Our sailing experience on a 1987 Catalina 34 which we named 'Eximius' which google showed as the Latin translation for 'Special' We hope that our posts will help others looking to take their boat beyond the local waters as well as provide entertaining reading. I'm a Brit, so my view of entertaining may not match yours ;) See you on the water. The Journey Starts Here Paul
Wednesday, February 9, 2022
Lost Engine Key
Saturday, January 29, 2022
Saving Zippers - Thanks Peggy
The Zippers on both sides of the Cradle Cover mast wrap were jammed and the Zip pulls would not move up or down and keep the zipper closed! Grrr. Looked like I would need to remove the Cradle Cover (not a simple task) and replace the zips. I have the gear to do that, even have spare zips.
The old zippers are PK #10. I use YKK, I tried to use a YKK #10 Zip pull to replace the PK Zip Pulls but still could not close the zippers. I was ready to start removing the Main Sail and the Cradle Cover when Peggy suggested that we could replace the PK Zip pulls.
Peggy scored an 11 !! I purchased two Stainless Steel PK #10 Zip Pulls online.
When they arrived, I tested one, using it to zip the two sides of the front panel together, WooHoo! Worked beautifully.
Back at the boat it took about 10 minutes to replace the two old PK zip pulls with the new Stainless Steel items. Another 5 minutes and I had installed Zipper stoppers on the ends of all four zip sides (two each side)
Thanks Peggy! I was convinced that the zippers were damaged from 5 years of UV exposure, but your idea worked great.
Gotta love a great boat partner 😍
Wednesday, January 12, 2022
The Scoop on Poop in Fort Lauderdale
Pump outs are an issue in the Yachting Capital of the world - Fort Lauderdale.
Lack of Pumpouts in Fort Lauderdale Florida
Tuesday, January 4, 2022
Raymarine Auto Pilot - Upgrade review
Raymarine Auto Pilot - Upgrade review
- I planned the install in great detail as it was an expensive and complex install due to the existing wiring on the boat.
- The old Autopilot was suffering, turns out it was probably due to bad wiring of the original install whenever that was done, before my time owning the boat.
- The install was done in the summertime here in South Florida - yes - Sweaty work.
- All of the existing navigation equipment was rewired.
Ok, fast forward to the New Year's Eve Cruise on December 30th 2021. We left the dock at 6:15am dawn was just breaking, we navigated down the New River and passed all of the bridges, the last being the 3rd Avenue Bridge, from there is was simple motoring down the river then North on the Intracoastal Waterway, there were only two bridges we need to pass to get us from the River to Sunrise Bay.
Saturday, January 1, 2022
2021 New year's eve Cruise 12/31
Thursday, December 30, 2021
New Year's Eve Cruise 2021
HISC New Year's Eve Cruise 2021
With the boat fully loaded by end of day Wednesday, we planned for an early rise to get down to the boat before high tide at 6:30am. An early night for the 4am alarm and we quickly put the last few things together - clothing, Peggy's Travel Guitar, and our tech stuff - Computer, Tablets, Phones plus a thermos of Coffee.
Ok, I rarely sit idle on the boat. The Radar data connection to the Chart Plotter was showing signs of wear (it really was bent in too tight a radius), that got fixed with some Rescue Tape. The cabinet in the bathroom was not properly attached since the last time I removed it. I took the chance to check on the fuel tank and it's drip cloth lead detector. All's well. Lastly, I had started on the install of the new Nav Station goose neck lamp, so I completed it's installation leaving just the electrical hook up for another day.
- Install an Engine Area Lighting fixture - can't see squat when it's dark outside.
- Install a Cockpit Light - it would have helped when we were setting up the instruments in the dark this morning.
- Apply new Shoud Turnbuckle Cover top end Tapes - the old tape has long gone.
- Get a decent head lamp, I could not see the keys when trying to unlock the boat lockers (3) in the dark. Yep, we haven't made a dock departure on a long while --- if ever!
- Get a new service kit for the bathroom toilet --- we used most of the spares last time we were out, how long ago??
- Get a new Camera mounting - the old one is so corroded that it will not tighten enough to hold the action camera in place.
- Relocate the Mini Inverter - I had to remove it from it's home in the aft berth as it was too close to the newly installed EV1 sensor for the new Auto Pilot.
- Replace the Starboard Bow Nav Light. - The port light is fine, the Stbd one is not. Might be just a new LED lamp that needs replacing, I have spares.
Wednesday, December 1, 2021
New Asym Spinnaker Turtle Bag
New Turtle Bag for our Asym Spinnaker
- Needs to have a top that will open and be out of the way when extracting or storing the sail from/in the bag.
- Because the sail could get wet, the bag must have some ventilation. Only on one side so that the outboard side of the bag has no vents.
- Must have some line holders at one end for the Tack line, Port & Stbd Clew lines and the sock mouth hoist line.
- Must have a method to attach to the lifelines so that the bag doesn't need management while being busy with raising or lowering the sail.
- Some rigidity along the top of the long sides would be nice to help while storing the sail into the bag
- Must have handles on the end to ease storing or extracting the bag (it's probably going to be stored in the Aft lazarette).
Cut out the fabric on the outside face of the front panel to make a 1/2" hem around the edge of the Vent hole. Sew the hems onto and through the Phifertex.
Step 5: Sew the End Panels onto the Front Panel.
Step 6: Sew the zipper to the inside of the Front Panel and the Inside of the two End panels. Sew the Rim to the top edge of the Zipper.
Step 7: Sew the Tube holders to the inside of the Front Panel just below the zipper and to the Back Panel the same height up from the bottom of the panel as the Front Panel.
Step 8: Sew the Line holders to one end, sew a piece of webbing with a snap hook for the Head of the sail at the other end.
Step 9: Sew the Top Front and sides to the Rim.
Step 10: Sew the Back to the top and two ends.
Step 11: Sew the Bottom, first to the Front, then the end without the line holders, next to the back and finally to the End with the line bags making sure not to sew through the bottom of the line bags.
Step 12: Cut the pieces of 5/8 external diam pex tubing to fit the tube holders and insert into the tubes.
All done!