Completing the Utensil Containers

Thursday 21 August 2014 ~ Echo Bay, Sucia

L.'s back was still bothering her this morning. So we agreed to take it easy at anchor another day. Besides J. wanted to finish up the utensil containers. While the kids read and continued to play the new game they had created, J. got out the tools and got to work. 

This time, he rummaged in the tool locker and pulled out the hand jig saw. On this second hole, he decided it might actually be faster to saw the hole out. Yesterday he didn't think so, especially as there was no way to get a saw into the location. But after drilling all the holes and then filing them into a proper circle, he knew how long that took. The hand jig saw went much faster, even though he had to make some adjustments to figure out how to get the saw blade to reach where it needed to go when the saw's structure was keeping it from doing so. In the end, J. still needed to do some filing, but not as much. 

With both containers now having holes in which to place them, now time to put Turks heads onto each container. Out came the boatswain bag. This was really enjoyable, sitting out in the cockpit and working the line around and through, around and through. J. was reminded how similar this was to meditation. 

When finished and filled with utensils, this is what we have:

By the end of the day, L. was feeling better. We decided to wait and see what tomorrow brought before seeing if she was ready to leave or wanted another day resting at anchorage. 

On Board Project: Knife Rack & Utensil Holders

Wednesday 20 August 2014 ~ Echo Bay, Sucia

We spent the night listening to the dinghies bang against the hull. Hmm. They were all ready to host aboard last night. Should have done it then. But the night was so clear and calm when we went to bed. 

Too soon the 6:00 alarm to catch the tide went off. J. and L. looked things over. According to the hand held anemometer the wind was gusting 22 knots or so. It was time to make some choices. Talking things over, we decided to raise the dinghies and then see what happens. 

The dinghy raising went smoothly, but somehow in the midst of things, L. really torqued her back. That made the decision: we stay for the day (maybe two). At the moment we thought it was muscle related (pulled muscle?) but decided to take things easy. L. spent most of the day in bed on her back or side. She felt a bit better by evening, enough to come out into the cockpit. This also could have been because she was tired of looking at the walls and wanted to see what J. had accomplished. "Certainly he's done something with all the noise he's made."

During the day, J. decided that this would be a good time to accomplish a project, perhaps two, that have been on the list. Project number one was creating a knife rack in the counter top ala Pardeys. In their book, The Care and Feeding of Sailing Crew they mention how Larry created a knife track in the counter top near a bulkhead, give directions, and Lin raves about it. So J. thought it was worth a try, although he needed to come up with a different location. Once decided upon, out came the hand drill, coping saw, knifes, tape-measure and dowels. The idea is to mark where each knife will go along a straight line. Holes are drilled to fit the dowels. Next cut along the line (J. had to cut two saw blade widths to get the knife blades to fit), then dowel for the spacers.  Here is the end result. Behind the sink protects the blades from fingers yet keeps the knifes handy. So far, this works wonderful.

Another project entailed creating holes and locations for two utensil containers. Originally we were going to use to containers from a restaurant supply store with built in lips at the top. However, when we last stopped by, the retailer had changed them. They no longer had lips. So, when seeing these at Ikea (in two different depths) we bought them. J. figured he could add Turks heads or even screw them into the counter top. 

This project created some creativity as J. doesn't have a hole saw greater than 1 3/4 inches. The first hole was drilled with smaller bits around the outside of the diameter, then he used a coping saw to cut it out, then filed it down. Wow. This was a solution, both loud (mainly from the filing) and time consuming. Hmm. It grew too late to move onto the next hole, but at least this hole fits either container very snugly. 

[These photos show how J. found the placement for each container. By taking photos, it also allowed L. to participate while flat on her back.]

As he sat down for dinner, he felt very satisfied in what he had accomplished. "It felt great using hand tools and knocking of a project while at anchor. How's your back?"

While J. and L. were sitting in the cockpit the water took on an unusual color and pattern. We're not sure the picture really does this justice, but you can see the difference in tide patterns (look at the difference in waves). What doesn't show too well is the huge difference in color and clarity of blue. If we had left this morning we would never have seen this. Too cool.

Project: Dinghy Test Sail

Then we have the test sail.

Otherwise known as "The Moment of Truth."

First, J. with E.

Then J. with the girls.

The dinghies worked quite well, except for the pintles and gudgeons. We used eye bolts with bolts sticking down. This is something similar to what we've used before, however, the eye bolts kept twisting.

J. remembered that in the past, he used a piece of threaded rod through all four eye bolts (two on the rudder, two on the transom). This kept the eye bolts from twisting. Another trip to the hardware store, some cutting, bending and filing later, and problem solved.

Good thing we did a test run. The other method would have worked, but been a pain to use. The current method is as simple as can be. 

Sunset & the Two Dinghies

Towards sunset yesterday, we have the two dinghies lined up back to back. You can see how the rudder boards are adjustable. Also, note the mast partners. These are attached in thefollowing manner: the partners have a bolt with nut (keeps the bolt from falling through). Each gunnel has a corresponding hole in it. By sliding a bolt into a hole in the gunnel on each side (one to Port and one to Starboard) the mast partner is now in place. Afterward, lines are snugged down to the seats, holding the mast partners in the boat. The sail halyard is attached to one of the dowel pins, the sail down haul/back haul to the other pin. 

Projects: Dinghy Lee-Board & Rudder Final Product

Here's the final product of both the lee-board and rudder/tiller. 

The lee-board, with a line through the top,  is bolted to a spacer block (the size of the gunnel) and another piece of plywood that fits on the inside of the boat.

The rudder/tiller is in four pieces. There is the rudder head with attached tiller (glued and bolted). There are eye-bolts through the front for a pin piece that slides through these eye-bolts and corresponding eye bolts on the transom. The bungy cord (wrapped around three times and tied) stays with the rudder head. The rest of the rudder works like a dagger-board. It is able to slide up and down (held in place by the bungy cord) and can't fall through due to the rope handle. If we were to hit anything it can also "kick" backwards and shouldn't cause any damage. 

This is quite a creative solution that we borrowed from someone who says he borrowed the idea from some racing dinghies. Another claim is that one can continue sailing in quite shallow water.  In practice we've found the rudder system to work great. 

Projects: Dinghy - Continued Rudder and Rope Work

We continued working:

gluing up the rudder/tiller head,

and whipping lines.

E Climbs the Mast

E. had asked a while back if he could go up the mast. At that time, J. had helped an older friend of ours to change his steaming light and even went to the top to reattach his mast-head anchor light. E. thought it would be cool to learn how to do this, too. 

Before we left, we decided it would be prudent to change our steaming light. After all, it has not worked the entire time we've owned MERGANSER. 

So tonight E. and J. rigged up the chair to send E. aloft. 

First, a note about our chair set-up. We took the idea straight out of Lin and Larry Pardey's book, Capable Cruiser. But we've also seen something very similar in Hervey Garrett Smith's The Arts of the Sailor. We use our 1/2 inch three stand nylon stern anchor rode, two double blocks with beckets and a hook, plus the necessary shackles. We attach the chain hook to one block (leaving it permanently attached). This shackle also attaches this block to the chair. The other block is attached to whatever halyard we are using by tying a bowline. The rode is then rove through the blocks so the standing end comes down from above and can be used to haul ourselves up. The halyard is raised while letting out the appropriate amount of rode and securely tied off. Then we sit in the chair and can haul ourselves aloft (only pulling a quarter of our weight). The rode/halyard can be tied off onto the hook to work with both hands or twisted around the hook to slowly descend under control.

[Note: 3 November 2014 - Lin and Larry Pardey's November Tip is about how they rig their gantline, follow the link to find out more about it.]

We also tend to run two safety lines. Safety Line A is controlled by whomever is in the chair. Safety Line A goes around the mast twice before being tied off to itself. If something were to happen, Safety Line A  would slow (even stop?) our descent. The other (Safety Line B) is a spare halyard attached to the chair, attended to by one of us on deck, and the slack kept off it. From time to time (like when the person in the chair has stopped to work, or is moving their safety line above or below the spreaders), this line is tied off.  Again it is another safety precaution. 

Once E. and J. had things set up, E. went up on a practice run to be sure he was comfortable.

"This feels good, Dad. I feel comfortable with how this works. Can I just keep going?"

"Sure." So E. hauled himself up to the steaming light, while J. kept the slack out of the second halyard (tying off from time to time). E. went aloft with what we thought was the right size bulb.

When he got to the fixture, he removed the casing and called down, "Thanks for taking the bulb out, Dad. This will make it easier. " Only thing was, J. hadn't removed the bulb. Well, that would explain why the light wasn't working. We were hoping this would be an easy fix. So far it looked it was going to be. 

E. inserted the new bulb and we tried the switch.

Ta Da! The light worked!

Just to be sure, we turned the light switch on and off a few times. Still worked.

Down E. came, all under good control.

He was fantastic! Of course the girls then wanted a try. So up they pulled themselves to about the spreaders and then back down. First I. then M.

Great fun. We'll have to see if anyone is sore tomorrow.