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.
Once upon a time, the Chesapeake was purely a waterway. Roads didn't go far from the water. It was easier to get to Baltimore or Tangier island than it was to get to Richmond. Much of the commerce in the Chesapeake was handled by "buyboats" like the F. D. Crockett …
Our field tanks have reached a level of crud that's untenable. However, talk to three old salts and you'll get four good solutions.
As noted in Easter and Rebirth, our fuel tanks aren't feeding properly. On Easter Sunday, we didn't know what was wrong. Thanks to American Diesel Corporation, we …
We went to the sunrise joint worship service at Stingray point. After the devastation of last weekend's tornado, it was a service of joy and hope. Minister Pearl Gresham Blake of Calvary Baptist Church spoke of Easter and hope: including comfort, counsel and choice. Three key elements for rebuilding Deltaville …
As they say, "any friend will help you move, a true friend will help you move a body." After the tornado ripped through Deltaville, we know who our true friends are. We learned how well-built our boat is. And we learned some new skills.
Winds were powerful. Red Ranger was …
An important annual ritual is rig inspection. There are a number of good sailboat rig inspection checklists. We had two purposes this year. First, the normal "ounce of prevention", but an important second was finding the source of bits of plastic that had rained down on the deck.
Every sailor …
Cindy Ann is putting coat hooks in a number of the hanging lockers. And she's also putting them under the companionway ladders. You can't have too many hooks. Red Ranger has a great foul-weather gear locker just under the companion-way steps. But without hooks, you have to figure out how …
I posted a request to my little corner of the Whitby community this week. I got fast, helpful answers. I love these folks.
We want to install a Mast Mate on the mizzen. To do that, we need to order some slides for the track up the mizzen mast . But …
This is a small, fussy thing that hardly counts as a job. But it's what we do while waiting for warmer weather. Boat jobs break down in the "pink" and "blue". Cooking, cleaning, curtains and pillows tend to be pink jobs. Anchor chains, engines, carpentry, plumbing is traditionally blue. Except …
Our 2011 Spring Commissioning included using "Cold Galvanizing" on the anchor chain. All 100' of primary chain took 3 cans. We didn't coat the secondary or tertiary chains.
Our anchor windlass (Gimli, son of Gloín) is for The Heavy Lifting. It's cranked with a long steel bar. We had a …
Our 2011 Spring Commissioning had some dramatic results. We're excited to be back in the water after having had our drive train partially overhauled. While that's a big success, there's always more.
We thought we might be getting some paint. But on inspection our bottom paint was perfect. So we …
This is the forward "V" berth. Lovely teak. Storage bins all around. Under the cushions is one of our water tanks. This is where it gets scary. Cindy Ann busted out the pry bars and putty knives and—slowly, patiently—ripped the lid off the water tank, hacking away 30-year …
This is Carolyn B. modeling the famous Whitby chair. Red Ranger came with two, well-made, heavy-duty steel-frame chairs. The chairs dog down the floorboards in the Whitby saloon and flank the bar.
As nice as they are, we don't like them. They're heavy and relatively difficult to move. They have …
That eerie orange glow is daylight shining through a patch in our hull. We had two through-hull fittings removed. One was for the former aft air conditioner ("Cindy Ann Improved the Galley. I Made a Hole.")
The other was an unused through-hull drain for the aft head. In the olden …
Ouch. Our cutless bearing failed to be cutless. It cut into the drive shaft.
The bearing (on the outside) is designed to dribble cooling water into a shaft seal (or "stuffing gland" or "stuffing box") on the inside. The shaft seal includes a wrapping with flax under a little bit …
Barnacles! They seem to have found a home on our propellor. The previous owner had a putty knife with a lanyard that he used to scrape the prop clean. It looks like we need to do that instead of ignore it and hope.
Our paint help up beautifully. Not a …
The big red tube-like thing is the heat exchanger. Cars have radiators, boats have heat exchangers. A car radiator uses a fan to blow air past the radiator, cooling the engine water that circulates through it. A heat exchanger on a boat pumps sea-water past the engine water to cool …
Our Heat Pump/Air Conditioner was made originally by Cruisair, inc. That company was purchased by Dometic. Our heat pump's raw-water pump was made by a third party. Where are they now?
Question 1: who has impellers? I tried WrightMarine, a more-or-less random choice of a large installer in Florida …
What is that? The green light is the sun shining through a hole in the bottom of the boat.
This is the view through the top of our raw-water strainer. All the water coming into engine, air conditioner, and heads comes through this strainer. The green light is Jackson Creek …
The folks from Fawkes, Monday Morning, Amazing Grace and Red Ranger had an epic Super Bowl spread in the marina lounge in Deltaville. Delightful. Snacks. Friends. Talk of boats, boating, destinations, anchoring, The Ditch, Manteo, Ocracoke, chart 12204, and—well—football, too.
Sadly, I forgot to take party pictures. I …
These are pictures from earlier in January. It was cold.
The creek isn't frozen, yet.
Starting about the 15th, the crew of Fawkes were back in the marina. Living full-time on their boat. On the hard. In the cold.
The good news is that there hasn't been as much blowing …