SPRING OUTFITTING: Flare Check

While I was doing some of that preliminary organizing I came upon my Olin flare kit:

. So I thought this was as good a time as any to open it up and check to make sure what flares where inside and if any where out of date. Which is a no no with the Coast Guard and just not a good idea in general.

In my  Flare Kit there are both hand held flares and 12 gauge aerial flares:

I was glad to see that non of them were out of date and I could get through the sailing season without having to buy new ones.  I hope to never have to use one but, it is important to have them available just in case. Spring outfitting is a good time to check them and make sure they are not out of date. 

A LITTLE ORGANIZATION PLEASE

The winter was cold and wet so other than a few quick checks I did not spend much time on board. So the cabin pretty much stayed somewhat disorganized from the post Sandy cleanup:

As you can see there are some things that really have no place in the cabin. Like the fender thrown in as I was buttoning up before the boat was pulled it really does not belong in the cabin. Also the piece of Lexan that use to be secured to to the solar bimini but, was not secure enough to survive the 95 MPH winds of Hurricane Sandy should be out of here. So now that it's time to start getting the boat ready for spring outfitting a little organization might is in order:

 It may not look like much improvement but, dropping the table down and having better access to various tools and parts really helps me find things as I go around and do some spring boat maintenance. Once the boat is ready for launch then everything gets stowed away properly. But, for now having things very accessible is the plan

FROM BIANKA'S BOOK SHELF: ELDRIDGE TIDE AND PILOT BOOK

One of the things that signals the start of the sailing season for me is buying a nice fresh copy of the Eldridge Tide and Pilot Book 2013   .  If you are sailing through the waters anywhere from Maine to the Chesapeake this is the one book to have on board. Just make sure you have this years edition. By the end of the season my copy of this book will be well dog eared and beat up from the crisp pristine condition it is now in. That is because I use just about every time I leave the harbor. It is one of the items I bring into the cockpit before heading out along with items like binoculars, horn and the handheld VHF radio. I will refer to it a number of times on just about every sail trip I take. The Eldridge has most of the tide and current information you will ever need to transit the waters of the northeast coast of the U.S. and has been providing that information for well over 100 years. Yes, you can get some of the same information on many chart plotters and computer programs. But, the  Eldridge Tide and Pilot Book 2013 being a paper publication will always work and allows you to quickly find the information you need without going through a bunch of menu screens. It also contains various interesting articles concerning tides, currents, fishing, astronomy and seafaring history. I often bring it down to my cabin and peruse it when planning for the next days journey before nodding off to sleep. If you know of a northeast sailor or someone who will be sailing in the northeast U.S. waters who does not have a copy on board  it would make a great gift.

SURVEYING AFTER SANDY

It seems the Army Corp of Engineers and NOAA have been busy the past few months re doing surveys of the major commercial waterways and channels of the New York and New Jersey waters. I hope they will also survey the basin behind the Statue of Liberty and also the area north of Ellis Island. These areas are used as anchorages for smaller boats waiting for favorable currents going up and down the Hudson (North) River. BIANKA and I used the Ellis Island anchorage a few days before Sandy raked the area last year. It would be real good if they were to be surveyed and cleared of debris post Sandy before sailors start using them again during the upcoming season.

A GOOD DAY FOR A VOYAGE

Thinking about Joshua Slocum today.

"I had resolved on a voyage around the world, and as the wind on the morning of April 24, 1895 was fair, at noon I weighed anchor set sail, and filled away from Boston, where the Spray had been moored snugly all winter. The twelve o'clock whistles were blowing just as the sloop shot ahead under full sail. A short board was made up the harbor on the port tack, then coming about she stood to seaward, with her boom well off to port, and swung past the ferries with lively heels. A photograp her on the outer pier of East Boston got a picture of her as she swept by, her flag at the peak throwing her folds clear. A thrilling pulse beat high in me. My step was light on deck in the crisp air. I felt there could be no turning back, and that I was engaging in an adventure the meaning of which I thoroughly understood."

Since BIANKA is still currently on land and blocked by other boats in the boatyard the next best thing might be to start reading SAILING ALONE AROUND THE WORLD again. The book was one of the first books I loaded onto my Kindle E-reader.  The book always seems to get my cruising juices flowing and today being the anniversary of Slocum's departure it seems like a good day as any . 

LORAN LIVES AND A HAPPY EARTH DAY ENDING!

I was sad when the U.S. Government shut down all theU.S. LORAN transmitting stations back in 2010. That action rendered my Kings 8001 unit obsolete. Still, I kept it aboard for a while until I thought I might be able to recycle part of it even if it was just the case. I posted about my plans for the obsolete unit here. Then about a month ago I received an email from a fellow in Norway who had seen my post and wanted to know if I still had the boards. It seems that LORAN is still alive and well and used on the waters around Norway. Who knew? He also mentioned that he had a non functioning Kings 8001 unit and would like to acquire the boards so he could try and repair his unit. This is what I call a win win situation and so yesterday on Earth Day I sent the LORAN boards off to Norway to hopefully continue to help guide fellow sailors on their way as it did for me. I love when things can be recyled!

THOUGHTS OF AN ELECTRIC SAILOR: The Battery investigation one year later

I was thinking of the disturbing battery issue I had on board last year. When all of a sudden one of my batteries refused to complete a full charge using my   Dual Pro Quad 4 battery charger. It took a few times  of repeated charging but, finally the battery came back to being comparable to the other batteries in the 48 volt propulsion string and has stayed there ever since.

Some thoughts on what happened:

1) The main cause seemed to be that I was hanging a 25 milli amp load on this particular battery to run the Paktrakr Battery Monitor. I had done this years before with no problem but,

2) I had also removed the 48 volt Marine Air X Wind Turbine over the winter to replace it's blades and have it repainted. So the only charging that was happening was from the 48 volt solar panels and an occasional charge from  the Dual Pro when I check up on the boat. During the winter solar availability was limited to short daytime charging. So that 25 ma drain started to add up. Possibly sulfating the battery enough to prevent it from ever really getting a full charge over the winter months because of the constant 25 ma load.

Over this past winter I no longer had the Paktrakr hooked up to that battery and I had the 48 volt Marine Air  X wind turbine also helping with the charging. The battery that was causing the trouble last year now charges with the rest of the batteries. The lesson learned is that to avoid taking any load off a single battery in a series string. Also when a battery suddenly refuses to charge all is not lost and one may not need to run out and get a replacement battery.

TOOLS OF A SAILOR: Another Use for an Inspection Camera

I've mentioned before how an inspection camera comes in handy for various projects on board. With the confined spaces on board a boat that are difficult to inspect a borescope or  Inspection camera is handy to have around. I've used it to inspect the inside of a fuel tank. I found another use this spring that shows a another use for the camera. Last fall just before Superstorm Sandy arrived I found one of my deck scuppers clogged and that the water on the deck was not draining. I was able to clear it enough so it drained but, I was not sure if I had cleared it completely. Then the other day just before I was heading down to the boatyard I thought why not use the inspection camera to see if my through hull drain hoses were all clear of obstructions. Why not indeed:

I tried the camera in several of the drains and did in fact discover that there were some reeds stuck high up in the galley sink drain hose:

There were some issues trying to get the camera up into some of the drains that had more severe bends in the hose run. But, I have a plan to modify the camera to make it easier for inspections of these drains in the future. I'll post about that sometime in the future.

SIGNS OF THE SAILING SEASON

It was a cold winter with blizzards and other snows. I did not get down to the boat as much in previous years. So it always please me when I finally see the moorings are in the harbor and the firsts boat start to appear on them.  The sailing season has begun:

APRIL15th TIME TO SING AN ACCOUNTANTSEA SHANTY

and if you are in the mood some rap Remy has it: