You know, some people decide they’d like a light somewhere. In our case, that somewhere is inside the steering box so that we can see where the steering gear is placing the rudder is in the dark of night. There’s a little beam across the top of the box to mount it under so it will be indirect and shine down on the gear rather than up into our eyes.

Some people just go to the store, maybe the marine store, and buy a light. Perhaps an LED, something pretty, something simple. Buy it, install it.

Then there’s us: David says he’s going to put a light in there before our passage down the coast. I ask when we’re going to the store. He says we’ve already got what we need. Uh, oh. Not “we’ve got a light” but “we’ve got what we need.”

Out come the boxes and bins and David starts poking little bare wire red LED’s from Fry’s into some speaker wire. Five LED’s poked into a length of speaker wire. That’s my light. “Here you go, Brenda. Oh, here’s the liquid electrical tape. You might want to seal up the connections.” So, I get to googe up the wire/LED sandwich with icky black goo.

Other people just buy cute little lights. Nope, not us. We’re definitely the “special” type of people that my mother used to tell me about.

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Follow up after dark. It works. There’s a nice red glow in the case now and one can see the position of the steering gear/rudder in the dark. Cost: $1.00 worth of LED’s, a scrap of speaker wire, and a dabble ($0.50) of liquid electrical tape. 4 zip ties and a few wire clips ($1.00). I suppose it’s worth it for $2.50 installed cost and not much work.