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.
I'm slowly getting the hang of some of the rigging jobs.
Here's my version of a "Shackle Splice". It's a Crown Knot and then the tails are buried under four turns of the line.
The splice is (clearly) bigger than the line. It's bigger than the …
Here's everything we own in the world: boat and truck. It's so rare to see it so close together.
(Okay, there's a mattress and a few boxes of things at Diane's. Except for stray bits of junk, like the camera I'm holding, this is it.)
I can do an okay job of whipping. I've tried my hand at seizings. I've woven the anchor chain to the end of the rope rode.
But.
Double-braid splicing?
I'm working on it.
More accurately, I'm struggling with it.
It's not terribly difficult.
But. The …
Read this: https://mariners.coastguard.blog/2020/10/19/performing-a-vhf-marine-radio-check/.
Read this https://www.dco.uscg.mil/Portals/9/DCO%20Documents/5p/MSIB/2020/MSIB-20-20.pdf.
Print a copy or two, put them in your standard operating procedures.
Also see the Rescue 21 for Boaters list …
See Preseverence. The gas didn't work on cold mornings. Jeri fixed it by wrestling the hose up into the air to slosh around a drop of condensed, cold propane so the gas could flow past it.
Before that, however, the electric sparker on the Force10 hasn't worked for a while …
Finally.
Dan from WRSC offered to help with our preparations. Instead, we decided to go sailing.
It was gusting into the 20's and a bit sporty out in the bay.
CA took a glorious sunset picture from C dock.
There weren't too many boats to see, but, it would …
One of the earliest jobs I did on Red Ranger was replacing a hulking beast of a fan in the aft cabin. It was huge; with a wire cage and blades that had broken and were glued back together. Really.
This is kind of a mortuary …
After removing a random pile of solar panels, here's what we have on the foredeck. Two little 4′×1′ super thin panels. Super thin. Tiny.
Right now, they're lashed to the handles. I may put four small holes in the deck, filled with butyl tape and …
I've been experimenting with solar panels since 2012. (When you think about it, everything on the boat is an experiment waiting for replacement with something better.)
After about eight years on deck:
Obsolete SunForce: not good. No longer sold.
Ganz semi-rigid: really good.
SunWize semi-rigid: weak.
DMSolar 158W rigid …
We had a fabulous Groco anti-siphon loop. Emphasis on had.
It was a big, bronze thing that worked nicely for about 10 years. Then. It developed a tendency to drip.
If you're not an engine-room nerd, that's wire-reinforced 1″ hose coming into the bottom. ⅝″ coming …
While we were away, staying with CA's aunt in North Carolina, CA planned a month's provisioning. This should get us down the Bay, the ICW, and across a short stretch of the coast to Jacksonville. There's a deep question here of how quickly we use items from our stores. We'll …
Wow.
Everything's okay.
We've never left her unattended for this long before. When we moved to Nevada, we paid someone to check on the batteries each month.
The critical checks:
1a. Diesel? We had …
COVID-19 is a real danger in Florida.
This makes the winter cruise unpleasantly complex.
We want to move Red Ranger further south. But. We don't want to catch COVID-19. Nor do we want to become spreaders of COVID-19. We're vexed and go everywhere masked to make sure we're not the …
Summer Land Cruising is almost over. Hurricane season is an unholy mess — looking at people struggling with Ida, but, also heading toward a conclusion. We still have to get back to Deale, where Red Ranger is docked.
Which means the start of Red Ranger's south-bound cruise.
And that means …
This was a week-long 2400 mile spin back across the country. A few birding stops, usually close to the hotel. Our general schedule is to drive 350 or so miles each day. For us, this is a comfortable pace.
Take out dinners back at the hotel. Not taking any risks …
We're about to pull up the hook. We're bound for a little jog down the coast to San Diego before returning east. I'm starting to lose track of the legs.
If you look a the rocks in the bottom ⅓ of the picture, you might see …
California. 2400 miles down. Almost done. Then, 2400+ miles back.
This interstate highway system is nothing short of amazing.
Here's the journey from Nashville to LA. (The first bits from McLean to Nashville involve me not having working batteries in the SPOT tracker.)
We stopped for a few weeks in Ft. Worth. Then we started rolling again. This meant some hiking in the Buffalo Lake National Wildlife Refuge, near Amarillo, TX.
The refuge doesn't seem to be too large. (At least by Nevada standards.)
But it has a few …
June 10th, we departed our apartment in McLean, moving to Hendersonville, North Carolina. We spent almost three weeks getting moved in.
June 30th, we left North Carolina for Ft. Worth, Texas. Here's a shot from a walk near Nashville.
July 11th, we'll be leaving Ft. Worth, bound for Las …
If you use https://www.navcen.uscg.gov, you'll see some changes later this year. It appears they're going to be modernizing the look. This will break some links.
On the whole, the volume of data for mariners can be daunting. It's difficult to keep track of charts, pilots, guides …