Contortion and Manatees

Today we set out to rebed the anchor roller and a mount for the spinnaker pole that we had noticed needed attention. Rebedding is pretty simple: remove the piece of hardware, clean it and the deck up really good, add some sort of caulking, and replace. Over the years it’s needed when the caulking hardens to make sure water stays where it should…outside the boat.

As is typical, while doing one chore, you find something else that is broken. After Lindy scraped the hardware, she happened upon this piece of plastic laying near the mast. “What’s that?” you say. Ah, it’s a fin broken off the wireless wind indicator on the top of the mast. Quick check on the interwebs…a new wireless wind indicator is over $400! Think I’ll attempt to epoxy the fin back on before I give up and buy a new unit. Guess we’re lucky it fell onto the boat. Probably came off in the storm that passed through yesterday evening.

Of course, that will require a trip up to the very top of the mast. Stay tuned for that post another day!

Anyways, back to the rebed and where the contortion comes in. This is the part where I climb into the anchor locker to tighten nuts while Lindy holds the bolt up top. It’s a squeeze for sure not to mention I can only get about a quarter turn at a time, it’s very hot with no air flow, and I’m laying on top of a comfy pile of anchor chain.

As always though, we eventually complete the task and feel good to have another thing off the list. Oh yeah….didn’t I promise manatees…

Our sore hands and itchy fiberglass arms always feel a little better when these guys come by to say hello right next to the boat at the end of a task 🙂