Saturday, December 31, 2016

Please be seated

Cabin seat upgrade

The PO. had installed high level seating in the cabin, they provide a ton of storage beteew them and the original seats, but... the wooden supports were just plain ugly, sorry Deke.

I used some left over stainless tubing and some unused rail fittings.  20 mins work  on all done.

Give the outboard the old heave ho.

Making it easier for Peggy to manage.
Sitting on Lake Boca for the New Year's weekend, we put the dink in the water and prepped to lower the outboard.
Peggy commented that it would not be so easy when we get the bigger engine for our trip to the Bahamas.

Add another project to the in case it rains list.

By the time I had updated the project list, the plan was complete.
I had a cleat on board,  and a block and shackle, and I always have the tools with plenty os stainless screws.

Cross that off the list.

Thursday, December 22, 2016

Where am I

Another Step towards greater Safety

Ok, so we haven't taken Eximius on any long trips - YET! but that is our plan, and when we do, it will most likely be just Peggy & I aboard, that's shorthanded sailing. So we take boat safety pretty seriously.

Where are we?

We know where we are, heck, we have a Main GPS with Radar, a Handheld GPS (battery powered), and at least 2 cell phones onboard each with GPS and a tablet running Navionics, as well as always carrying paper charts on board.

You know where we are!

Ok, close friends and family know where we are. We carry a SPOT locator on board and typically it's on and tracking whenever we are on the boat away from the dock, even when at Anchor or rafted up with a buddy boat. So our BFFs can check the web to see where the boat is (and has been for the past week)  and we send out 'We're OK' emails from SPOT with the link to the website several times during trips.

But Where am I?

More importantly, if I'm not on the boat and should be, where the heck am I?

Peggy gave me an early Christmas gift this year, an ACR ResQLink+ Personal Locator Beacon (PLB) - very cool! Here's a link to the ACR site for this PLB



Of course, it's not just a case of Buy it and Use it, everything has to get registered nowadays, so here's the process so far today:
  • Register the device with ACR for Warranty 
  • Easy, create a new account at www.acrartex.com
  • Complete the online registration - All done  
  • Register the device with NOAA so that they know who they are looking for (hope it never comes to that, but it's great insurance)
  • Setup an account at beaconregistration.noaa.gov and confirm
  • Complete the online registration - our boat is already documented so that was easy, but it's just as easy if the boat is not documented.
  • Verify the account and get the completed registration form as a PDF via email immediately. All Done.
 
  • Submit the Rebate form for the $50 rebate (WooooHooo!)
  • Print out the form from www.acrartex.com
  • Mail it with the WestMarine receipt, Noaa Registration, Proof of Purchase and the completed rebate form. 
  • All done - but I'll wait till the rebate check arrives within 3 months before celebrating.


 Me thinks that the best use for this safety device is that it will be worn by any crew that is out of the cockpit. Perhaps I'll make a baggy for it with quick attachment to our PFDs. Another project for my sewing skills. 👍

See you on the water.

Wednesday, December 7, 2016

It's on the Boat

Since I retired, my HDL (Honey Do list) has grown to the point where Peggy suggested that I write it down somewhere that I can always get to it, so I'm in the process of adding my Honey Do list to the blog site. I guess that's another item for the list!

One list item was to replace the master bedroom door, it's the last hall door to replace with a nice varnished door to match the others. Of course I needed a few tools to do it and make a nice job, including a spatula to smooth out the filler that I used to clean up some of the older screw holes in the door frame. I have a whole set of spatulas, but could not find one anywhere. So I recalled the last time I used one. AhHa! I was working on varnishing the teak around the boat Companionway, so they must be on the boat. Sorry honey! It will have to wait till I get back down the boat and pickup my spatulas that I used while refinishing the tea around the Companionway.

Well, that worked!

It might be winter, but the grass still grows down here in South Florida. I lent my mower to a neighbor as his had broken. "Don't forget to check the Blade" was Peggy's response when I got the mower back. It's not that long since I checked the blade and then thought it was fine, but now it really does need a sharpen. Time to get out my trusty Angle Grinder, Oh! It's on the boat! "Why don't you get another one so that you have one at home too?" Good idea. Off I got to Harbor Freight and find the latest model that uses the same size cutting disks.

That worked!

Now sometimes I screw up, honest! The last time I was at the boat I replaced the Engine Stop cable which had seized solid. The new cable was about 3' too long and the only way to cut it neatly is to use an angle grinder, and I have 2 of them. What did I screw up? I brought the second one home last week with a bunch of other tools. Peggy had requested that I cut back on the number of tools on the boat, so I brought a whole crate load home - including the 2nd angle grinder.

That didn't work!

We keep the documentation for the boat in a satchel so that we can take it with us when we go away for a trip on the boat. You might be surprised how much stuff there it to have aboard. Not just the boat documentation, but the instrument manuals, owners manuals, etc. So the bag concept works great, well, that's great if you take it home. So when Peggy asked me about a function on the GPS - at home - at breakfast time, I had to reply - It's on the Boat!

I'm sure other sailors have a list of things they left on the boat and needed at home or worse, left at home when needed on the boat!

Perhaps I should build a list of what's On the Boat! Another task for the Honey Do List.

See you on the water.

Paul