07 January 2012

Titusville

We're going to try to get down to Titusville today. It should be an easy trip, but might take all day. I'm just waiting for the sun to come up and burn off some of the frost.

I took the dinghy over and picked up fuel and water from the Halifax Harbor Marina yesterday. I called around first and found the prices varied by up to a quarter a gallon -- HHM was the cheapest, as well as the nicest. I got 20 gallons of water and 10 gallons of diesel. The diesel topped me off, but I could take on another 40 gallons of water if I wanted.

In fact, if it had been foggy this morning as forecast, I probably would have done so, but it looks pretty good right now, so I'd rather get underway early. I just need to straighten up the deck and cabin, pm the engine, and weigh anchor.

Antenna watch:

I've been having a problem with my VHF antenna, so I went up the mast a couple times yesterday to see if I could fix it. I replaced the short cable up top, which did have a short, but it looks like either the cable in the mast, the bulkhead connector at the top of the mast, or the antenna itself is bad.

It's unlikely a problem with the antenna, but unfortunately the other two aren't easy to replace while the mast is up, so there isn't much I can do about it right now -- at least by myself. However, I do have the parts on board to replace the cable and all the connectors.

As a temporary solution, I made a small dipole and hung it from the starboard spreader, but will need to come up with a better mounting system. I'm also considering getting a whip I can mount on the stern pulpit as a backup. I'll look into it once I get to Titusville.

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