Creak, thud, groan, swish, squeak....These are the sounds boaters listen to at night when the wind is howling. At first you worry about every little unnatural noise. But after all these years aboard, our ears are trained to drown out the unimportant noises. Okay, maybe we are getting old and our hearing is going. Either way, we have an awesome anchor and sleep well most nights even in the wind. For the last four days it has been blowing hard!. Most of that time it was 30+ knots. There was A LOT of creaking and groaning going on outside. This morning we woke up and walked around the boat checking things out as usual. This is what we saw.
Then we walked to the bow and looked up....way up. Notice what is different???
If you said the antennae on the right is shorter, you win. They are supposed to be the same height. The top half fell/blew off!!! It is supposed to be attached with a locking washer and loctite.
Not sure where the locking washer went. But it definitely wasn't there. You would think that shear gravity would have kept the washer on at least. This antennae is for our single side band radio. We had trouble with it last year in the Bahamas. We were outputting a strong signal, but receiving a weak, garbled one. Don checked the ground and all the other wiring. I read the manual and tried various settings. Nothing seemed to make it any better. Now we wonder if the problem was a loose antennae. Guess we will find out when we get the replacement installed. It has to be ordered and trucked in. Now to the hardware store to buy a super large bottle of loctite!