Friday, October 31, 2014

ICW Sail, October 24 - 31, 2014

CaptMurph at the masthead of Kelly IV, anchored in Back Creek, Eastport, MD
In preparation for my cruise south to and through the ICW, I bought an LED bulb to replace the incandescent bulb for my anchor light.  This required that I climb the mast to remove the incandescent bulb.  Take it to the boat show to make sure the LED replacement would fit my anchor light, then climb back up the mast to install the LED bulb.  That assumes the new LED bulb works. 
Unfortunately, it did not.  So I climbed the mast again, discovered the problem (poor contact due to not enough pressure to maintain constant contact with the electrical contacts) and climbed back down to jury rig a solution (a plastic spring cut from a coffee tin).  A final trip up the mast to install the jury rig spring did the trick.  At some point in this process, I thought to call the marina, ask them to take a photo of me at Kelly IV's masthead and they did!



Below is the detailed documentation of the southbound cruise aboard Kelly IV, taken from my Facebook account, posted at the time.  (Click thru the "Newer Posts" at Bottom, For an abbreviated summary, Click Here)



DOLPHINS!

Kelly IV in the northern lock entering the Dismal Swamp Canal
Fellow sailors before the lock filled
Kelly IV tied up south of Dismal Swamp lock, waiting for engine repair

The fog referred to in the above post



Tuesday, October 14, 2014

Boat Show - October 7-14, 2014

Although I'm retired once again, I'm still working the US Sailboat Show.  Now I'm serving as a gopher (as in "go fer this, go fer that") for Harry Jones, owner of No Reef Technology Solutions, and helping Atlantic Cruising Yachts with their booths.  As is normal in this industry, we make sure we enjoy ourselves as we get the work done.