Patagonia Services

Patagonia Services at Playboy Marina

It's been 3 years since Eximius was hauled out for bottom work, last time my neighbor and I sweated for days sanding the hull lightly and then painting, then compounding the hull and polishing - we never finished that and had to work on it some more at the dock later.

This year we hired Patagonia Services at Playboy Marina to do the hard work. There were dozens of mini blisters on the hull, not unusual, but also on the keel. There was also some fairing over bottom paint that was an issue. I decided to have Leandro from Patagonia Marine take the keel down to the metal and refinish it. They did a great job, really pleased.

Unlike at the last haulout, there was no Catalina Smile just the scar where we had the smile cleaned up and faired by salerno marine in Port St. Lucie 5 years ago.  No water intrusion so all was well.

They did a really nice job of priming with Primocon and faring the area between the keel stub and the keel.

I also had them repair a hole where I removed the old speed transducer that is no longer used (our new transducer is Port side aft of the keel and is a combined Depth/Speed/Temperature transducer)

Most of the work was done by Luis, he worked for days to get everything done.

Then they (Louise) completed the job by applying 2 coats of the same bottom paint we have used since owning the boat.

The result is handsome!

I'm really pleased with the work done by Patagonia Services. 

Leandro, owner of Patagonia Services, is a member of the Hillsboro Inlet Sailing Club, so he knows us, but I'm sure his standards are the same for anyone's work.

Thanks Leandro.

Looking good

 Eximius is looking good.

Old lettering removed, new applied with a hint of a smile. 

Thanks Ross & Astrid for the tip about the hull side polish, worked out really well.

Eximius: We get a lot of 'Why 'Eximius' ? 

The story is told in one of our first blog posts, but we still get that 'What?' enquiry when folks first see the boat name.

Just a bit of fun.

The boat detailer was able to compound both sides and the transom, but the years of Poliglow did not submit to his polishing attempts.

Ross & Astrid (Commotion) advised me about the polish they use on their 20year old boat. Eximius is 33 years old, but the polish did the job.

We splash tomorrow, Thursday, but the tides are not in our favor to return to our dock, so we're going to hang off the hook Thursday night and return to our dock on Friday.

Then it's time to finish of the new Cabin cushions, new backsplash for the galley counter and finish off the new table.

Making progress.

See you on the water!

Stowing the Hatch Boards

 Stowing the Companionway Hatch Boards

Over the years we have struggled to find a way to safely, securly stow the two hatch boards. At first, we stowed them under the Cabin Seats, secure, but uncomfortable. Then we stowed them on either side of the Companionway steps, that worked, easy to store from when lifting them out of the companionway and easy to lift them to replace in the companionway, but they fell out onto the cabin sole several times and finding a convenient way to secure them that was easy to stow and remove was a tough one.

Finally figured out a solution that met several requirements

• Easy to stow after removing them from the companionway
• Easy to retrieve to replace them in the companionway
• Secure stowage to prevent them falling
• Stowage does not scratch the freshly varnished boards.

Solution: Hatchboard Baggies

The 'Baggies' are Sunbrella, shaped to fit the hatch boards with a piece of foam along the lower edge in the hope of preventing wearing through as the boards are frequently lowered into them.

The Tabs (shown on the right side in the pic) are double layered Sunbrella and will have Snap buttons applied.

Next time down at the boat we'll position them and add Snap Studs screwed into the wooden bulkhead on either side of the Companionway steps.

The boards have handles on the same side as their stowage bags, so the panel with the handle on the port side will be stowed in the Port side baggie.

When stowed, the handles should be within reach to enable easy pickup of the boards. 

Easy to make and I used left over fabric from another project.

I'll update this post with a pic of the boards in their baggies. The reason for using snaps to hold them in place is simple: If I need to access the engine, I would have to remove the boards, this way they are pretty well protected from damage when temporarily stowed elsewhere.  Right now there is a temporary, single, hatchboard securing the cabin.

Stay safe out there folks.

See you on the water.

Paul

Date and Fennel Whole Wheat Bread

Christmas came early (again) and some new baking tools arrived: Brotform, Lame, Dough Whisk and I just had to use them

Found a recipe for Date and Fennel Bread but it was basically a white bread and we really appreciate a good whole wheat bread, so tweaked the recipe and this is the result. The dark spots on the surface are where the dates got a bit crispy. We have to wait for 3 hours before our first slice and that's way to long to wait! So we'll see if we can hold out for a couple of hours.

This is a two part dough, starter and dough.

Starter (Make the day before)

1 Cup of bread flour

1 Cup of warm water

1/8th Teaspoon of Yeast

Mix all of the starter ingredients into about a 4 cup bowl that has a lid, stir them up, pop the lid on and leave till the next day, at least 6 hours, but up to 24.

Next Day:

Complete the Starter

• 1 Cup of room temperature water - add to the Starter let it stand.
• 1/2 Cup of Wheat Germ - add to the starter and mix with a whisk.

Dough (Make this before lunchtime so that you're not baking at night.)

Prep:

• 1 Tablespoon of Fennel Seed - toast in a skillet for 3 or 4 minutes, don't let them burn and empty skillet onto a cool plate to stop them cooking further.
• 1 Cup of Pitted Dates - cut them crosswise slices about 1/8 of an inch thick.
• Oil a rising bowl with lid, about 7 quarts so there's room to double the dough

In a Stand mixer's bowl:-

• 1 Cup of Bread Flour
• 1 Cup of Whole Wheat Flour
• 1 1/2 Teaspoons of Yeast
• Whisk them up to evenly distribute in the bowl

With the mixer running on slow, pour the starter mixture and mix for 3 minutes, if the dough does not start to combine, repeatedly add a teaspoon more of bread flour with about 30 seconds in between, the dough just needs to start to make strings of gluten. 

Continue to mix the dough and gradually add the cooled fennel seed, about a teaspoon at a time to make sure it's not in a lump.

Continue to mix adding the salt.

Continue to mix and very gradually add the dates, same rate, about 1 teaspoon at a time, they should evenly distribute into the dough

Now continue to mix the dough for a total of about 10 minutes, it will be sticky but might start to pull off of the sides of the mixing bowl.

Scrape the mixture out of the mixing bowl into the rising bowl,

Rise #1: Cover and let stand for 30 minutes

Rise #2: Using fingers or an oiled scraper, fold the edge of the dough to the center, turn the bowl a qtr tern and repeat for a total of 8 folds. Cover and let stand for 30 minutes

Rise #3: Do #2 again

Rise #4: Do #2 again

That's a total of 2 hours rising and folding.

Prepare the Brotform: Spray with water, dry with a kitchen towel, sprinkle Rice Flour on the inner surface and turn the Brotform on its side, rotating it so that the flour rolls into the grooves of the form all the way around. Don't use regular flour. No rice flour? Just use some fine cornmeal instead.

At the end of the two hours of rising and folding the dough should be about doubled in size from when it came out of the mixing bowl. Gently deflate it and turn onto a lightly floured surface.

Fold the far edge towards you to about the center of the dough and press it into the dough beneath it.

Turn the dough clockwise 90º and repeat the fold.

Do that so that there's now a rectangle of dough.

Turn the dough over so that the seams are on the underside.

Shape the dough into a large ball keeping the seams underside

Transfer the dough into the Brotform with the seam side uppermost.

Cover with a kitchen towel and let it rest for about an hour, it should rise above the top of a medium sized Brotform

While it's rising: Setup the oven with two shelves, a baking or pizza stone on the middle shelf and a tray of rocks on the lower shelf, heat the oven to 450ºF

When the oven is at temperature and the dough has risen in the Brotform, pour a half cup of water into the tray of rocks and close the door, that will add some steam to the oven. Let it sit for a minute.

Place a piece of Parchment paper onto a pizza paddle and turn the risen dough onto the paper. Now is the time to slash the bread with the lame, if you want. 

Add a second 1/2 cup of water to the tray

Slide the Parchment paper and dough off of the paddle onto the hot stone and close the oven

Set a timer for 35 minutes

Check the dough internal temperature after 35 minutes and every 5 minutes until it registers 200ºF Max of 45 minutes. 

Then pull the Bread out and remove the paper. Cool the bread before slicing it should look really good.

Hope you enjoy.

Cabin Cushions Update

 Updating the Cabin Cushions

I'm pretty sure that the boat cabin cushions are all original, that means they are 33 years old. Some of them even have the original markings on the back from the Catalina factory in 1987. The V-berth cushions are in good shape, compared to the saloon cushions, they are hardly used. Same goes for the Aft berth cushions. The cushions are also a dark blue with a grey dot pattern and buttons to create a surface shape that is not particularly effective.  Time for an update.

The original cushions were used even though the raised starboard cabin seats were a slightly different shape. The cushions are very worn and have little support, it's a bit like sitting on a plank of wood.

This picture of the starboard fore seat shows that there is no seat back, so the occupant (it's Peggy's seat for meals) has to suffer leaning against the hard wood bulkhead.

That also makes the cabin dark, off of that dark blue and the, seemingly, large bulkhead at the front end of the main cabin.

So, as usual, it takes a bit of planning.

To figure out the amount of cushion foam I would need, I used Google Draw.

The process was pretty simple:- Start a new Draw project, set the page to a Custom size the same as the size of a sheet of foam. I chose National Foam Products with is 10 minutes away from our house. No shipping charges and they have everything I would need for the foam in stock.

So now I have a google draw that has a page dimension of 82x55 

Next I created a rectangle for each cushion piece measured to the nearest inch and moved that round the page. With all of the pieces displayed and maneuvered on the page to fit, some were left over and I simply copied them onto a second draw page. I ended up with 4 google draw pages.

#1 Cabin Seat Foam 4"

#2 Cabin Seat Foam 4"

#3 Cabin Seat Foam 2"

#3 Cabin Seat Foam 1"

This method worked so well that I decided to use the same technique to determine how much material I would need.

I created a new Google draw page 54 x 288 (that's 54 to match the material width and 288 was my initial guess of 8 yards (8 * 36)

Same process, I calculated the size of the seat top plates then added a rectangle to the page to scale, repeated that for all of the cushions. Then did the same for the cushion end plates (or boxing) and it turns out the best fit was 8 yards - good guesstimate.

I have plenty of Phifertex to use for the seat backing and the 'stretchers' used to create the Knee Risers at the front edge of each cushion.

Then it was time to place the orders:

Eversoft Vinyl Fabric Cushion Cover Material

8 Yards of Silver (it's a shade of grey) EverSoft textured vinyl from Sailrite, they really do have the best choices.

Then High Density Polyurethane Foam from National Foam Products in Pompano Beach Florida.

2 82 x 55 sheets of 4"  

1 82 x 55 sheet of 2" 

1 82 x 55 sheet of 1" 

and a couple of cans of Foam Glue, they were cheaper at Sailrite, but no shipping from NFP.

Total cost for the 9 pieces (seats and backs) is less than $800, just imagine how much it would cost to have them made! And that includes getting glue and a foam cutter.

Fabric is on it's way, Foam company confirmed the price of that part too. Should have everything to start in about 10 days. Making progress 👍

Of course, if the weather & tides allow us to go sailing, then perhaps we'll see you on the water.

Cabin Upgrades (Part iv)

 Cabin Table Upgrade - Practice

The weather in South Florida has finally cooled off, it is 69ºF in my Garage today - cool enough to start practicing the table finish process.

I mixed up 5oz of resin and gave it a good stir, not sure if I mixed it enough, I was worried about how quickly it would kick off.

As this is just a test piece where I hoped to learn how to apply the resins and to achieve the general look of the finish as well as the rudimentary things such as using the butane burner to eliminate bubbles and the Electric heat gun to manipulate the applied resin.

To mix the individual colors I decanted 1oz into the individual mixing cups, one for each color: White, 3 blues and one clear.

I mixed the black and copper pigments in order to obtain a sandy color, it worked out pretty good.

Each of the mixing cups got about 1/4 teaspoon of pigment except for the sandy mixture. I waited until completing the base coat of clear resin before mixing the black and copper into the remaining resin in that cup. Used just 1/8th teaspoon of both the balk and copper into the remainder of the clear resin after applying the initial cover coat.

Here's the 1st test piece, not bad for a first attempt.

Critique:-

• Need to mix the resin for longer to ensure the cure is complete. After 1 and 1/2 hours, the resin was still not 'solid', firm enough that I could not pull the mixing spatulas out of the cups, but maybe it will take much longer to fully cure. I'll wait 24 hours.
• Using my gloved fingers to eradicate the solid colors works, but need to make sure that it's not confined to a very small area as it shows in the finished product. 

•  The test piece was just an offcut of a ply wood, no sanding or rounding of the edges. However, the resin did not flow over the sides as expected, I'll round the edges of the next test piece.
• The 'cells' formed quite nicely and the 'waves' were pretty effective for a 1st try. 

Here's a view of the 1st test piece after 26 hours of cure time.

I tried to shave off the 'drips' from the underside with a freshly sharpened chisel. They would not come off!!! 

Note for 2nd test:- Scrape drips from the bottom as the resin is applied and before it cures.

For the 2nd test piece, I'll round over the top edges and apply a couple of coats of primer similar to that applied to the actual tabletop.

Lessons learned:- Baby powder is great to ease  putting on the vinyl gloves. Dust was not much of an issue but it's worth it to build a dust covered bench. The coloring pigments go a long way! I barely used 1/4 of a teaspoon and the resulting resin mix had a vibrant coloring. Making the sandy color using the copper and tiny amount of the black pigments worked our really well.  If I want the underside of the table sealed, it should be done prior to the top application of resin.

Ok, time to make the second test piece.

See you on the water, getting closer to having a new cabin table.

English Whole wheat Boat Muffins

Making Whole Wheat English Muffins on the Boat

I really enjoy cooking on the boat, but I practice at home first. That practice includes using utensils that I have on the boat and avoiding those that are not.

Here's the recipe, it's a version of the King Arthur Baking English muffins but modified to cook aboard.

Makes 8 English Muffins. (Just double for 16, but that might be 4 separate bakes of 4 )

Time to bake:-

• 1st Rising Time - Two hours
• 2nd Rising Time 20 to 30 minutes
• Baking time 21-25 minutes
• Total time: about 2 1/2 Hours - but most of that is just watching, plenty of time to do something other busy on the boat.

Ingredients:

• 7/8ths Cups of warm milk (warm enough to melt butter)
• 1&1/2 Tablespoons of  butter
• 3/4 Teaspoon of Salt
• 1 Tablespoon of Granulated sugar (or cane sugar)
• 1/2 of a large egg or 1 small egg -  lightly beaten
• 1 Cup of KABC Whole Wheat Flour
• 1 1//4 Cup of KABC Bread Flour
• 1 Teaspoon  of yeast

Also need a tablespoon of Ground Cornmeal for the baking tray.

Kitchen Tools:

• Mixing Bowl I use a 7 Quart Mixing bowl with Lid and a Spatula to mix the ingredients.
• Spatula
• 4 Cup measuring Cup
• Hand whisk or Fork.
• Cookie sheet that fits the oven.
• Parchment Paper.
• Kitchen slice (to flip the half baked muffins)
• Oven that can get up to 350ºF

Making the Dough:

Add the egg to the measuring cup and lightly beat the eggs maybe 30 seconds.

Add the butter to the egg mix.

Add the warm milk to the mix and give it a good stir.

In the mixing bowl, add the Flours, Salt and Yeast.

Whisk to mix for about 30 seconds.

Pour the Egg, Milk, Butter mixture into the bowl containing the Flour, Salt and Yeast.

Now the difficult bit: Stir it up with the Spatula, this should take about 3 or 4 minutes, it'll be a sticky and about as stiff than peanut butter (creamy). Mixing it is just to ensure the flours are all combined and the yeast is generally distributed. 

 Once mixed, put a lid on the mixing bowl ( I really detest using plastic film, but if you have to !)

Let the dough rise for about 2 hours, it won't rise much, probably not double.

Preparing the Muffins:

Line the baking tray with Parchment Paper ( I don't have a small tray at home so I'm using a standard tray here, on the boat I would cook two batches on the small tray that fits the oven.)

Sprinkle some cornmeal on the paper.

Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface.

Divide into 8 pieces

Roll each piece into a ball, then turn the outsides up into the bottom to form a smooth top to the ball.

Press the dough piece to form about a 3" diameter disk, it'll be about 1/4" or so thick.

Place the dough onto the paper with the cornmeal. Repeat for as many of the muffins as will fit your tray.

Cover the tray with either another piece of parchment paper or with a second tray inverted.

Let the dough rest for about 20 to 30 minutes, they won't rise up very much but they'll rest easy :)

While the doughs are resting on the tray, preheat the oven to 350ºF (My boat's oven can get up to 475º)

When the oven is up to temp and the 20 to 30 minutes rest time is over, Pop the tray in the oven.

Let them bake for about 7 to 8 minutes, then flip each muffin.

Let the 2nd side bake for 7 to 8 minutes, then flip again. This time one side (now the top) should be browned, Let them bake again for another 5 minutes. Time to pull them out.

The inside of the muffins should reach close to 200ºF if not leave them for another couple of minutes.

If using a small baking tray, then let the oven get back to temperature and bake the 2nd batch.

Let the muffins cool if you can, but no harm if you fork one or two apart while still hot and smother the nooks and crannies with butter or spread.

Keep them in the bread bin and toast them in the morning for breakfast, oh so good!

This batch turned out great, the whole wheat flavour is really nice and the nooks and crannies are not like crumpets, but they are just waiting for a tablespoon of butter or spread with, perhaps, some Peanut Butter and Plum jam.

I'll be baking these often, so easy and so delicious. 

See you on the water, I may have a few on board to share.