Lat 28°01.49 N. Lon 97°02.87 W.
 |
| Peace at days end... |
They say that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. We enjoy the ride up, then we endure the other side with the knowledge that this too, shall pass.
As wonderful as yesterday was, with all it's newness… today was back to reality. This evening we remind ourselves that there are bad days in every life, and at least we have a comfortable home on the water with an ever changing, million dollar view. The cliches just keep coming as we try to squelch our frustration.
Our plans to take a bike ride and sample some of the touristy things to do in Rockport were put off by intermittent thunderstorms this morning. No worries, I baked some cookies and we were snug as bugs. Bruce thought it would be a perfect day to tackle a niggling project that we thought would be pretty simple. Several months ago, the boat icon on our chart plotter flipped around backwards. (no lie) The bearing on the autopilot was the opposite of our true course and the autopilot wasn't working right. We've sailed so little in these months, this project sank to the bottom of the pile.
 |
| What once was our bedroom... |
Long story short, we tore the boat apart and fixed everything we could think of, traced wires, replaced connecters, reseated plugs… all to no avail. We did SOMEthing… as we watched the bearing reading move in a circle. Hmmm… not what we had in mind. At the end of the day, we put everything back in order, but were no closer to knowing the cause of our problem than we were this morning. We were further frustrated by the fact that the really slow internet connection I was able to coax from our Rogue Wave, showed that there were others out there experiencing this problem, but none of them got answers either… It may end up that we need to replace a component, but WHICH component?…
Top it all off with the realization that the bicycle cable we brought with us to fix Bruce's bike… is too short and we'll have to find another. Just PEACHY! Bruce was feeling pretty down-in-the-dumps about this latest development when I came out to survey the scene. In reminding him that it was not really a big deal, we would get another cable, and we would eventually fix our chart plotter problem, and that we still had a nice cool evening to enjoy and some luscious bacon/jalapeño/shrimp waiting to be grilled, and that we didn't even know for sure what day it was because we don't have to go back home… Things began to look better.
We took that walk, we lounged on the veranda (with our new coffee table/life raft), we grilled and ate those shrimps and the troubles of the day melted away. Yes we're "living our dream"… but every day can't be jubilation. Some days are equally the opposite… And this (another cliche) makes us appreciate the good days all the more.
Understand that I have no good knowledge of how these things work, but immediately wondered what you have stored next to your electronic compass, the one that goes with the autopilot? Is there anything close to it that could be causing it to go wonky? Like a big piece of steel?
ReplyDeleteI wish it were that simple. We took everything even near the compass out and it didn't help. We even removed the compass from the bulkhead and moved it around. It would change obviously, but then continue to clock around slowly to the left. We'll get it worked out eventually, it's just frustrating to feel ignorant about something so important. We will be fine in the GIWW and will try to get it resolved in Galveston/Kemah. Thanks for posting!
Delete