The wind never blows aboard Double Wide

I’ve been having some problems with the wind instrument on Double Wide. Several months ago I sent the part at the top of the mast off to be repaired and $400 later, it came back to me ready to reinstall. While that was going on, I had a rigger doing some work at the top of my mast and he damaged the wires for the instrument, which required the replacement of the wires.

This morning we showed up at the boat, only to find the wind instrument AND the new wire sitting in the main saloon. It turns out the rigger attempted to pull the new wire, couldn’t get it down the mast, so he pulled the OLD wire out of the mast and left me with no wire and no wind instrument — one day before we’re scheduled to leave Texas in route to Key West — and didn’t bother to call and tell me about the problem. Grrr.

So, with no instrument to tell me how hard the wind is blowing, I’ll have to assume that it’s not blowing at all…or perhaps I can go back to the old Beaufort scale method of judging wind. You remember the Beaufort Scale, don’t you? It’s how the old sailors used to judge the wind.