Yeah, it’s starts with one thing. Then, before you know it, you’re in Nepal, with a shaver in your hand, and a yak in front of you. And you can’t explain how you got there.
My most recent example was a minor project on Pearl, my 43-year-old fiberglass sloop.
As part of replacing the dome on her radar, I was also re-connecting the 20-year-old GPS unit’s antenna. This job consisted of the following steps:
- Install the antenna (with connected, long cable) on the radar mount.
- Thread the cable through the hull grommet, then on back inside the cabin and engine compartment to the GPS unit at the navigation station.
- Put a new SMA-type connector on the end of the cable.
- Plug it into the Furuno GP-30.
- Test it.
So easy to describe.
And the steps went pretty simply as well. Except during step 2, I accidentally broke the connection to Pearl’s stern light while threading the cable.
Now, this stern light is one of three deck-level running lights: two bow lights (a green one and a red one), and the white, aft-facing stern light. It turns out I never really use the deck-level running lights because I have a masthead “tri-color”, which is three lights in one, all facing the correct directions. It’s a high-power, Coast Guard-approved LED set that is generally considered more visible than deck-level running lights, and it’s relatively new; I installed it when I had the mast out six years ago. (Which, not ironically, is why the radar unit and GPS antenna were taken off, and they haven’t been re-installed since.)
And it’s strictly wrong to run with both sets of running lights on: This creates a light pattern that could be interpreted as “at anchor in channel” (I think) that you don’t want a ship captain to accidentally interpret as such. So I generally run at night with just the masthead tri-color on. The deck-level lights are pretty much reserved for if the tri-color doesn’t come on for some reason; i.e., a backup. Good to have, but not very essential.
So the first thing I could say about the broken stern light would be… fuggit. Don’t really need it. But that wouldn’t be me. Oh no.
So, all I have to do to re-connect the light is to remove the old, crusty butt connectors, strip back the four ends of the wires, and connect them with two new butt connectors. Oh so easily said.
But these wires are relatively short, and they’re underneath the far aft end of the deck of the boat, accessible only through the stern lockers, where one has to contort one’s head into an upside-down-and-sideways position to even see where the connectors are, let alone actually touch them.
And you have to do a lot more than just touch them. You have to get a set of crimper pliers in there, and use both hands to get the wires into the right position. Plus apply crimping-force pressure to the pliers. It’s just not possible without getting inside one of the lockers, and there’s nowhere near enough room to do that. It’s like these were crimped before the boat was finished being put together.
Okay, so how about you remove the stern light, extend its wires by a few feet, and re-install. Then I should have enough wire to make the connection, even if I have to be upside-down and sideways to do it.
So I pull out the stern light. And the connector falls apart in my hand. After all, it’s 43 years old, like most of the stuff on the boat.
Okay, well, new stern light connector needed. Only $43 at West Marine. Off to Sausalito I go, but of course they don’t have it in stock. They have the whole light fixture for $89, but it looks like it’s a slightly different size than the old one. You know where that could lead.
Right, so off to the world’s greatest local electronics store: Electronics Plus, in downtown San Rafael. Not just the greatest local electronics store, the only one in the county since Radio Shack left oh those many years ago.
Of course they have a socket with the correct miniature bayonet base for $3.95. I think I can make it work if I drill out the old base and, I dunno, glue this one in. Okay. Maybe still finish today.
But when I get home and drill out the base, I find out I don’t have any epoxy glue at home. I remember throwing out the old tube five months ago when I found it had hardened. I could use a different glue, but epoxy is