Bastard Son of Otto

It is with some regret that I must announce the passing of Crew member "Otto" the Autohelm.
Otto was an original member of Corletto's crew and accepted the new Skipper with the respect and enthusiasm of any professional mariner. He was an old salt and helped guide Corleto on many adventures. His final voyage he kept a steady course as he helped guide Corleto's new crew north to Point Roberts and beyond.
But as many old salts, time has a way to creep up on him, and ol' Otto collapsed at his post, his grip firmly on the tiller, heading north to Vancouver on a rainy and cold February day. The skipper tried to revive him but all efforts failed and now ol' Otto will be buried at sea.

Otto the Autohelm laying in state aboard Corleto

And while I am sad about Otto's passing, we are celebrating the addition to the crew of New Digital Otto. I had hoped that Otto Jr would simply plug into his dad's two pronged socket, but no, that would be too easy. It seemed that when ol' Otto was at sea, Mrs. Otto was gettin' her digital freak on with some Engineer at Raymarine. Junior has a socket with six input leads. No matter, I need to put those new marine wiring skills to use sooner or later and install the Bastard Son of Otto onto Corleto.

The new socket receptacle for Junior

The install operation went very well, except for the fact I could not find my precision screw driver set that I always keep in my car. Thank god for dollar stores, as I found a set for 2 bucks. Perhaps the most inexpensive tools in the Corleto tool box.

With what, I felt was, the skill of a surgeon, I drilled and connected wires of the new socket mount. Carefully installing it to the engine panel. I was pretty pleased- until I discovered that I had overlooked a rather important detail- that of a rubber gasket to keep the water out of the electrical panel.

After the appropriate F-Bomb, I got to work to reopen the wound and do some corrective surgery.

"Ratchet Screw Driver,,"
"Check"
Mumble, mumble,,,
"Precision standard,,,,"
"Check"
"Gasket,,,"
"Sponge,,,,"
Mumble, mumble,,,
"Ok close the patient,,,,,,"
"Diet Pepsi,,,,,"

Now the moment of truth, would Otto respond?

Turn power on,,,,,
"beep, beep, beep"

We have a heart beat. We have brought to life the newest member of Corleto's crew, Otto Jr. the new Autohelm. He would be a welcome addition and I am sure make his namesake proud.

Otto Jr- on sea trials- performing like a pro.