14thJan07: a resident blue heron surveys the boats at San Diego Y.C. from an adjacent roof.
Originally uploaded by svNereida.
I flew back from LHR on Thursday 11th Jan, after a month of frantic catching-up back in London & having visited the London Boat Show twice. A very productive two days as, apart from seeing several friends, I gained practical support/sponsorship from several manufacturers & the promise of some from others. Musto will be sending me out clothing (and I was delighted to find myself chatting with Mike Golding on their stand for a time), Andersen replaced a winch handle lost overboard on the way up from Hawaii to Sitka and will supply free spares for my winches in future, Selden will be giving me a major discount from now on anything I need, Raymarine have promised to send me a new radar scanner and C-series display unit, GarminUK are almost certain to supply some very welcome equipment, Nasa Marine gave a major discount on their stand-alone AIS receiver unit, Brunton's supplied several spare anodes for my Autoprop, PTFE bearings were donated by Ambassador Marine for my Ropestripper and Icom UK donated a spare hand-held mic for my SSB radio.
This weekend has been busy with trying to work on my website ... very time-consuming.
Tomorrow, my engine rear seal is being dealt with - that should stop the oil leak that has been causing the flywheel and starter-motor to be covered in oil for some time now.
I shall be dividing my time this week between getting to know the new Admiral 9.0 Nobeltec charting software, working more on my website and completing my instruments/wiring project in the chart table area - at the moment, nothing is functioning down below!!
Another major project is installing mast steps & a new wind indicator and replacing the very worn goose-neck toggle with a new one incorporating a bronze bushing. Before I left in December, I replaced the gas spring in the rod-kicker and spent several days sorting out the wiring & new instruments in the cockpit area so that they are all functioning and 'talking' to each other.
I expect to be kept very busy for the next 3 weeks, probably!