Monday, July 23, 2007

I love when a plan comes together

I really do love when a plan comes together. Unfortunately, this is not one of those times. Sandy and I had planned on making our way to Lovells Island (NA-148) this weekend for the RSGB IOTA contest. With two of us pulling and carrying, it would have been no problem for us to get the tent, rig, antennas, water, food, sleeping bags, and all of the rest of the stuff to the ferries and on to the camp site. That was the plan before Sandy caught a very nasty summer cold. She's been down now since late last week and there is no way we could in good conscience drag her out to an ocean island this weekend.
This presents something of a problem for me logistically. Going solo, I now have nearly as much stuff as I did for the two of us, and one fewer person hauling it. Two items came off the list immediately: the Mosley beam and my picnic table shelter that I normally use while on these islands. This has changed my chances of success from clearly impossible to improbable. I still have my big Buddipole system (for 20m and 80m), a 33-foot mast (for 15m and 40m), feed line, batteries, and the Pelican case with the rig, plus my backpack full of accessories on top of the tent, sleeping bag, etc. I plan on spending time this week working though the problem until either (a) I have paired down the gear to a manageable size, or (b) I abandon the attempt.
I have a small wheeled cart though it does not look up to the task. I have ordered a cart though it has not arrived. A friend has offered me use of a similar cart as a backup. I have options.
It will certainly be less fun without her, but there will be other chances to do this together. For now, I need to make a plan to do this alone. I hope to make final decisions on this by Thursday evening.

1 Comments:

Blogger Steve Weinert said...

I see you been successfully "script-spam-commented" - I must get 30 of those a day some days.

Give Sandy our best wishes that she gets over her cold.

Is it time to enlist club help - even if the helper comes out only to act as a porter to set up and at the end to help haul gear out?

73

Steve
K9ZW

http://k9zw.wordpress.com//

July 24, 2007 8:43 AM  

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