TOOLS OF AN ELECTRIC SAILOR: Ratcheting Crimper

A lot of people I know seem to get by using a cheap wire crimper/stripper that look like this:
  I do have a pair on the boat and few around the house too. They do work and I keep them around as backups. But, the crimps you make with them tend to distort the connectors and can be of a questionable mechanical strength. For my wiring and rewiring projects on board BIANKA I use a more robust ratcheting crimper like this one:

It won't release until you have made a good strong crimp. It has three sizes color coded dies for the proper sized insulated connectors. There are no wire stripper blades on it. It is designed to do one thing and that is to make a good solid crimp. It is the right tool for the job when it comes to making crimps on connectors. That's why it's in my electrical tool kit on board.

YOU ARE NEVER REALLY ALONE ON THE OCEAN

A few years ago I decided to take BIANKA on a sail around the Long Island. Things started off fine but, later in the afternoon the wind died and we found ourselves becalmed in the Atlantic Ocean. The crew announced that maybe he would go for a swim since BIANKA was not going anywhere at the moment. At the same instant I spied something over his shoulder heading toward the boat. I said are you sure you want to go for a swim? Take a look behind you. He turned around to see a fin of a shark heading straight for the boat. I came across this  video taken a few years ago in nearby Block Island Sound by a sailor heading for Bermuda that reminded me of that day on BIANKA:


The Real Jaws from Christian on Vimeo.


The shark that headed for BIANKA made a couple of circles around the boat and then disappeared. Needless to say neither of us went swimming that day.

ADDING TO THE BUCKET LIST

Remember that 5 gallon bucket I found on the beach a few days ago? It did not take long for me to find another use for it. After I took BIANKA back to the mooring and tied up in the afternoon I needed to do some errands on shore. I left the sail cover off because I would be pulling the sail off since it is the end of the season.   I was not gone more than an hour and half. But, as I rowed back to the boat I notice not one but two Cormorants perched on the boom. Now I'll have to clean and dry the sail before I stored it for the winter. I should have know better. But, even while I was on board another Cormorant tried to land on the boom but, I chased it off. I had to do something temporarily to try and keep the Cormorants off the boom until the morning. Then I remembered the bucket I found on the beach. I attached a halyard to the handle and attached another line loosely and that led aft to a cleat. I hoisted the bucket until it was just slightly higher than the boom and let it swing there in a lazy arc with the wind and rocking of the boat like this:

The plan was to have it swing over the boom and discourage any further landings on the boom and/or clear off any birds that did manage to land. It worked until I got BIANKA to the dock to clean the sail the next morning. See I told you these buckets come in useful on board.

SEA SMOKE IN THE MORNING

It was a chilly night  when I got into my bunk. Temperatures dropped into the thirties. When I awoke in the morning it was hard to get out from under the nice warm comforter in Capt. Mike's cabin. But, I pushed through that phase. Poking my head out of the cabin I saw this:



You know it was a cold night when you see a Sea Smoke fog like this. Also called evaporation fog. Happily, the sun warmed things up soon enough and the fog disappeared. But, the Baroque music I was listening to seemed to complement the scene nicely while it lasted.

TREASURE BEACH

Well, the small craft warnings have expired and the winds have died down quite a bit. As the sun started to set in the empty anchorage BIANKA was in this fall day:

I decided to row the Porta Bote to shore and take a little walk along the beach:

I've been on board since last Tuesday so a little stretch of the legs would probably in order on this beautiful autumn afternoon. I stopped to watch The Bridgeport Port Jefferson ferry that was almost aglow in the "magic time" sunlight as it entered the harbor:

It was another "pinch me" afternoon as I enjoyed having the beach all to myself. To top it all off I found some treasure along the way. As I walked the wrack line along the shore I found two washed up items that I could use on board. One was a spray bottle still functioning that can always be used for some cleaning uses on board or at home. Even better was five gallon bucket that also has many uses on board:

 I have five gallon buckets that hold spare pieces of line. Another holds some of my dive equipment. Another bucket sits on the stern and holds fresh water for a rinse off after a swim. Not sure what this one will be used for but, it will be used for something. So my little stroll along the beach helped me and helped the environment by recycling a few more pieces of plastic that otherwise would not have been.
What a wonderful afternoon it was.

THE JOY OF A BOAT

You might be asking by now what I used to get the Cormorant art work off of the sail cover and deck. Well the answer is JOY dishwashing liquid.

Joy dishwashing liquid not only helps wash the dishes on board BIANKA and clean Cormorant poo off it's sailcover and decks. I also use it to lubricate the sail slides before raising the sail. Makes it go up and come down much easier. It also comes in handy when it's time to take a "Joy shower". Since Joy Dishwashing liquid also lathers in salt water it is great for an end of the day shampoo and rinse off the back of the boat followed by a fresh water rinse. It helps save water over a regular on board shower. Because it is such multitasking product BIANKA carries at least one bottle on board because it works.

THE ART OF A SAILBOAT

"I've got a Brillo Box and I say it's Art!"- John Cale/Lou Reed

 I've been away from BIANKA for three weeks. I was down in Washington D.C. for some of that time. Then recently the weather has not been cooperating for one final cruise of the season. The Nor'easter this past weekend was hemmed and hawed by NOAA all last week because their computers did not agree. So I think I made the right call in not heading out in the small weather windows that were available. When I got back on board the day after Halloween.  I thought that perhaps the ghost spirit of  Jackson Pollock  the abstract expressionist  painter had traveled from the Hamptons and was inspired to create just one more "masterpiece" on my boat like this:

Because when I got back on board BIANKA I found this::

Only instead of using a canvas the spirit of Pollock used my sail cover and deck:

On the other hand it might just be that some Cormorant had found that since most of the boats in the harbor had been pulled for the season it decided it had no choice and decided to alight on my mast. But, then again just maybe Jackson Pollock has been reincarnated as a Cormorant.

NOR' EASTER SEASON AND THE PERFECT STORM

 Here in the northeast U.S. Nor' easter season has now begun.  I've been wanting to get back on board BIANKA and just head out for a mini cruise for a few days but, the weather has not been cooperating and today I'm waiting for a storm to form off North Carolina and head up this way. The Nor' Easters are cold, wet, windy and dangerous weather systems. Ironically the twentieth anniversary of the Halloween Nor'easter that was chronicled in Sebastian Junger's book The Perfect Storm is coming up.

That storm curved back around and developed into a full fledged hurricane. So these systems need to be respected and watched carefully. If you have not read the book  The Perfect Storm it is a good read about how these systems can change rapidly and often with tragic results for anyone who gets caught out at sea in one.  The current forecast calls for a chance of thunderstorms rain and snow with temperatures in the thirties and forties. But, it's the high wind warning that sailors need to be concerned about. High wind warnings of 30 knots and gusts of 50 knots plus should get the attention of any sailor. So I guess I won't be heading out with the boat for a day or two. Though gathering some wood for the fireplace seems like a good idea.

BUILD YOUR OWN ELECTRIC OUTBOARD

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You say you want to try electric propulsion or maybe your gas powered outboard died and you are tired of getting it repaired. Don't head to the marine store. Head over to the nearest Home Depot or lumber yard and build your own like this fellow did:

 

Though you might want to carry a few spare batteries with you and make sure you have a set of oars as backup. I don't think it would perform like a  Torqeedo or  an Electric Paddle in terms of efficency but, it might work for your needs and looks like a fun project.

BLOG UPDATE: In 2013 Hurricane Sandy sent my Honda BP2 gas outboard to the bottom. I replaced it with an Electric Paddle outboard. My review of the product starts here.
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CLEAN SHEETS TO THE WIND

I've found when cruising one does not need to wash a lot of clothes too often. I pretty much live in a couple of pair of Columbia Shorts and some Columbia fishing shirts during the summer.
These can be easily hand washed and dry fast when hung over the life lines. Though every once in a while the availability of a washing machine is a welcome sight for this cruising sailor. Even better is a marina that offers a free use of a washing machine. Like the 79th Street Boat Basin in New York. While I can pretty much get by with doing hand laundry for the shorts and shirts I usually wear. There are some items that are easier to wash in a washing machine. I'm talking about the fitted bed sheets and towels I carry on board along with other clothes like jeans and other long pants. These items require a lot of water and I find are best done in a machine. To me one of the simple pleasures of being on board a boat is climbing into your bunk at night with freshly washed sheets. It's one of those Ahhh moments. So when a washing machine is available I try and take advantage of it.

When I lived on board in New York back in the late nineties I had to walk several blocks to a Laundromat because the marina I was at had no laundry facilities. Not exactly convenient and in addition to the laundry I had to carry the detergent along. Unless I wanted to pay an extra dollar at the Laundromat to buy a box from the vending machine. I also had to find a place on board to store the bulky detergent container. 

 The choices were powder which came in a card board box. Which on a boat has some advantages and disadvantages. For one thing you could use baggies to make single load portions like I did instead of carrying the whole box to the laundry. But, you still had the bulky cardboard box to store on board and the worry that it could get wet and spill it's contents inside a boat locker. You could also use a liquid detergent which is mostly water. It still comes in a bulky container  but, requires you to carry the whole container to the laundry room and means you had a plastic container you would eventually need to dispose of.  I recently discovered and alternative that makes a whole lot of sense for a cruising sailor. It's a laundry product called METHOD.

It's a high concentrated laundry detergent which comes in a pump spray bottle. A 20 oz bottle does 50 loads.  Plus it  takes up a whole lot of less space on board and weighs a lot less than the normal powder or liquid detergents.  You can get refills of METHOD in space saving packaging so you don't keep carrying around extra plastic containers on board and then looking for a place to dispose of them. I bought a bottle over the summer and found it to clean just as well as the detergents I get from the supermarket. Just four pumps provides enough concentrated cleaning for a whole machine load of laundry. It can also be used for spot cleaning and I've also used it for hand washing in a bucket on board with very good results. It takes up less room on board and won't spill like powder laundry detergent can and you are not storing big container of liquid detergent either. To me it just makes a whole lot of sense to carry it on board to do laundry.