2011 04 07
Meredith leaves Vero in the next day or so headed for the Chesapeake. This will be our last sail of this season. With a bit of luck we will be in the Chesapeake in under a week even allowing for our cowardly approach to Cape Hatteras (we don't go there).
Once there we haul out at a small boat yard in Solomons Island to let the hull dry for a month. Then it is off to see the children.
The crew plus one, our son in law Nic, will return at the end of May to finish bottom painting and float the hull. Then we are off on the sail to Bermuda. If that works there is more sailing to be done in an easterly direction and if we get there, a good 4 months of weather to enjoy Europe (there is some disagreement aboard as to whether one can enjoy Europe or whether one should even if one could). Then we set out on the milk run home (French Sailing Directions: sail south till the butter melts then turn east. Perfectly clear, easily implemented)
Our preparations for the Bermuda trip will be posted but for the next month we will not be sailing or venting frustration about our fellow sailors. That waits for our return to the salt. We will be talking to Chris Parker about his Atlantic weather routing service and checking out OCENS high speed weather products. Not willing to trust our lives or comfort to the ferenghi who run ICOM we will also be checking out satellite phones and the SPOT system that so many people are moving to.
To date you know that we have replaced the diesel and all our sails, replaced the standing and running rigging, the mainsheet traveller and boomvang, the batteries and the generator. We have removed and recaulked the portholes and replaced so many small parts we can't keep track. The liferaft has been repacked and recertified at great expense and we have a new EPIRP, although I am not really too confident anyone will respond to an emergency midocean.
The ceaseless expense has rendered the Budget Committee comatose on some days but she has yet to object.
Of course something is going to break because we should have replaced it but we will have some bailing wire and a Newfoundlander on board so we feel ready for darn near anything.
Fuel and water are always an issue but we are reading up on rain dances and will practice over the break.
In the meantime we have arranged to see many of you on our return and we look forward to all our visits.
Now it is time for you to be working on your own boats. We will write when there is something more to say.
Thursday, April 7, 2011
How to Install a Mainsheet Traveller
HOW TO INSTALL A MAINSHEET TRAVELLER
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| WRONG |
 | ||
| WRONGER |
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| REALLY REALLY WRONG |
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| RIGHT |
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Green Stuff - a Cautionary Tale
2011 04 06
Too windy to paint, too cold to sit still. Time for a movie
This is the post that I intended when I expressed my opinion on the "separate starting battery" issue.
Last December, before I had thought through the issue of whether keeping a separate starting battery was a good idea, we purchased and installed a new Red Top Optima starting battery. Within a week of its purchase the battery appeared to quit working.
When the engine ignition key was turned to the first stop the fuel pump would run, the panel would light up, everything running in good order. When the key was rotated to the starting position everything shut down. Nothing happened. The panel which had at the first stop exhibited such exuberant multihued life turned black and sat before me like a dead toad.
It seemed obvious the battery was defective. It could provide the 3 or 4 amps needed to power the fuel pump and panel but when called on to supply the huge amount of current needed to drive the starting motor the battery could not do its job.
Having learned not to rely on the obvious we ran some simple tests before returning the Optima for replacement.
In running the tests we discovered the true source of our starting woes was deep set corrosion in the battery cable that led from the start battery to the start motor.
We found the problem by shorting out each element in the starting system. First we shorted out the battery switch to see if were the contacts in that switch. It was not the switch. Next we shorted out the ACR - the charging relay that ensures both start battery and house bank are charged according to their needs and that ensures the two battery banks are kept isolated from one another - so the house bank cannot drain the start battery.
When the BC turned the key with the ACR shorted out the engine started easily. AHA.
No. Not AHA. Rather HMMMM? I removed the short from the ACR and had the BC turn the ignition key once more.
This time I saw sparks. Many sparks. The start motor did not turn but the huge battery cable that connected the starting battery to the ACR was shooting a shower of sparks. This was not good.
The cable was totally sealed and had been "professionally made up" by a mechanic.
With sparks issuing I had no compunction about cutting into the battery cable insulation and taking a look. To the right is a somewhat blurry shot of what I first found. The cable is reduced to less than half its original diameter because many of the individual strands of copper which are woven into the cable are severed.
The battery cable, size 2/0, costs $16 a foot at West Marine so cutting into it can be daunting. Sparks trump daunt however.
You can see there is a very damaged end hiding under the shrinkwrap insulation. Having opened up the cable at the connector a lot of green was visible on the copper strands. Green is nice on a copper roof. Nowhere else. I started cutting back insulation.
Here is some of what I found.
The green was corrosion of course. Despite its great size the cable was so corroded that it could not carry the current needed to run the start motor. The problem is that when this happens the cable itself heats up. This cable was so degraded that it was shooting sparks. Fire was not too far behind.
The corrosion was so bad it fell off the woven strands of the cable in piles as you can see on the white paper.
I had to cut back almost 8 inches of insulation to find cable with no green corrosion and at that the strands were still black and suspect. The cable was thrown out and new cable and connectors purchased at West Marine.
This time we did not use the professionals. We did it ourselves.
Instead of a nice zero cost replacement of our starting battery we found ourselves spending a couple hundred dollars on new cables and connectors.
Cheap at the price. How lucky for us.
Too windy to paint, too cold to sit still. Time for a movie
The Red Top Optima Starting Battery was not the problem as it turned out.
The board is our battery retaining system intended to stop the battery
from crushing anyone sleeping in the quarterberth in a deep roll.
This is the post that I intended when I expressed my opinion on the "separate starting battery" issue.
Last December, before I had thought through the issue of whether keeping a separate starting battery was a good idea, we purchased and installed a new Red Top Optima starting battery. Within a week of its purchase the battery appeared to quit working.
When the engine ignition key was turned to the first stop the fuel pump would run, the panel would light up, everything running in good order. When the key was rotated to the starting position everything shut down. Nothing happened. The panel which had at the first stop exhibited such exuberant multihued life turned black and sat before me like a dead toad.
It seemed obvious the battery was defective. It could provide the 3 or 4 amps needed to power the fuel pump and panel but when called on to supply the huge amount of current needed to drive the starting motor the battery could not do its job.
In running the tests we discovered the true source of our starting woes was deep set corrosion in the battery cable that led from the start battery to the start motor.
We found the problem by shorting out each element in the starting system. First we shorted out the battery switch to see if were the contacts in that switch. It was not the switch. Next we shorted out the ACR - the charging relay that ensures both start battery and house bank are charged according to their needs and that ensures the two battery banks are kept isolated from one another - so the house bank cannot drain the start battery.
When the BC turned the key with the ACR shorted out the engine started easily. AHA.
No. Not AHA. Rather HMMMM? I removed the short from the ACR and had the BC turn the ignition key once more.
This time I saw sparks. Many sparks. The start motor did not turn but the huge battery cable that connected the starting battery to the ACR was shooting a shower of sparks. This was not good.
With sparks issuing I had no compunction about cutting into the battery cable insulation and taking a look. To the right is a somewhat blurry shot of what I first found. The cable is reduced to less than half its original diameter because many of the individual strands of copper which are woven into the cable are severed.
The battery cable, size 2/0, costs $16 a foot at West Marine so cutting into it can be daunting. Sparks trump daunt however.
Here is some of what I found.
The green was corrosion of course. Despite its great size the cable was so corroded that it could not carry the current needed to run the start motor. The problem is that when this happens the cable itself heats up. This cable was so degraded that it was shooting sparks. Fire was not too far behind.
The corrosion was so bad it fell off the woven strands of the cable in piles as you can see on the white paper.
I had to cut back almost 8 inches of insulation to find cable with no green corrosion and at that the strands were still black and suspect. The cable was thrown out and new cable and connectors purchased at West Marine.
This time we did not use the professionals. We did it ourselves.
Instead of a nice zero cost replacement of our starting battery we found ourselves spending a couple hundred dollars on new cables and connectors.
Cheap at the price. How lucky for us.
Ice Age
2011 04 06
Still in Vero, still no traveller
It is freezing cold today. The wind is blowing hard out of the north and the tide is running north to south.
A front passed through yesterday producing conditions today which we thought were good reasons not to try to motor north up the ICW.
Ahhh but the herd had other ideas.
Beginning on Sunday, with the cold front well forecast, the herd began amassing at our marina. By Monday the flow was torrential. Saturday night at sundown there were half a dozen mooring balls empty at Vero Beach. By Monday noon every ball had two or three boats rafted up to it. And still the boats came.
Friends on a moored boat found themselves disturbed late on Monday night when a strange boat drove into their topsides in an ungainly and amateurish effort to raft up after dark. The boat doing the damage had not called the marina and did not have a mooring ball assignment. They just decided they wanted to tie up and they did not want to wait. Desperation saw them refuse to anchor overnight.
Our friends had our full support for their uncivilized reception of these scions of stupidity.
Boats which had raced from the Bahamas to get to America before the front took succour here while winds howled and rains torrented. For twenty hours unsettled conditions prevailed.
Around the marina clumps of boaters engaged in agitated talk about the weather and their plans. A small voice in the crowd, exhibiting great couraged, expressed that the front would pass on Tuesday and that they would with the first light heralding Wednesday's arrival.
By Tuesday the solo voice became a chorus of sailors all converted to a single line of thought. Riding the bus found the talk dominated by everyone's fixed intention to depart on Wednesday at the earliest opportunity.
And so they did. Like those long lines of plodosauruses in the movie Ice Age this morning saw the massed departure of all those independent minds.
Into the wind, into the cold and into the adverse tide.
If our traveler had arrived in good time yesterday we would not have motored out of here today.
We don't fit in.
Still in Vero, still no traveller
It is freezing cold today. The wind is blowing hard out of the north and the tide is running north to south.
A front passed through yesterday producing conditions today which we thought were good reasons not to try to motor north up the ICW.
Ahhh but the herd had other ideas.
Beginning on Sunday, with the cold front well forecast, the herd began amassing at our marina. By Monday the flow was torrential. Saturday night at sundown there were half a dozen mooring balls empty at Vero Beach. By Monday noon every ball had two or three boats rafted up to it. And still the boats came.
Friends on a moored boat found themselves disturbed late on Monday night when a strange boat drove into their topsides in an ungainly and amateurish effort to raft up after dark. The boat doing the damage had not called the marina and did not have a mooring ball assignment. They just decided they wanted to tie up and they did not want to wait. Desperation saw them refuse to anchor overnight.
Our friends had our full support for their uncivilized reception of these scions of stupidity.
Boats which had raced from the Bahamas to get to America before the front took succour here while winds howled and rains torrented. For twenty hours unsettled conditions prevailed.
Around the marina clumps of boaters engaged in agitated talk about the weather and their plans. A small voice in the crowd, exhibiting great couraged, expressed that the front would pass on Tuesday and that they would with the first light heralding Wednesday's arrival.
By Tuesday the solo voice became a chorus of sailors all converted to a single line of thought. Riding the bus found the talk dominated by everyone's fixed intention to depart on Wednesday at the earliest opportunity.
And so they did. Like those long lines of plodosauruses in the movie Ice Age this morning saw the massed departure of all those independent minds.
Into the wind, into the cold and into the adverse tide.
If our traveler had arrived in good time yesterday we would not have motored out of here today.
We don't fit in.
Before you Begin, Well, You Have to Start
2011 04 06
Vero Beach, waiting for the Garhauer Traveler to arrive.
Before we set off for the Caribbean the Budget Committee authorized the purchase of a new start battery. I have come to question the value of keeping a single battery separate from the house bank the sole purpose of which is to start your boat. Not that I can admit this to the BC. I spent money on this thing.
The theory behind having a battery that you keep isolated from all the others is that if you drain your house battery bank some day by, say, using the breadmaker and the Mr. Coffee on the same morning you will still have one battery kept separate from the others which will be fresh and ready to start your diesel. You will not be stranded.
The Honda generator has blown this to bits.
With the huge number of cruisers carrying a pull start Honda generator these days the logic of the "failsafe" starting battery theory sort of begins to unravel. When the house bank is over taxed by your excessive use of the comforts of home you just get the Honda out of storage, pull the cord and wait an hour.
One morning on starting our diesel to leave the anchorage we discovered our alternator had failed. The diesel started fine but our batteries suffered a constant current drain - the fuel pump, engine panel and our instruments alone had a current draw in the order of 5 amps. We had been at anchor and not charging for two days so the batteries were less than full.
Faced with a full day of motoring, a partially drained battery bank and no functioning alternator we got out the Honda and ran the Honda to fill the batteries while the diesel provided propulsion.
You are getting the idea - a Honda generator is far more useful and valuable and reliable than keeping a battery isolated from all the others just for the purpose of emergency starts.
One boat we know holds the Honda in such high regard that they keep one on board and use it regularly even though they have a factory installed $15,000 Panda genset. The Honda is more efficient, runs quieter and with less vibration than its (much) bigger brother.
Dispensing with the separate start battery is a good idea for other reasons as well:
1. if the start battery were tied into the house bank your overall battery capacity would be bigger and you would then be less likely to drain it so low it would not start
2. most people realizing the start battery will be lightly used and rarely called on tend to cheap out on this item. There are a huge number of big AGM battery banks found on boats using an el cheapo Walmart wet cell as their emergency backup. This logic is highly suspect. Your emergency backup should be the best you have - like your storm anchor.
3. using a different battery type for a start battery causes problems with the charging profile and you are likely to bake the start battery if you are not very careful in setting up the charging relays - especially if you are using AGM for the house bank and wet cell for the start battery
None of which has anything to do with the intended post, which was to be a real world discussion of battery cable corrosion. I guess I will leave that for next time.
Vero Beach, waiting for the Garhauer Traveler to arrive.
Before we set off for the Caribbean the Budget Committee authorized the purchase of a new start battery. I have come to question the value of keeping a single battery separate from the house bank the sole purpose of which is to start your boat. Not that I can admit this to the BC. I spent money on this thing.
The theory behind having a battery that you keep isolated from all the others is that if you drain your house battery bank some day by, say, using the breadmaker and the Mr. Coffee on the same morning you will still have one battery kept separate from the others which will be fresh and ready to start your diesel. You will not be stranded.
The Honda generator has blown this to bits.
With the huge number of cruisers carrying a pull start Honda generator these days the logic of the "failsafe" starting battery theory sort of begins to unravel. When the house bank is over taxed by your excessive use of the comforts of home you just get the Honda out of storage, pull the cord and wait an hour.
One morning on starting our diesel to leave the anchorage we discovered our alternator had failed. The diesel started fine but our batteries suffered a constant current drain - the fuel pump, engine panel and our instruments alone had a current draw in the order of 5 amps. We had been at anchor and not charging for two days so the batteries were less than full.
Faced with a full day of motoring, a partially drained battery bank and no functioning alternator we got out the Honda and ran the Honda to fill the batteries while the diesel provided propulsion.
You are getting the idea - a Honda generator is far more useful and valuable and reliable than keeping a battery isolated from all the others just for the purpose of emergency starts.
One boat we know holds the Honda in such high regard that they keep one on board and use it regularly even though they have a factory installed $15,000 Panda genset. The Honda is more efficient, runs quieter and with less vibration than its (much) bigger brother.
Dispensing with the separate start battery is a good idea for other reasons as well:
1. if the start battery were tied into the house bank your overall battery capacity would be bigger and you would then be less likely to drain it so low it would not start
2. most people realizing the start battery will be lightly used and rarely called on tend to cheap out on this item. There are a huge number of big AGM battery banks found on boats using an el cheapo Walmart wet cell as their emergency backup. This logic is highly suspect. Your emergency backup should be the best you have - like your storm anchor.
3. using a different battery type for a start battery causes problems with the charging profile and you are likely to bake the start battery if you are not very careful in setting up the charging relays - especially if you are using AGM for the house bank and wet cell for the start battery
None of which has anything to do with the intended post, which was to be a real world discussion of battery cable corrosion. I guess I will leave that for next time.
Monday, April 4, 2011
So What Exactly is a "Suburban" Sailor?
2011 03 26
Vero Beach, FL
Arriving back in North America I found a number of questions arising out of earlier posts and I will address a couple of them here.
As to the reason for our poor sailing performance we suggest you look no further than the operators of the vessel. On the continuum of sailing competence the BC and I inhabit the line that extends to the left of midpoint. For us mediocrity is a goal not a starting point.
If I had to wait for competence before undertaking a project or voyage I would still be tucked away comfortably in my mother's womb. Imagine: a 60 year gestation period.
Instead the Budget Committee and I have found a lot of fun being mediocre in increasingly challenging conditions. It is the Peter Principle in action - every time we approach mediocrity we give ourselves a promotion and tackle a new challenge. We are forever mediocre as once you have passed the midpoint you no longer track your improvement. It the stuff you don't know that draws your attention, never the stuff you do.
The only problem with our strategy is that we will never, ever become competent.
And this leads to the real purpose of this post: suburban sailors. These are the guys who have met and bested mediocrity in their sailing careers.
Having used the term somewhat derogatorily in a recent post (I must have been under the influence of some mood altering drug if it was only "somewhat" derogatory) I have been called upon to explain what I meant.
Here is what I mean by a "Suburban Sailor"
1. A suburban sailor never sails in bad weather. "There is no need to ever get caught out" you will be informed by some arrogant little dweeb who usually adds a little sniff of derision or maybe perceived self superiority.
Let me tell you something. If you sail any leg of more than 3 hours in length and more than a mile offshore you are going to meet some unexpected bad weather. It is impossible not to. Impossible unless you are one of those guys who sits in Lake Worth for a month or six weeks waiting for "a window" or worse, you are one of those guys who, after Chris Parker has given a pretty comprehensive weather forecast calls and asks for "your recommendations".
Here is how the real world works: Sailing a day out of Puerta Vita towards Hemingway with a three day window we are listening to the 6:30 a.m. weather broadcast live by Chris Parker. Chris is telling us that an anticipated cold front is situate over "West Coast of Cuba". At that very moment, we on the East coast of Cuba mind, we sailed into the cold front. You could see it. They are not hard to spot.
The front brought rain and gusts and squalls and the obligatory windshift to the North and North East. Problem was on much of the Cuban North Shore there are few if any anchorages which offer protection from the North/North East. This put us in uncomfortable wind and waves against which we could make little forward progress and none of that comfortable, even with the diesel supporting full sail. Finally we just stopped trying. We hove to for 12 hours, caught up on some sleep, had a very good meal and slept some more. Meredith did not move 3 miles in 12 hours while hove to. When the wind relented we carried on under sail.
There is no criticism of weather forecasters here. The tools available to forecasters are good but they are not perfect. Nor will they ever be. Unless you plan to never sail anywhere ever you are going to have to learn how to handle bad weather.
It is not hard getting practice. Bad weather will find you. You start out being incompetent and end up, with a bit of practice, being better.
Or just tie your boat up with the grain fed herbivores (suburbanites) and wait and wait and wait for perfection.
2. Suburban Sailors do not change their routes or destinations - ever. One boater, also prominent in the Georgetown social circuit was telling a novice cruiser that he "had been to Bahamas 12 times in 12 years." He "never went across the yellow bank and [he never] went to Nassau because they were dangerous". Now on Meredith the Yellow bank is a nonevent which we have crossed a dozen times without incident and Nassau is an enjoyable city destinations. But old 12 x 12 had never been and would never go. You see he had found a route that was safe. That is more valuable than gold.
3. Suburban Sailors Do Not Sail Alone. These guys love a group. They are pack animals. The groups usually function with all the grace of those high school cliques we used to call the "plastics". A lot of effort is spent by a suburban sailor positioning socially in the group, everyone seeking dominance. Often the women on suburban sailboats will take over the radio scheduling "get togethers" or more importantly declining invitations to another boat. After all the invitee is far too prominent in the group to accept an invitation from a lesser member, who is after all only making the invitation to improve her own status.
It is as tedious as it is transparent.
3. Suburban Sailors like bonfires and barbecues. Got a United Nations protected Environmentally Sensitive Island like Conception Island? Well, have a bonfire and litter the beach. Some boaters come to Conception and spend a day collecting the miles of plastic trash that accumulate on the beaches. Suburbanites come to partay.
4. Suburban Sailors fight their battles using Consumer Proxies. You can always tell the suburban sailing couples at a meet and greet or on the bus. The men are discussing brand names of their equipment - "Well, I bought the Spectra Watermaker. It cost a few thousand more but it is worth every penny." "Oh, I know, we just had our Panda generator installed and you know I paid $20K but the guy who installed it really knew his stuff".
The rest of us carry a Honda and love it. $900 from Mayberry's, no tax no shipping. Most of the rest of us buy our water in Bahamas at $0.25 a gallon. It costs less than $100 for 4 months. And the best part is you do not have to wash your deck. Ever. It costs too much.
Meanwhile the women are discussing real estate as they always do. "You know we looked t houses in Annapolis but there was just nothing suitable. We had to build. Over on $%@#$# street, you know where all the really big houses are going up. You'll have to come see"
Shoot me please. Even if you just wound me the pain will take my mind off the conversation.
Vero Beach, FL
Arriving back in North America I found a number of questions arising out of earlier posts and I will address a couple of them here.
As to the reason for our poor sailing performance we suggest you look no further than the operators of the vessel. On the continuum of sailing competence the BC and I inhabit the line that extends to the left of midpoint. For us mediocrity is a goal not a starting point.
If I had to wait for competence before undertaking a project or voyage I would still be tucked away comfortably in my mother's womb. Imagine: a 60 year gestation period.
Instead the Budget Committee and I have found a lot of fun being mediocre in increasingly challenging conditions. It is the Peter Principle in action - every time we approach mediocrity we give ourselves a promotion and tackle a new challenge. We are forever mediocre as once you have passed the midpoint you no longer track your improvement. It the stuff you don't know that draws your attention, never the stuff you do.
The only problem with our strategy is that we will never, ever become competent.
And this leads to the real purpose of this post: suburban sailors. These are the guys who have met and bested mediocrity in their sailing careers.
Having used the term somewhat derogatorily in a recent post (I must have been under the influence of some mood altering drug if it was only "somewhat" derogatory) I have been called upon to explain what I meant.
Here is what I mean by a "Suburban Sailor"
1. A suburban sailor never sails in bad weather. "There is no need to ever get caught out" you will be informed by some arrogant little dweeb who usually adds a little sniff of derision or maybe perceived self superiority.
Let me tell you something. If you sail any leg of more than 3 hours in length and more than a mile offshore you are going to meet some unexpected bad weather. It is impossible not to. Impossible unless you are one of those guys who sits in Lake Worth for a month or six weeks waiting for "a window" or worse, you are one of those guys who, after Chris Parker has given a pretty comprehensive weather forecast calls and asks for "your recommendations".
Here is how the real world works: Sailing a day out of Puerta Vita towards Hemingway with a three day window we are listening to the 6:30 a.m. weather broadcast live by Chris Parker. Chris is telling us that an anticipated cold front is situate over "West Coast of Cuba". At that very moment, we on the East coast of Cuba mind, we sailed into the cold front. You could see it. They are not hard to spot.
The front brought rain and gusts and squalls and the obligatory windshift to the North and North East. Problem was on much of the Cuban North Shore there are few if any anchorages which offer protection from the North/North East. This put us in uncomfortable wind and waves against which we could make little forward progress and none of that comfortable, even with the diesel supporting full sail. Finally we just stopped trying. We hove to for 12 hours, caught up on some sleep, had a very good meal and slept some more. Meredith did not move 3 miles in 12 hours while hove to. When the wind relented we carried on under sail.
There is no criticism of weather forecasters here. The tools available to forecasters are good but they are not perfect. Nor will they ever be. Unless you plan to never sail anywhere ever you are going to have to learn how to handle bad weather.
It is not hard getting practice. Bad weather will find you. You start out being incompetent and end up, with a bit of practice, being better.
Or just tie your boat up with the grain fed herbivores (suburbanites) and wait and wait and wait for perfection.
2. Suburban Sailors do not change their routes or destinations - ever. One boater, also prominent in the Georgetown social circuit was telling a novice cruiser that he "had been to Bahamas 12 times in 12 years." He "never went across the yellow bank and [he never] went to Nassau because they were dangerous". Now on Meredith the Yellow bank is a nonevent which we have crossed a dozen times without incident and Nassau is an enjoyable city destinations. But old 12 x 12 had never been and would never go. You see he had found a route that was safe. That is more valuable than gold.
3. Suburban Sailors Do Not Sail Alone. These guys love a group. They are pack animals. The groups usually function with all the grace of those high school cliques we used to call the "plastics". A lot of effort is spent by a suburban sailor positioning socially in the group, everyone seeking dominance. Often the women on suburban sailboats will take over the radio scheduling "get togethers" or more importantly declining invitations to another boat. After all the invitee is far too prominent in the group to accept an invitation from a lesser member, who is after all only making the invitation to improve her own status.
It is as tedious as it is transparent.
3. Suburban Sailors like bonfires and barbecues. Got a United Nations protected Environmentally Sensitive Island like Conception Island? Well, have a bonfire and litter the beach. Some boaters come to Conception and spend a day collecting the miles of plastic trash that accumulate on the beaches. Suburbanites come to partay.
4. Suburban Sailors fight their battles using Consumer Proxies. You can always tell the suburban sailing couples at a meet and greet or on the bus. The men are discussing brand names of their equipment - "Well, I bought the Spectra Watermaker. It cost a few thousand more but it is worth every penny." "Oh, I know, we just had our Panda generator installed and you know I paid $20K but the guy who installed it really knew his stuff".
The rest of us carry a Honda and love it. $900 from Mayberry's, no tax no shipping. Most of the rest of us buy our water in Bahamas at $0.25 a gallon. It costs less than $100 for 4 months. And the best part is you do not have to wash your deck. Ever. It costs too much.
Meanwhile the women are discussing real estate as they always do. "You know we looked t houses in Annapolis but there was just nothing suitable. We had to build. Over on $%@#$# street, you know where all the really big houses are going up. You'll have to come see"
Shoot me please. Even if you just wound me the pain will take my mind off the conversation.
Saturday, April 2, 2011
Traveler Man (And Woman)
2011 04 02
Vero Beach FL
Of all the reasons we could justify staying in Vero Beach for a week we had to choose the least desirable.
Who would blame us for spending time at a low cost marina ($13.50 a night) in easy reach of shopping with free buses to and from. In like vein most citizens would approve of our remaining here while the winds blew out of the North. It costs money to motor, about $2.50 an hour for fuel and another $5 an hour for maintenance and diesel engine depreciation. Waiting for wind not out of the North makes us money.
Damage to Planes at the Local Sun n Fun Flyin - Floatplanes Failed to Float.
Even the fact that we have been beset by thunderstorms and tornados and all manner of unsettled and threatening weather would be a welcome excuse for wasting time in this backwater burg.
But no. We are waiting for parts.
Waiting for parts means waiting for the opportunity to do more work on the boat. Sure. That is what I want to do. Boatwork.
The municipal marina here goes out of its way to help with the shipping and receiving of parts to transient boaters. As Meredith is scheduled to attempt a sail to Bermuda and, sailing gods willing, to the Azores we have been alert to the need to replace and refit aging parts and systems.
It has been very discouraging for the BC and myself, who pride ourselves on tending to maintenance in a timely way, to discover an unending number of things that need refurbishing. Crew included.
Here are some of the more expensive items with our preferred suppliers:
Who would blame us for spending time at a low cost marina ($13.50 a night) in easy reach of shopping with free buses to and from. In like vein most citizens would approve of our remaining here while the winds blew out of the North. It costs money to motor, about $2.50 an hour for fuel and another $5 an hour for maintenance and diesel engine depreciation. Waiting for wind not out of the North makes us money.
Damage to Planes at the Local Sun n Fun Flyin - Floatplanes Failed to Float.
Even the fact that we have been beset by thunderstorms and tornados and all manner of unsettled and threatening weather would be a welcome excuse for wasting time in this backwater burg.
But no. We are waiting for parts.
Waiting for parts means waiting for the opportunity to do more work on the boat. Sure. That is what I want to do. Boatwork.
The municipal marina here goes out of its way to help with the shipping and receiving of parts to transient boaters. As Meredith is scheduled to attempt a sail to Bermuda and, sailing gods willing, to the Azores we have been alert to the need to replace and refit aging parts and systems.
It has been very discouraging for the BC and myself, who pride ourselves on tending to maintenance in a timely way, to discover an unending number of things that need refurbishing. Crew included.
Here are some of the more expensive items with our preferred suppliers:
1. New hi index lens prescription eyeglasses. Received yesterday from Lenscrafters and the Budget Committee has already stopped oscillating as she walks through the mall. Her old pair were killed by the salt and in keeping with recent advice she chose to dispense with the glare protection coating which seems to be the culprit. She loves her new eyewear. By the way - in Florida an eye exam costs $50 to $75.
2. Mast Parts: Arrived yesterday from Rig Rite in New Jersey. New runners for our spinnaker ring car (the old ones were crumbling from 25 years of sun and exposure, new purpose built shackle for the gooseneck on our Isomat NG70 mast and some small mast wedges to facilitate a sealing the mast at the deck partner to reduce water ingress. Rig Rite are fast and pleasant to deal with. They are not cheap. And they cannot spell.
3. Running Rigging: Expected yesteray from Rigging Only in Boston. Not here yet. Our existing sheets and furling lines have suffered 10 years of abuse at our hands. They are fraying and fuzzy.
4. Honda Generator: Arrived Thursday from Mayberry Sales in Port Murray, New Jersey. $899 no sales tax, no shipping. A great company to do business with and very proud of their multi generational family enterprise. We sold our 8 year old "runs like new" Honda in Cuba for 50% of the cost of a new one here.
5. New Main Traveler: Ordered from Garhauer Marine in California. Promised to be shipped Wednesday, not shipped until yesterday. Now expected to arrive on Tuesday. We hope.
6. SSB: We have removed and are shipping our Icom 802 to an Atlanta repair facility. The Florida authorized dealer has a bit of a reputation for excessive invoicing. They treated us fairly but we will seek a second quote. Our last quote was $800 for repair - $300 for parts and $500 for labour, not much of a deal on an $1,800 radio. We can buy a new ham rig for under $1,000 with more features and an actual warranty.
Our old traveler was undersized and overworked. Removing it looked like a nightmare job - the track seemed to have been not only bolted to the deck but also bonded with 3M 5200.
Bolt removal was easy, requiring removal of two light fixtures and some flexible wrist work. We were shocked at the tiny bolts used by the last outfitter for this job - 3 bolts measuring 5/16 of an inch. Even Guido at Garhauer was amazed that the bolts had not failed permitting the traveller to be pulled right out of the deck by pressure on the mainsail.
Remaining was a massive job of debonding two strips of 5200 adhesive measuring 7 inches in length and 6 inches in overall width. Since we were working on a sailboat thre was but the merest hint of access to the job.
After we removed the bolts the BC and I took the bus uptown to see if there were some tool that might help us cut through the 5200. Nothing was found but we did get drenched in a massive thunderstorm - actually just another massive thunderstorm down here. We have been wracked with turbulence all week.
Remaining was a massive job of debonding two strips of 5200 adhesive measuring 7 inches in length and 6 inches in overall width. Since we were working on a sailboat thre was but the merest hint of access to the job.
After we removed the bolts the BC and I took the bus uptown to see if there were some tool that might help us cut through the 5200. Nothing was found but we did get drenched in a massive thunderstorm - actually just another massive thunderstorm down here. We have been wracked with turbulence all week.
Arriving back at our mooring ball we could not help but notice the mainsheet traveler - swinging from the boom as it hung over the water.
The thunderstorm had generated a lot of wind and a lot of force on the boom. This in turn applied all of that force to the traveler. In the event the track was glued with some substance that looked like 5200 but was not 5200.
Here swung our mainsheet traveler -
torn from the deck by a passing thunderstorm
and just hanging there.
The thunderstorm had generated a lot of wind and a lot of force on the boom. This in turn applied all of that force to the traveler. In the event the track was glued with some substance that looked like 5200 but was not 5200.
No harm to the boat and a two day job of cutting out a bonded traveler reduced to zero time!!!
Now if the new traveler would just get here.
Experience has taught us that installing equipment on the eve of a major trip, eg to Bermuda, is not good operating procedure.
So, even though the wait is aggravating, notwithstanding the North wind, we are happy to be able to test the unit and our installation on a long coastal cruise from Fort Pierce to Beaufort NC.
So, even though the wait is aggravating, notwithstanding the North wind, we are happy to be able to test the unit and our installation on a long coastal cruise from Fort Pierce to Beaufort NC.
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