WHILE we are in Grenada, HB and I are working on various jobs large and small. Today, HB is working on the epicgiantdodgerofdoom while I worked on the easy little job of installing a new engine stop cable.

The old engine stop cable ran from the engine to the helm, a distance of 20 feet with multiple corners. This was so hard to pull that I had to use two hands and HB couldn’t stop the engine at all. It was also massively over-complex for the problem it was solving.

For the last few thousand miles, we have run with the engine stop cable disconnected, and have just opened up the engine box and pushed the fuel shut-off lever by hand. The trouble with this is that it’s dirty and a little unsafe, should fire break out in the engine.

[Note: It's not an engine room unless you can fit a person in it. While I am on the subject, if I hear another yacht broker describe a four-by-six sleeping cabin as a "stateroom," I'm going to set fire to his yellow convertible 3-series beemer.]

So today I made a new cable out of small-gauge wire rope and fed it through a hole in the forward end of the engine box. You can now stop the engine with a gentle pull from one finger. Yay.