The boat went in without a hitch last Wedensday. My thruhull repairs held. The motor started ok. The only hitch was the wind. It was too windy to put the mast up.
So, we were going to raise the mast Thursday but some asshole tied up his boat at the mast crane and left for the evening. He screwed over half a dozen guys wanting to raise their masts too. What a jerk.
Sooo, the next day the wife and I went to the marina early in the morning to raise our mast only to find our mast burried under more masts. I lost it and left. (With the wife of course).
Now its raining.
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Getting closer to launch..
Went into work to finish up the winter overhaul of the mighty outboard. (I had the motor stored in the hospitals boiler room). It started ok in the boiler but when I installed it on the boat it wouldn't start. I have 'til Wedensday to get it going. That's all.
Friday, April 2, 2010
Warning! White winter skin!
The two photos are of the leaking thru-hull sealed off. Still have to fair it up and paint it. The other shot is me, sans shirt on April 2nd! In Canada! 25 degrees Celcius! Wow!
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Work to be done this Easter weekend...
Top photo shows the huge gouge on the bow, to be repaired Friday or Saturday. The second photo shows our wet/dry vacuum hose in the hole where a thru-hull blank was fitted. The fitting was leaking a touch so the wife and I decided to glass over the whole hole. The white is the tapered fiberglass ready to be epoxied. The third photo shows the hole before being prepped. Notice the water stain running down? We figured if water can run out when on the hard, then water can ingress when afloat. More pictures after the weekends work is done. 
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Money!
Had a very rough day at work and seriously thought about quitting and sailing away! Not going to happen today. I need the second pension available to me when I'm 55. Plus I need a larger boat.
I'll have about $1,500 after taxes then, not much when on land but I figure slowly moving around the globe, living off the hook as much as possible, wearing very little clothing to save on laundry soap:), we should be able to swing it.
What will be a huge help is just getting away from our consumer driven society! Cruising by its very nature is a frugal lifestyle, I mean, you only have so much room on board to hoard (Hee, hee, board and hoard rhyme) your purchases.
One flaw in that is that both the wife and I are voracious readers. We love our books. Maybe Kindle or some other electronic reader will help us out, we'll see.
We have two major expenditures coming up. First and foremost is our daughters university tuition. We will pay for her first degree, and only her first degree, any further edumafacation will be at her expense. The second expense will be upgrading our boat to a larger one.
We have a friend, well actually he is my sailing guru, who insists that we need a 40' boat at least. he's probably correct, as he is on most things. This leads back to the money thing....the bigger the boat, the more expensive the equipment becomes. Prices remain reasonable below 38'. So as frugal sailors he will have to swallow his shame when we raft up beside him in our toy boat. His palace is 46' long. But as I tell my wife, size isn't everything:)
Yup, I see a lot of canned stew and Kraft dinner in my future, and cheap Caribbean rum:)
I'll have about $1,500 after taxes then, not much when on land but I figure slowly moving around the globe, living off the hook as much as possible, wearing very little clothing to save on laundry soap:), we should be able to swing it.
What will be a huge help is just getting away from our consumer driven society! Cruising by its very nature is a frugal lifestyle, I mean, you only have so much room on board to hoard (Hee, hee, board and hoard rhyme) your purchases.
One flaw in that is that both the wife and I are voracious readers. We love our books. Maybe Kindle or some other electronic reader will help us out, we'll see.
We have two major expenditures coming up. First and foremost is our daughters university tuition. We will pay for her first degree, and only her first degree, any further edumafacation will be at her expense. The second expense will be upgrading our boat to a larger one.
We have a friend, well actually he is my sailing guru, who insists that we need a 40' boat at least. he's probably correct, as he is on most things. This leads back to the money thing....the bigger the boat, the more expensive the equipment becomes. Prices remain reasonable below 38'. So as frugal sailors he will have to swallow his shame when we raft up beside him in our toy boat. His palace is 46' long. But as I tell my wife, size isn't everything:)
Yup, I see a lot of canned stew and Kraft dinner in my future, and cheap Caribbean rum:)
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Auxillery power Scotty!!
More about our emergency generator purchase.
It is NOT a Honda 2000. A common misconception is that the '2000' refers to Hondas maximum watt output, noooo, it refers to its cost!....lol No, it actually refers to its maximum output, not to be confused with its continuous running output..
The '2000' represents its maximum output in watts. Don't confuse this with its actual running output, which is considerably less.
Now my 'cheapo' gen set is listed at 2900 watts, but its continuous output is 2300 watts
You would think that's a lot of power, but it isn't. let me put it in context, remembering that I am not an electrical engineer.
We have a simple household toaster rated at 950 watts. That is a given as I just turned the damned thing over and got a lap full of toast crumbs. So, we flash the generator up and plug in the toaster.....yes that is bread toasting, just like at home. Then Darth Vader, er, I mean my 17 year old daughter wakes up. Needs to blow dry her hair straight right this moment! She plugs her Conaire 1200 in. Yes, the 1200 is its wattage.
That is a total of 2159 watts of demand. Theoretically the gen set should handle it. Who knows. That doesn't leave much wiggle room for extra demand, just a spare 150 watts.
Of course when we flashed it up, (started it, in Navy jargon), in the backyard, The wife vacuumed the living room with it. It worked OK.
The only drawback with the beast is that it is awkward and heavy. It will take up a lot of room on a 25' sailboat but that sailboat is only a temporary learning boat.
Can't wait to have a real blackout like the 4-5 day one a few years back.Even in the winter we will be able to run our furnace with some careful wire splicing. We'll be the envy of our frozen neighbours.
It is NOT a Honda 2000. A common misconception is that the '2000' refers to Hondas maximum watt output, noooo, it refers to its cost!....lol No, it actually refers to its maximum output, not to be confused with its continuous running output..
The '2000' represents its maximum output in watts. Don't confuse this with its actual running output, which is considerably less.
Now my 'cheapo' gen set is listed at 2900 watts, but its continuous output is 2300 watts
You would think that's a lot of power, but it isn't. let me put it in context, remembering that I am not an electrical engineer.
We have a simple household toaster rated at 950 watts. That is a given as I just turned the damned thing over and got a lap full of toast crumbs. So, we flash the generator up and plug in the toaster.....yes that is bread toasting, just like at home. Then Darth Vader, er, I mean my 17 year old daughter wakes up. Needs to blow dry her hair straight right this moment! She plugs her Conaire 1200 in. Yes, the 1200 is its wattage.
That is a total of 2159 watts of demand. Theoretically the gen set should handle it. Who knows. That doesn't leave much wiggle room for extra demand, just a spare 150 watts.
Of course when we flashed it up, (started it, in Navy jargon), in the backyard, The wife vacuumed the living room with it. It worked OK.
The only drawback with the beast is that it is awkward and heavy. It will take up a lot of room on a 25' sailboat but that sailboat is only a temporary learning boat.
Can't wait to have a real blackout like the 4-5 day one a few years back.Even in the winter we will be able to run our furnace with some careful wire splicing. We'll be the envy of our frozen neighbours.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
