Beautiful Day but didn't get much work done

Newport enjoyed one of its very very rare nice warm days yesterday.
We weren't here to enjoy it much though because we had to drive over
to the valley (where it was quite hot indeed) to sign the papers
officially turning our house over to Cody. That was pretty cool
except that Cody has the standard "What have I done?" feeling that
happens to most people when they make their first big expensive deal.
She'll be fine.

We did have a nice encounter with a sailor named Charlie on Sunday.
He'd been driving by the yard and noticed that our mast was in the
down position. This piqued his curiosity and he had to stop and check
it out. While shooting the breeze, he noticed our staysail boom
laying on the ground next to the boat. We removed the boom because we
don't like how much of the foredeck it takes up. We're rigging a
loose-footed staysail instead. Charlie, on the other hand, has a
loose-footed staysail on his Alajuela 38 and wants to switch to a self-
tending boomed sail. He was planning to build a boom but wasn't sure
what size to make it. I told him that, if he thought he could use it,
he was welcome to have our boom as I have no other use for it and
wasn't sure how I was going to get rid of it. He was quite happy and
later delivered some Pacfico in appreciation.

Yesterday we left for the valley a little early so we could stop by
and see Charlie's boat. H'e completely gutted it and is doing a very
nice job building it back to his personal preferences. As we're
looking around, you could see a light suddenly go on in his head. He
pointed to the staysail tracks on his cabin top and asked "Can you
guys use these?" Well, you bet we can as we'd have to buy tracks
otherwise. He said he wasn't sure when he'd get them removed but we
can have them when he does. When we got home from Silverton, there
were the tracks sitting next to the ladder at our boat. Sweet. We
both saved some bucks on this transaction. Guess I'll be dropping
some cerveza off at Charlie's boat sometime today.

Today looks like another beautiful day. Lulu has one more round of
Cetol (a varnish-like finish) to put on the caprail and rubrbrail.
Those of you who saw Siempre Sabado with her sad, grey-to-black
woodwork will not believe how pretty she is now. I'm going to install
the windvane today. We ran into a snag with the roller furlers and
won't be able to install them until the end of the week when the new
forestay and inner forestay arrive.

So let's see, what's left?

-Install new aletrnator on engine (it should have come in yesterday
while we were gone)
-paint the bulwarks
-sand and paint the bottom
-install both furlers

Then I think we're ready to go back in the water.

By the way, Siempre Sabado's staysail boom fits Charlie's Alajuela
like it was built for it.

Lowering the mast

Today was a really good day.  Siempre Sabado, like all (or at least most) of the Westsail boats, has a deck-stepped, tabernacled mast.  This means that the mast doesn't go through the roof of the cabin all the way to the keel and the base of the mast is hinged so it can be lowered.  We thought it'd be kind of cool to lower the mast so we'd know what that procedure is all about.  And, with the mast down it seemed like it would be much easier to install mast steps (for climbing the mast), check out the instruments on the top of the mast (wind speed indicator, primarily), check all the lights and change some of the fixtures if need be, and inspect all the rigging.  Sounds like a no-brainer, huh?  Well, the other side of the coin is that the mast is very heavy and therefore, lowering it can be pretty scary.  Bud Taplin, former general manager of Westsail and general guru of all things Westsail, has a video on DVD of the mast-lowering procedure.  They filmed the job at a Westsail rendezvous at Lake Mead, NV, a few years ago.  So, armed with the knowledge imparted by the video, I screwed up my courage and decided to give it a try.  It's a cool procedure because you get to do lots of very sailor-ish stuff with rigging and blocks and line and such.

Well, I'm happy to say, the mast lowering went off without a hitch.  It was a nice slow, controlled procedure that was never really very scary.  And, we're no longer mast-lowering virgins.

With the mast down, it was really easy to attach the mast steps up to the spreaders (the cross-piece about halfway up the mast).  I could do that from the deck of the boat or out on the bowsprit.  However, the rest of the steps had to be installed from off the boat and that mast was WAY up in the air.

Although it was Saturday and the yard was closed, Steve, the owner came out in the afternoon to haul a power boat.  While talking to him I said that I wished I was 12' tall so I could reach the mast from the scaffold that you can see in the photo.  He said that he thought he might be able to help.  Next thin you know, he's towing this insanely tall scaffold deal over to our boat.  It can be moved by hand but it takes a bit of muscle and finesse.

However, this rig worked great for allowing me to get up close and personal with the upper end of the mast.  Even though we spent a good 4 hours visiting with our friends Dave & Suzanne who dropped by from Scapoose,  I was still able to install all the steps and even do some initial inspection of the rigging and lights

Tomorrow I'll finish inspecting the rigging and try to fix the wind speed indicator, which turns like crazy but doesn't seem to send a signal to the meter in the boat.  We also may be able to take advantage of having the mast down to install the components of our headsail roller-furlers.

Another day in the yard

Got a couple of things accomplished today. Lulu went to town to do
laundry and I stayed behind and sweated and fussed and stressed myself
out. What was the cause of all this stress? I was ready to do the
final step in the refrigeration installation. The refrigerator I'm
installing is keel-cooled, meaning that, instead of venting the warm
air removed from the fridge to the outside air, we'll be venting it to
the outside water. Why? Because water is a WAY better heat conductor
than air, the water will probably always be cooler than the air and
when we're in the tropics the last thing we'll need is warm air being
released inside the boat. The keel-cooled Frigoboat reefers are also
reputed to be the most efficient units out there, thus easier on the
batteries. So, why the stress? Because the keel cooler is mounted
on the outside of the boat but is connected to the refrigerator on the
inside. That means that I need to put another hole in the bottom of
the boat. And not just any hole. A one-and-nine-sixteenths-inch
hole! Way down under the water! AND, it needs to be someplace where
it will sit flat against the hull AND be within 5' of the
refrigerator. And that's not 5' as the crow flies but rather 5' as
the twin copper tubes bend.

I was originally going to use the thru-hull that we abandoned when we
removed the conventional toilet and replaced it with the AirHead.
Unfortunately, by the time the seacock is removed the hole will be
closer to 2". So, then I was going to use the other hole we abandoned
which would be closer to an inch and I could just increase the size.
But, after measuring again I realized that it was more than 5' from
the compressor. So I moved the compressor closer to the engine room.
As close as the other wires and lines would allow. The copper tubes
are bendable but only just so much. Too much bending will work-harden
them and one kink and it's all over. I tell ya, I was sweating like
the proverbial whore in church. And it wasn't from the heat as it was
actually a little cool here today.

I finally found a spot I liked, chucked up the hole saw in the drill,
took a deep breath, and started the hole from the inside. Once the
pilot bit popped through the hole, I climbed down the ladder to finish
the hole from the outside for a nice smooth finish. Well, when I got
outside, the spot where the drill bit came through didn't actually
look great. It maybe should have been an inch or so further outboard
to be sure to have enough flat area so the keel cooler would sit
flat. At that point I could have drilled a new pilot hole where I
wanted as long as it was within the area covered by the larger hole.
But I didn't. Why? Damned if I know. I went ahead and finished
drilling the hole full-size and just hoped it would be OK. Figured if
worse came to worse I could build a backing plate for it somehow.
Well, since my hole saw was 1/16" shy of the size I needed, I broke
out my Dremel tool with a mini sanding drum and finished up. Now for
the test. Will it fit? Did I oversand and make the hole too big?
Will the cooler sit flush with the hull? I bet I lost 5 pounds of
water weight sweating. Insert the copper tubes, start pushing them
up. Crap! They hung up on something. Climb back aboard and lower
myself into the engine room, untangle the tubes, climb back out and
back down, and start easing the tubes up into the hole again. Now
I've got 5' of semi-rigid copper tubing that has to go somewhere
before the keel cooler even enters the hole. Needless to say, they
hung up again several times. I finally got things figured out and....

wait for it....

wait....

wait...

IT FIT! The cooler sat nice and flush against the bottom of the hull
and fit the hole itself like a glove. WHEW! The rest was anti-
climactic. Lulu returned and held the cooler in place for me while I
fastened the bracket that holds the whole shebang in place. All that
was left was to feed the tubing through the bulkhead, connect them to
the compressor, fasten the compressor down, adjust the watermaker
position to compensate for the new compressor position and call it
good. And I finally quit sweating. I'm going to have to drink a lot
of beer tonight to replenish my fluids.

Lulu got another coat of Kelly green on the boot stripe and then
sanded the turtle (aka sea hood, this is thing that the sliding hatch
slides under so that we don't get water coming in under the leading
edge of the slider) and applied coat #1 (of 3) of Cetol Natural Teak
finish. The turtle was totally black before and now is a mellow
golden teak color. Looks really good. Of course, the wind came up
and there's a feeling of impending rain in the air so we put a tarp
over the turtle for the night. She also finished servicing the two
remaining seacocks. No easy feat as everything is difficult to reach
and all the bolts were very difficult to turn.

I started putting the Cape Horn windvane together this afternoon. But
I was bummed to find the some of the bolt holes don't line up. The
vane was expensive and Cape Horn has an excellent reputation, so I was
pretty surprised. I took some pictures and e-mailed them to CH. Hope
I don't have to send the whole thing back. It's a very large
package. The CH vanes are guaranteed for (if I remember right) 5
years or the end of your first circumnavigation, whichever comes
first, so there shouldn't be an issue. It's just an unwelcome
hassle. Plus, it means that I'll have to help Lulu with the sanding
tomorrow since I won't have the windvane to install. But she told me
I can use the power sander. What a woman!

Right now she's making a one-pot dinner. I think she said it's called
something like "Red and Green Chicken". She's doing great. Until our
propane bottle arrive (tomorrow, supposedly), all we have to cook on
is the little gimballed one-burner and the only pots that fit in it
are the coffee pot an a small pan that came with it. Can't believe
she's actually attempting anything more complicated than heating up a
can of soup on this rig. Pretty sure I married the right girl.

Well, hasta luego. Who knows what tomorrow might bring. At l;east I'm
finished drilling holes in the bottom of our boat. Hope none of them
leak.

In the yard

Well, we finally left the marina yesterday.  First time Siempre Sabado has been away from the dock since we arrived 2 years ago.  All went well (meaning we didn't crash into anything getting underway and the engine didn't quit on us) except that we discovered that our alternator is shot.

As usual we were way early.  River Bend marina is very tide-dependent and high tide wasn't until about 12:50 PM.  since we were at least 2 hou

rs early, we just lowered the rpms and continued on up the river for aways, just for the ride.  It was a beautiful day for a boat ride. When our appointed time arrived, we motored on in to get lifted out.  Normal procedure is to just hook on to the boat with boathooks and pull the it in to the lift.  But Siempre Sabado wasn't budging.  Seems we were stuck in the mud a little.  The proprietor asks "How much does this boat draw?"  "Four and a half feet."  "Can't be, it has to be more than that."  "Well, that's 

what the drawings say."  Ultimately he gets us hauled out and had to admit that we did indeed draw 4-1/2'.  There just wasn't much water here.  I'll say!  I shot this just as the tide started coming back in tonight.  You might still be able to see our keel track if you look hard enough at the picture.   Even if the water was all the way to the top of the pilings there wouldn't be much more than 5-1/2 to 6 feet.

But, we're out now and that's what's important.  We've decided to change some of the colors while we're out.  Never have liked the brown of the 

bulwarks so we're changing it and the boot stripe to Kelly Green to match the dodger.  Lulu got the first coat on the boot stripe today.  You can see the blue masking tape on the bulwarks and the rudder.  This is for the next step: re-doing all the teak.

I got a Dynaplate (grounding plate for the SSB radio) installed today.  This required drilling four 3/8" holes 

in the bottom of the hull so it was a little traumatic.  But it went smoothly.  The real trauma will be tomorrow when I have to drill a 1-1/2" hole in the  bottom of the hull to install the keel cooler for our fridge.

So far, River Bend is a nice place to be hauled out.  They let you stay on the boat if you want and even have bathrooms (not porta-potties) and showers (free).  It's very nice and quiet at night, too.  Oh, and there's intermittent wifi.

Other jobs we completed today: changed the sea cock on the engine cooling water thru-hull, moved the watermaker and the refrigeration compressor so everthing will be in place for the keel cooler, ordered a new alternator, and Lulu serviced 2 of the Groco sea cocks in the head (what a pain THAT was).

We have a fair-sized list of to-dos while we're here, but it's all do-able and, if we get it all done, well have gone a long way towards being ready to go.

Photos at last

This is looking forward with the galley (new sink, stove, cabinets) on the left (port), part of the settee (new cushions, table) on the right (starboard), and out bedroom (V-berth) beyond through the curtain.  The door opposite the curtain opens on the head.  The little closet you see way up forward is the locker for the anchor chain.

Here's a view of half of our bed.  Both sides have identical bookshelves and portholes.  The quilt is one that Lulu custom-made in a V shape to fit the berth.  She also made the flannel pillow cases with matching V-shaped sheets.  The things under the bookshelf are our life jackets.

Here's another view showing more of the V-berth.  Just aft of the bookshelf, you can see part of a little bin that I built so we have a place to stow the books we're currently reading, glasses, bottles of water, headlamps, all the various items one wants in easy reach when laying in bed.  Both sides have identical bins.  You can also see one of the clothes locker doors.  These doors enclose the shelved area that I built to replace the space-wasting drawers that were original equipment on the boat.

View of the galley showing the new cabinets, stove and sink.  The thing in the middle of the picture with the propane bottle is a gimballed cooker.  Our big propane bottles haven't come in yet so we use this little guy to heat water for coffee and such.  It will likely be the cooker of choice for quick snacks when the seas are rough.  You can also see the spice rack where we managed to have enough room for 28 different spices and herbs.  Not quite as many as we used to have but a more than adequate supply.  The open shelves are protected from losing their contents in a seaway by removable fiddles like the bar you see across the bookshelf on the other side of the porthole.

Lulu reading in the settee.  Note the snazzy new cushions with matching curtains.  She added 1-1/2" of memory foam to the tops of the seat cushions and our butts have never been happier.  Added the same amount of memory foam to the bed mattress.  The open bookshelf behind Lulu is also protected by a removable fiddle when underway to keep the books from spilling out when the boat heels.  The pine piece next to the Grateful Dead poster is a rack for holding our dinner plates.  The GD poster is actually lithographed on metal and says "One More Saturday Night".  Appropriate given the name of the boat.

That's it for now.  Probably won't be updating for a week or so.  We're headed upriver tomorrow morning to have the boat hauled so we can do a bunch of below-the-waterline work on her.  I doubt the yard has WiFi.  Hoping to have some pix of a snazzy new exterior when we get back from the yard in a week or so.

Where are we going to put all this stuff???

We loaded up the car (and I mean LOADED) with as much stuff as we could, but we still have all this stuff to take over to the boat and stow.   Since I took this picture, we have gotten to the boat and stowed everything we brought over with us.  Now we have to go back to the house and go through these boxes and, unless we can explain specifically where each item will go, it stays behind.  The pressure cooker is going for sure but the rest of the stuff is up in the air.  It's not like we really need anything that isn't already on the boat.  It's just that, as dirt dwellers we were used to having lots of room for lots of stuff.  And it was no problem having a roasting pan that we used maybe once a year.  When we wanted it, it was there.  We'll be headed back to Cody's to go through this stuff in a couple weeks.

My bad!

Okay, so I forgot to bring the camera over from the valley. So sue
me. We have to go to Eugene tomorrow for a funeral and then we're
going to head up I-5 to Cody's (that sounds weird) to get some stuff
we forgot and do a couple chores. Probably spend the night there.
She said it'd be OK. Phew! So, I'll get the camera tomorrow and post
some pix on Saturday.

Lulu got the whole inside if the boat cleaned today and got most of
what we brought over put away. Huge job. And we still have boxes and
boxes of stuff at Cody's to try to stow somewhere. Methinks a few
items will be left behind.

Another beautiful day in Newport, albeit pretty darn cold when the
wind blows, which it did most of the day.

What is this thing you call a "lawnmower"?

Okay, it's official, we're no longer dirt dwellers. We've moved out
of the house and on to the boat. That's not to say there isn't still
a bunch of stuff at the house that we need to either get rid of or
find a place for on the boat, but basically we now live aboard Siempre
Sabado full-time. Since we still have stuff at "home" how do we make
the distinction? Easy, if we want to go back to the valley for a few
days, we now have to pack a bag since all of our clothes and such are
now on the boat. Cody's living full-time at the Shire and we'll sign
all the papers sometime before the end of the month. Monday we go up
the river for a haul-out for bottom paint, thru hull maintenance,
installation of a ground plate for the SSB radio and installation of
the keel cooler for our fridge.

The new cushions and bedding that Lulu made look great and really made
things homey. I'll take pictures today and post them later this
evening.

Woo-Hoo! We're boat bums!

Putting things in order

Today's project was to straighten the boat up. Lulu will be here next
week to work her cleaning magic. But she shouldn't have to move stuff
around just to do it so today I found a place for everything. I'm
sure a lot of the stuff will find other homes sooner or later but for
now, everything is at least stored somewhere rather than just on top
of the nearest handy horizontal surface. I promise that next week
I'll post pictures. No sense doing it now when next week we'll have
doors on all the cupboards and a new bed with real bedding, etc. This
is the first time since April that the boat is actually in some
semblance of order. It's quite nice.

Fuel tank day

I've been sort of dreading it but the day has finally arrived to open up my diesel tank and clean it out.  If you read the story about our trip down from Anacortes, you'll know I blamed dirty fuel for clogging my fuel filters so often.  Since then I've decided that it was really my use of 2 micron filters as primary filters instead of the more commonly used 30 micron units.  Today should shed some light on whether or not my new assumption or my old one is the right one.

Cleaning the tanks requires that I cut two holes, as

 large as possible in the top of the tank.  There's a baffle running athwartships which is the reason for 2 holes.  My first step was to go to the welding shop down the road and rifle through their cut-off pile for a couple of aluminum plates the right size.  If they have to cut the plates, there's a $20 minimum charge so I looked for plates that were pretty close to my chosen dimensions (8" x 9" and 12" x 9") and darned if I didn't find a couple that were REALLY close (8-1/2" x 9" and 12" x 8-1/2").  Close en

ough and only $6.00.

Next to Englund Marine (the repository of many, many, many of my dollars) for some neoprene for gaskets.  Then back to the boat to cut the holes.  And here they are: 

Now to pump the fuel out.  I brought 3 empty 5-gal jerry jugs with me, hoping they'd b

e enough.  When I opened the tank and saw how high the fuel was, I was kind of concerned.  But, since the tank is goofy shaped, the majority of the fuel is on the top.  I managed to empty it into the 3 jerry jugs and a 5 gallon pickle bucket.  Probably about 19 gallons all told.  The first 10 gallons went fairly fast.  I was using a little plunger pump that worked better than I expected.  Until, that is, the plunger handle came completely out of the pump body on one of the upstrokes.  It came unscrewed from the piston apparently.  Couldn't get it screwed back in without taking the pump apart.  But that was going to be very messy.  The pump already leaked some so I already had some mess to contend with.

  But in the end it didn't really matter because I managed to knock the plunger into the tank which was still deep enough that my surgical gloves wouldn't protect me.  I had considered buying one of those little pumps you hook u

p to a electric drill but chose the hand pump instead.  Now I decided the drill pump was the way to go.  Off to the store to get one.  Struck out at the first 2 stops but scored at the 3rd.

The drill pump was the way to go.  It pumps up to 6 gallons per hour so filling the last jug and the pickle bucket didn't take too long.  I decided this would be a great way to transfer fuel from jerry jugs to the main tank at sea.  No spilling.

Once the tank was empty I started cleaning it out.  I used paint thinner as a solvent and a LOT of paper towels.  Here's a picture of the sludge I found on the bottom.  It wasn't really all that bad considering it had been in use since 1976.  Some of the sludge is aluminum from drilling the screw holes and sawing the access holes.

I scrubbed out the inside and scooped up the settled sludge as well as I could.  It was

 a very awkward job as most boat jobs are.  I had to contort myself into an uncomfortable position, reach down the full length of my arm to the bottom of the tank, wipe stuff up without being able to see what my hand was doing, and then try to get the rag back out of the tank without spilling the sludge, and get it to a wastebasket conveniently located just out of reach.  And then repeat.  Took me well into the evening but I finally declared the tank clean.  There's still a teeny bit of gunk that I just can't get at, but nothing like when I started.  I'll watch those fuel filters pretty closely for the first few hours.

I put my nifty new covers on the holes and buttoned thin

gs up.  I'm waiting for Englund to get a Baja filter for me.  It's supposed to be in on Friday.  This is a fuel filter/water separator/funnel for use when taking on fuel from dubious sources.  After cleaning the tank I don't want to take a chance on reintroducing dirty fuel so I'm waiting until the filter arrives to pump the fuel back into my tank.  I also devised a port where I can stick a dipstick in to the tank the determine how much fuel is left.  This boat is 33 years old and, until now, as far as I can see, the amount of fuel in the tank was always a mystery except right after a fill-up.  Amazing what one can get used to.

Purty, huh?

A little more progress every day

When I got to the boat last night about 8 PM, I just couldn't bring myself to just sit down and watch a movie or read.  So, I installed all the removable fiddles on the various shelves in the galley and saloon.  Also hung up the new paper towel holder in the head.  This, of course, required removing the toilet paper holder first and relocating it an inch or so lower than it used to be.  That's basically how all boat jobs go; always have to undo one thing to do something else.

Today, I ran the propane hose from the new stove, outside and to the stern where the bottles will go.  All I have to do now is buy some propane bottles and figure out how I want to stow them. Need to install the propane sniffer as well.  Also got the foot pump (for fresh water) installed in the head.

Finally, I think I have the design for my stern pulpit figured out (that's the solid rail that encloses the back end of the boat for you non-seafarin' folks).  The homemade one that's on it is ugly and cracked at all the welds.  I hope I have the design right because once it's welded up in stainless steel, it's a little late to find out that I screwed up some measurement.  I'll have to ponder it a bunch before I deliver the design to the fabricator.

Tomorrow's big job is to cut 2 access holes in the top of my diesel tank and then pump the fuel out so that I can reach in with a rag and clean the inside.  Then I'll have to have a couple pieces of aluminum plate cut to the right size and drilled for screw holes so I can cover up the access ports. 

This must be incredibly boring to anyone except Lulu.  Sorry folks, but I have to do all this stuff before we can get underway and start writing the interesting stuff.  Bear with me.

Busy, productive weekend

Home this weekend working on this and that. Before I left Newport
Friday, I finished hooking up the new battery charger and It's now
merrily charging both of our expanded battery banks. Found a sweet
spot just inside the engine room door to mount the new terminal
strips. Very accessible.

At home I built the doors for the clothes lockers, a new teak paper
towel holder, glued up the bottom step (aka battery box top), a new
dorade for AirHead ventilation, a the spigot for a new engine
compartment access hatch. Have to take it back to the boat to make
sure everything fits before I build the hatch itself. Lulu finished
sewing up covers for our 4 spare diesel jerry jugs, the autopilot,
the Honda generator, and the little outboard motor. I brought the
other half of the V-berth mattress home so she got to try out the
custom sheets and quilt she made. Fit beautifully. Now we'll have a
real bed instead of a mattress with sleeping bags. This past week
she also did some painting for me. Today she managed to figure out
the Froli mattress system and put it together.

Tomorrow I have to get some papers notarized and then make a trip to
the transfer station to get rid of old paint, motor oil, compute
monitor etc. Going to head to the boat tomorrow afternoon or evening
so I can jump right in to projects first thing Tuesday morning.

The to-do list is looking less daunting by the day although we
definitely can't afford to let up at all.

One thing leads to another

All I had to do today was get some battery cables made up to custom
lengths and then wire up the batteries and the battery charger. Now,
if I had stuck to that plan, it still would have ended up being a
pretty decent day's work. However, as usual I got sidetracked. This
seemed like the logical time to install the new battery isolation
switch which is mounted on the breaker panel along with some 8 circuit
breakers and a half dozen toggle switches. Well, every time I open
this panel up it pisses me off. There's barely enough slack in the
wire to work behind the panel and the wiring is a rat's nest. Not as
bad as on some big boats I've seen but plenty bad enough. Besides
wires going every which way, there are wires stacked up on terminals
that were only designed to hold ONE wire. Grrrrrr.....

So, I decided to wire things the way I've always wanted them wired.
Each breaker will have ONE wire going from it to a terminal strip
strategically located in an accessible place. And all the wires on
the terminal strip will be labelled. Bet my former co-workers wish I'd
followed this credo when I was wiring stuff at the treatment plants.
Another reason that this is the only logical approach is that the way
the switches and breakers are set up, it's virtually impossible to
detach wires without taking the whole thing completely apart. I'm
being very meticulous about keeping things neat and contained and, as
a result, the engine room is looking very tidy.

So, by evening I had all the heavy wiring to and from the batteries
done and all the parts I need (I hope) to finish the rest of the job
manana. Wonder what's going to sidetrack me tomorrow.

No 12 volt system again tonight but I may do some wiring of the
breaker panel using my headlamp. That'll cut down on tomorrow's work.

It started out as another beautiful day in Newport. It's still pretty
and blue but the wind has been RIPPING through here since early
afternoon and it's downright cold for July. Well, not for Newport in
July but for most of the northern hemisphere. This has been the
pattern all week. But at least it's not raining.