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Aug 12-13: Sirius radio installation and West Marine shopping!

Sara and I did CPR and first aid training on Saturday morning. Mike, I can't wait for you to have further choking problems. I now know all the right moves to deal you a death blow. I mean.. uh.. help you. We still should do a general first-aid course, but we're looking for something during the week; these weekend events kill our productivity.

We went down to the boat after lunch and I honestly can't remember what we worked on at all. There's a five hour gap in my memory. No clue what we did. I'm still writing, hoping that something will jog my memory, but I can't remember a thing.

Aha! I remember. We did some prep work for the Sirius satellite radio installation into the cabin bulkhead, I drilled and mounted the antenna on the flat space behind the cockpit wall, just above the transom, and Sara went and found some exotic connectors to mount everything. We got the radio install mostly figured out.

It doesn't seem like much, but that was a rush to finish before dark. We headed home for an evening party with Sara's work friends. It was great to relax for a short time. We got home early at 9PM and slept until 8AM the next day. Yowza.

We did a lot of research the next morning, making and re-making lists and more lists. Comparing prices, comparing specifications on parts we need, making even more lists. I think we escaped the house at 10AM.

We then picked up Wyn and Amy from the boatyard and went to West Marine Sausalito to buy anchor chain and rode. We ended up spending $1500, and that's with their port supply discount, and we totally forgot to buy the chain or rode. It sucked!

We got lots of little things we've been meaning to get for a while, like pads to keep the cushions off the bunks (to stop mold/mildew), like extra propane tanks, new sparkplugs for the outboard, an oil soaker thing to clean the bilge, etc.

We bought some bigger items, like an outboard mount, swim ladder, and very expensive whisker pole mounts. All of those items are being returned. Too short, too short, wrong size. Ugh. Luckily WM has the world's best return policy, and they have different mounts, longer swim ladders, and stanchion-mount whisker pole holders.

Once back on the boat, Sam arrived to do some work and we got the Sirius satellite radio installed in the bulkhead. We partially wired it up and need to do more research and planning before we finish. After that Sam tackled the steering quadrant, and got one connection off, while Sara and I cleaned, organized, and did some prep work to finish the SS rail tubing.

We hit up Thai Smile after it got dark - we're becoming regulars - and were home early for bed. Too bad we spent the next two hours figuring out what parts we needed to return, what new parts we need to buy, etc.

Here's the updated job list:

To buy other:

To buy at WM:

To do:

Ugh. This was a one-step forward, three- or four-steps back weekend.

Love you guys,
Will


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