CHICAGO, ILLINOIS USA
Last night one of my college friends, Dan, invited me over to see his new apartment and catch dinner. He had a really nice place and it was great to see some friends before I leave for the winter. I couldn't stay out late though because I had to be at the boat at 0800 today. I woke up to wind pounding on the windows, desperately trying to get in to the warm apartment and away from the awful, cold morning. Outside low gray, gloomy clouds were racing across the sky and the cold north wind ripped right through my clothing and brought a chill to my bones. What a nasty day! There were signs of rain on the pavement as I drove south down lakeshore drive and I could see that Lake Michigan was riled up and quite crabby this morning as waves crashed over the break wall that protected the party cove Chicago knows as the play pen. There were no parties going on this morning. The sun was trying to shine through on the eastern horizon but massive rain squalls were doing their part to keep the day as gloomy as possible. I met Wade, our yacht services guy, at the gate and got inside the boat as quickly as possible. Today was one of those days to crawl in to a hole put on a movie...any movie, even a chick flick for all I care, and waste the day away. Instead, we crawled in to a hole in the engine room and got to work. Wade made quick work of the bad hydraulic thruster pump. With the pump now safely disengaged we would be able to run the boat and use the thrusters on just the port side pump. We decided that even though it is super annoying that we would leave the alarm engaged. It is also the alarm for low oil pressure and low fluid levels, so while the faulty alarm will be driving me crazy while docking and in the locks, it will be a safe move to leave it engaged. We didn't mess much with the selector switches and decided it would be best to wait until both pumps were healthy again before testing those. The thoughts were that the computer unit may be smart enough to not allow us to engage a pump if an alarm is going off. Goran, the electrician also stopped by to my surprise (not that he never shows up but just that I wasn't expecting him). We installed some stereo equipment and got the problem figured out with our electronic rudder indicator not responding. We are finally getting close to being ready to leave, and other than a provision we could leave today if we had to, minus the fact that Lake Michigan is wild right now. Duff has been doing great work painting some areas on the aft deck and everything looks brand new! I think with the weather the way it is today and the fact that the boat is in good order I will take the rest of the afternoon off and visit with some friends before leaving for the winter. Its starting to rain...hard, and the wind is ruthless! Time to turn the heat on in here!
Sound Waves Out
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