Schooner

Schooner

Monday, December 30, 2013

Building my dinghy

   So we have been in need of a dinghy for a while now. I must have looked at 20 different
designs,all of them have been very expensive, or poorly built. the ones that are nice, are expensive, and very good targets for theft.
So I have come to the conclusion, after falling in love with a dingy, just to find out it cost almost $20,000, that i need to build my own.
It will not be perfect. I am aiming for function. I am thinking about 13-14' in length, 5-6' wide, removable centerboard, removable rudder, with an outboard mount. When I am done with my creation, I doubt anyone will want to steal it. I will paint it bright pink, with a big breast cancer ribbon down the side. I want it to be a sailing dinghy, because what fun it will be in a bay, to sail about and explore using just the wind. When the wind dies, i fire up the outboard, or row.

In the mean time I have done a repair to our current dinghy. The board on the transom were rotted. tomorrow I will finish it, but for now, I went out and had a blast!

Check out the video, and as always please,


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http://youtu.be/qkh5JwgoAZ0





Thursday, December 26, 2013

All about ice, and snow

   Well I ran to New York, took the train actually. We needed a bit of financing for our trip, and we really would like an exotic location. So off I went. The first week went well, the weather was a bit of a bear, but I managed to get things done, made a few deliveries and some pickups. All was going well until Tuesday morning.
   I was heading down a very steep and curvy hill. I knew it was going to be bad, when 100' down the hill i had gone from 5MPH to 20MPH. I was hard on the brakes, pumping like mad. If the brake peddle was a bilge pump I could have saved the "All is Lost" ship from going under, in the first hundred feet. Anytime I touched the brakes, they would all instantly lock up. i tried to keep my speed down, but 1000' down the hill it was not looking good. Up ahead I saw a plow truck, sideways in the road. He was plowing the opening to the town building, and was completely in the road. I tried like mad to stop, and once my truck went past 35 degrees to my trailer, I knew all was lost. I just held all the brakes, the truck, the trailer, and waited. At this point I could not see, as the snow was being blown everywhere. The impact was quite brutal, and as I slid, I could see the sides of the truck closing into the cab. Here is how I ended up.






   What a nasty trip, and it reminded me how much I hate New York.

   What was accomplished on this trip was spending one on one time with Pastor Jesse. He helped me out a bunch, and saw that I could take a shower, and get to church. We went out to eat, and I got Dana's gift. I cannot say that I hated the trip itself, just that I disliked what happened.





   The best part of the trip of course was getting home. Glad to be floating again. Glad to be spending quality time with my wife. Glad to have silly dogs to make me smile. Glad to be back. Its now boat repair time.



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Sunday, December 8, 2013

ICW the good times, and the good people.

   I have problems taking photos of random people. This is actually an issue now, as many times, some of the best pars of the trip are the people you meet. I wish I had photos of the crazy hyper woman at the buffet. Her accent was so adorable. She was so much fun to spend 30 min with, that it made me want to not leave that town! So I promise, I will take more candid photos of the people I run into from now on. We will keep the DSLR with us, and snap away!
   That has been one of the great parts of this trip. We have met some wonderful people. I would say the first nice person, on the ICW was the lock keeper at the great bridge lock. She was WONDERFUL! I woke up super early that morning, because i knew there were lock issues. I had to keep trying to call, because 3/4 of a ring and the phone went dead on her end. On the 3rd try, success! I asked, "when can we get thru the lock" she said, "you have 30 min, can you be here then? I said, "sure can." Waking Dana at 4AM, and raising the dead, are both quite the chore. Before i had even gotten the engine started, i was on the radio to the bridge, asking for passage. Pushed the button on the engine, hoping it would start, and it did. Wiping the goop from my eyes, peering thru the fog bank, we left.
   It was pitch black. Dana was still learning to use the HID spotlight, so she went on the bow, with the light, to spot. There is a learning curve to this, and i do my best to be patient. But i am bad at that. I make the assumption many times that because i know the intricate details of nearly every aspect of a task, others do not. So she was shining it back behind us 20% of the time, showing me channel markers we had passed. That in itself would not be a big deal, but each time i loose my night vision. We had a nice talk that day about what to spot, and what to never spot. No problem. We made slow progress, our GPS has a rough idea on the ICW where the channel is most of the time, here it did not.

     The lock keeper, she was awesome, provided us with so much information about the local waterway, I forgot most of it. This was our first great person.

  The second great person was the man from the marina. The marina in the little town I loved.
River forest manor marina. The man who tied us up knew exactly what to do. It amazes me how many times we have been to a marina and the rope catchers know nothing about tying up a boat. I understand cheep labor, but at what expense? This whole town of, Belhaven, NC was very nice to us. Not even one person laughed at the two fat folks, riding thru town, in a golf cart. When we got to the Food Lion, it was clear why. Cars i had not seen in a junk yard in 8 years were being driven. The entire town was dirt poor, with the exception of the road the marina was on. I think money brings with it a level of piety that can be achieved no other way. Some of the nicest folk i have met in my life, have been poor, or low income. What makes them so happy? Well many of them, I knew for a fact, Had a relationship with Jesus Christ. It is easier for a camel to go on his knees under a low doorway, then it is for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. 

   Matthew.



   I was seeking a warm place for us to spend the night, as we have no good heat on the boat. So i found a 
place with a low rate. Matthew answered the phone. He told us his rate, $1 a foot, but told us the bad 
news of the very low water, and how a 6.5 draft would be very hard to get in. Very hard it was. That we
were welcome to try, and that he would be closed. He said don't worry about paying, as it was just for the 
night, but because of him, the wife had her warm shower, and we had a warm bed. 
He was not joking. It was shallow. I felt like i was back in NY, using a bulldozer, as we went thru the silt. I could not even get sideways to the dock. so i parked nose in, and tied up. This was our free night. It took us no less then 30min in the morning to reach the channel, at 3/4 throttle. During the night, the water level had dropped. The moral is, if you draw more then 5' this is not the place for you.

One last stop, and we were out of the ICW.









Friday, December 6, 2013

Back in the ocean again!

   Its about time! Finally we our out of the, old mans trip, ICW.  Frankly, they can keep it. The ditch reminds me of a trip i did to Saratoga raceway. I went in to the diner and was served beef. I asked about the lack of any taste, and was told, "We cater to an older, less refined pallet". Well that is how i feel. When i am 80, and do not care about much, i may enjoy the leisurely pace of the ICW.

   The Atlantic ocean!

We left the dock in the early AM. The tide was slack, and then started to run with us. We exited the dreadful ICW at Cape Fear.

The tide was with us, and we were motoring at about 7-8konts over ground. The wind was south, but only about 4-5KTS not enough to sail on. We like to motor at about 2000RPM, that puts us between 1GPH and 1.2GPH depending on wind. We passed someone flying a spinnaker doing about 3KTS, and then he passed us under motor a few hours later. Too slow to make any serious headway. So we settled in for a 24-28 hour passage. Wow were we wrong.
  


I have taken a liking to red pizza. The ingrediants are all stable at room temperature.
1 packet of crust premix (we prefer Betty Crocker)
and 1/2 cup water
thats it! We used canned pizza sauce and we sprinkle grated cheese (the dry kind) on the pizza, as well as red pepper and garlic powder. This will be one of our primary at anchor foods. I want to add about 20-30 ready mix packets to our supplies. For our passage to Patagonia, it should be about 100.
   We are slowly learning what we like to eat when under way. I prefer Pizza mostly, followed by PB&J, and then chicken noodle soup.






   Seas were 3-5 when we left, and of course on the port starboard quarter. It always makes it uncomfortable. because there was little wind, there was no way to stop the rolling twisting we experienced on the first 10 hours of the trip.






   At about 6AM we arrived at the first marker leading into Charleston, SC. It was still dark when we arrived, so we killed some time. We also had to wait for the tide to run slower. We hung out, out there for  few hours, and followed a tug, with 2 barges in.

Tuesday, December 3, 2013

To be technical.....

   On the topic of batteries...

On the hunt for lowest cost per AH battery? I think I have a winner.
The Interstate SRM-4D.

First some numbers. 116#, 390AH at 25 amp rate, 6 month free, 30 month pro-rated, cost $200 plus tax.

Why do I think this is a true deep cycle?

1: In speaking with a dealer of interstate, he has mentioned he has taken them apart, and the plates are only thinner compared to the 6-volt industrial batteries he sells. He also said they are nothing like the starting 4D, as those plates are very thin.

2: The weight of a standard 4D battery is 99.20#, VS 116.8# for the SRM-4D. 20# of extra lead? sounds about right.....
The SRM-4D is actually smaller in physical size, about 3%

3: Tife. I just replaced a completely abused SRM-4D from 2008. when I say abused, I mean run to 0% many times, left sitting dead, left sitting uncharged for 8+ months at anchor....
5 years of punishment. much harder then a 50% DOD, daily.

4: The dealer quoted a realistic life. he said 6-10 years, with 10 year being a well maintained, no more then 50% DOD (depth of discharge) this is the life he sees in the cores that come back.

So I would say, if your looking for a nice, heavy, long life, cheap battery, this is the unit for you.

 

   On the topic of bilge pumps.

We have a diaphragm type pump. Its made by PAR.
The other type is centrifugal.
This is the more common type, and unless you know that you have a  diaphragm pump, this is what you have.
Each has pluses and minuses.

The centrifugal pumps are quiet, low power, move a lot of water (in the larger units), and are cheap. 

On the dark side, they do not last long, are prone to burn out, cannot be heard when running. How would you know when they stop running if you have no high water alarm. Cannot get all the water out, the best leave about 1" of water, and if they need replaced, your reaching into a bilge full of water, and trying to work in there.

The diaphragm pumps are noisy, use a lot of power, flow less water, cost much more.
They will outlast a centrifugal pup by about 20 years (vs 1-3 years).
Are not prone to burn out, as the motor is out of the water and cooled by air.
They are 100% rebuildable, as all the moving parts can be replaced.
They are outside the bilge, can be repaired without getting wet.
They are mounted forever. No re-gluing.
You can carry almost every part of the pump with you.
They can remove all the water from the bilge, leaving the bilge only wet.

So what is the optimal, safe, ideal setup for a cruiser?
Its a multi-phase approach. 

First, you need a diaphragm pump. You connect this to a float switch on the bilge floor.
This will be your primary pump. This will do the lions share of the work, and if everything is working correctly, this is the only pump that you will ever need. This is wired to a momentary on - off - auto switch.

Second you need a float switch, wired to an alarm. This will be your high water alarm (VS 3" of water on the cabin floor) This float will be mounted to kick on 1-2" above the kick on point of the primary pump float switch. This will be wired to an on-off switch.

Third, you need an emergency pump. This unit will be mounted barely above the primary pump's kick on point, on the float switch. The float switch of this will be mounted to kick on 1/2" above the high water alarm float switch kick on point.
I recommend 1000GPH of actual flow per 10' of boat.
These are sold as GPH with no hose attached. Not realistic, and this is also false advertisement.
Look further into the specs. Find the numbers for 6' of head. This is what you base the 1000GPH on.
For our boat this is 4500GPH@6'. we will need an 8000GPH unit.
The switch for this will be on - off - auto. The reason for the ON and not momentary ON is because if this unit is used, it will be used for one of two reasons. Either the primary pump is broken or not working, or because your leaking, very badly.
I hope you never use this pump. BUT if you ever have to you will be glad you can turn it on, and leave it on, while you see to getting the leak stopped.
The final setup will be, dewatering pump, alarm, emergency pump.
Make sure they all have their own connection to the battery, and their own circuit breaker.