2009 Log
1/01 to 1/15/2009
This is our log for 2009; our other voyages are in Prior Voyages.
We plan to post and update at least weekly. We move the older portions of the log to history; pages accessible at the bottom of the page. Join our voyage!
Updated on 01/22/2009
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1/01/09 - Happy New Year! Wow, a brand new one... let's do better than we did last year. First time I've seen the new year arrive in years. We popped a bottle of champagne on Our Way as fireworks banged and horns blared. John's stories had kept us up past the witching hour. Ruth called from the highway, enroute to Milwaukee... sure glad she's there and not me. She's in blowing snow and Buddy and I are enjoying sunshine and a balmy breeze - nasty, but someone has to watch the boat. After we returned from Lake Boca I worked on the aluminum mounting pieces for the new solar installation on AA. Lots of cutting and hole drilling. I'm trying to have all the parts ready for when Ruth returns so we can get the system mounted. 1/02/09 - Another beautiful morning. I slept in trying to shake this cold I picked up on the flight to WI. A number of folks were hacking away so I think the flight was pretty well infected. Talked to Ruth last night and she's picked up a cold too... mine? Living aboard the only time we catch colds is when one of us or a guest has been flying. Its fun to watch Buddy when Ruth calls. The bird recognizes that its Ruth's voice but is afraid of the cell phone (probably read all the articles about electromagnetic hazards). Busy day today, finished 90% of the first solar curtain and got a second half done. These beasts are 10' by 18' high. By tomorrow evening the first pair should be completed. New type of project for me... interesting. John and Nell celebrated by taking me to Red Lobster for dinner. 1/03/09 - A sunny Saturday morning. It's curtains for me. By 2pm we'd finished the second curtain of the first pair. Monday we'll order material for 4 more pair. I'm anxious to see the first pair hung... the blocks John ordered didn't come when promised so we're on hold waiting to hang the curtain rods. Finished out the day working on the mount for our 4 solar panels. It is now assemble and on the dock - next step is to remove two panels from the boat and combine them with the two panels in John's garage, then mount the assembly on AA's arch. That's a project for when Ruth is here. 1/04/09 - Still not use to adding the 09 to the date. Balmy but overcast this morning. My cold is definitely on the wane - finally! Ruth sounded like death warmed over when I talked to her the 2nd. Started the day cutting edge trim for curtains. Got 16 edges half done before we went to Ed's to look at the progress on the plane he's building and watch the Dolphin's get drowned by the Ravens. 1/05/09 - A beautiful morning, azure sky accented with little cotton ball clouds. Son Kyle's Birthday!!! He was a little late... the doctor had him pegged as a Thanksgiving baby. Once here he made up for lost time. Ruth comes home tomorrow - oh boy, oh boy, oh boy! Sure will be nice to have the Admiral back aboard. Time to seriously get stuff done on AA. Cutout the pieces for the aft deck pad on Our Way. Should finish the job tomorrow. Ruth flew back, got delayed in Chicago and arrived Miami at 9pm rather than 3:30 as expected. Sure is great having her back aboard. Buddy was excited to see her back in the flock again. Made all sorts of appreciative noises. 1/6/09 - Another sunny day in Paradise. I finished the cover for the Our Way's deck pad. Ruth laid low fighting her version of the WI travel cold - it hit her a lot harder than me. While she napped in the afternoon John and I went shopping for the balance of the aluminum needed to finish the balance of the solar curtains. Mucho sewing to do before the 4 additional 18' high screens are done. Ruth and I finally opened gifts tonight (Santa's helper did most of the shopping.) Ruth got two great lures and 12v Christmas lights while Santa's helper left LED work lights, a stainless steel bar of soap, anchoring gloves, lobster bibs and a wine bottle cover. Kewl! 1/7/09 - Cold front passed through last night bringing winds and rain. Beautiful morning today. We test fit the first set of curtains. Big relief, they fit and looked nice. Now on to 4 more sets. 1/8/09 - Sunny and cool this morning. We headed north by car to Stuart to pick up our genoa. Mack Sails did a great job of repair and enhancement. From there we went to my dermatologist for a skin exam and to check the surgery they did last May. They took biopsy's of ten spots... ouch. Another two week waiting period though they were confident I had nothing to worry about. I feel like the survivor of a drive-by shooting. I return Monday for some test results relative to allergies. When you grow old you grow things. Talked to Miles and Laureen, they are back on Ariel for a week before heading north again for treatment. I told Miles a real man would have embraced the WI winter. He retorted a wise man would head south. 1/9/09 - Another beautiful morning. I got up early to get a few photos posted (my brother asked if I'd lost the camera). Beyond that I have no idea where the day went... it just did. 1/10/09 - Today was an AA day. We mounted the new 4 solar panel array and started wiring it. West Marine, true to form, had only had 2 of the 16 parts we needed - the rest come next Wednesday. I got as much of the system wired as I could. With the panels mounted and wiring started we decided tomorrow will be a play day. We're going fishing and test sailing the rebuilt genoa. Monday it will be back to the Dr. and sewing. Full moon tonight - Ruth and Buddy will be in the cockpit howling again... man I hate it when they do that. Speaking of Buddy, she's on my shoulder watching me type the log - weird bird. 1/11/09 - We headed out Boca Inlet mid morning armed with local knowledge of this pass... only to find it had changed in the last 4 weeks. We finally benefited from 10 years of buying TowBoat US insurance. A quick radio call and we had a tow in 15 minutes. He had a hard time finding enough water to get us out to sea. Boca Inlet is no longer an option for us. We were hard aground in the channel at 5.4' draft with 2' of tide under us. The tow boat driver said they are advising folks to stay away from the inlet. After our little adventure we sailed with our rebuilt genoa - Mack Sails did a great job, it looks and sails well. The fish weren't biting so we returned via the Hillsboro Inlet at dusk. Nice to have a play day! 1/12/09 - Cool enough last night to coat the boat in dew. Must be another cold front. We drove two hours to Port St Lucie in fog this morning to have the dermatologist check some skin patches they put on Friday. Everything was A-Okay. Now I wait two weeks for biopsy reports though they are confident there are no remaining issues. Back at AA Ruth and I reinstalled the masthead wind instruments and the new anchor light. On first indication everything is working well... it will take sea trials to prove it (no, we are not going out the Boca inlet) 1/13/09 - Light sprinkles overnight announced the presence of clouds... dawn confirmed them. Miles and Laureen headed back to WI today for a few weeks. We'll be in touch and may swing down to Miami to check out Ariel. Ruth and I spent the day working - Ruth on Core Paper and I wiring the batteries to Solar controller portion of the new system. With Ruth's help I got that phase of the wiring done and part of the boat put back together. A cold front, read low 50's at dawn blew in yesterday. Everyone is braced for it. No bikini's tomorrow - 70's. 1/14/09 - Cold front is with us, sort of. I spent the day wiring. Pulling a circuit in an existing boat is like laying new sewer in an old city street - nothing is straight-forward. The leads got stuck and it took we all morning to back them out - arrggghhh! We bought another $130.00 of wire and were able to install #6 through the arch and #4 the balance of the run. Our goal is less than a 3% voltage drop in the circuit so the controller can optimize the output giving us in effect the amperage of 5 panels from our 4. Tomorrow should finish the project - finally. Ruth spent the day helping me and pushing paper... something has to stick. The boat is totally trashed from our having to access wire runs. Back in WI they hit a -45 degree wind chill... brrrr. We had to suffer with 70 degrees. Made for a great day to be pulling wire. 1/15/09 - .Wiring day again. In the cold (60's) and rain (scattered) I finished the circuits to a box under the arch. Finally, only 6 connections to make and the solar will be ready to test. The rewiring of our solar has turned out to be a much bigger project than I anticipated - mainly because the new conductors are so much larger. This new layout is a big improvement... much more professional than the first attempt. Between bouts of helping me Ruth sold some material... Yaahhh Ruthie. All in all a great day. We finished out the day with rotisserie chicken and pasta salad followed by a video "A beautiful mind". |
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Lofton explaining instructions to Barry
Snowman - a "banker"
Finally, we fit the first curtain
Testing for tie position
Curtains hanging in closed position Here comes the sun... If I'd any idea how difficult the wiring portion of the the project to add two additional solar panels to AA was to be, I'd never started the job. The challenge was getting heavy enough wire through the conduit at the base of the arch. We wanted #4 conductor to ensure less than 3% voltage drop (#5 would work but didn't exist, #6 was a little too small). #4 wouldn't fit with the existing wiring for the wind generator. We finally compromised, #4 to the base of the arch and #6 in the arch. That combination should keep our voltage drop in design limits. Well, it's done. Now we'll monitor the system for a few weeks to see if the payoff is there. If so, we are finally able to go extended periods without using fuel.
Expanded solar array on AA, note far panel tilted up - a new ability of this mounting system.
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2009 Logs
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