SailingKnitter

Snakes & Ladders gansey sweater - that's what I've been playing with for the past couple of days. This is a child's sweater by Beth Brown-Reinsel which I'm knitting in the wool sportweight yarn that's left over from Jonesy's gansey. For no good reason. Just because I can. Just have the neck finishing to work - then what? Where does it go? I don't know. But it sure is fun...

I've had to make myself scarce off the boat these past few days as men invaded my space to install our new chart plotter & radar. They unscrewed paneling & ceiling panels to try and find the wiring. It was HUMID yesterday and they were all sweating. Would you have hung around for that scene? Thought not. Finally, they found the wires they needed in the aft shower stall. Yup. This boat is like a jigsaw puzzle - while looking for the wires we found where the water / sewage pipes rise to get above the water level. We wondered where those were. One discovery after another.

Here's Jones and his new chart plotter. It's really cool - the GPS shows a color chart and an icon of a boat where you are located. Showed that we were right where we, huh, were. OK, not too exciting at the dock, but when we are out at sea in the fog, or on a dark night, we'll know right were we are relative to land. Plus, the radar will tell us if there are any other vessels in the area such as tankers & freighters that might run over us.

This is the Radar dome with the little GPS antennae which is mounted on the electronics arch at the back of the boat.

Well, it's much cooler this evening - dry, with a nice sea breeze. Jones went up topside this evening to ensure that the sun sets in the west. This is his routine; work hard on the boat all day, then grab a cold beer and his music and supervise the sun set. It's a tough job, but somebody has to do it.



I remembered to get the camera tonight and go up forward to get this picture of Jones. Usually, I'm sitting in the cockpit, knitting or reading so my view of this nightly ritual is...




Oh! Yesterday while we were out for the sunset we saw a Delta IV MISSILE launch from Vanderberg. It was beautiful - rose up out of the sunset so fast!!! Then we saw it go through a "stage" where it separated from the rocket boosters - and kept on going. What a rare treat!

Knitting on...