Drift Away: Mystery Duck, Tennis Balls, and Messy Wires

Sunday, July 3, 2011

Mystery Duck, Tennis Balls, and Messy Wires

I saw this guy paddle by Drift Away the other day. He was alone, even though he appears to be a juvenile. I looked all through our bird book and couldn't figure out what he is. If anyone knows, I'd appreciate a little help here.

People often ask me what it's like living on a boat with critters. Well, first of all, it's messy. The two young playful dogs leave chew toys and tug-of-war toys scattered all about, and as quickly as we pick them up, they drag them out. They especially like to play with tennis balls on the decks. They like tennis balls anyway because they're chewy and they bounce, and on the deck they bounce and roll in all directions. Sometimes right off the boat. Here's a pic of Megan (Pam's daughter) fetching an errant ball.

Today (Sunday) was a rainy day. No outdoor boat projects for us, and no ripping the rotten wood out of the foredeck. It would be really wet and messy. So what to do? Our boat had an audio system installed thirty plus years ago, and it hadn't worked since we bought the boat last year. Even if it did, it was an underpowered AM/FM/Cassette car radio hooked up to a big honking amplifier. I bought a 200 watt AM/FM/CD/iPod unit at West Marine today, ripped out the old stuff, sorted through all the unlabeled wires (I'm glad I can use a multi-meter) and installed the new unit. It works really nice, although a few of the speakers are disintegrating and will need to be replaced.

I installed the new radio in the cabinet where the old one was.   What a rat's nest! You can see what I had to deal with in the above photo.   At least the original installer used a bus bar which made the job much, much easier.

After powering on the new radio, the only speakers that didn't work were on the aft deck, the helm station, and the foredeck.   The problem with the aft deck and helm station speakers was the same, a box with a volume control and on-off switch. The switches disintegrated in the off position.  I just by-passed the switch. Now they work great, although they're always on when the radio is. The foredeck speakers require working in the flybridge, and since it's raining, I'll leave that for another day.

I'll have to think of something clever to organize and hide all those wires, eh?   For now, I'll just close the door.

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Drift Away Specs

Drift Away is a 1980 Cheoy Lee 46' LRC (long range cruiser). She has twin 120 HP Ford Lehman diesels, 15 kw and 7.5 kw generators, and carries 800 gallons of fuel and 400 gallons of water. She cruises at 8 knots and has a top speed of 9.5 knots, plenty fast enough for this old sailor.

She is somewhat unique in that the inside helm staion is on the main level, along with the galley and saloon. There is also a helm on the flybridge. The lower level has three staterooms, each with a full head, plus the engine room.

Drift Away sat on the hard for many years before we bought it from an estate. She has suffered considerably from neglect, but we are amazed at all the things that work, like the two Ford Lehmans, and the Naiad stabilizers. There was and is much work to do, but we will return her to ship shape condition. Eventually. As long as it doesn't interfere with having fun.