Opua: radared; sheared; gannets
Opua: radared; sheared; gannets
The repaired radar was in the marina office yesterday, and I rowed it back to the boat and reinstalled it.
The scanner is on a gimbaled backstay mount, which I can raise and lower by myself, tightening two essential bolts while standing on the upper tube of the stern pulpit.
Passing showers held off, but the wind gusted to over twenty knots. Fortunately no chop.
It is up and it works. There is an odd satisfaction in this even though I seldom use radar and have no immediate need for it. The boat is well equipped, and mostly what I do is try to keep what I already have working. The gennaker furler is new and an exception, as will be a power windlass if I get one next year.
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When I had hair, I cut it myself. Now that I don’t, I pay other people to cut the vestiges.
I don’t understand that, but there are lots of things I don’t understand.
Although boats are trickling in--two were at the Quarantine Dock this morning--most of the cruising fleet is still in the islands, and Lisa, a local woman who comes to the marina on Saturdays during the summer to cut hair, has not yet begun to do so this year.
I happened to see her in the parking lot this morning and asked about her schedule. She said she had her tools in the car and gave me a hair cut on the spot.
It is easy to get sheared in a country with a lot of sheep.
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I recall seeing them only here and in South Africa.
Here they mostly frequent the more open waters in the main part of the bay near Cape Brett, but occasionally glide down to Opua.
Larger than sea-gulls, smaller than albatrosses, they dive from considerable heights to catch fish, and even with folded wings hit the water like an artillery shell.
I’ve never heard them call, which reminds me that
last evening while I was watching the start of the Wednesday evening Opua Cruising Club race, a cormorant surfaced beside the boat and began to bark like a dog.
Thursday, October 18, 2007