Makina Sea Log : Aug 25, 2026

No sooner had we returned to the mooring in Mahone Bay than the weather turned rainy.

The general plan was to do some solo sailing practice in the Bay, yet the few afternoons where the sun broke through offered a chance to deal with some unfinished chores. The first clear afternoon was spent picking up some supplies and doing a little tour around town.

One surprise, after a particularly heavy downpour, was to find water over the salon table and my laptop which was open upon it. It ended up being the mast cap. This is a covering which surrounds the mast as it continues through the cabin's roof and down to the keel. It had worked itself free to allow the deluge of rain to come pouring through. Finding the water source and repairing it took the better part of one promising afternoon.

Another promising day had me going online to contact the fellow who had done my boat survey when preparing to purchase Makina, in order to get some pictures he took of my rudder, in order to prove a point with the shipyard who had rebuilt and reinstalled it last winter. My daughter discovered me online and we ended having a long chat and catching up, which whiled away another promising afternoon for solo sailing.

Although today brought little wind, it was pleasantly sunny. The tech who is trying to debug a frustrating install of a new radar wanted to drop round. It was pleasant to be at dock after so long on the mooring ball and being plugged into the grid. Staying overnight is looking like a guilty pleasure.

Having focused on the radar which is mounted on the mast previously; today he took the chart plotter from the helm to do some bench testings on.

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He is also a crypto enthusiast so he brought his newly Linux installed laptop, which had been my gift for the extended time he has spent on it and helped connecting his ledger up with it. Between radar debugging and Linux instructions another promising, yet pleasant, afternoon passed by.

The LED on his ledger had given out; something which had happened to me with a ledger some time ago. If it were dark enough he could still read what was on the ledger's tiny screen. We had what we called a Snowden Moment when we covered him with a blanket to be able to see well enough to connect with the device; reminding us of a scene in the Snowden documentary where he did the same so as to ensure his passwords remained secure.

Tomorrow's forecast is planned to be sunny with moderate winds, so perhaps that will be the day for some solo sailing at last. Meanwhile tonight will be spent basking in unlimited electrical currents.

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May the wind be at your back!

A listing of my sailing posts

https://hive.blog/blog/@novacadian/categories-of-novacadian-s-sailing-seasons

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