Read all about Steve & Linda Dashew’s adventures on Beowulf, their 78-foot bare-aluminum ketch. The logs run from 1999 through 2002.
Linda & Steve, In your recent article on the new passage planning software (I hope to see more on this later) you made a comment regarding downloading weather forecast data during your passage. What method do you use to access internet at sea?? Regards, Mark
We’ve used slab reefing on our mains (and mizzens) on all of our boats going back to the 1970s. We’ve looked at in the mast and in the boom systems as they’ve come along and worked out their bugs, but have yet to see anything as fast, reliable, light, or inexpensive as good old slab reefing.
As we’re cruising on the East Coast and occasionally reading the New York Times, we feel it behooves us to be politically correct. We are already at a disadvantage in this regard due to the fact we have no burgee halyards to either masthead, and so cannot fly our owner’s signal or yacht club pennant correctly. The situation is made worse by the fact that in the land of Hinkleys we have neither varnish on deck, overhangs fore and aft, nor polished blue topsides.
We woke up this morning pondering this problem when Linda had an epiphany. “We’ll equalize the batteries! It’s been three months, they are overdue, and there are bound to be one or two cells lower than the rest, which has to be depressing for the poor dears.”
So, we’ve been sitting in this lovely anchorage in Somes Sound, with the smells of the verdant forest wafting around us on deck, and the smells of batteries being equalized wafting below. We started the process this morning at 0900, and should be done by 1300.
To all you SetSailors who are into washer/dryers on your boats, we’ve got an update on our ventless dryer.
We’re anchored in Newport, Rhode Island, to say hi to some friends and take care of some business. A pleasant couple of sails and anchorages have allowed leisure time to review a couple of the things we’ve been testing, and the results are positive.
It took a long time for us to become fans of roller furling. However, starting with Beowulf, the combination of the size and weight of her sails, and the increasing reluctance to get salt water on our bodies, forced us to take a harder look at this gear.
Probably the most critical piece of cruising gear, the one which we cannot do without, is the washing machine. (Okay, Steve would do without, but Linda is much more civilized.)
For years we’ve used the Spendide washer/drier combo on various boats we’ve built. The unit on Beowulf has 28,000 miles on it. Since the motion at sea is even harder on the innards than anything which happens in actual washing, it has finally been starting to show its age.