Progress is slow because it's dark and wet, and my motivation levels seem to be low. We had a big blow come through the other night that was way stronger than forecast - clocked 60 knot winds in the marina. Sharon and I were up all night, and unfortunately the sun canopy copped some damage before we could get it down. Let me tell you, running around in your underwear at midnight in 40 knot winds and driving rain in the middle of winter trying to pull down what has essentially become a gigantic kite is not a great deal of fun!
Apart from some repairable damage to the canopy, we got a couple of slightly bent stanchions and a burst fender, but otherwise were fine. Not so for a lot of other boats in the marina - one yacht a few slips down from us had moored his aft lines to his cockpit winches, and they got ripped clean out of his deck.
Turning to positive news, we now have a new autopilot installed. Yay! Have not had a chance to take it out for a sea trial yet, but I'm hoping having a working autopilot is going to make short-handed (i.e. less than 4) sailing a lot easier.
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| At last, my instrument cluster is actually a cluster! |
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The size of a piece of electronics on a boat is in direct proportion to its importance. On the left is the autopilot computer. On the right is the stereo amplifier. |
And speaking of stereos, I found the main saloon speakers were clear but very weak in the bass. So I fixed that.
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| Monster sub-woofer installed in port saloon locker. |
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