Wind Instrumentation Working, Radar on Way

I met Peter, the principal of Maritime Electronics at the boat on Thursday.  He had brought a spare masthead unit but started by looking at the electrical connections at the panel.  I had missed something.  I had connected 3 wires to the wind display but had not noticed a 4th wire, which had sheared off at the insulation so was showing no wire or connector.  Peter replaced all of the connectors and voila! I had wind speed and direction.

He then climbed up the mast to look at the radar with me managing his safety line at a winch and his assistant managing the chart plotter and passing up tools.  Peter found the repair work on one wire that had been done in Argentina, which had parted.  He joined up the wire, climbed above the radome so that he would not be cooked, then asked his assistant to begin transmitting.  The radar came up OK and worked fine.  Peter has ordered a new cable and will contact me when he is ready to make the swap.  Fortunately I routed the radar cable with practicality rather than appearance in mind, and from my recollection of the cable swap in Honolulu I figure that we can do the task in about an hour, particularly since I will be doing the pre work of loosening all of the cable ties.

We discussed the fact that this was the second cable failure since the radar unit was installed in 2007 and his analysis confirmed what I had already figured out.  I had gone to the trouble and expense of having the mast removed so that a conduit could be installed for the radar cable, the idea being to eliminate points of chafe and ensuring a long life for the cable.  So far so good.  However, after the radome was installed with the cable passing directly across from the opening at the mast to the dome, Edgar the rigger complained, and I'm not sure if the problem was interference with the inner forestay or the effects of pumping of the mast with the radome that high.  (The mast is so heavy that I have never seen it pump.)  So the radome was moved down the mast which necessitated the removal of the baby stay and worse, resulted in a U-bend in the cable as it passed up the mast, out through the opening, then down to the radome.  Peter could feel the entire weight of the cable as it passed through that opening. He will do what he should have done when he first installed the radar: put a heavy sheath around the cable to protect it as it passes through the mast.

When the radar is repaired the boat will be 100% ready for sea as far as I can tell.  All major systems are ready, e.g. sails, rigging, electronics, engine, refrigerator, stove.  In the past few months I have visited the boat at every opportunity and have removed all superfluous equipment so that it has plenty of room and is ready for provisioning.  The gas cylinders and diesel tanks are full.

Bunbury Cruise here we come!