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.
The bottom line on boat maintenance is the sea trial. It may look like things are working when you're in the slip. Getting out into the open water is where — metaphors fail me. The rubber doesn't hit the road. There's no pudding to be proven.
There were several momentous things …
When we lived aboard, we didn't think much about the water tanks. Correction. We thought about how full they were, but that was the limit. In the Bahamas we got water periodically in two 5-gallon jerry jugs. This kept the tank levels steady. In the US, we had a 30 …
There's a love-and-care gap exposed by visiting the Red Ranger only on weekends. This leads to weirdness.
Once upon a time, we covered so many miles in one year (something like 2,000) that oil changes happened pretty often. It's about 200 hours, which (at 6 knots) is about 1 …
First, and most important, the main saloon hatch leaked. But, there's also this issue of preserving data from the old chart plotter. You know how some projects just spin out of control? Those are the projects that tend to dredge up historical artifacts.
Here's the …
We're getting Red Ranger ready for the summer. This means a thorough cleaning. It also means answering the questions like "What's this?" and "Why do we have it?"
It also means looking at the work done (and not done) over the winter.
Yes. That's a duck …
Two things are essential for racing on sailboats.
I have some ideas about this. Years ago I did a little racing in our first boat, a Buccaneer. It's an 18' dinghy, designed for comfy, reasonably safe two-person racing. I crewed a bit. I did really badly. I had a vague …
This is different.
It looks a bit like a church event. Multiple generations. Folks congregating, socializing, forming and strengthening their connections. There's a strong sense of thanksgiving. Not so much worship and praise.
This is West River Sailing Club.
Worship and praise was …
This was our old helm arrangement.
The white box on the left is the "chart plotter". GPS receiver with charts that shows exactly where we are. It's integrated with the radio and receives AIS positions from other ships and shows them relative …
Details will trickle into the blog from the electronics refit. I'm not doing it myself, so I'll have to report on the status of the folks from MTS. When we get out sailing (in the spring and summer), I'll provide details. For now, overviews.
Here's an important new feature. It's …
In the southern bay, (below the Potomac) winterizing is a good idea. It hasn't frozen hard there in years. The recent polar vortices may change that.
In the northern bay, however, the creeks do freeze.
This year, we did the following.
Six gallons of anti-freeze went into the …
The boat show is down. The hurricane season is starting to wind down. Here's Red Ranger without any sails.
We're almost ready for winter haul-out. We have a dozen important jobs to do, including rearranging drains, replacing hoses, upgrading the electronics.
Still. Sniff. We're happy …
CA does it again. A wonderful meet up. Useful information. Fun parties. Good boat visiting. Generally great weather.
From left to right: Allegria, Red Ranger, Shooting Star, and Alembic. Two of the boats (Red Ranger and Shooting Star) are local to the Chesapeake. The other two …
There were issues with Red Ranger. Kind of awkward when you have guests. But sailing conditions were ideal. Ideal.
Meet Fatjon and Blerta. From the 14th floor. Fatjon was a captain in the Albanian Navy. And an ordinance diver. He knows ships and the sea. Blerta is a …
That's my sister, Elizabeth. One of many sisters. This was her first chance to actually go sailing. We showed her many — but not all -- of the boaty things on Red Ranger: we hoisted most of the sails, we had a pleasant drift, we dropped the anchor, had some lunch …
Things happen. We wound up testing the bilge pumps heavily. And one of them wasn't keeping up and needed to be replaced.
CA cleaned the nav station. This leads to something you don't see every day.
The Nav station.
With no stuff.
The stuff was all on the …
When we lived aboard, we kept Red Ranger clean. It was easy. We were there. And we were otherwise unemployed. Except for sight-seeing. And writing.
The amount of small mildewy areas is legion. It's actually kind of insane.
We're starting from this ☞
The part is a vent fitting …
How do you introduce someone to the sea?
CA's Venerable Great Aunt Diane (vGAD) came to visit for a long weekend. She's been on Red Ranger many times. She brought more of CA's family: Maddy and Philip. Maddy has been to Red Ranger before, but Philip's never been here before …
Step 1: Clean everything. This means everything must come out of the locker it was in.
The locker must be scrubbed.
In some cases, the things from the lockers must be scrubbed.
And then aired out for a week before going back into the locker.
When we moved …
Some time in 2015-ish era, CA was closing the aft port light and the clamp that screws it down hard against the gasket failed catastrophically. I can't find the picture, put the metal failed, leaving the hatch not fully closed and — consequently — dripping onto the aft berth.
Here's the link …
Two winters of sitting — and a summer with only a few trips — has left Red Ranger awfully dirty. Also, some mission-critical things had failed.
Here's CA washing the galley fan. She's scrubbing the power cord with a toothbrush. (Mine, I think.)
If the galley fan is dirty, what …