Monday I drove to Toronto to drop off my transmission. I know that it would probably have been cheaper to ship it, but I find that when you are getting someone to do work for you then a face to face meeting usually makes the work more personal, and usually a little better. Plus, I had some Mason's chandlery bucks left over that were about to expire. Although in hind sight, I should have just went to West Marine and paid full price rather than drive to the other end of the city; note for next time. I also wanted to go to the Nautical Mind Book Store. I have been ordering from them for years but never was able to get to the store. I tried a few times as an after-thought while we were in the city, but was never able to find it, this time I took a map.
The transmission was a good deal, because the wholesale dealer messed up not correcting their database to show the transmission discontinued the lady at Eastmar Marine guilted them into doing the rebuild themselves for a 4 hour charge plus parts. So apparently this is something special and I have lucked out. Guess we'll know after going to the Bahamas and back.
The Nautical Mind,,,, if your a book junkie, and a sailing junkie, don't ever go there. If you do, you will while away hours of you life, drive whoever is with you crazy, and go home much poorer than you came. I went with a list, and the store isn't any bigger than my bedroom. I put $2 in the meter which gave me 40 mins. I ran out later, 15 min after my ticket expired, and put in another $1 for an additional 20 min, then when I left that ticket was 15 mins overdue, and I was really rushing it; with a list.
After much deliberation, these are the books I decided to get. Guides and charts are expensive, and as much as I would like to have them all, its just not in the budget. We have several copies of the Canadian and American charts that we need. Mostly electronically, in several formats, but some in paper. However we need the ones for the Bahamas. The Explorer Chartbooks seem to be the most often recommended, so I went for the them. There are 3 for the Bahamas, but I figure that we will not likely make it that far down until the next year. We'll only have three of four months, and we are taking our time. For guides I chose the Waterway guides, the Chesapeake, the ICW, and the Bahamas. The Northern one would have been nice, but it covers a small area of where we will be, and I didn't think the extra $50 was worth it. I also picked up Nigel Calder's Diesel Engines book, it will soon be time to become intimate with the grey beast under the companionway. I don't particularly like the Waterway guides, being spoiled by the Ports guides up here in Canada; the format is lacking. However, they did seem to have the most information, and the most pertinent information. Now all I have to do is rip out all the adds so the books can be as small a possible.
I also picked up Scott and Wendy Bannerot's Handbook of Fishing. I have been a pretty avid fisherman for many years, making my own lures, and being fairly successful on the water. However moving over to saltwater and bigger fish needs a little schooling. And, this is about the only book in the game. My intention is to enjoy the bounty of the sea, and this book is going to help me prepare. Guess I'll be making some new lures this winter.
Lastly I threw in some pictures of my latest project. It was recommended by one of our old salts down at the club that I replace the boom before I go, with something a little heftier. After spending time and money extending the original, it seems kind of sad, but I think he is right. I bought a mast off of a Bayliner Bucanneer 28. The guy uses it for a cottage/motorboat and has no use for the mast.
The new boom works out to be almost twice as strong as the original. And it has more room on the sides for mounting blocks, cleats, and a small winch for the clew reef points.
I'll have to build a new piece for the gooseneck, and set up where the lines will go. Then I have to sand off the black paint, prime and paint it before the spring. Its black, and Vita's spars are white. I am also reengineering the whole system with a shorter boom and moving the mainsheet in front of the binnacle. That way we have room for a bimini, and we get that damn mainsheet off my back, literally.
That's all. I am in the woods this week trying to get enough firewood for next winter, in case we are stuck here for another year. I am hopeful, if not confident that we will be gone, but I also need to prudent and responsible. Sometimes being an adult is hard work.
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