AIS - nice to know we can be seen

When you're only a small boat, it's nice to know that you can be seen.

We motored back from the HISC Oktoberfest Cruise on Monday morning. The Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show is being put together for it's opening on October 30th. So all of the Big boats are in town.

This is what the AIS overlay looked like as we motored past the boat show.

Just in case it's not obvious, each Red Arrow is an AIS target!

My Splicing Kit

My DIY Splicing Kit

Needing to splice different types of line for everything from Fender Lines to Soft Shackles, I've watched dozens of YouTube videos on the subject. This is despite the Navy training I had at age 15 on how to make various splices in ropes, typically Coir Rope (Coconut Husk material).

1964 That's me in the Back Row 5th from the left.

HMS St. Vincent's Rope Work Class - Jnr Seaman

Over the past 4 years, I have made Fender lines, Dock Lines, Main Halyard Loops and the list goes on. I've built up a simple Splicing Kit and find it's pretty much all I need to complete any splice on the lines sized to suit Eximius. A larger boat might need thicker lines and a couple of extra, larger splicing tools.

My DIY Splicing Kit comprises of a Small & Medium sized FID, a line puller, Marker Pen, Ruler, Line Cutting Board and Sharp Knife

Fids: Used to open the rope strands or push a line end though the parts of the line. I purchased a pack of hollow, aluminum, knitting needles from the local fabric store. Cut the blunt ends off and then ground down that end with my rotary sander (could have used my Dremel)

Line Puller: Used to pull a line or part of a line inside of the rest of the line, I know, that's not very descriptive, I'll show it in pics.

Here are the parts of my kit:

My original Line Puller, Version II, Long Fid, Short Fid

Single Sided Razorblade, Sharpie Marking Pen

I spent a few minutes making a holder for everything except the Razor and Ruler

Note: The holder is marked at 6" 8" and 12" 

so that I don't have to have a 3' rule at hand.

Still thinking about how to include the Razor in the holder

Solution for the Razor, I've started to using a box cutter to hold the blade.

I purchased these (available on Amazon)
The cutter fits easily into the Splicing Kit holder. I didn't need 12 cutters, but what's the chance I'll loose one (or more 😉







Now I can sit and watch TV while I'm making a Soft Shackle or putting an Eye Splice in a piece of Dyneema.

See you on the water!

Multi-Purpose Block and Tackle

Should have made one of these years ago.

In preparation for Hurricane Dorian's visit (didn't happen here), I realized that Peggy was having trouble hoisting our Outboard engine from the Rail Mounting so that I could remove the outboard from the boat and get it safely in our Garage. The block was small and only had a 2:1 advantage. My solution was to replace the block with a 4:1 Block and tackle.

While on my buddy's, Peder, boat, he setup a Preventer to keep the Main sail steady during a downhill run, Wow! I never realized what a difference a Preventer would make. I'll have to get one.

This week we took our 69lb Inflatable dinghy back to the boat, it's been at home for cleaning and safe from the Hurricane (didn't happen here) and that reminded me that hauling the dink from the water onto the foredeck with a spare halyard (1:1) was a real pain. I need to have a better system.

So that's 3 reasons for having a block and tackle at hand on the boat, there's a 4th! Hauling someone from the water after a MOB event is no easy task, and a block and tackle would make that doable.

So, at least 4 reasons for a Multi-Purpose Block and Tackle.

I figure the max load would be about 250lbs (heavier than that and you're not coming on my boat, sorry, it's not a big boat!). So the SWL should be about 2.5 times that load, that's around 625lbs or 1.4Kgm and the attachment point would need to be able take a load of 500lbs or 1.1Kgm

NEW ENGLAND ROPES Solid Color Sta-Set Polyester Yacht Braid


50' of 5/16" Diameter

The Top Block

Lewmar 60mm Synchro Double Block with Becket

The Bottom Block

Lewmar 60mm Synchro Single Block

We need to give this a name, we'll call it 'The Blue Block and Tackle' 

Yesterday, we hoisted the deflated dinghy from the Dock to the Foredeck using The Blue Block and Tackle, literally - NO SWEAT!

Now I need to make a dinghy hoisting harness. It'll be a simple 4 point harness with snap shackles on the 5 ends. Easy job using my Sailrite LSZ-1 sewing machine.

See you on the water.

Paul

Raw Toast Explosion

Exploding Bread

I have now been baking bread for just over a year and since getting the America's Test Kitchen Bread Illustrated book, my bread baking skills have risen (pun intended) greatly.

Here's a link to ATK: https://www.americastestkitchen.com

Yesterday I baked my 1st ever Soaker, Sponge, Dough bread - Whole-wheat sandwich bread (See page 209 of Bread Illustrated).

It exploded! 

This method of baking (which should not normally blow up like this)

The Soaker process seemed to go ok, although it probably had a higher hydration % (I didn't have any wheat germ and used toasted Flax Seed instead). The Sponge processing went well too (as per the book)

I followed this process when I made the dough by combining the soaker and sponge: Putting the Sponge in the mixer bowl and setting it on Low, then adding the soaker one tablespoon at a time until incorporated. Then I added the other ingredients. Finally kneading for 8 mins on med-low.  Into a greased (EVO) bowl with plastic lid to rise. It rose to the top of the bowl within 30 minutes! (15mins early) but hey, this is South Florida in Summer = Hot, Humid even with the AC running to 78º F .

Folded dough the 6 times as described, next rise, that was quick too.

Split and shaped the dough then into the Bread Pans (8.5" x 4/5") and covered with greased plastic wrap.

My oven takes a while to get to temp. So I set the oven to 350 while the final rise was taking place.

15 minutes and the bread was overflowing the pans!!! I pulled the bread from over the pan sides onto the top and pressed to seal - did not slash the dough.

Popped the pans into the oven sitting on a baking sheet - just as well

I checked the bread at 25 minutes to rotate but - Explosion!! Dough had spilt over the sides of both pans and had risen even more on the baking pan (the baking pans were hardly visible)

As I have learned, if it fails - finish the cooking - it might be salvageable.  Baked until 205ºF

Pulled out of oven, had to let them cool in the pans until set sufficiently to try removing them.

I had to  do some major surgery to get the loaves from the pan, but was successful and transferred loaves to the cooling rack.

My wife buttered a couple of pieces of the lava left overs, delicious!

This morning we had some of the bread toasted - Delicious!!! Very light, lots of reasonable sized holes  and the toasted Flax seed added flavor to the bread.

So, I'm guessing that the problem was the amount of yeast in the final dough!

The recipe on page 290 indicates 2 Tablespoons of Yeast, I'm betting that's a typo and should read 2 teaspoons!


And the good news:

 None of the dough spilt over into the oven! It was close.

And the bread in the pans looks good.

They were cojoined but none of it was burnt, a hint in the left corners nearest  to the camera.

With the excess cut crusts cut off, the bread came out of the pans in one piece, the 'open' sides of the bread were not trimmed, that's how they came out of the pan.

Size and shape were just fine. It's just odd having a loaf with no side crusts.

Not too shabby!

The loaf is very light, really light! I was expecting a rock, as I have baked a few of those over the last year or so.

But the crumb was very airy, the flax seed was we distributed, and the flavor was really much better than I expected.

Next time I'll use just 2 teaspoons of yeast and will not use Flax seed but use the suggested Wheat Germ.

Oh, what did we do with the overflowing crusts? We ate about 1/3rd of it and tossed the rest. Too much bread crumbs in my galley already.




This is not a bread I would or could make on the boat! It requires a stand mixer - don't have one on the boat - and it takes 24 hours total to make - I started my prep at 14:30 and the bread came out of the oven at 18:00 the next day!  But I must say, it is really delicious.

See you on the water - and I'll probably have Boat Baked Bread on board too!

Paul

DIY Spool Holder

My DIY Spool Holder

DIY Thread Spool Holder

A couple of years ago we thought of getting our boat's Dodger & Bimini replaced, but the cost was going to be over $5000 - well over! So I decided I would learn to make one myself, even then, the cost will be close to $1,000 but it would include a whole lot more features. I purchased the Sailrite's LSZ-1 Sewing machine and later the Industrial table & Servo motor - they work! After two years, the machine has easily paid for itself.

During that time my sewing kit has expanded and these recent additions have been really useful.

Rectangular Ruler

This is the ARTEZA Quilting Ruler, no, I do not make quilts. But it is a huge help when trying to measure and mark material and keep the lines straight and parallel. This is one of those tools that should have been on my shopping list much sooner.

Now it's really easy to get square corners and the correct sized hems.

This comes to hand on virtually every new sewing project.

Available on Amazon

DYI Thread Spool & Bobbin holder.

When working on a sewing project, it's an annoyance to have to wind a fresh bobbin of thread in the middle of a seam or hem. So I prepare several Bobbins from the Spool of thread and put them on my Thread holder.


This pic shows the simple DIY Thread Spool holder and the Spare Bobbin holder.

The Spool holder is a simple piece of 3/16" Steel rod bent at 45º. the length of the angled part is about 3" longer than the typical height of a Spool of Thread.

This causes the spool to rotate as the thread is pulled off, avoiding twists. I didn't remove the thread holder than came with the Sailrite table.

The smaller piece of 3/16" steel rod is straight, it holds my pre-wound bobbins to match whichever thread I'm using for the current project.

In the event of the bobbin running out, I simply use another of the prepared set. I typically have five bobbins pre-wound.

This shows the Spool holder in use.

Both the spool holder rod and the bobbin holder rods are simply inserted into 3/16" holes drilled into the table but they do not penetrate all the way through.

This took about 10 minutes to make, I simply cut the metal rod (available at most hardware stores) using an angle grinder.

This turned out to be a great improvement in thread handling. It's easy to change the spool when I need to use a different thread and the correct bobbins are always at hand.


Love my Sailrite!

The Value of a Sailing Club

What is the Value of a Sailing Club?

Our first boat was a Catalina 250 - Swing keel water ballast 25' Trailer Sailer. We kept her on the trailer at the side of the house (it's still visible on google maps) and dragged the boat behind our F150 the 90 minutes to Black Point Marina where we would spend 2 hours rigging the boat for launch. 

After 10 years, and lots of upgrades to the boat, and pushing it even to Bimini, we would take the boat out for up to 10 days at a time, just to get the value out of the work needed to launch and retrieve the boat. But we enjoyed that boat 'Joint Decision' every trip, even when the weather went south.

I wanted us to extend our cruising area, and the 25' boat didn't do it for us. I'm 6' and needed to wear knee pads to get around inside the boat, and approaching 65 I needed a bit more comfort. We needed a bigger boat! 

After a couple of years searching the Internet looking for a new (to us) boat, I had a pretty good idea of what type of boat 'I' wanted. Peggy's 'wants' were more pricey and I knew from our first boat, that upgrades / fixes take a bite out of the budget, so I felt the need to go with the older, proven, well supported boats. Catalina yachts were at the top of my list, but there were others.

So, if we wanted to get a bigger boat, I figured we needed to be around people that had bigger boats, it's probably catching!

We joined the Hillsboro Inlet Sailing Club with the intention of moving up to a bigger boat. We got so much more!

The HISC is a dynamic club, they only meet monthly at a rented hall for Cocktails, General Meetings and a Sailing interests program. Typically there would be about 100 members turn up the monthly GM, and the cocktail chats often extended into the parking lots afterwards. They held a lot of events that interested both of us. Racing (not so much for us), Cruising, and Social events. 

Knowing that you only get out equal to what you put in, I jumped into the club and volunteered whenever the chance arose.

In 2015, I was assisting at the Strictly Sail Miami HISC Membership Booth with other members of the club. We had been to the SSM show for the past 10 years and knew the layout. So spending an additional day at the show was an easy decision. 

During the show, I met with another of our club's members - Tom - and he knew that I was in the market for a bigger boat. He mentioned that he had recently delivered a boat from the Bahamas to Port St Lucie that was for sale and was a great boat, a Catalina 34!

I didn't jump on it, it was not in the right price range for Peggy - too cheap - not that we had the budget for an expensive yacht, and I thought no more about it. Three months later, the owner called me and invited me to come and look at it, 'You would not be disappointed" he said. So I suggested to Peggy that we go to see the boat and make a nice weekend of it by visiting our dautghter as well. She agreed. 

We drove up to the boat and spent over an hour looking at her. 'ChrisDeek' a 1987 Catalina 34 Tall Rig Fin Keel. Then we drove to Loxahatchee, to see our daughter and grand-daughter. On the Way from the boat, I suggested that if we were to buy the boat, we should name it 'Special' but Peggy insisted that we were not going to sail around with the word 'Special' on the back of the boat - note! She did not say we were not going to buy the boat! It's a Winner!

Anyway, that's the long story about how we got our bigger boat, because we joined the sailing club and got so many points of view from other boat owners, the chance to visit their boats on the water during the many club cruises, and to confirm some of the things we needed to look for.

Joining the sailing club helped us reach our goal. But it has done so much more! Since we brought 'Eximius' (Latin for Special) home, we have really dug into our club membership. Because the club does not own a building, the fees are only $150 a year, compared to the thousands that some clubs have to charge. But the equivalent of just $3 a week it's incredible value for the money.

We participate in a sailing club event at least every month, additional socials, again at least every month, and more. The friendships we have formed over the past five years add a lot to our retirement living. When we go to the club, practically everybody knows us, primarily because we jumped into the club by volunteering. 

Now I'm the club's Rear Commodore - That's a higher rank than I had at the end of my 25 year Navy career, and that means we're on a four year commitment - Rear, Vice, Commodore, Past Commodore. But it's worth every effort. Now I'm in a position to encourage others to get more out of their sailing hobby, develop new friendships, and enjoy the camaraderie of like minded sailors.

So I suggest, if you want to really enjoy local sailing, and more, then Join a Sailing Club - and Jump In!

See you on the water. 

Not the best Birthday

Birthday Weekend - cut short

We set out from the Dock Saturday Evening before 6pm to motor down to Lake Sylvia for the start of Peggy's Birthday Cruise Weekend. Plan was to anchor overnight Saturday at Lake Sylvia, then Motor out of Port Everglades Sunday Morning, Sail up to Hillsboro Inlet and then Motor up to Lake Boca to anchor overnight, Monday reverse but going from Port Everglades directly to the dock.

Weather has been steady the past few days, either storms in the morning or just after lunch, hot blue skies in between. To make sure we dined well, I made Fresh Whole Wheat Bread and a Bacon and Swiss Cheese creamy Quiche on Saturday, and we packed plenty of food, wine, rum and snacks.

Our grand daughter's other Granma was scheduled to have her birthday celebration with family on board the Jungle Queen Saturday evening - 6pm departure, family had planned to come from all over, so we contacted JQ as soon as we heard them navigate up the river on the VHF #16 and them to say hi as we passed. We often meet and pass the Jungle Queen, always courteous and their skippers know our boat by name as they do most frequent travellers of the New River. JQ agreed to say Hi which basically meant they would sound their horns as we passed. We had our little biddy horn ready too (nowhere near as loud as JQ's).

We expected to pass JQ just upstream from the Tunnel so we were prepared. As she came around the bend, they saw us and blasted their horn in a cheery melody. We reciprocated with several tweets from ours. Peggy was stood on the cockpit seat waving to everyone on JQ, we looked for our family but could not see them among the couple of hundred folks on board. But they all waved back, it was fun. But apparently, the family didn't make it to the JQ but we didn't find that out until Sunday Morning. Still, it was fun to Meet & Greet with JQ. Thanks Guys!

Lake Sylvia was not as packed as past weekends, we found a suitable anchor spot and dropped our 35lb anchor and 70' of Chain, backed down with enough speed to dig in but not enough to pull the anchor back out. 1st time! Anchor secure! It only took a few minutes to hoist our Anchor Day Mark and secure the Anchor Snubber to soften any sudden movements of the boat against the chain, not a frequent event on Lake Sylvia, but we like the quiet of the snubber compared to the crunching of the chain when we swing around due to wind or current.

The boat, Patagonia, was off our Stbd quarter, I was pretty sure they were club members but were out of hailing range. I watched the skipper inflate his dink on the foredeck, his boat was about the same length as Eximius. He put it in the water, mounted the outboard and took it for a spin around the lake. While I was making dinner - ok, serving dinner as it was the still warm Quiche - Delish! I saw them depart their boat in the dink leaving Patagonia at anchor.

We enjoyed the Quiche, some wine for Peggy and Rum for me. Weather was forecast to be quiet overnight and we ran the AC for a couple of hours before turning in for the night.

Sunday morning we realized that we (me) had left the Butter and Olive Oil at home, bummer! I had planned on making Eggs Benedict with Sausage, Tomatoes and Fried Toast for Breakfast - So we had poached eggs (egglets) sausage and Toms instead - not as fancy, but a nice breakfast. Our plan was to leave around 9am so that we were not trying to get out of Lake Sylvia at low tide - there are plenty of skinny parts both in the lake and in the canal entrance to the lake. We hoisted Anchor without seeing the crew of Patagonia nor their dinghy.

We motored out to Port Everglades, the bridge was already up for it's O'Clock opening, so I hailed the bridge to advise them that we did not require the bridge open so that they didn't hold it.

Passing under the closing bridge, we saw the new Ship USS Paul Ignatius which had only been commissioned the day before (Saturday) Very smart looking ship. As a 25 Year Navy guy, it was nice to see a really modern ship in port.

Motoring out of Port Everglades, Peggy cocked her ear at what she thought was unusual sounds on the boat, but we didn't thing much of it, depending upon the current in the river and port entrance, the engine can be under different strains each time and we often hear noises from other passing boats resonating through our hull. We should have been more mindful!

There was barely any wind and the seas were calm, so we motored out to three miles. I know, it was supposed to be a Birthday Cruise, and we were heading out for a dump! At 3.5 miles out, we dumped the tank, and re-secured the discharge valve. The wind picked up to 5knots from the East, so we actually hoisted the sails. We were managing 4+ knots through the water with under 6knots of wind, not shabby, especially as we were not working at it. The Auto Pilot was keeping course, it was a beautiful day for a sail. Then we heard the noise! a regular Screeching sound coming from the propulsion system when the engine was off and in neutral. Oh Carp! 

We discussed what it could be. It did not sound like a bag or line caught on the prop, but it did sound regular with rotation. As soon as we put the engine in gear the noise (and the prop rotation) would stop. Definitely something wrong with the shaft.

I emptied the aft berth in order to open the shaft space below, then, while I lay on the aft berth floor, Peggy put the engine in Neutral - No doubt now! The noise was clearly coming from the area of the Cutlass Bearing. NOT GOOD! Assuming it was the bearing, I did not want to run the engine and risk damaging the Bearing housing - that's big bucks. Needed a plan.

My decision was to go sailing! We could not get back to our dock until around 6pm Sunday evening due to the tides, and motoring was not an option except in an emergency. I figured that if we called for a Tow around 4 or 5 pm, we could get towed back to the dock near high tide. We could continue to sail around until 4pm - ish and then call Tow Boat US. After all, it was a beautiful day for a sail.

We turned North towards Hillsboro Inlet and Boca Inlet, just to burn some daylight. Sailing was great, Peggy was not happy - the boat is broken and we're about to spend a Boat Buck or Two on getting it fixed.

With plenty of time to think about it, my mind wandered through the process of replacing the Cutlass Bearing.

For those that don't know about Cutlass Bearings - The picture shows the cylindrical bearing housing along the lower edge of the strut through which the Prop Shaft passes. The Cutlass bearing is a tube that is lined with a rubber insert that has grooves running from each end. Those grooves allow water to cool and lubricate the shaft / bearing interface and has to be replaced every few years. (dependent upon the engine hours) We normally sail with the engine in Neutral which means the Prop is free to rotate, but it's normally silent and we are not aware of it's rotation. The pic was taken before refinishing the shaft, prop and installing the new Zinc last January (2018)

To replace the bearing requires the boat to be hauled (a diver can do it in the water, but there's not really any option to check the bearing housing for damage). Hauling the boat costs about $500 (haul, pressure wash, blocking, stands, and resplash after the repair) Once on blocks and stands, the prop has to be removed. Then using a bearing removal tool (rental and shipping) is used to extract the bearing, the same tool is used to insert the new bearing. Of course, with the boat out of the water, there are several other things that could be done to get the best out of the boat bucks, like: Prop Speed coat the Shaft and Prop, Clean and Polish the hull above the water. Our Bottom paint is in good condition so no need to repaint after just 18 months. It would probably cost about $1,000 to do the work myself, a lot more if I paid for a contractor to do it. Luckily it's all well within my skill set. The downside is that it's Summer! Doing that work in 100ºF is close to unbearable!

Meahwhile, as planned, we sailed down towards Port Everglades from North of Hillsboro Inlet, and I called Boat US on #16 at 15.25pm. After taking my details (and checking my membership and Gold Unlimited Towing) they dispatched a tow boat out to the Port Everglades entrance. Timing was perfect, their arrival would coincide with ours just inside of the PE Channel. A Cruise ship was leaving the dock, and the tow boat got us in tow before it came out of the channel. I asked Capt George to not go too fast and advised him of our nearly 6' draft and that we had a mast height of 54'. George confirmed our mast height so that we could pass under the 17th street bridge without opening. It was nearing high tide, but I was confident that we had clearance at the center of the bridge. So Capt George steered down the middle as we helmed the boat to go right down the center between the fenders, making sure not to twing the bridge lights that hang down a foot or so below the bridge center.

Tow Boat US did a great job in getting us back to the dock, timing was perfect, and our Capt was very considerate of both our speed and draft. We got alongside our dock close enough that I could step ashore and secure the boat while Capt George completed the Paper work (iPad).

As Tow Bot US headed away down the canal, we started to unload the boat and took a few minutes break to eat some more Quiche (delish even when cold). Peggy still not the happy birthday girl, I don't blame her. 

Monday morning we drove back to the boat and I used my Olympus Tough G2 camera, on the end of a boat hook, to take some videos of the Prop and shaft. FOUND IT!

The Zinc on the shaft has slid back as far as the Cutlass Bearing (the divers had left the old zinc in place when the installed the new one that is further from the Strut.

This is an easy fix!

Monday evening, the Divers went down to the boat, removed both zincs and installed a new one (I always keep spare zincs on the boat). Tuesday morning, I went down to the boat and ran the engine from slow all the way up to full throttle - no noise from the shaft! WooooHooo!

Now, all I have to do is figure out what I'm going to do to make up for Peggy's spoiled Birthday Cruise! I saved a Boat Buck (Bring On Another Thousand) 

See you on the water. - Pay attention to those weird noises!