Now she's named.

ASA Certified

I spent the last three days working my tail off. I decided to become a certified sailing instructor, just sort of as a lark. I decided it would be a fun way to spend a weekend, and maybe I'd get a part time job out of it to boot.

Well, the fun and relaxing time I expected was replaced with a gruelling workload of 13 hour days of constant instruction and examination, both on the water and with 4 hour exams. It started with a single-handed sail, where you leave from a mooring, tack three times, jibe three times, heave-to, reef, jibe out and pick up a MOB (floating dummy) and then return back to the original mooring, pick it up, tie off, and get your sails down, and do all this under the time limit while they film you in action to watch and criticize later. Nothing too hard, really, except that the boat I was on had no reefing system, so I invented one using a line stolen off of a fender, and that the mainsheet system constantly jammed itself.

After that I took a bunch of tests, covering everything from basic knots to dayshapes to navigation to yachting courtesties to head operation to safety equipment and precautions to... you get the idea.

At any rate, I am now certified to teach a few different levels of classes. That's the news.

More shite

I was playing with my batteries the other day. It seems that nobody bothered to put an isolator in when the batteries were installed. I sort of assumed that anybody would know to do that. Or, anybody who would install an electrical system, anyway. I turned off the shore charger and put a voltmeter to #1. It was draining into #2, which is the much older battery that isn't shot enough to toss overboard, but won't hold a charge like the new one will. Or would, anyway, if the batteries were isolated like they should be. $20 on ebay has an isolator on it's way.

I'm also installing a NAVFAX 200 SSB/Weatherfax reciever. I can plug that into my laptop and get weather charts off the air. Very nice.

The lettering for the boat's name arrived today. Putting that on won't be too much of a challenge, I think, now that I've puzzled out the instructions. They're barely in english. Step #2: "Using the masking tape to underline where you want to place the vinyl sign." Just enough off to throw you.

I also have masking tape over the windows around the v-berth. Sort of a privacy thing. Looks like shit. I'm going to see if they have spray-on window frosting at the hardware store.

Oh, and I went to replace the stern light bulb's housing. Of course, they don't make the same widget anymore, so I had to buy a whole new stern light assembly. $41. But it looks awful spiffy.

Quote

"Most of my money I spent on boats and women. The rest I squandered'. " - Roy Myers, s/v Minx

Another fun day on the bay

I'm glad to say I made it back before the fog obliterated all visability. Took off around noon and zipped over to Sausalito... lots of wind, must have made 6 kts. the whole tack. The only moments of interest were when the engine died (I had just cleaned the fuel system and must has dislodged some debris -- it cleared up again after it ran for a few minutes) and when the autopilot decided to take me around the right side of one of the red channel markers in Richardson's Bay while I was pulling down the jib. I could actually see the grass on the bottom. I was sure we'd touch, but I just threw the helm over and we were back in the channel in no time. I picked up Leo from the pump-out dock at his marina, and took a look at his new Shanon 28. Quite a beefy boat. It looks like it could stand up to a jackhammer, and has the amazing quality of being larger on the inside than it is on the outside. Don't ask me how.

We took a quick stop for fuel, which was much needed, sailed back across the bay, and got boarded by the SFPD. This came as no suprise, as I stil do not have the name and hailing port on the boat anywhere -- I ordered it from a sign maker, and am still waiting for it to show up. The officer came aboard while we were under way, and seemed rather confounded by the engine. Now, I know they don't teach about small marine engines in the police academy, and it would never occur to me to track down a policeman when I had a question about my engine... but he seemed to have a tough time figuring out my Atomic Four, which just about every damn boat on the bay has thumping under the hood. If you didn't know, on a gas powered engine you must have a flame arrestor on the carb for the engine to be legal. This is along with the other things, such as life jackets, type IV throwables, trash placard, noise making device, etc. I have a flame arrestor. He stared at it for a long time, and said that he wasn't sure it was a legal flame arrestor or not. I told him what I knew -- it came with the engine. And that I didn't know of any other possibility of another type of flame arrestor. Without trying to antagonize him, and it sounds like I was being a jerk, but really I wasn't, I asked him what the difference was between my flame arrestor and what a legal flame arrestor would be. He didn't really answer. I dug around on Moyer Marine's web site, and they only offer the same exact unit that I have on there, so if there's something else I should have, I've no idea what it is.

At any rate, the officer was rather nice, and didn't even check anything beyond the life jackets and type IV (which were all openly visable) and the engine. Without him asking I rattled off where the rest of the gear was but he seemed uninterested and hopped back onto the RIB that was tailing us, and bid us a god day and took off. No tickets, no written warnings, no nothing. Mika's mother was aboard, so the going theory is that after he boarded he probably thought Mika's mom was my mom and he didn't want to be a jerk and hassle some poor guy in front of his mother. It's a sound enough theory. I think me knowing what he'd be asking for and offering it before he even got around to asking might have contributed as well.

Things to fix:

[*] Time for an oil change.
[*] I'm adding a oil pressure/temperature alarm to the engine -- it has no gauges and needs something.
[*] I'm installing an electrical ignition -- the fella at the gas dock claims it does miracles.
[*] The stern light bulb housing is corroded to hell. I'm putting in a new one. Should be fun soldering to the
Half an inch of wire that the buiders generously left in there.

Incidentally, I find it amusing how my attitude has changed about the engine. I was afraid of it as first. I didn't like the idea of gas -- explosive and unreliable. Now that I've had this engine for a while, I'm glad to have it. It's simple to work on, and I've learned a hell of a lot by maintaining it. I can rebuild the carb in my sleep. A while ago I'd have thought that adding alarms and ripping out the old ignition system and putting in a new one would have been a big project and I'd be worried that the engine might never run again after I take it apart. Some spring might shoot out and go right over the side, or I'd drop some small important piece into the bilge and never see it again. I'm so over it now. In fact, I sort of rather enjoy taking the thing apart and seeing it run better and better the more I work on it. Mika says that it runs beter now than it ever did, and you know, I think she might be right.