Blizzard Warning

It looks like Zoe will have a lot of snow to play in for the next few days. The forecast calls for accumulations of up to 16", so life's about to get interesting. The blizzard warning starts at 6am tomorrow morning, so hopefully we'll get our morning walk in before it gets too bad.

Since I don't have the cover on yet, I spent the afternoon preparing the deck. I spread canvas on the port side deck, and secured the stairs with a couple of lines. I ran one about 2 feet above the deck as a lifeline from the stair pulpit aft to my stern pulpit and another one from the stair handrail forward under the bow and to the foredeck cleat. Then I slipped a fender between the hull and the stairs and pulled the lines nice and tight.

I had to pull off the regular lifelines because they go outside the shrouds, and with the shrouds off, are slack and fall too close to the coach roof to walk safely on the side decks carrying Zoe. I got the rest of my decks cleared as well, but still want to re-tape up the hole where my chainplate pulled through.

We'll probably be stuck inside for several days, but I've got plenty to do in the cabin, so I'll concentrate on that until the weather clears.

Book watch:

As I mentioned before, I'm going to use my uninsulated backstay for my HF/SSB antenna, and run a bunch of lines under the deck for counterpoise. It should work fine, but I'd like to understand why, so I started reading the ARRL Antenna book. I also downloaded an open source antenna modeling program, but still need to read the book before I try to use it. I got souped up on all this stuff for my exams this summer, but now it's time to really learn it.