On a recent morning when the weather was more settled, we were treated to a spectacular sunrise, and snapped this photo of Mt. Baker. Very inspiring!

Wow! We’re having quite a storm today! Strong winds are howling through our marina and we’re listening to the clanging of halyards on nearby sailboats, as Western Washington is being hammered by a strong fall storm. Our boat is rolling around a bit in the wind gusts, but we feel the boat is secure. We already replaced our summer mooring lines with the winter lines, and to help secure our boat during this storm (and all the winter storms yet to come), we have doubled up the mooring lines that take the most force from the prevailing southeast winds in Anacortes Marina.

Yesterday we had heavy rain and strong winds. So far this afternoon has been dry, but the wind gusts are more intense. Storm warnings (which means winds of 55 to 73 mph, or 48 to 63 knots) are now posted for our local waters, which means even stronger winds are in the forecast for tonight. It might be a tough night for sleeping! This storm is supposed to subside tomorrow and we hope things will quiet down next week.

The calm of last week’s harvest moon seems like a distant memory. This photo shows the moon as it rose above the marina breakwater.

Our weather has definitely changed to fall! We’re having more rainy days, which has interrupted our outside work. We did get in a little more waxing on Friday, which turned out to be a nice sunny, calm day…the calm that precedes the storm, I guess! We’ve now got a good coat of wax on all the areas of the cabin and hull that needed it the most. It would be nice to finish some of the remaining areas…and we will, if we get any more dry days. But if the weather won’t cooperate, we feel that we’ve waxed enough of the surface to protect the boat over the winter.

We also took advantage of Friday’s sunny weather to clean some of our canvas covers—the dinghy cover, windshield cover, and hatch covers. Our Sunbrella canvas is now 12 years old, and is showing a fair amount of wear, plus it soils more easily. We used 303 Fabric & Vinyl Cleaner, and cleaned up as much as we could. It took a lot of scrubbing, but the cleaner did a fairly good job, and the canvas dried nicely in the warmth of Friday’s afternoon sun.

The cooler, wet weather has definitely stopped any additional varnish work, and we’ve stored our varnishing supplies until next year. Fortunately we got a good finish from our efforts a couple weeks ago, which should keep the exterior teak okay over the winter.

The first inside project on our list was to finish installing our new SiriusXM satellite radio. We decided to mount it on the cabinetry above the starboard side of our windshield, just above the ham radio. It’s a good location, out of the way and within easy reach. Jim was able to use the bracket that came with the radio, and it fit the space nicely. The cable from the antenna is threaded through the cabinetry above the windshield and attaches at the back of the radio.

We mounted the new SiriusXM satellite radio on the cabinetry above the starboard end of our windshield, above the ham radio.

To complete the installation, we had to run the audio cable to the port side of the boat where our Sony stereo receiver is located. We ran the cable through the cabinetry and the engine room to join up with the receiver. Since the receiver is mounted behind a hinged door, we had to bring the cable connection in so that it would lie flat. We found a 90-degree audio adapter at the local Radio Shack, and it did the job nicely.

Our Sony stereo receiver is mounted inside a cabinet with a hinged door. This photo shows the stereo receiver in the cabinet. At the lower right of the receiver, you can see the 90-degree audio adapter we used to attach the audio cable from the satellite radio.

P. S. Jim just came back from the store with chocolate chip cookies—that should help us get through the night!