n between jobs, it's been nice to meet up with several friends. Jeff, KJ6GET, took me to the not-very-conveniently-located office of Homeland Security to get a Cruising Permit yesterday - necessary for foreign-flagged boats wanting to cruise in US waters. We then went for a tasty lunch before returning to 'Nereida' where he retrieved the inflatable kayak he'd lent me in January in lieu of a missing dinghy for use when at anchor while cruising in Mexico.
Present problem items I'm trying to sort out include SSB radio, wind generator, solar panels, water-maker, EPIRB,.... with a lot of smaller items also on the list...
It was kind of Mark B. to spend time with me yesterday evening. He helped sort out my mainsail shape - when reefed it has been looking very baggy, but once the reef lines were taken away from the reefing point fixtures on the boom so that the reef lines were free to move aft, the reefed sail looked a far better shape. Now I need to move the reefing eyes to their new positions under the boom.
Friend Mark, AF6TC, came by 'Nereida' this morning with test equipment to check out the SSB radio - the end result being confirmation of my suspicion that the tuner is the problem. The radio, antenna, counterpoise and connections are fine but the tuner seems to have a faulty component causing it not to be able to tune well enough on certain frequencies, partly depending on the previous frequency it had tuned to. I'll be contacting Icom America about the problem to get the tuner looked at and repaired soon - possibly when I get up to the Pacific North West soon.
The wind generator seems to have become noisy and not to be outputting the power I expect - but that needs more investigation. The company seemed to be taking an extended 4th July holiday on Thursday & Friday! (Not the only company I tried to phone unsuccessfully last week!)
I visited friendly, helpful Downwind Marine & bought tinned wire yesterday to replace some corroded copper wire in the solar panel circuit - this afternoon's job - trying to resolve an ongoing problem and hoping, finally, see full power getting to the batteries..
Amusingly, people were complaining here about the heat yesterday - but I was perfectly happy with the sunshine, having just arrived from the warmth further south in Mexico!!
I'm planning to leave SD early on Tuesday and make a brief stop in San Pedro, Los Angeles. Then to Oxnard, soon after, before trying to round Pt Conception as soon as weather permits, on my way to San Francisco. Winds have been strong northerlies down that coast for quite a time, but I'm hoping they'll abate and give me a good weather window in a week's time.