Movin’ on

There’s not much to report for the last week.  Its not all that exciting in North Platte, Nebraska.  We did manage to take ourselves out for dinner yesterday.  We had such a good meal at Skeeter Barnes in Kearney that we thought we’d try to find some Nebraska prime rib here as well.  That didn’t work out because the place that was recommended didn’t open until late in the day and we really like to eat our big meal at noon.  Instead we ended up eating at a wonderful Mexican restaurant.  I don’t see how any other place could have been better than what we found so it worked out well. 

The installation had several hiccups which necessitated us staying longer than I originally thought we might but our plan now is to leave in the morning.  I’m going to make one more trip out to the farm so anything is possible but we’ll likely be on the road to Colby by noon.  Kansas is just over the next hill so it won’t take us more than a couple of hours to move and the next job is a really small one.  That means we’ll likely be ready to move on again by the end of the week but our next destination is still a mystery.  The client in Texas that I rushed back from Brazil to service at the start of August still hasn’t got his concrete poured and now doesn’t expect to be ready until early December.  It’s a good thing we’re pretty flexible.

I’ve started drawing up plans for the electrical upgrade on Gray Hawk.  I find it helpful to make drawings ahead of time, not so much as a template for construction but more as a way to focus my thinking on the project.  Already I’ve thought of a couple of items that hadn’t occurred to me before I started drawing.  The goal of the upgrade is to increase the electrical capacity of the boat and to bring it into compliance with current ABYC (American Boat and Yacht Council) standards.  Gray Hawk was doubtless built to ABYC standards in 1980 but the codes have evolved and changed over the years and I’d like to bring her into compliance with today’s standards.  She’s also a bit of a power hog particularly because of the electric range.  The way she is currently wired we can’t make use of the entire capacity of her generator.  As soon as we get done with the Growsafe trip we intend to move Gray Hawk first to Port Angeles for her haulout and then back to Cow Bay where I will tackle the electrical upgrade.