Norfolk, VA
To see as much of the world as we can,
Using the smallest carbon footprint we can,
Spending the least amount of money we can,
Making as many friends we can.
Skipped through a little bit of Illinois. This was a cool parallel with D-Day: start in a huge city and work your way further and further out of town. In this case, It was Chicago to Milwaukee to Madison and then off toward St. Paul and eventually Minneapolis.
After the hustle and bustle of getting out of DC, today was a fun drive. It was fun until we needed to find a hotel. Hammond, IN, is in the greater Chicagoland, so, suddenly all roads are jammed with vehicles.
Dropping the hook at 4-ish makes it possible to find …
There's a complex last-minute dance to get everything done in an order than makes sense. It's as complex as departing a dock in Red Ranger.
Pack the car. This is the high-risk activity. If something won't fit, we'll make last-minute runs to UPS.
Take out the trash. Some things simply …
That wasn't half bad. Red Ranger is in good shape. Surveyor had been all over her. We just ran through her checking on — well — a few things. Battery water, stowage, bilge-pumps. Things look good.
Our old home and our ride to another temporary home …
We're ready.
Friday was D-3 (3 days before departure.) CA unloaded all the cabinets, emptied all the furniture, and stacked things around the apartment. The galley is closed. No more food in the apartment.
Saturday (today) is D-2. We have a U-Haul scheduled …
There are a few ways to get to Las Vegas. The complication is using one of the passes through the mountains. We've decided to follow a northern route. Something like the following
Day 1 I-270 N into Maryland I-70 W into Pennsylvania I-76 W — somewhere in Ohio we'll stop
Day …
We've enjoyed our sojourn in Virginia. Met many wonderful people. Worked on cool things at work. Lived in a luxury high-rise apartment. But.
All things grow, mature, and ultimately change.
In the background, you can see the roof of the shopping mall. It's a boring …
Land Cruise? Good question. Let's review.
A long, long time ago (2009, specifically) we bough Red Ranger. We fit her out for three years. Then we quit our day jobs and took off in the boat for two extended voyages. One to the Bahamas and back up to Annapolis, the …
Red Ranger is wintering in the water. It's cold.
But. The ice is thin, so, it's not damaging in any way.
Last winter, the port-side deck drain hose filled with water, and then froze, and dropped off the "T" fitting under the …
Snow on the decks of Red Ranger.
The footprints are a technician from one of the service companies at Herrington Harbour.
There's a strike rail around the edge of Red Ranger. It's a wooden offset, between one a two inches deep, about a foot …
Read Safety at Sea: Preparing for Emergencies first. Captivating article.
On Red Ranger we have the 5 F's of safety:
Flood
Fire
Falling Overboard
First Aid
Fatigue
And Famine.
Okay. It's six. But they're the life-and-death essentials.
Here's Alvah Simon's list — based on real Coast Guard data.
Fire. Red Ranger …
Sigh.
Seasons come and seasons go. As we get on toward winter, we need to strike Red Ranger's sails, winterize Mr. Lehman, take the food out of the galley, upend all the cushions to let air circulate.
We replaced the T-shirts keeping …
CA and I (and a handful of others) chose the "Cleanup Sticks from the Rip-Rap" job for the fall cleanup at West River Sailing Club. We have a large checklist of things that need doing. In previous years I helped rebuild the dock. This year after something went wrong with …
On Thursday, we dialed the speed up to 7 knots. This means a bit over 2,000 RPM on the tach.
And the temperature started to increase. And increase. I don't often check the temperature. But I did manage to notice it in time.
Did I mention we had guests …
I think — or perhaps I hope — I've solved a serious problem. I have a theory about diesel fuel in the bilge.
Last winter, a hose clamp for the deck drains failed. The winter rains and snowmelt poured into the engine room, and the deep bilge. It froze. The pump broke …
Brought some friends — David and Bo — along to move Red Ranger from West River back down to Herrington Harbour.
They'd never seen Red Ranger before, and hadn't fully appreciated how much boat she is.
The winds were light, and — of course — on the …
Another year of fun and sharing! There's a lot we can learn from other sailors with the same boats and a wide variety of experiences. An important lesson from this year is how long it takes before we're talking about the ship's head. (For non-sailors, read "toilet.")
Sailing is all about cooperation. Nothing happens in isolation. The progress of a sailboat through the water requires wind, for example. There are other examples of cooperation, we'll get to them.
The Equinox cruise was timed to greet the passing of the sun over the horizon on September 22nd, 2018 …
We're lucky. As of Thursday (when Florence made landfall) the projected course was well away from the Chesapeake bay. There will be Tropical Depression wind and rain, but not a direct hit, and — hopefully — minimal storm surge.
Here's Red Ranger's hurricane preparation list:
Remove foresails. The furling line can break …
May as well clean.
And fix things.
This thing is the pump assembly on our Marine Sanitation Device (MSD). You might know it as a toilet.
CA's picking the paint out of the inlet valve packing nut.
The forward cylinder (with the …