Wet sails

I dropped the sails as we motored in the channel approaching Oriental, Duane was at the helm.

So, it's sortof my responsibility to "tidy-up" the sails.  But, I didn't.  I said I'd do it later......

And then it rained.

This photo is un-retouched.  This is really what it looked like from the back of the boat!

 But, a day later all was sunny!  The only problem is, I left the sail cover open and the sail was soaking wet!

So, even though it was pretty blustery, I winched the sail up while tied up in the slip.

 After letting it dry for a couple of hours, I dropped the sail and zipped it up safe and sound!  All done!

A bit of sailing

We need to calibrate the auto-pilot, so a little sailing was in order!

Beautiful day!

Pat and Diane on their boat....

And we had a great sail - going wing-n-wing with the wind out our back for the peaceful sail back  to the marina.

More autopilot installation

Duane has been working on the autopilot installation again.....now the linear drive unit is installed.  This is in the aft cabin - the drive unit is attached directly to the rudder.  It won't be visible in the berth after we put the cover back in place.  I know, not all that exciting to look at, but a lot of work to get to this point!

Linear Drive for our AutoHelm autopilot

Duane does not like our existing autopilot.  It's called a "wheel pilot" and it actually moves the steering wheel.   There is a better system - it's called a "linear drive".  It steers the boat by directly moving the rudders.

So of course, we got one!   I know, it's not much to look at.....

New wiring had to be run.   And that's about all there is to the installation so far....although much progress was made snaking the new wire from this control panel area back 15' to the rear of the boat!  (not a simple task when you can't reach or see what you're doing!)

Replacing Goit portlight seal

The portlight in one of the cabins was leaking pretty bad if it rained hard....so we started searching for the material.    We found the gasket material at a marine supply in St. Maarten - couldn't find it in the US! 

We removed the window from the porthole.

Closeup of the gasket....no wonder it leaked!!

Cleaned up the plexiglass and removed all the old glue with denatured alcohol.

I taped the edges with masking tape just to prevent and contact cement from oozing out.  Just painted a nice thick coating of cement and allowed to dry to tacky.

Painted the glue on the pre-measured and cut, new gasket.

Once everything was just the right amount of tacky....carefully placed the new gasket in the groove.

All done and ready to install.

Installed and water tight!!