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.
This is the last big job of the season. For the next few months it's watching and waiting.
The checklist involves a number of jobs, some of which we already did by accident.
Drain the water tanks. The forward tank has been empty (and dry) for …
The v-berth tank always leaked. The port side saloon tank now leaks.
The solution seems to involve custom tanks by Dura-Weld. See https://plasticfabricatedtanks.com.
Under the saloon floor we have two choices:
Option 1: Follow the Joie de Vivre plan and …
The sea chest sounds so nautical and "yo-heave-ho," but it isn't. It's also called a water box; it's the manifold where sea water comes in for the various systems that use it. Once upon a time, we had air conditioners, a fridge, and two heads that flushed with sea water …
We have a bilge pump counter. Over the last few weeks we've been severely worried about the counter being non-zero.
Non-zero bilge pump counter is a sure sign of a leak.
When we return to the boat and the counter is more than one, it's a sign of a fairly …
CA made me this today. The top picture is the new "wife" used to carry the SAE wrenches. The bottom is the old wife.
Notice the following:
No Holes. (The bottom picture shows one hole on the flap. The other side was hilariously holy.)
Labels for the …
CA bought a magnetic knife holder to put with her refinished cutting board.
Getting the backing plate away from the magnet is not fun. You have to commit to pulling them apart without wavering in the least. If you hesitate, that piece of steel will take chunks out of your …
Plumbing — water, sewer, propane — is all pretty simple. Until it leaks. Then it's a right pain in the ass. Leaks can be difficult to diagnose. It's not always a good idea to tighten things down harder. Sometimes over-tightening breaks something else.
Neither CA nor I grew up with propane. Not …
CA likes having countertop she can use directly. A loose cutting board on a moving boat is a liability.
The Whitby has a nice cutting board built in the top of the refrigerator.
This has consequences. Mostly it means having any ingredients that need chopping …
There are two important classes of chemicals. Goos and Lubes. Goo to make things stop. Lubes to make them go.
They each have specialized purposes. It helps if you know what you're doing. And in some cases, you learn as you go. This is one of those lessons learned.
The …
Two weeks ago, I broke the catch of Red Ranger's bar.
Thus lead to much swearing. And this clamp-and-webbing catch.
The clamp holds the webbing. The webbing holds the bar.
It's a shabby necessity. A "jury rig."
There are two choices. Replace …
CA cleaned. And cleaned. And cleaned.
It rained much of the weekend.
I managed to drill out four screws and remove one of the mast steps to make it easier to put on a sensible sail cover. There's more to report here in the long run. For now, let me …
We're tortured by The Thing from below our foredeck.
Like a malevolent toad, squatting on deck, it stares at us in the cockpit.
In rare moments of lucidity, my partner's gibbering includes claims it rose from the chain locker, smelling of charnel horrors, and cold as the …
We use Trello (https://trello.com) to track a lot of the jobs on Red Ranger. We also use Toodledo (https://www.toodledo.com). Trello is really good for complex one-time tasks, prioritizing, assigning, etc. Tooled is really good for recurring tasks. Trello requires an internet connection, Toodledo is a …
Instead of taking a break to honor the Labor Movement, we worked.
Some of it was wildly successful. CA washed down the entire deck. It's amazing how much grime accumulates when you're not actively using the boat. CA uses ammonia once each year to gently wash the teak toe-rails. We've …
The galley is finally starting to feel like we live there again. We spent four days aboard; I did my day job from the boat using Herrington Harbour's WiFi.
CA has cleaned. And cleaned. And cleaned. And investigated stuff we hadn't looked at in years …
Our Nissan/Tohatsu 2-stroke outboard is (with some care) still going strong. Early on, we broke a thing called a lift bracket.
It's part of the frame on which the outboard motor hangs on the transom of your dinghy. Studying the drawing, it seems to …
Having dissimilar metals in a salt water environment has consequences. Life-or death consequences. The galvanic current flow means your metal bits are dissolving. There are some clever tables providing details on how "noble" each metal (and alloy) is. The "Galvanic Series" and the "Anodic Index" show you what's happening to …
What's required to get Red Ranger ready?
Cleaning. After over a year of sitting empty, Red Ranger is very dirty. So far, the galley is clean enough to cook in. The cockpit is now clean enough that we can start to look at the heads and berths.
Water. The port …
Sailboat mysteries are bad. Knowing how everything works is sort of the point. And knowing how everything works may also be life-or-death.
The electronics on Red Ranger can be split into two groups:
Portable. This includes phones, iPad, computers, watches. A hand-held VHF radio.
Fixed. This includes the two chart …
She's been on the hard for about a year.
We had emptied every battery container (except one.) We had opened every locker and drawer.
We'd even disconnected the vent fan for the Air Head composting toilet. The only thing left on was the bilge pump. On the hard, she takes …