I polished GANNET’s topsides today.
I did part of the port side yesterday and finished it and the transom this morning, working from the dinghy.
I then wired the light for the replacement compass. Or think I did. It is getting dark and I’ll soon know.
The compass was a new model of the old one, a Plastimo Mini Contest. The old one had a bubble in the fluid and a sun damaged dome that made it difficult to read.
I generally get courses and bearings electronically, from GPS in chartplotting apps in my iPhone or from the mast mounted Velocitek. But sometimes, particularly when the wind changes in the middle of the night, it is useful to be able to see a compass.
I had hoped the cutout in the bulkhead would be the same, without from long experience not much confidence. That lack of confidence was justified, but it only took a hack saw blade and some epoxy putty to make the necessary modifications.
After lunch I started on the starboard side of the hull, which is toward the dock, but soon quit. The temperature went into the 90s for the first time this year. Everything was too hot to touch, from the toe rail I needed to hold onto to keep GANNET within reach, to the concrete dock which was too hot to lie upon.
That boats put us into awkward, uncomfortable, ungraceful positions is a reality worth enduring.
I’ll finish the starboard side tomorrow morning.
Even though GANNET needs repainting, I can clearly see the line between where I have polished and where I have not yet. An acceptable reward for effort.
I am as I write listening to music.
As is well known I usually drink and listen to music in the evenings.
One of the great virtues of a westward circumnavigation is that you can do so while sailing into the sunset, hopefully your boat perfectly balanced speeding toward the vanishing horizon, with your music as loud as you want without disturbing anyone else. An endlessly repeatable joy.
