Saturday 091215– in Hammond Indiana

Weather/Sea   RAIN RAIN, Cloudy, wind 10to20, temp 50to 65

   Captain - John C. Kwak crew NONE

Dutchess and I are in Hammond Indiana in the Hammond Marina and next to the Horseshoe Casino. No I have not gambled yet!!! This is a very large Marina with hundreds of slips. I am about a mile from the office. There is a yacht club on the property and they are having a dinner tonight which I plan to attend. First I have to go to the shower house which is a 1000 feet from the boat and it is raining buckets and it is cold therefore waiting for the weather to clear and now I have time to write this blog. I am still looking for crew to go down the Rivers from Chicago, please spread the word. I plan to wait in Hammond Marina until a crew shows up. I placed an ad in the AGLCA web site which is where I got my previous crew mates.

I got the mast and boom removed at Crowley Yacht Yard and it is packaged and waiting for transport to Alabama. I had to remove all the stays and shrouds; these are coiled in 3’ circles and stored on deck. Also the wind transducer, the VHF antenna, the Steaming/Deck light, the Lightening Rod, and the spreaders were removed and stored on the boat. The sails are stored in the stern cabin on the other bunk, that really fills my quarters.

I have a separate VHF antenna on the radar arch which is now connected to the Standard Horizon VHF Radio so we have radio for communicating with all the dock masters and Towboat Captains. Incidentally this radio also receives AIS signals from all commercial vessels which allow you to call the vessel by name which usually means that they will answer you. The radio is connected to a small Garmin Chart Plotter that shows my boat and the target vessels on a chart and when you push the right buttons it will give you the info on the target. The info consists of name of vessel, location coordinates, speed, direction of travel etc. all important to avoid collisions. This is more important on the rivers because there is less room to maneuver.

Crowley also repaired the windlass with a new motor and solenoid. They first assembled the new motor and transmission upside down and had to redo that. They then hooked up the wires wrong which I pointed out to them. Then it still would not run, I checked the electrical wiring in the anchor locker and found that they had disconnected the main wires to the unit. Then the unit would only pull the chain and not let it out. Again I pointed out that they had it wired wrong so after a few trails it finally was working properly.

Un-stepping the mast cost $10.00 per boat foot or $440. for Dutchess, packaging the mast and boom took 2 hrs. at $110.00 per hr. so $220.00 plus shop supplies $1.00 a bargain, plus tax the total was $676.10. Loading the mast on the truck in the future was charged at $88.00. Repairing the Windlass including parts totaled $1,748.35. The total spend at Crowley YY is $2,512.45 isn’t boating fun!!! The trucking will cost $450.00 to get the mast to Alabama.