Following is where you’ll find Steve & Linda’s more technical articles. If you’re looking for info on the nuts and bolts of cruising, this is the section for you!
The last couple of days we have had a small oil leak on the port engine. Not much – what you see above is after six hours of running – but we wanted to find the source before proceeding.
We’ve been using a digital programmable thermostat to control our diesel boiler. This allows us to program four different set of time and temperature during the day. Our sleeping cabin is kept cold during the day, turns the heat on an hour before bed time, and goes to low heat (but still on) until morning, when we are programmed to warm up just a bit.
We submit the photo above as a baseline for thinking about anchor size. We are ensconced in Vikingevagen, Norway. A tight, protected anchorage. Water depth is 40 feet (12m) and the barometer is plunging. It is gusting 40 knots, and the granite shore is 150 feet (45m) off our stern. This is not a situation in which you want to worry about anchor size.
So, how big an anchor is right?
Dave Snow, a Puget Sound sailor sent some excellent questions about our recent blog about crossing the English Channel. We’ll try and answer them here.
You’d think London would be bristling with wifi options. There was good service in marinas from Falmouth to Southampton. But we’ve been bandwidth challenged in St. Katherine’s Docks.
We see two pay to play wifi options with our high gain antenna and access point. Both – BT Open Zone and Something Wireless – are slow and of intermittent availability. We subscribed to both – roughly US$22. per month for each – so we had a choice.
But wait. It gets better.
We have been using the same set of Yale Ropes high modulus dock lines coming onto four years now. These 11mm (7/16″) ropes are as strong as our normal 24mm (one inch) polyester, weigh a fraction of the latter, and are less prone to chafe. And they are obviously a lot easier to handle.
Last summer in Greenland, with water temperature barely above freezing and air about the same, we decided to see how tough we were, and if we could sleep with the diesel heater turned off.
A double dose of blankets did the trick. But the pain of warming the cool sheets at the beginning of our sojurn abed disuaded us from further experimentation.
When we purchased the Northern Lights genset for Wind Horse it was only available at the time with a sound shield. Since we were paying for it we decided to give it a try. However, a hidden salt water leak and less than robust latches convinced us to leave off the side panels. We were not comfortable with having to remove the side panels for routine inspection.
Although we have left our boats in many parts of the world, this is the first time where we have had to consider sub-freezing temperatures. We talked to folks from various areas who live in these climates and received all sorts of advice, some of which was in conflict.
We’re anchored off Georgetown in the Bahamas. Water is 87F/30C and air about the same. Today the breeze lightened up and awnings, always important in the tropics, became critical. So we took a ride around the anchorage to see how folks were keeping their cool.
We’re anchored a mile from a beachfront restaurant to the west of Georgetown in the Bahamas. Amongst the services offered (in addition to cold beer) is WiFi. $15 for the week – not bad by cruising standards.
As it is the beginning of the slow season and there are not a lot of users right now, the connection is robust. And with our hi-gain WiFi antenna and “access point” we are able to enjoy the benefits of being connected to the world while anchoring away from the crowd (thank you for installing the system, Troy Bethel!).
One of the biggest benefits of this solid WiFi connection is the new (to us) Skype phone system for calling over the Internet. We are just getting up to speed with this 21st century marvel.
Today, after digesting the latest metalwork drawings on the FPB 64 from New Zealand (the 3Mb file arriving by WiFi) we had a two-hour phone conference with Dave DeVilliers and Ed Firth who are doing the detailing. Both our drawings and theirs were open on the computer, and we could refer back and forth as various details were discussed. Exactly as would have happened if we were standing at the desk in our land office. The big difference is that we are out here, actually using the product as it was intended to be used.
This is the only way to run a business!
Our recent foray into replumbing our hydraulic cooling system under way brought to the fore how valuable these heat resistant gloves can be. We picked them up in an Ace Hardware store some years ago. They are made from Nomex or Kevlar (cannot recall which), and for hanging on to fittings which are at 125 F (52 C) they work great.
They are light enough to retain a bit of feel, enough so we are able to wrap Teflon sealing tape around small fittings (albeit with some difficulty).
For jobs where it is really hot and/or the risk of being scalded exists (as with cooling circuits on the engine) we carry a set of welding gloves. These are not easy in which to work, so they remain new in appearance.
The gloves above are worn in the engine room when it is warm, even for casual inspections.
With AC power consumption aboard at a personal record for us, we are experimenting with different management schemes. To begin with, we now have all four air conditioning units running. That is a total of 54,000 BTUs of capacity. In addition, the wash cycle is in full swing as this is being written. As the washing machine heats its own water, and the drier is a full sized unit, they really consume the Watts. In addition, it is breakfast time and the microwave is periodically using its 1000 or so Watts.
