As fast as I check off items on our to-do list more to-dos are added so that the over-arching effect is one of going backwards…fast. Escape Velocity is responding to all this love, attention and money with ever lengthening lists of things that she would like doing. I feel like we may have turned a corner on at least some of the simultaneous projects that are going on right now. For a change most of the projects are of the sprucing-up variety but as always, safety takes precedence. The big project is a new autopilot and I couldn’t be happier contemplating pulling the old unit that has bedeviled us out from under our bed.
Breaking with custom and tradition the new autopilot arrived on time thanks to the great ladies at Marine Warehouse, and the installer said he’d start a day earlier than we agreed on!
We’re taking the opportunity to redo the ad hoc instrument wiring that has bedeviled us while adding a new GPS antenna that should improve the performance of our old chart plotter. This was another Marce find which we bought in Miami but never installed because of the incredible disruption caused by the need to take down the ceiling panels. Being already well disrupted we said now it’s a no-brainer. The real skill is getting the old stuff to play nice with the new stuff. Not for the faint of heart or amateur installers. We’re kind of like the Tower of Babel of boats with everything speaking in different tongues like NEMA 0183, NEMA 2000, Can-bus, old SeaTalk, new Sea Talk and that’s just the ones I’m aware of.
So many good friends have stopped by to marvel at the changes to Escape Velocity, most are heading back up North but once again we’re here until the autopilot is working because I have refused to go to sea without an autopilot that I trust. We’re not there yet, but we’re close.
We can’t wait to see our friends back in Grenada…well that and a fresh baguette right out of the oven!
