SV Appa

Sam has taken to sleeping on the couch.  Horrible picture quality but she fell asleep reading Cat in the Hat.  Whenever I read that book to her, all I can think of is that damn Mike Meyer's movie version.  

 So the solent stay ratchet finally arrived.  Does that look like one boat unit to you?  Nice piece of hardware to be sure but damn.....lots of money.  The only consolation that I have is, if we need it, it'll work and be stronger than hell.  Now I just got to make sure that it fits.
I am always torn when writing this blog about whether I should supply a reason or a definition for some of the objects I am installing on the boat.  I figure if a person is reading this, and that is a big if, they can google it.  

 The remains of the old lifelines.  They were, like most boats Appa's age, stainless steel cover in white plastic.  The water would get in any break in the lifeline coating and then the lack of oxygen would allow the steel to rust and become weak.  This was happening on Appa.  Then I had to put netting up around the boat.  I remember that stuff from when I was a kid on our 1979 O'Day sailboat.  hated the way it made the boat look.  Not a fan of it now either but it will help keep the kids on the boat if they were ever foolish enough to try something like falling off the boat.

Looks like there should be chickens walking around on the deck.

 We had our good friends Andy and Wendy over on the boat last Friday with their two boys Clare and Will.  Good times. The kids ran all over the place and even caught some type of fish. 

Sammy in the bosun's chair swinging around.

Practicing looking for whales!

 So this week saw the arrival of the solar panels with the controller.  It also saw me run too small of wire to said panels.  That should be an easy fix though.  Tomorrow I'll try to get the panels to the boat and try to dry fit them.  I am waiting on parts from Defender Marine.  

Panels hopefully will be done by next week.   

I sealed the area where the mast comes through the boat and sits on the keel.  So hopefully that will not leak anymore.

Basically I'm going to clean up some wiring in the engine control panel and then the aft locker.  After that, it will just be some small things.  Getting the medical kit together.  Figuring out health insurance and then boat insurance.

Have to go and hit the book for school tonight.  More papers to write.  Philosophy is a tedious thing to read and hard for me to write about.  I am just not that reflective.