Lighting Work

I spent most of the day waiting for the radar guys who never arrived.  It didn't bother me because I was pretty busy doing something useful with my time.  Shortly after arriving in  Argentina the double-tube neon light over the galley had quit working.  Fortunately I had the solution on hand.

New Cabin LED Light

In La Paz I had purchased and installed a great LED light in the head.  I showed it to Ib who was so impressed with it that he went and bought one for his boat.  I was so impressed by Ib being so impressed that I decided to purchase a second one with switch as a spare in case I lost one of the three neon lights in the cabin area.  That day came and I decided to move the neon in the main cabin to the galley and mount the new LED light to illuminate the main cabin area.  I took my time and everything worked out OK.  The main cabin light now has an industrial look about it, but it is one great light that illuminates the cabin as never before and uses only milliamps of power.  At this point in my cruising life I am more interested in functionality and practicality than appearances.

At 3.30 PM I concluded that the radar guys were not going to show up so I went to the club and had a shower and shave then set off to visit the electronics firm, Electronica Naval S.A. On the way I set up my laptop in the restaurant to check my email in case Carlos had sent me a message about the radar, and Pato showed up with his baby daughter in a stroller.

We had a good conversation.  He's done good work with the sail repair, though there are limits to what he can do without rebuilding the entire sail.  He has repaired the damaged area of the sail and strengthened its surrounds but he says that the problem could reoccur in other parts of the sail.  I'll consider the sail to be a good backup.

Pato gave me the good news that the rigger can come to Pachuca from BA as long as I pay the transportation time, which I readily agreed to do.  It will be a lot cheaper in time and money to pay riggers to come to the boat from BA than for me to take the boat to BA.  Pato will visit the boat on Sunday afternoon to take photographs of the rigging and discuss the new headsail that he will be making.  While he's on the boat I'll show him the spray dodger and the remains of the sail cover and lazy jacks.

Radome at convenient height above crosstrees

Radome lowered on a line

I then walked over to the electronics shop and Carlos happened to be at the window, seemed happy to see me, and asked me into his office where we had a very good conversation.

He explained that his men had not been able to visit Pachuca because they had had to deal with a problem on a fishing boat.  I dismissed this as not important to me, given that fishing boats is their bread and butter and I've got plenty of time.

We are not completely out of the woods with the radar.  Yes, they repaired the logic that converts the analogue signals to digital and transmits them down the cable, but they can't be sure that the cable hasn't been damaged also.  Tomorrow his men will put up the radar and if it works, great, and if it doesn't work they will have to look at the cable.

I asked him about the autopilot and he showed me a photograph of the board of the controller/display at the binnacle which showed large gray spots of salt water invasion all over the place.  Looking at that photo I would have judged the board a write-off,  He said that the board is multi-layered with components communicating between the layers.  They managed to diagnose the problem areas, replace components, and re-establish some pathways with fresh wiring.

I told Carlos that I was very impressed at the level to which his people work.  I told him that it was the best electronics workshop that I had seen yet.  He explained that they consider Argentina to be at the end of the supply chain and they have to rely on their own resources. Fishing boats come in with a problems which must be fixed during the 48 hours that they are in port and his people have learned to do whatever it takes with whatever they have at hand to get equipment up and running quickly.  The workshop is modern and they do keep a lot of spares.  Carlos said that the company was founded in the mid 60's and he represents the second generation.

I popped my head out of the cabin late in the morning and found that a new boat had tied up to my starboard.  It was flying no flags, but looked like a battle-hardened cruiser rather than a local boat.  Later I ran into John, skipper of the French boat, who told me that he recognized the boat, which he had seen in Puerto Williams in the Beagle Channel.  I asked what nationality and he replied "French".  I smiled approvingly.  I'm sure that I'll hear a lot of French chatter during the next few days as they two crews swap yarns.

These boats that have done the Horn and Beagle Channel so far all seem to be mostly of modest size (30-35 ft) and equipment.  They make Pachuca look more luxurious than she is.  It's all understandable.  The young guns with few resources want the adventure, and few cashed up old farts with the better boats are willing and able.

By the way, it took me a while to figure out  how to enlarge the photos with the new system.  Left click on the photo that you want to see, then right click and select "view image".  You will now be able to inlarge the photo.