TIME AND TIDE

"Time and tide wait for no man" 

Geoffrey Chaucer

 Well it's the end of the sailing season for BIANKA and I here in the northeast U.S. The boat is at the dock to have the mast unstepped and to be put on land for the winter.  I need to take a number of heavy bulky items off the boat and having the boat at the dock makes it easier than when she is on the jack stands. While  Chaucer says time and tide wait for no man I do just the opposite and wait for the right tide.  Removing the heavy items such as the 540 feet of sail stowed in a large sail bag, the Sailrite sewing machine or the Honda 2000 generator is best done at high tide.  Then the gangway that leads to land and the car is at it's most horizontal position. A prudent mariner waits for time and tide to accomplish such moves. Might as well make it as easy as possible if you can.

MISTAKES WILL BE MADE

Use it Up, Wear it Out, Make it Do, or Do Without

I try to live by the above proverb on both land and sea. I will try to not throw something out until it has no useful function for me. Even then I try an recycle it if I can. A long time ago I bought a boat bag from L.L. Bean. I think it must have been over twenty years ago. It's been around and is beaten up and worn but, still was useful for carrying things. That is until the handles broke recently. The carrying part of the bag was still very usable.  So when I bought my Sailrite Ultrafeed® LSZ-1 Sewing Machine last year one of the first projects was to

A QUICK STORAGE PROJECT

The three days hunkering down below waiting for the Nor' Easter to pass gave me time to work on some projects that have been on the "To Do"  list. I have three aerosol products that I try to keep handy in the tool locker. They are Corrosion Block, Boeshield T-9 and PB Blaster.  I often have to rummage through other items to get to them. Somewhat of a pain when all I need to do is grab one of them for a quick spray. So I came up with an idea of hanging a fabric pocket made out of some knock off Sunbrella material I had on board and hanging it on the inside of the tool locker door to hold the cans. It was a quick job using my Sailrite LSZ-1 Sewing Machine to put it together:
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This allows for much easier access to them and utilizes the space inside the tool locker  much better. Not to mention less aggravation trying to find the cans among the other stored items

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ADIOS HURRICANE JOAQUIN, HELLO GALE

It's with some relief that hurricane Joaquin will not be making landfall here as it tracks out to sea. But, these nor' easter conditions is no day at the beach either. It's been blowing a pretty steady 20 knots in the harbor. I've measured gusts as high as 32! It was apparently too much for this day sailing cat boat on a mooring near BIANKA:

Which sunk sometime during the night. I thought I saw the young owners on the beach trying to comfort each other as they came to check on their boat. Meanwhile, the gale warnings continue into tomorrow. I'm looking forward to the winds calming down. But, perhaps this is what happens when a boat on a neighboring mooring is named Storm Chaser: