Tuesday January 11, 2011

It was very foggy this morning. NOAA weather radio said that visibility was down to one-sixteenth of a mile. The good news was that the temperature was headed toward the high 70’s. Shorts and flip flop weather.

This is the last day that WaterMark will be on the hard for quite sometime. She is scheduled to be splashed tomorrow at 1:00 PM. Since it was such a nice day, I decided to work as much as possible on the outside. This required a trip to West Marine. This also game me a chance to pick up a batter for my handheld marine radio. It is exactly one mile to the store. I measured it today because I rode my bike there so many times in December. I needed to know the distance.

The clerk as West Marine told me that the battery I needed was discontinued. This meant that I needed to purchase a new Marine radio. This expense caught me by surprise. The replacement is a nice radio and justified. Radio contact on the ocean is a good thing to have. It also is very helpful when talking with the bridge operators on the Intercoastal. The portable and be used directly from the cockpit. When I use the fixed mount radio, I have to run into the cabin and let the autopilot steer the boat while I am talking to the bridge operator. This blind sailing will be eliminated by the hand held radio. Much safer for me and the crew.

I also bought storage net for the boat. This way it is easier to store and retrieve my clothes. I installed the nets on the starboard side of the aft berth. It is the aft berth that I call home while on the WaterMark. The “v” berth in the bow is reserved for the crew.

I also purchased a motor mount. This will allow me to attach the five and one half house
Evinrude “Fisherman” out board motor that I got from cousins Andy and Mark. This motor belonged to their dad, my Uncle Joe. It is a 1959! The motor is shtill in working order. I put new plugs in and changed the lower gear oil. The Evenrude jumped to live on the third pull.

Last minute preparations took the rest of the day. I checked the electrical. I double checked the electronic charts on the Garmin GPS to be sure that they were ready for the Bahamas. They were. I was happy!

Watched a movie called I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry. There is no TV on the boat, but the computer has a DVD player built into it. So it is possible to watch movies on the computer while sitting on the boat. Movies is a nice addition and un to do because it gets dark at 5:30 PM. And there is still something to do.