Note: Skip in engine hours from 118.9 to 133.9 due to unintentionally leaving the main battery switch in the "2" position combined with the balky ignition switch. The switch leaks a small amount of current which results in the engine hour clock running and the buzzer/alarm sounding weakly.
Out the weather bouy and back twice. Lovely sail. Overcast but nearly 60 degrees. Light jacket sufficient. Fast reaches back into the river from the weather buoy, particularly the second reach. Hit speeds in the upper 6 knot range. Fairly calm waters in the river. Rather lumpy in the mouth of the Severn once we reached R "4" and certainly by Y "A". Lumpy enough to hide three-quarters or more of the white speed limit buoy. No white caps had developed yet. On the second run back in white caps were developing.
Not the only boat on the water, but close. Very few boats out, perhaps twelve over the two hours we were out. Maybe and even split of sail and power. Saw a J/40 for the first time. All other sailboats were too far away to identify.
Balky ignition switch. Needed to operate it a couple times to get it to energize the starter. Probably needs replacement. God only knows how resistive to the current required it might be at this time.
Noticed that I installed the tiller upside down on 2017-11-14 when installing the shims. Having the tiller sweep upward seems to work better actually. The tiller head stays lower gripping the rudder head over a larger surface area. The tiller action is much tighter with the shims in place. Have to decide if I want to flip the tiller or not. Definately happy with the shims. Would be good to open it up after a couple uses to see the wear patterns. Would prefer to find out that the aluminum shim stock is wearing away while all other parts are not. Maintenance and Winterizing Tasks: