We had a late morning. Probably 7:30 before we got out of bed. (Which with the time change is still only 6:30, but that is when the sun shines and we typically go to bed some time after it goes down. Last night we watched the rest of the movie we started the other night, but had to stop when the laptop battery died. 50 First Dates. It is a pretty good movie, and one we don’t mind having seen before.
Then after breakfast and morning devotions, Jesus Calling, Jeff (my nephew) called and we talked for about 15 minutes or so. We don’t get to talk often, only when he calls, and that only works when we have cell service. It has been about 6 weeks, so we did a bit of catching up.
Today we worked on some projects around the boat. Renee’ cleaned the cockpit, and I fixed the light switch box for the engine room. Before we left on this trip we (Bob Miller and I) installed two LED lights in the engine room, and put the switches outside the engine room by the stairs out of the boat, the box was a bit bigger than was really needed, and when I bought the switches they came 5 to a pack, so I figured that it would be better to install a spare. Well, that was not really a good idea, and we actually set it up for three lights and a spare switch. Two lights were plenty, the spare switch hole got just a hair too big and the switch would not stay in place, the drill bit was a little dull and the result was just not really as good as we would like. So, I bought a new box (about $6 or so, just used the top on the new one) and new bits for the drill and just needed to find the time and patience to do it again. It is done and finished.
I then cut some of the old box top to size and replaced the latch for the washer/dryer door. Actually the latch for the door is a small piece of teak held in place with two small screws. To get the size right, I took the one out of one of the forward stateroom cupboards, and matched it. I made it just a hair bigger, as you can always cut something smaller, but you can’t cut it bigger. As it worked out, the one in the washer/dryer cabinet had been worked on before and had two different size screws in it. When I put the teak piece in it was loose, and I could not figure out what was wrong, so I took it out and put the plastic piece in and it was too long. (Remember it was just a little bigger). So, I took it out again, and got the wooden one from the front cupboard again, this is when I finally figured out the screws were different sizes. I put the wooden one in the washer/dryer cabinet, and figured out the longer screw goes in the aft hole of this piece. It works, and is tight. Then I put the plastic piece in the forward stateroom cupboard, and it works there as well. (Obviously this was not an exact science as I did not have to cut the plastic piece to make it fit in this cupboard).
By 11am, both projects complete, tools put away, cleanup done and time to write this.
We have “Deck-A-Boo” blinds on the small windows/portholes on the boat. These are two pieces of plastic with opaque vertical strips that are about 3/4” wide with the plastic clear between the stripes. If you slide the outer piece to the left he opaque stripes line up and you can see out. If you slide the outer piece to the right, all the clear stripes are covered and you have the blinds closed. They are held to the class by 5 small Velcro stickers a little smaller than a dime each. The two pieces of plastic have “rivets (or snaps)” that go through slots to allow the sliding of the outer piece. So, for each blind, there are 4 rivets (8 pieces, pretty small), 10 Velcro pieces (all use sticky stuff to attach to the window and the inner piece) and two big pieces of plastic. For each window (15 of them on this boat) there are 30 pieces to make the blinds work. We don’t have blinds on some of the windows, but have the parts. We have also bought extra pieces to repair these as needed. These blinds look good, and I have always like the way that they looked when going through boats at the shows. BUT, they are a pain, we have been on the boat for about 7 months, (since we retired) and I believe every blind that is in place has been rebuilt, about 3 times. Typically 1 or 2 blinds at a time. Renee’ really doesn’t like them, and has said, “Yeah, but I really don’t have an option” several times. I expect that something else will be what we wind up with in the future, when she figures out what will work better.
We charged the battery on the boat up to about 96% last night, and the solar is working to charge back up from the 75% we had at daybreak, but we are only at 79.7% right now. I am planning on running the generator again tonight. I checked our fuel level, and we are at 1/2 thank. Ballpark of 80 gallons of diesel used since San Diego on 10/29. We have a little further to go from here to Cabo, than we have come so far, but I don’t think we will need as much fuel. This is because we figure from here to Cabo will take us around 2 weeks, with some pretty long passages (the longest are: 180 miles, 100 miles, and 80 miles) we have had about 25 days to get here, and will have a week here in Turtle Bay we will only run the generator about 2 hours a night and top off near the end of the week, I think that the generator will not get as much use on the trip south, as we will probably only have to use it to run the water maker and use the washer, which will only happen when we are at sea. As opposed to staying in one spot for several days and having to run the generator to also top off the battery at night. If we only stay one night somewhere, we should not have to run the generator, as the engine time to get the boat into and out of port will also charge the battery.
I have been asked for our MMSI number (367467250), as a way to follow our trek. We also have a Predict Wind webpage that has our location:
https://forecast.predictwind.com/tracking/display/Make_Me_Laugh_Again
The way the MMSI number works, requires that there is a land based receiver in range of our AIS transmitter to see us and then retransmit on the internet where we are. The Predict Wind webpage updates hourly via our Satellite connection. It also shows where we have been. This track is kept for about 9 months, and then will be deleted. (We plan to take a screenshot when we park the boat next summer and post it to the webpage).
One of the great sunsets we have seen on this trip.