Little stuff

We are almost constantly thinking of Inspiration II and in the process of preparing all the equipment, tools and items required for living aboard for 6 months or more.  Since it is a new boat to us we will over prepare but will put some in our storage we are renting since it is pretty close to where we will slip for a while.

I just bought some more sockets from eBay to fill in my Metric capability.  Now I need wrenches to fill the gaps that I never needed with the Rice Rockets which were mostly happy with <16mm p="" sizes.="">

Irwin Trivia

I f you would like to find out more about our boat you can go to here http://sailboatdata.com/view_builder.asp?builder_id=82  for all the models of Irwin.

I also came across this on SailNet   Quote "I have in mast furling that has worked well but last Sunday the main refused to unroll after only a few feet. I notice that the sail bulges out next to the portion under tension being rolled out, about 7 feet up from the boom for a stretch of about 10 feet. The winch simply cannot pull it out - and it should be pulled out by hand, ideally. The mast is slightly curved, but not too much to accommodate the furling system and has not malfunctioned before. I suspect the sail may have been reefed the last time with insufficient tension, but that is just speculation." End Quote.

I found the article interesting because the same thing happened to us last winter while delivering Nanita to Clearwater from Ft Lauderdale with the owner/captain.  Of course, it happened at night in 18kt winds and since we could not see because the spreader lights were defective, the sail jammed pretty good.  It was morning and in 6' seas before we could see what happened.  We had to wait until we reached cam waters near Boca Grande to fix the problem.  In retrospect we should have deployed the sails in daylight and in low wind conditions. Moral: know your systems well before you hit the big winds and waves.

Holland Marine called

We had a call from Holland Marine this morning asking what the combination was to the boat lock so they can get on the boat.

There is a little issue in the area of the windlass that we want fixed and Holland Marine was highly recommended by many of the people we trust and the price was reasonable for the scope of the project. They are also repairing the prop and cutlass bearing.

From the sound of things the winter storm cover has made it through the season so far and we hope it survives intact and can be used next year. the cover was originally designed for way up North winters and snow load.  It seemed a bit light for our way of thinking but perhaps we underestimated the strength.  It is not a full cover but keeps water, leaves and dirt out of the cockpit and the scuppers there and has closed forward and aft zippers.  As you can see, the boom keeps the tent in place.  All those little lines just wind around and around and around and the network is about 400' long all stretched out.

sv Delos & other trivia

I have been viewing the travels of sv Delos on Youtube.  I have quickly gone through all their videos. The early one were more like documentaries of the daily log type.  They rapidly progressed into so really good editing and making good videos.  It is worthwhile viewing their series.  They also have a Facebook site and www.svdelos.com .  They have a saying that I like - "We like to say that our plans are always written in the sand at low tide. ".  I sort of feel that way about our boat sv Inspiration II which is a 43' Irwin.  We will be starting our first season aboard pretty soon and it promises to be a fun thing.

A little catch up for Summer of 2014

Sailboats & Things
I have been dreaming lately.  More and more of my dreams are of sailboats and specifically, of Inspiration II.  I dream of all the work to be done this Fall and Winter.  I dream of all the materials I must collect and take with me to the boat.  I hope she does not sink after loading all this “stuff”.
I started a “Ship’s Log” yesterday.  It has 10 sections that deal with items needed to manage a live-a-board vessel for several months at a time. Now I need to generate the document forms for each section.  For example, Section 1 will have a form that lists Time, Date, Vessel status (in port, mooring, under sail, motoring, person on duty and position reports plus other elements of interest to the vessel and authorities.

• Section 1 is the day to day log of all activities of being onboard.
• Section 2 is all about Maintenance & Repairs.
• Section 3 deals with Fuel status, concerns and hours of operation of the two diesel engines.
• Section 4 documents Improvements
• Section 5 contains Schematics of electronics, electrical and mechanical systems
• Section 6 is a catchall Legal Documents & Miscellaneous grouping.
• Section 7 chronicles Ideas for the boat and sailing
• Section 8 contains To-Do Lists
• Section 9  formally presents the vessel Survey(s)
• Section 10 is an area reserved for guests who have visited the boat

I need to get motivated to generate some ham radio related project like getting the AllStar operational on a BeagleBlack and IRLP on a PiIRLP board.  This will reduce the size to a form factor suitable for the boat.  Right now I think I will work on the forms for each section of the Ship’s Log.  Bye.

2:31PM  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/ZLWVQq1NBSJxw

JULY 31, 2014

A Saugatuck Work n Sail
SAM & I traveled to Saugatuck/Douglas, Mi Wednesday, leaving early, to meet up with Dan & Kathleen on S/V Kathleen.  We arrived just before lunch, which Kathy served up, and after a brief catchup of the past year we planned our work for the afternoon. The weather was cool and the sea fog was rolling in by the tonnes but Thursday weather promised bright skies and warmer inland temperatures.
Dan and I started on the radio project to check out his antenna system and then install a Standard Horizon Matrix 2000 VHF/GPS/AIS unit.  This DSC radio is very cool and reasonably priced at about $400±.
The antenna system checked out good with the old DSC radio reading 21W forward and about 2.5W reflected.  Not too bad for a boat system.  I mostly lent Dan moral support and watched while he did all the work on the install.  Well, actually, I played with his new chartplotter / sonar unit.  I did find out the sequence to adjust the depth offset so the chartplotter depth agreed with the standard depth guage so I guess I held up part of the bargain.
Prior to the real install we made a mock-up of the place below decks that the radio was to be installed to determine if the radio would receive the GPS signals: the GPS receiver must be very sensitive because it worked well and agreed with the chartplotter position.
After we got the unit installed I checked the power output of the transmitter and it was 19W forward with 2W reflected so it agreed with my previous readings.  After this we played with the radio and I must say the audio was excellent.  This is on my purchase list.
Today, Thursday, we took Kathleen out on Lake Michigan for a few hours but the winds were 5 - 8 Kts so it was not a real good sailing day.  The further we went out the worse the winds became and the lumpier the 2’ seas became.  Water temperature was 55°F in July.  This is a cold year on the water.
We had a great chat but soon it was time to make the three hour trip back to Indiana.  D&K promised to visit us this winter towards the end of February - Yea.  We cannot wait to have them aboard Inspiration II.

11:14PM  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/ZLWVQq1N2sPRF

JULY 26, 2014

A long paddle

So I went out on the lake the other day and had a nice sail but could not beat close enough to the wind with this boat to get back so I was pretty much stuck on the far end of the lake going back and forth and around and around until I go tired.  I lowered the sails most of the way and started the motor and headed back up the lake into the wind.  When I arrived near the far end I killed the engine and finished lowering the sails and raising the centerboard.  When I tried to start the engine the recoil would not go out or in - it was hung up pretty good.  So out comes the paddle and I started the 200 yards back to the slip.  I made pretty good time for a while but then the offshore wind came up and I had to work hard to make it to the slip.  I was sweating like a horse but I stowed all the gear and cleaned up the dock lines and removed the motor to take back to the house so I could repair it.
Upon return to the house and a day later I tackled the motor.  Turns out the nylon line had swelled a bit over the years and it was too big to have it all fit in the recoil track. Since it was fraying anyway, I cut off 6” and it fit far better.  Now, I am ready to put it back on Little Yellow the next time I go sailing. Yea!
Here a couple of shots of the lake and slip area.

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(Notes: 1)

  

JULY 5, 2014

Little Yellow - the morning after the day before
Here it is the day after the 4th of July.  This is the day after the night before and when I slept soundly through the fireworks that I did not hear.  This is the day after the early morning arrival of Abby, who jumped upon my bed and awakened me, and who disappeared almost immediately.  This is the day that I could not go back to sleep after Abby Event.
I got up and made some porridge, via a three minute burn in the microwave, and added pecans, raisins,  cran-raisins plus local honey that I know came from fields nearby.  While all this was melding together, the electric teapot was plugged in and water was boiled, cooled to proper temperature and added to two bags of Teatley English Breakfast tea in a very fine teapot.  Breakfast was enjoyed on the back porch while being serenaded by birds of all sorts on this clear, cool day.
I took the deck umbrella cover off and laid it aside so that I could deploy the umbrella and made it so.  The morning sun was just filtering through the trees while I was enjoying my strong tea and Abby cavorting around the deck in her silent non-barking manner.  While all this was happening, I noticed a green tree frog sittng in a nook on the adjacent deck chair. She was a pretty frog.
Later in the morning I took the red but striped cover down to Little Yellow so I could cover the exposed boom that has the main sail attached.  I adjusted a few lines and this helped LY to ride more naturally in her slip and left for the m

Several months into the future from last post

We have been busy this summer and now that it is almost over I'll write a bit.  We are the official owners of Inspiration II (old Con El Viente) and are planning winter now.  I must admit that our watermanwater.tumblr.com site is seeing more posts than this one.  I am not too sure why but that is the way it happened.

I came across this site this afternoon and have watched most of the Youtubes to date. http://svdelos.blogspot.com/ is about a sailboat travels from Australia to Indonisia to Malaysia and probably onward.  A well written blog and Youtube videos are pretty good too. Makes me wish I were 40 years younger.

We are sailing our Little Yellow this summer on Pleasant Lake and that has been a blast.  It is a 16' American Fiberglass and has a battened main with a nice jib that helps tack around.  I think the main is a tad too big but I am going to experiment a bit by shortening it a bit by taking one wrap around the boom.  Other than that she is a small sloop with a tiller and all the features and sheets of a bigger boat.

Winter 2014 Gulf Coast near St Petersburg and Other Places

FIRST, THE GOOD NEWS: It looks like we have our boat - an Irwin 43.  More about this later.

Here we are this winter in St. Petersburg and it is cold.  Abby & I are at the beach on Treasure Island where it is sunny and cold but the kites are flying at the annual event.  The blue jacket came from West Marine because I was freezing and had no cool weather clothing.

We have spent most of the winter looking at boats.  First in the Keys and later in north east FL near Jacksonville.  However, in early February we went to the Hamcation in Orlando but it was rainy, cool and overcast except for the last day.  We had the camper so we were snug and warm and it was not a too bad experience.  I could go on and on but the best purchase was a green laser pen that is very bright and you do not want to look at it for the real possibility of retinal damage.

After Hamcation we started planning for the trip to The Keys and Miami.  First was the keys where we stayed with friend Steve.  This year we actually got tans and spent hours in the sun on Steve's ocean front

property.  The weather co-operated and we rode our bikes on 7 mile bridge out to the key and back several days, found a fresh seafood place north of Marathon and generally had a good time talking with Steve for a week.  It did not get old and we saw a lot of Marathon this year so we are glad we came down and that Steve invited us to be a guest in his backyard for a week.The picture shows us on Seven Mile Bridge near the end fence.  It is a 2 mile ride out and 2 miles back: Notice our hair blowing!  Well, we had to ride back in a 15 kt wind and let me tell you it is a struggle to peddle a cruising bicycle against that wind.

After we left Marathon we drove directly to Larry & Penny Tompson Park on 184th Street in Miami.  We were there to help Roger celebrate his daughter's first birthday Latino style.  As luck would have it the event was in the same park where we were staying so we could bicycle over the 2 miles±.  Good people, good food and a great family - we are glad to know them.  The three days passed quickly and soon we were on the way back to St. Petersburg.

Back in St. Pete we finished the yard work and pool cleaning and misc other home duty and prepared top

go to Green Cove Springs to look at a Whitby 42.  Upon arrival the broker was there just before us (we had stayed in Starke at the Days Inn just to be close).After a quick inspection of the hull, we climbed aboard as she was on the hard, and settled in the cockpit for a look see.  While a nice boat, we quickly decided she was not the boat for us.  The broker was asked if he had another boat nearby since we had driven such a long way.  Sure enough, he had an Irwin 43, so we asked to look at her.  I liked the lines and rig of the boat right away but she looked a little forlorn without sails on the rather dreary day.  I stayed in the cockpit and SAM went below with the broker.  She liked it below!  The rest is history but we ended up making and offer that was accepted.  Now comes the sea trial and survey in May. At this point I have contacted a Surveyor and the check is in the mail.

We have been to GCS twice now and spent some time there on the way back to Indiana in early April.  We met the current owners and they were great to be with.  We had a chance to bicycle around, eat out a few times and generally tour the wharf area.  Not the ritz but a place where real people live, work and play.  Interestingly, the actually build pretty big ships here.  I will try to post some pictures here to end the missive.