Last weekend was relatively warm and beautiful in New England. Susan and I made the most of it by working on Gypsy. The sun felt delicious on my back and our soundtrack was the cry of the seagulls, one of my favorites. We replaced the bronze bolts on the cutlass bearing strut. The original bolts didn't give up without a fight but a cold chisel and electric drill tipped the scales in our favor. We had the yard tighten up the keel bolts as there was a slight crack at the parting line joint between the hull & keel. I dug out the crack and will refill with epoxy at the same time I re-bed the base of the cutlass strut. Susan started the laborious job of polishing the prop and shaft.
We took advantaged of our mast being laid out on work racks to replace our masthead, tricolor light. The old one was pretty weathered and more importantly it used energy gobbling, incandescent bulbs. The new one is an amazing bit of technology from Orca Green Marine. It's one third the size of the old one, uses 80% less electricity and does one additional thing; it can function as a strobe light for emergency use. While we were working on the mast we plugged some old holes in the mast head cap and cleaned up and repainted the base of the mast to prevent corrosion.
My soldering iron wasn't up to the task of tinning the heavy wires that came out of the mast so we popped out to Radio Shack to pick up a larger one. On the way back to the marina I reflected on how easy it was to whip out and get anything we need, even on a Sunday. Tools and supplies won't so readily available once we head down to the Caribbean and beyond so we're stalking up on spare parts as much as we can.
In the velvet darkness
Of the blackest night
There is a light
- Richard O'Brien
234 days...
Of the blackest night
There is a light
- Richard O'Brien
