I installed a new electrical panel on GANNET yesterday. Not surprisingly the old one had corrosion problems. The GANNET-proof electrical panel doesn’t exist and buying a new one every 25,000 miles is not onerous.
The new panel is made by Blue Sea, who also made the old one. The old model is no longer in production. The new one has the same overall dimensions, but in the usual nature of things requires a slightly bigger cutout, which I achieved with a hand saw and a wood file.
When the new panel was in place and wires connected, I tested and found the autopilot circuit to work, and then walked to the condo for lunch. The day was sunny and warm. On the way to GANNET I wore a fleece pullover. On the way back a t-shirt.
That evening after dark I walked back to the little boat to test the external lights. Deck running, steaming and masthead anchor lit as they should. The masthead tricolor not, as expected.
The walk was pleasant and dark and quiet. I had not previously noticed that there are no street lights. Only one car passed me.
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Corrosion is not limited to the old electrical panel. The zippers on all four of my waterproof bags are frozen. Two froze part way open. The other two closed. Slicing a hole in a bag in order to reach the contents tends to make it somewhat less waterproof. These bags were not specifically intended for boat use, but I once had foul weather gear on which the zippers froze. Why would anyone put metal zippers on foul weather gear which just might happen to be exposed to salt water?
So I bought a bag that has no zipper, took it to Marathon and have used it since. I like it enough to have just ordered three more.
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Until extensive renovations are made, we are limiting what we bring into the condo, but there are bare minimums, and yesterday martini glasses, a jigger and a shaker arrived from Amazon. Gin, vermouth and olives were already on hand.
As I watched the sunset from the terrace last evening, I sipped.
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About Florida’s high boat insurance rates, Lee wrote: I suspect lightning has a lot to do with it. While researching what I might want to do about lightning protect for my boat, I came across a study of lightning-based insurance claims by state. The numbers for Florida were far off the scale to everywhere else in the country. The final take-away from my research was that the best lightning protection system for any sail boat is to simply stay out of Florida.
I thank him and will follow his advice.
I had not considered lightning and I have seen a lot in Florida waters, but I am still suspicious of those little overpowered powerboats.
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70ºF/21ºC, overcast and windy here today. The wind in the trees sounds like the sea.
Of my writing in the last entry of watching oak trees and Spanish moss dancing in the wind, Sid sent this great quote, for which I thank him: And those who were seen dancing, were thought to be insane, by those who could not hear the music." Friedrick Nietzsche.
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While I will appear at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum’s Small Boat Festival in October, I will not sail GANNET up there. The timing is wrong. I want to be here in Hilton Head in November and December when Carol will use vacation days to stretch the holidays. In January 2019 I will sail for Panama. Being away from Evanston in late September and October as well is too much.