went to get a tour of Sara. Sara is a beautiful well planned out Tianna 37. She has beautiful interior woodwork and excellent craftsmanship overall. She was a wonderful boat to tour! During the afternoon, since we had the lazzerette clear, we decided to try to correct a problem that our SSB causes to our rudder feedback control. We wrapped insulation tape around the wire coming out of the tuner to the point where it exits the lazzerette. We then grounded the insulation tape and tested the SSB. The problem appeared to be resolved. That evening I spoke with an engineer who informed me that we had the right concept; however, we had insulated the wrong thing. In essence, we had shortened our antenna!
On November 2, Anderson Boatworks came out to start the work we had wanted them to do previously. We continued on our list of work, including putting on most of our Offshore windows and removing the insulation tape from around our antenna wire. That evening, Sharman and Cliff came over for dinner and we had a wonderful time!
It was my first day (11/3/1999) as Net Control for the Cruisehiemers net (8152 at 8:30 EST/EDT, I am net controller on Wednesdays). The propagation was lousy for me, and I almost considered switching the frequency as 8158 was almost perfectly clear for me. This is the alternate frequency, that the controller may use if 8152 is unclear. However, after considering that in the previous 2 months participating on the net, We had never heard the net switched, and that it was my first day, I decided not to switch. Later, I found that I could have, of course, and it would have been perfectly acceptable for me to do so. Oh well, live and learn. The net went well and I received many compliments for it! After that bit of excitement, we continued working on the boat getting her ready for our offshore adventures.
On November 4, we didn't do a whole lot. We decided to have a get together that evening and focused on cleaning the boat rather than working on it. This still accomplished an offshore goal of stowing things away. We had a great evening with Tom and Becky from the Honga, a Katy Krogen trawler, Sharman off of Sara, Yon off of Belong Datang (also on the hard) and Bob and Sherri off of Shamal. They decided to anchor in Jackson Creek since we were there. Actually it was a shorter exit for them the next day on their trip south.
November 5th, since all the work was done by Anderson, we then put everything away that had been pulled out to give them access. At noon, Sharman and Yon came over for lunch since we were leaving the next day. (Sharman, had tried to convince us to come over to Sara, but when on the hard, up on blocks you don't have access to all of the power & water, etc. That you do in the water we insisted they come over to Nightwinds.) I cooked burgers and Sharman picked up some really good Potato Salad, Lettuce and Tomatoes to go along with lunch. After a wonderful afternoon of food, fun and friendship, we set to work again.
We pulled out of Deltaville on November 6 at 1130 GMT and headed for Willoughby Bay. On the trip down one of the sheets on the Jib came unattached so after dropping the hook Mike volunteered to go up the Jib and reattach it. The trip up was not very high about 10-15 feet, but up an angle instead of straight up like the mast. So Mike was attached to the jib and the mast to go up. All and all it was not a bad tripup he said, and it would make a great lookout spot for searching out coral heads, but I think we will look for an easier way to do this, because it's a lot of effort and after all that's what the Sonar is for.
On November 7, we spent a quiet day going over our list and making sure we had accomplished everything we needed to. By midday, we felt pretty confident that with one more day we would be fully ready. This wasn't a problem, the only thing we had planned for Monday was a service call for our Northern Lights and then a return to Willoughby Bay to wait our weather window.
Voyages