Opua: a short introduction to Webb Chillys; timing; three modest improvements

        A reader sent me a link to a two minute YouTube video review of THE FIFTH CIRCLE.  Although the narrator mispronounces my name, she mostly uses my words, some of which I had forgotten, but I stand behind them.

        My last name comes from my stepfather who legally adopted me after my father committed suicide when I was seven.  I was born Webb Tedford.  ‘Chiles’ rhymes with ‘miles’.

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        My timing was impeccable.

        Yesterday was a perfect painting day, sunny, dry and with little wind.  Today is not.  So fortunately I painted the deck yesterday with International’s non-skid paint, InterDeck.  ‘Non-skid’ is optimistic.  You can still skid on it, but less than on standard paint.  Treadmaster, which I have in the cockpit, is much superior.  I don’t have it on the entire deck because I don’t want the weight and the expense.

        The only defect yesterday had for painting was in painting white on white with the sun directly overhead.  I couldn’t start until 10:30 when the dew had completely dried from the deck.  I expected today to find areas I missed, but haven’t so far.

        Another virtue of small boats:  GANNET’s deck takes slightly less than one liter/quart.

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        I have made three modest improvements to GANNET since arriving in Opua.

       Sailors, particularly small boat sailors, become interested in certain odd subjects, such as buckets. 

A good bucket is hard to find.  Most are flimsy and have useless handles.  A sailor may need a bucket, or buckets, for various purposes.  I once famously—sort of—bailed seven tons of water daily from EGREGIOUS with a bucket for months.  On GANNET at sea the head is a bucket.  Actually the head has been two plastic buckets one inside the other for structural integrity.  Last week Steve of ROVER drove a borrowed car to KeriKeri and invited me to go along.  At a hardware store he found a sister bucket to the one above, and I bought this one.

        It is a bucket of stainless steel beauty and reassuring strength.

        I have an electrical outlet on each side of The Great Cabin.  

       

I usually plug a small inverter into the one to port to charge those objects such as my laptop, the Bose speaker and my electric razor that have their own plugs.  And I usually put a USB adapter in the one to starboard to charge those objects such as my iPads, iTouch, Kindle, that can be charged by USB cords.

        In the chandlery the other day I saw a USB outlet, bought and installed it.  This one says ‘Narva’ on it, but fits perfectly into the hole cut for the previous Marinco outlet.  

        It is always satisfying to simplify.

        I also found this 24 LED light in the chandlery.

        It is very bright and operates for considerable time on three AAA batteries.  In addition to the 24 LEDs on the front, there are 4 in the end, and you can switch between them.

        The light is not waterproof and feels a bit flimsy; but at less than $10 US it is good enough.

         I still plan to bring a couple of LuminAIDs back from the US.