Okay We Are Almost Underway

BURRARD YACHT CLUB KEELS AND WHEELS                                                                                                         This event is a tribute our executive and James Nelson (Club Manager) and to those that put their talent together to invite JOE PUBLIC to our club and facilities. It is a minor form of bragging and our club has earned the honour of doing so without shame. The show has two parts, the antique and vintage cars in the parking lot and classic yachts on the ‘C’ & ‘D’ docks and inside breakwater. It was very stormy with winds up to 20 knots on the Straight so two of the thirty-one expected did not arrive. The “Wanderer” came around from Snug Cove and received a beating at Point Atkinson. Wolfgang at the helm said it was no fun and he had not been in worse conditions. He and she arrived in good shape and went on to win the Best of Show along with “Quester III” the yacht that had been at Maple Bay with OA.

Penny and I were so busy giving tours that we did not make it to view the cars in the parking lot. We took some time and parked our skiff on the main dock along with some carvings and paintings that we are creating for the kids and grand ladies. Parking the skiff on the hard gave me the opportunity to check out a small crack in the transom that turned out to be superficial. We had hoped to be away to sea just after the show but the purchase of a new older truck slowed us down. It is new to us (2012) and it was high time to give up the old RAM truck after sixteen years.

ABOUT RADAR                                                                                                                                                        When venturing north it is important to have the tools on board your vessel and radar is high on the list. Every year I fiddle with it and try to adjust the subtle nuances of tuning this helicopter device that stands on the pilot house roof. It spins and whirls and its Cyclops eye in the wheelhouse glows eerie green. It has buttons to turn and knobs to push. I don’t remember it being that hard to tune so when all else fails I dig out the manual. I have taken the time to cut out the foreign language part and which leaves the manual only about 2 inches thick. When you are at the helm on a long hall you have the time to study the sequences of the right buttons to push and turn as prescribed by some technicians in a far, faraway land that are garbed in a white lab coat.

I turn and twist the tuning stuff till I am blue in the face. There is a picture but I have to turn up the gain to even get it detect a large target. Oh well it will have to do, with all the technology today you think they could get it to at least to show a cruise ship 10  miles away? How the heck did they get to the moon? Before we leave to go the Gulf Islands and I flash up the beast cyclops and it functions as before, dissatisfied I put it on standby as there is no reason to spin the antenna array when you can see a fair distance ahead. It is, as I said before on a long crossing, I tend to get a little antsy and bored. I stab at the button that will take it from standby to get a picture. The screen stays that eerie green but it has a secret code message bottom left corner, MTR. I dig out the thick manual and scour page by page cover to cover. No such thing as MTR mentioned in the service manual.  There is nothing more to do but sleep on it or find a brainy person that speaks Radar.

We are at the Maple Bay Yacht Club and I have a very long time ago learned if you cannot solve a problem on your boat just start working on it in view of other boaters on the dock. There are all of a sudden, out of the heavens, all sorts of experts with free advice, some of it good. The best place to be viewed is on the roof of the boat as there is not a hope in hell that I can take the square box on the dash apart. Even if I could, I would not know what to look for. It said in the manual that every number of hours (we have not achieved them) you must lubricate with grease (with a number I have never heard of) the motor that turns the antenna. This is a good excuse to take the case off as I have been directed to in THE BOOK. Armed with tools I loosen the bolts off as directed and the lid drops down with a lot of other pieces that should have been attached. FOUR BOLTS THAT HOLD THE MOTOR up to the electronic parts have fallen out. I carefully place the motor up in the correct position and tighten the bolts. This coming apart of the motor damage was saved by a fuse in the Cyclops part. What were the chances that I would have the correct fuse? As it turns out I have about 15 of the right ones. Brilliant. I turn on the radar with crossed fingers and wait for the warmup countdown 20,19………………5,4,3,2,1. The screen exploded in a blast of light,,, steady’s up and it is a display that is RADAR PICTURE PERFECT. I don’t believe in the 8 years that we have had it that it worked so well. It must have come from the factory with lose bolts and over a period of time the bolts wormed their way out slowly degrading the picture. I can now hardly wait for fog or darkness to turn it on. Whoopi.    “MTR” STANDS FOR MOTOR!