Just a little damp

Living in South Florida and keeping the boat on the trailer between sails has pro's and con's.

One of the Pro's is that we can keep her plugged into the 110v 'shore power' via an extension lead to the back of the house.
Just as well! We have been coping with high humidity causing us to wipe down the inside of the boat with Clorox wipes weekly to prevent the development of mold and mildew. Plus we remove all of the cushions from the boat so that they don't get smelly. It's a task to remove them and replace them.

Here's our solution:

This is a Mini Dehumidifier from Sunpentown, only cost $58 on Overstock. And it works! Surprise!
We plugged it in with it standing on the Galley Counter and closed up the boat. That was Tuesday evening. Today, Sunday, there is nearly 3" of water in the collecting tray.

I have it setup to continually drain, but it has to almost fill the collection tank first.

So far, very impressed. Not sure how much power it actually uses. The specs say 85W. Which is pretty heavy, not something that we would run unless connected to shore power.

However, it works! Will it last, who knows, some of the reviews claimed it only worked for 6 months then quit.  But we found reviews of similar products that cost over $700 that claimed that they broke down after a few months. So it's a gamble. At $58 (including the $1 shipping at overstock) it's worth the try.
(Just for reference. We installed it on March 20th 2012)

Update April 4th. 2012.
Ok, I'm impressed! This past weekend, I checked the contents of the Dehumidifier, and the collection bucket had filled to the point where it drained excess into the cabin sink where we have the hose positioned.
Emptied the bucket and turned it back on (it shuts off when the bucket is removed) The cabin does not smell musty at all, and no signs of mildew in the normal places (head door normally needs wiping down quite often with Chlorox wipes) So it's living up to it's decscription. So, for now, it get's a 10!

Dreams of a bigger boat

After making the decision (jointly :) ) to cut the weekend short and head home on the Sunday, we were heading  west across Biscayne Bay. Wind was bouncing around the 25knot range, seas were only a couple of feet most of the time, yep, Biscayne Bay can get choppy, especially after 24 hours of sustained wind in one direction.

So we had the choice of motoring comfortably going NW or SW and tacking back towards Black Point Marina, or just putting up with the sloppy seas and steering to the mark. Lazily we steered to the mark, put in about a 10degree drift and steered 290, kept us on the GPS trackline without even looking at it. Always an upbeat event when we actually plan our course and it works out as planned! Totally cool.

Every now and then we would slide into a trough and get lifted up only to wallow over the top, just not paying attention to the waves. The penalty is hard push over to leeward and a sudden heel of around 25degrees.

Now, most sailors would just plant their feet firmly and let the boat lean up into the next wave and think nothing of it, but the Admiral is allergic to heeling beyond 25degrees, we typically keep the boat upright within 10degrees and it rewards us by sailing beautifully. But under, lazy, motor, we don't have the sail out to steady the boat, so the heel tends to be more dramatic. So Peggy's response to the wallow... we need a bigger boat.

That's the kind of response that lightens my day, any day!

Once back home, JD parked in the back yard, washed down, engine flushed, tanks emptied, food, clothing, bedding pulled out and finally covered in her new Tarp (You can figure out it's a project to store the boat). Well, once we were all cleaned up, out came the notebook computer and the search began. We need a bigger boat!

So, I have had dreams of a bigger boat for years. We love JD and the access to the SoFla venues that having a skinny water boat allows, but bigger is better... right? One of my favorite sites is yachtworld.com and I have the search option down pat. Peggy has it down too. So the search has started. Our new boat will have to be less than 15 years old, but not new. It has to be at least 34' LWL and have 6'+ headroom. Not a small list of boats that match those minimums, over 3,700 of them on yachtworld.com.

But when you dream of a bigger boat, you have to be prepared to dream up a different world. Where can the boat go? Deep keels place a limit on some marinas, Skinny water around the Florida keys means you have to take the boat to new places... good dreams! Bigger boat = bigger expenses! JD is pretty cheap to moor and to slip, bigger boats hurt there!

And! Bigger boats can go further on the water! Maine, Annapolis, Bahamas, Caribbean but they have to meet blue water requirements for Peggy to be a happy crew.

Casting the challenges aside just long enough to encourage solutions, think what the bigger boat can provide!

We could be in the BVI waiting for the kids to fly out and spend a week sailing around the islands. Visiting the thousands of nature spots just on the East coast alone would take a few lifetimes to explore. Building new friendships with other cruisers, facing daily challenges of reaching for a destination but already being there.

Our 'Bigger Boat' will have to show up when we are ready, but soon! :)

No Sail :(

Sometimes, you go with the flow, even if the flow is not in your favor but in hope of things getting better.

After a week of being a sick puppy, our planned sailing trip on Biscayne Bay over the first weekend of March was something to look forward to. Ever optimistic, the sailflow forecast was in the high range for us the entire weekend. Only Sunday looked like a go nowhere day, so we prepped JD for the trip down to Black Point Marina with planned start of the tow somewhere around Noon Friday March 2nd.

Anticipating a later than normal start reduced a lot of the self imposed stress that goes with getting the boat ready to trail. We take this stuff really seriously. All too often, we hear of boats that were in accidents because they were not secured to their trailer. We use 2" Ratcheted Tie Downs, one at the bow the other across the stern. JD is not going shift on our trailer!

It seems we also have a thing for 'Bags', Peggy is not a pack rat, no way! but we do have a lot of bags on the boat. 4 sail bags, 2 clothing bags, 3 bags of electronics, books, 'stuff', a Meds bag (about to be cloned), a bag for the canvas when not towing the boat. Then there is the food, two bags of non-perishables (crackers, wine, rice, tuna, G2, fruit cups, etc. etc. 3 bags of bottled water (in addition to the 40gallons we carry in the tanks). Bedding, Towels, Kitchen towels... the list goes on and on.

Ok, time to get this off my chest, I detest bags loafing around in the cabin. They are always in the way, get moved a dozen times a day, and of course, which bag is what in? A boat is really one of those places where everything has a place. It makes life on board so much easier, easier still if everyone knows where those places are!

Back to the weekend... Boat loaded, lunch break at home, last thing to do is unplug the electrical connection to the boat and pull her out to the street, close up the house, set the Tom Tom for our destination and head south!

Miami is a great place to launch your boat from if you live in SoFla, they have an annual state park parking permit, only costs us $85 a year and we leave JD's trailer there at least 20 nights each year, and the facilities are excellent. We renew in Februay/March each year with pleasure. And the staff at the Dockmaster's office are great, we take a slip at Black Point several times each year too. Of course, it is only a 30 minute transit to Biscayne Bay which is really one of the best sailing venues in South Florida.

So, Friday night, after renewing our permit, we launched JD, parked up the truck and trailer, and headed out the channel to watch the Sun go down as we motored over to Sand Key on the north end of Elliot Key on the east side of Biscayne Bay. It's about a 2 hour motor from the marina to the anchorage.

It was dark as we approached the anchorage, running lights on, and not many boats at anchor, so plenty of space to drop the hook. Cloudy darkness, could barely see the anchorage marker bouys until they were less than 30' away. Wind had picked up very little, looked like it was going to be a nice night, our new anchor rode has an additional 20' of chain, so I put out a total of about 100' of rode, our anchor is suited to the sandy bottom over there, most of the time.

After dinner, we set the anchor alarm on the handheld backup GPS and turned in... pooped! Slept like a log in a valley... till around midnight! Wind had picked up, anchor dragged, alarm went off. We have been here before, so no panic. A quick look around outside to confirm we were not heading towards anything that would complain or mark us. Then I pulled on the rode and felt the anchor just sliding across the bottom, dang! we were probably in a grassy area. A few minutes of pulling the rode in, then with the chain in hand, I set the 2nd anchor and felt them dig in as I gave the boat some slack to allow it to move downwind, then a few heavy tugs, barely able to hold the rode, and I was satisfied the anchor was holding. With two anchors out 20' apart, I reset the anchor alarm and headed back to the bunk. Sleep came quickly.

Dawn arrived with some fresh winds from the South. Adjusted the solar panel to gather the early morning Sun low on the horizon, 1.1amp, plenty to take the pressure off the batteries while running our new Dometic Freezer, held -1C easily. Breakfast of corned beef hash, eggs, tomatoes, toast and some piping hot coffee. Great start of the day.

Pegs was showing signs of the bug that I had last week :( and weather reports didn't look too great), so I suggested that we take the day off, loaf around, read some books, watch the other boaters screw up and just do not a lot. Peggy signed up for that excursion!

During the day we saw several larger power boats drop anchor and not a lot of rode. Now if you don't know the area, it's only about 10' deep in the middle of the Bay, the water just outside the anchorage is maybe 7', inside it goes down to as little as 4 feet. So you don't need a lot of rode. In 7' of water with 4' of bow height, a total of 11 feet, it's recommended to have 7:1 rode, ie. 77'. With only 4' of water and 4' to the bow, they should have a total rode of 44'. For us, we typically put down 80' of rode in 5' of water just to be safe. These power boats were probably putting about 20' out! Just not going to work! and it didn't most of the time. One large boat, draped with bikini babes was headed our way pretty quickly. A few shouts to the skipper and he finally figured out he was dragging. I bet he had one heck of a nice GPS on board, complete with anchor alarm! Duh! We watched them for over an hour as they tried and tried to get a grip on the bottom, finally they gave up and pulled anchor and turned towards Miami.

More later.

First Sail of 2012

After a long overnight rest aboard JD anchored off Sand Key just north of Elliott Key Harbor, we started the day with a great breakfast.

Any of you that have cooked aboard a small sailboat know this is no insignificant feat. But today's breakfast was easy. Hash Beef, Eggs, Tomatoes, and Bannanas. OJ and, the most important part of any breakfast onboard, hot, steamy, coffee! Of course, my enthusiasm for making breakfast is to get to the next part of the day, a day under sail with the new Asym Spinnaker.

Over night I raised the sail a dozen times, mentallly walking through each of the steps in setting up the sail. By the time we were headed down wind I was ready.

Setup the Tack line, worked out perfect. Attached the spin halyard, perfect, but I do need  a cleat on the mast to secure the haul end of the halyard. Sheet ran aft, first problem. Not long enough, they need to be 10 feet longer each side. The sheet lines were from our 150% jib, and that doesn't require that the sheets run outside of the forestay. So I'll buy new sheets later in the month.

Already to hoist, the halyard pulled the head of the sail in it's sock up to the masthead. Looked good from the foredeck. With everything setup, time to deploy. The beauty of the sock system is that it makes it so easy to deploy and douse the spinnaker. Within just a few seconds, the sail was out, the light wind filled it easily.

I quickly learned that the height of the tack needs to be about the same as the height of the clew. If the tack is lower, then it dramatically reduces the effective angle of the sail to the wind. The tack was secured to the port cabin top winch, so it was easy to adjust the tack height. For now I made a temporary 'tacker' using a piece of webbing to keep the tack close to the forestay.

So, here's some of our pics.


Here's looking up the furled jib, those marks on the spinnaker are stains, I need to figure out how to deal with them or how to ignore them. You can just make out the spin sock at the top, it has the dousing lines attached.

Having figured out that the spinnaker acts more like a giant Jib if the tack is held close to the deck, I made a makeshift tacker using a webbing sail tie ran through the tacker shackle just above he tack cringle.

Once the tack was about the same height from the deck, I could sail with the wind further astern. I'll make a more efficient tacker device before our next sail.

The sheets are lead aft to a block secured to a line onto the aft cleat. Then they run into the cam cleats mounted on the combing. This setup works great, but the block needs to be an inch or so forward.
A shackle would be just about the right extension.
Note I need to clean out the butyl, the grey stuff that seals the cam cleat where it meets the combing. You can't see it in this pic, but there is a stainless steel stirrup that keeps the sheet inline with the cams. I used Red and Green cam cleat caps to make it easy when asking Peggy to adjust the Spin sheet.

So our first sail of the year was a total success. We sailed about 8 miles with the new Spinnaker, Then headed back to the Sand Key Anchorage with the110% Jib. Still very light winds, but we needed to sail pretty close to the wind to head back to the North East.

A really light wind sailing day, ideal for our first experience with the new sail.

We got back to the anchorage around 5pm, time enough to put up the pop top, JD's hat, and prep dinner. Stew and Veggies on the menu tonight with Key Lime Pie for desert, a couple of glasses of Pinot Grigio, and  put our feet up to watch TV. That was another upgrade that turned out great. We replaced the Shack TV antenna for a Shakespeare Omni Directional with a much better pre-amp. There are at least a dozen channels open down in that part of Biscayne Bay.

As the night passed, most of the power boats headed home. By dawn there were a half dozen sail boats around the anchorage, some, shallow keels like us were inside the no-wake zone off of Sand Key, the others, deeper keels, needed that extra depth and stayed just outside the bouyed area.

There's a cold front headed our way. Temps are due to drop below 50degrees in the next 24 hours, so it's gonna get chilly.

So welcome 2012!

To do's before the next trip...

• Get the Garmin ST40 Wind Instrument fixed. The Transducer wire is corroded and probably broken inside the mast. The face of the Instrument is crazed and it's difficult to read in bright light.
• Removed the Transducer from the mast head, leaving a messenger line in place to facilitate re-installation. 
• Removed the Display from the Cockpit bulkhead, Covered hole with Masking tape.
• Shipped the complete unit to Raymarine in NH.(1/25/2012)
• The tracking code allowed me to find out that the package arrived on Jan 30th. at Raymarine. So we should get it back next week (some time after Feb 6th.)
• Good news/Bad news. Raymarine got back to me yesterday (Friday Feb 10th) the Bezel on the Display is an easy fix, but the Transducer is shot :( So we need a new one. The Good news is that it will only cost us about $10 more than the check we sent for the repair of the two items. :)
• Installed and Tested :)
• Get longer sheet lines for the Spinnaker. 
• Install two new cleats on the mast for the Spin Halyard and the Sock control lines.
• Got the cleats at the Miami Strictly Sail show. (Plus a new sail bag for the Jib, and new cusions for the cockpit (they'll take 6 weeks :( )
• 
  
• Extend the sheet blocks forwards.
• Service the Nissan outboard. New Impeller, Oil change (and I'll remember to put fresh oil in the top end too!)
• Replace the 6 year old aluminum hard link between the rudder and outboard.
• That was easy! Took less than an hour to manufacture, another 30 mins and it was installed. Sweet!
• Replace the dink's outboard support plate that is on the Mast support post. (It's plywood and is really showing it's age)
• Check out the Electric Bilge pump, I noticed that it was not running in Manual mode. Might need a new pump cartridge, or it's an electrical issue.
• Looks like the Manual power line from the Bilge control panel to the actual pump. The pump runs fine in Auto Mode with the float switch raised. Will set about replacing the wire Sunday.
• Isolate the electrical system to detect where we're losing some battery power.
• Strip off the stripes on the hull and replace with the new ones we bought from Catalina Direct.
• Got started on this project. First step was to peel off the old stripes. Well, I got the first one off. Top Port side, took an hour and half. The tough bit was getting started, but I have figured that out. Just use a razor to cut between the tape and the glue, careful not to dig into the gel coat. Then with about 1/4" of tape separation, slooooowly pull directly away from the hull, very  slowly, about 1" per 20 seconds. And if there are any nicks in the tape, it will break and you have to start over peeling a new edge. So the secret is to concentrate and as soon as the tape begins to tear, then use the blade to lift the torn piece, just cut into the glue horizontially while keeping tension on the intact piece of tape. Hopefully the next piece will be quicker having figured this out.
• Ok, the silver/grey stripe was even tougher to remove! But nothing compared trying to get the adhesive off the hull. After trying a several possible solutions, Goof Off finally won out. So the process is:
• Soak a small rag in Goof Off and wipe the glue surface.
• Within 2 or 3 seconds, use a plastic scraper to remove some of the adhesive.
• It has to be done quickly as the adhesive/goof off mix become tenacious within about 3 to 4 seconds. So the secret is to do it in very small segments.
• Using this technique, I was able to remove the glue from the hull left by both stripes in less than an hour. Removing the boat name graphic took less than an hour all told, including the glue.
• Get the new Boat Name Graphics and replace the worn ones on both sides (a pressure cleaner can take them off in no time. So it seems!)
• This was no big deal. Having figured out how to remove the stripes, removing the name and catalina logo was easy.
• A local Sign company made up the new Vinyl lettering, including the Catalina 250 logo. 
• Looks good.

Spinnaker setup progresses.

Got the last couple of pieces in place over the weekend and during a short lunch break.

View Larger Map

The asym Tack line that came with the sail is, well, it's 3 strand 'rope', nasty stuff. So a trip to the new West Marine Store in Fort Lauderdale (HUGE) put a new Spin Halyard (60'), Tack line (25'), and Tack Block line (6') plus a couple of other goodies. Somehow I never get to leave that store with just what I intended to pickup. Also in the bag were 3 block sheaves to run the Tack line aft.

So over the weekend (oh, Merry Festivus) while Pegs was at work, I made up the tackle for the Tack Line. Bent (there's a good seaman's term) the Spin Sheets to the Clew, and the Tack line, surprise, to the Spin Tack.

With the Masthead work completed last week, the last thing on the list was installing the cleats for the sheets, port and stbd.
After discussing this with the folks on the Catalina 25's forum, I decided to put Cam Cleats aft by the Cat Bird Seats, using the original holes for the Bimini (I relocated the Bimini onto Rail Clamps last earlier this year), those  holes have been bugging me ever since I did a miserable repair job on the fiberglass. Just so happens that the Cam Cleat holes matched the old Bimini base holes perfectly. The new Cam Cleats are bedded in Butyl tape, and secured with 3" SS screws that pass through the Combing and the inner liner.

Anyone that knows the backend layout of the Catalina 250, knows that the 'trunk' is big but awkward to do anything within. To get the nut and washer on each bolt, I used a 1/4" socket on the end of an 3" socket extension and my cordless drill. Using a piece of the Butyl in the socket and around the tip, I was able to adhere the nut and washer to the socket while I reached up to the inside of the trunk to attach them to the bolts.  Peggy was on the outside with a screw driver to prevent the screws turning. Worked really well, took less than 30 minutes to install the cleats.

So now the hardware is complete. All we need now is a few more hours of boat prep for the trail down to Biscayne bay this weekend and some light winds. It would be very cool (according to the weather channel, it's going to be very cool) to fly the new Spinnaker on New Year's Day, but even better to have that big golden colored balloon leading us through the waters this year! Saturday.. it's a plan!

Harsh Mistress

One of the long time posters on the Catalina 25's website wrote this... worth engraving on a plaque.

The sea is a harsh mistress, you love her, but she cannot be trusted even for a minute. Her regular customers Neptune and Poseidon are always looking for a way to pay her off. Boats, tools, bodies, she takes it all in trade. No one is immune to her power. Stop paying attention and she'll take you in an instant, and that's where you'll always be, floating somewhere in the sea.

Just love that description.

Always wanted to fly a spinnaker

When you see a sailboat gliding through the calm waters on a sunny summer day with that huge balloon pulling it through the water, did you ever think what it would be like to be on that boat... soooo many times!

A few years ago we purchased a cute looking spinnaker designed for another boat, not ours. We flew it on temporary lines in really light air in the Pensacola B.E.E.R. event. The sail was too big for JD, and we had to let it go to a good friend that had a boat that it fit just right. However, the pleasure flying that sail was lasting. It has taken nearly 4 years for us to consider getting a replacement.

At the end of this summer, we recognized that our main and jib sails needed cleaning. We found a reputable sail cleaning company in Fort Lauderdale. While I was delivering the sails, I asked about the sails they had in the loft. And they had an asymmetrical spinnaker that was the right size for JD. I could barely contain my enthusiasm. A week later when we both drove down to pick up the cleaned sails, I asked if it was still available. Merry Christmas JD! She now has a bold gold asym and chute (the sock that is used to snuff the sail before lowering it.) Now we just have to get everything together to fly it. Hopefully that will be during our New Years eve cruise.

First item to tackle is the Sail Head attachment. The C250 mast head has halyards for the main sail and the jib sail, but not for the Spinnaker. After seeking advice on the Catalina forum, I realized we needed a 'Spinnaker Crane', that's a stainless steel bracket that is mounted at the masthead over the existing Jib sheave pin so that a bracket sticks out ahead of the mast to which we attach a block that is used to hoist the sail. Catalina Direct has them in stock so that was the first item ordered.

Of course, a Smart Car would get better mileage pulling JD.

While attaching the new crane to the masthead, I found that the sheaves were breaking down. They are the pulleys that the halyards pass over, if they fail, then we could not raise or lower the sails! So they had to be replaced. Another order to Catalina Direct. They arrived yesterday, so should be able to fit them on Saturday... oh! that's Christmas eve! Santa better not need any help this Chirstmas Ho Ho Ho.

Today I stopped by West Marine for a pair of 75ah 12v Deep cycle batteries, that blew the Christmas budget. At least we'll be ok for power over the New Year Weekend cruise. Hey, not a lot to do before then, just keep going and it will get done.

You have to love doing this stuff.

More later.

Paul