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.
Here's our general strategy for getting to Charleston, SC. This has three phases to it. Phase I is to get to Norfolk. Phase II is to get to Beaufort. There are a lot of moving parts.
We'll see if we do none, some, or all of it.
For example, there …
Mr. Lehman's starter has been getting flakier and flakier. We've put up with it for a few years now.
You push the starter button and "Click". Nothing else. Just "Click".
Last time we went anywhere (see "Got off the Dock") there was a sequence of five pushes to get the …
Topping lifts hold up the end of the boom. It's expected to hold the boom up for years and years and years. It's kind of important. And no, I did not make a mess of them. They've always been a mess.
The topping lift keeps the boom up when there's …
The 10+ year old binnacle cover finally collapsed. The zipper teeth finally eroded to a point where they wouldn't actually zip. They zipped open one last time.
CA made a new one.
The color scheme doesn't match anything.
But.
It was cheap …
Sometimes you have to do some work.
Like chase down the Blue Heron ("George") as the sunset and clouds align.
This was almost like work.
Just about every piece of running rigging has a shackle (or a loop) spliced into it.
So. I've been trying to learn to splice loops into double-braided line.
See Home Handicrafts — Splicing for my first few attempts.
Here's the mizzen outhaul: white with green.
I spliced …
Usually, it's the other. This is how one repair tends to expand into more than one.
Haul out means some slopping around in the slings as they lift Red Ranger up and whisk her away. It also means that she's often blocked with the bottom of the keel level, which …
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 …