A THANKSGIVING TO REMEMBER

BIANKA is high and dry today having been pulled for the winter. But, years ago when I was living on board in New York she would often be in the water until December. One year when i was alone I thought it might be nice to have Thanksgiving on board by myself. I was not about to cook a hole Turkey for myself but, I thought buying a whole meal from a local Boston Market take out store would be perfect for a Thanksgiving dinner in BIANKA's cozy cabin. I got all the fixings I might have even had some cider on board.  As I was heating up the meal and the cabin began to fill with a wonderful aroma of turkey and gravy etc... the propane ran out. Unfortunately, the meal had not been entirely cooked. Beng Thanksgiving there was no way I could get the propane tank refilled either.  Enter Black Friday to save the day. Because some stores were getting a jump on Christmas sales they were open on this holiday. I jumped in the car and picked up a small Coleman stove and a one pound can of Propane. I headed back to the boat and finished cooking my Thanksgiving feast. It was a Thanksgiving to remember.

READYING FOR WINTER

One nice thing about having electric propulsion and not the diesel is how it streamlines winter storage.  The only major thing I need to do is winterize the water systems on board. Once that is done I only need to do a few minor things to secure the boat for the winter. One of the things is to tape over the cockpit hatches using painter's tape.

 This helps keep rain and snow from working their way down below and into the bilge. I don't plan on going into the lockers until Spring but if I do the tape is easily removed and replaced.

I also tape over the instrument displays in the cockpit with the same tape to protect the displays from the winter sun.

These last two  items pretty much complete my winterization  routine.

PLASTIC IN THE OCEAN BEGINS IN THE RIVERS

I don't see a lot of plastics when I'm sailing BIANKA in my local waters of Long Island
Sound. When I do I always make an attempt to try and pick it up. But, there are
parts of the world where floating Plastic is much more of a problem. It’s good to see that
some inventive thinkers are working to not only cleanup the floating plastics in the
Ocean but also at the source namely some of the worlds rivers.

Meet the INTERCEPTOR:

END OF THE SEASON

 It's the end of another season and BIANKA is safely on land in the boatyard.  I spent much more time on board this summer and have plans to do the same for next year.  I had a successful test of some new systems on board. Including a new, more powerful generator and 48 volt power supply to be used when electric sailing. I’ll be posting about these new additions and other ideas here on the blog as I’ll have more time in the off season for posting.