Holed Up

Liberty Island Park NJ, N40 42 W74 04
October 25 Today was the first since we’ve lived on the boat that we stayed shut in. In Libby’s words, we “holed up.” It was so cold and rainy and windy outside that going outside was unthinkable. We puttered around with projects we could find in the boat, cleaning, organizing, rearranging.

I tried to undo the “permanent” changes that NY requires in the waste handling. We’re in NJ and heading out to sea so I prepared to pump wastes into the sea. Unfortunately I hit a roadblock. I had put a wooden bung in the discharge pipe and now I can’t get it out. I’ll have to wait until we can get a pipe wrench to remove the pipe and then try to unbung (debung?) it.

I also tried a last ditch attempt to revive the broken computer. I read somewhere that corrosion is the thing that kills computers after water immersion, so the best thing to do is to dry them thoroughly with gentle heat. I baked the computer in the oven at 150 degrees for one hour. No response. The green light won’t even come on when power is applied. I cranked the temperature up to 200 degrees, whoops, temperature control is not precise on our oven and it overshot to 220. The plastic case and keyboard keys melted. Oh well, I had nothing to lose by trying. I still have the hard disk, and it is not melted. Perhaps it will still work.

I’ll get Jennifer to mail our backup disk when I know a mail address we might be for a day or two. I can use the backup disk to restore my files and address books.

Last night and this morning the winds were fierce. Luckily we lied in a spot sheltered from the winds and waves. I also tied a line ashore to keep us close to the wall. Today I heard a honk of a police horn. I looked out and there was a mean female policewoman. She shouted, “No tying up.” and untied my line. I thought that very mean and contrary to safety. However, since she had a gun and since the wind had mostly abated, I didn’t argue with her. She also made the neighboring boat untie his line too.