Papa Jerry Arrived!

Papa Jerry at Cricket

My dad arrived Sunday late afternoon. We just chatted sunday night and no blog was written.

It has been raining and last night the winds were up to about 50 knot winds or so they say from the river. I believe it.  Our boat on the hard was trembling with the winds and we had one bad-boy halyard clanging which is a naughty thing in the boating etiquette world. It only clanged when the winds piped up and by the time I thought, “Ok ok I’ll go and figure out which one it is.” Then it stopped only to return again. So I did not get enough sleep.

Today we started out with our “Dad” list.  We all had fun cleaning the last 4 winches. We packed bearing and talked about the proper way to pack them.  My dad’s dad taught him one way and Ken in the boat yard taught me a different way.  Then Mabel (the owner’ sister) came up and agreed with my dad… she said her daddy taught her the same way my dad was taught.  With all this pressure to conform to the old ways to pack bearing, I still liked the way Ken backs bearing best.

Not much to talk about really… I made lasagna from the propane oven… I pulled the treasure chests from the deck so I can strip them… I did some work accounting…

So any questions from the viewers? It helps when people ask me what they are interested in me blogging about.  Being on the hard is just like everyday living except that I have to use a go-girl at night to pee standing up to put in a bottle and then empty the cup in the bathroom the next day.  We don’t have a toilet working when we are on the hard.  No one does. I wonder what other women do in the middle of the night?

The bugs are driving me crazy! There are no-see-ems, tiny black flies AND tiny misquitos that are so small that you can’t feel them land on you but you can feel them bit you!!! Grrrr  2 nights ago we were getting eaten alive while in bed by misquitos! Only to find out the next morning it was cuz we left the screen open.

You know anyone should be able to comment on the blog now!  There was a setting that I clicked wrong so now I have allowed anyone to comment. Oh and it should send me an alert in my email that there was a comment.  So try again to comment. Even if it is to say HI.

Oh, I'll try to talk about the Life and times of Lila next time.

That’s all for now,

Peace and love

Pam

storm tactics handbook study

Storm Tactics Handbook

Yelp today was predicted to be rainy and windy.  We got up and went to the farmers market for fresh food.  There was only one stand for produce and one lady that sold cookies and pies. We did not get skunked, no sirrie.  WE got all our produce from this vendor AND we got fresh shrimp.  This guy, Rick was so funny… he said, “This shrimp does not get any fresher! Look behind me… there is the boat… we go and pull up the shrimp… shovel them in the hole where the ice is…. They wiggle for 2 minutes and they are frozen.”  Who could say no to that?

We bought our produce, shrimp and cookies. We drove back to the boat where rain influenced my decision to do indoor preparations.  I surfed for manual bilge pumps online. They cost from 28 to 1000 dollars – no kidding! All depends on how much you want to pump and how fast the water comes out.  I’m still deciding on which brand.

Then I read a little of “Storm Tactics” which Ben has pretty much read the full book and has highlighted important areas for me to know.  It was time for me to crack open the book.  The couple, Lin and Larry have sailed 189,000 miles in 30 years!  They have lived through 2% of storms.  They are very comforting sounding when Ben reads the book to me outloud at night.  I wonder if Ben has been softening the book and picking certain places to read.

He has read all about hove-to a maneuver that we will be so skilled at once we get out and practice more. There have been some big storms that have blown over the years where there have been significant people out sailing.  The people that hoved-to all lived, the people that did not do that didn’t have such a 100% happy ending.

I opened the book to read a bit about our drogue anchor. (A sea anchor that keeps you from sliding down big waves and turtling or tumbling or rolling over.) Ben has been researching which anchor to get and how to use them.  So I like lists, I went right to the list area…

With pen and paper in hand I wrote what they wrote in big letters on my paper…

            “Everything WILL get wet!” then proceeded to read on.

This exercise is to prepare us for a roll over or a rogue wave hitting us unexpectedly. Let me say that if we follow the hove-to we will not roll! But we might get a wave to slap us and pour down the hatch.  We want to be prepared as possible. 1 % is not that big of an amount but it could be a longggg 1% while in the mix of it all.

So I made more of a list of things to batten and prepare.  Things like keep your batteries in a waterproof case (easy I can do that), put one set of clothes in a double Ziploc (easy again), prepare for no electronics and engine failure (not so easy). I need to download all the celestrial navigation charts for a sextant (which we do have, and both Ben and I have sighted stars, moon, land, sun but need the chart and the mathematical equation for success.)

Enough of that for now. I went out on deck to continue stripping wood. That will be a full time 3 month project.  The rain just never poured like it was supposed to do so out I went to get in a few hours stripping wood.

Back in the boat now in the dark to study more things to do. I am trying to bake banana bread for the second time… no promises. The oven is weird! It has no temperature control so now I know you have to watch it closely.

After one full week being here I feel like we are on schedule. I’m not holding my breath.

I love Winches!

There is a quiz once it is apart.  Looks easy until you have to put it back together again.

It is like doing a craft,  a Mensa puzzle and getting my hands dirty.  Reminds me of my father and fun times in the garage.  I call cleaning winches, Man-Knitting. Packing Bearings is always fun.

Now you can call me the Winch Lady.  I have a few more to do.  Ben has a picture of the winches totally apart.

Back to girl-knitting after I finish balancing my work checkbook. argh.

Peace Pam

Rain and Chai

today was a network day which is just as important as our to-do list.  We went to the local St. Mary's Yacht Club that is once a week to greet and meet at a coffee shop all the locals and transients like us.  We learned so much about anchors put in series.  I wish we would have known that while in Bahamas.  We did put an anchor in series but it was too close to the working anchor.  I get it now! Invaluable!

We sat and soaked up the many stories and antidotes from accumulative years of all the Salts (seaman) that were there.  We found out that 2 other boats will be traveling to the Panama around the same time we will be going. This is good in that we can gleam from their past experiences!  You can not get these kinds of lessons in a classroom but only from those that have experienced it! loverly! Oh Great Teacher we are your students ready to learn.

After sitting at the coffee shop from 9 am - 2pm enjoying the conversation and wifi with a bit of work, we set back to the boat.  The rains were big enough for us to tuck in our ship.  I made Chai! Amazing! Chai from scratch with all the spices! I can't wait to make it again. this will be a big treat on the boat while sailing! I'm just so happy with that recipe! If you want it I can post it.  I got it from Ben's nephew Ivan from Oregon.  Ben's sister Ann made it for us while on our last visit and it was too yummy!

Well I baked for the first time but I don't want to report the results... let's just say I am married to the most kind man who loves all my mishaps in cooking expeditions.

So today one more thing on our list was accomplished... learn to cook with the stove and learn to make Chai.  Check off my list!

Keep reading I have yesterday to blog about I'll post that next.  well you don't have to read it if you don't want to but the pictures will be fun... if you  like winches.

Peace Pam

I'm such a Yankee.

I'm such a Yankee.

Accomplished 3 out of 8 winches complete

Give me grease and sprockets with little pins to set in place and I am happy. I love puzzles. Ben n I hired a winch lady but it came out that she has never done our kind before and she is self taught. Ben and I think we had her just to give us the nerve to do it even though we might have done it faster than her "teaching" us. All-in-all it was good to have her and we would hire her again for projects we are unsure of. 

I also stripped the top of one hand rail - 3 more to go.  More sun tomorrow then rain. I'm getting as much done outside and in rainy days we will go inside.

The most amazing thing today was the boatyard people here are so loving. Today Ken on a boat "Sparrow" made us all crab cake sandwiches from crabs he caught in the river!!! But first Bob our rigger guy walked by and asked if we wanted shrimp! He caught the shrimp from his boat up stream ohhhh 50 pounds or so I think he said. I was amazed at the food right here in the river! How do they do it? I'm such a Yankee. We only know fresh water fish and that I don't even do but once every 10 years.

Tonight not sure what we will learn, more storm tactics? Weather online course? SSB equipment? So little time. Or just knit.
Peace Pam

10/4/11 sanding - stripping - winches

10/4/11

I was so tired last night that I think my eyes were closed at 9:30pm and out in 2 minutes.

Why was I so tired you ask? Physical labor is great for ones sleeping – don’t you think?

Yesterday we adventured in our skills. Taking things off is one thing but we all know that it is the putting them back that is important. How many times have you taken something apart only to find you can’t remember how to put them back… well unless you are Paul Nygren who has a photographic memory for things like that… which I don’t.  BUT I do have a camera!

So Ben took off our stern pulpit (we are gradually doing wood stripping and sanding as we gain more confidence.) Well if you talk “wood” – then I am all there! Wood and I are happy together unlike machines and me. (more on that a little later)

Ben and I went through the boat yesterday and pointed out what wood we are going to strip to it bare-ness and leave it (or possibly only teak oil it).  This varnish stuff is for the birds. Yes we knew that when be bought the boat.  We still love our beautiful wood look.  We will just have 2 looks – natural and varnished.  Teak stands up in any weather as long as it does not sit in water… well then it could rot. Left to its own nature it will last for a super long time – How does God do it?

We pulled out the heat gun and bubbled the varnish then stripped it with a knife. Easy and fun for the first hour… actually we had fun all day. It was Ben’s first time with the heat gun so he was so happy.

We bought a Fein tool.  An amazing sander and tool to strip the black strips they have in teak decking.  I can’t wait until we use that a few time.  The sander is none like I have used!!! Why don’t they make them all that way? Germans – they know their tools.

At 1:00pm we had this cute lady come (the Winch lady, Gina) to show us how to maintenance our winches. BUT none of us could get off the break band. Well to our credit we did not have the right tool. She could not find her tool.  She went to town and there was no tool to be found. Her brother, Rocky, manager of the boatyard said he was going to make a tool today for us. Sweet.  If not we drive to Jacksonville about 40 minutes or so away. (seems not far when you have to drive that just to go to church like we do in mpls.)

So for most of the afternoon we went back and forth from trying to get off the break-band to stripping and sanding.  By 3:30pm I had enough of manual labor for my first day back after being a desk jockey for so many months this summer.

Sooooo I looked on the master list and thought… “what can I learn about now?”… Bilge pumps are important and seem like they should be easy. So google here I come.

I read about why you need them… how many one should have aboard… what size… but I was looking for repair.  I searched and searched… So I stopped my search until after I open up some lockers and look below to see what we have then I’ll better get a grip.  I went back to something easy and needed… started balancing my business checkbook which is no small affair!  Each month the bank has mistakes (I never thought they made mistakes but for some reason Quickbooks software and Usbank don’t talk to each other in how they process deposits. When I accept visa the bank puts them in funny batches so I’m not sure which deposit from which person is in that amount.)  Blah blah blah…

I made egg cheese sandwiches – a favorite of mine. We went to a coffee house for wifi to see if the signal is strong enough for a web meeting with the staff for today.  It was.  I’m trying to get skype to work… well gmail webcam works.  So if you want to chat with me on skype or gmail or webcam just let me know.

Oh yesterday Ben was working on pulling off our Stanchions which many are bent.  Those are the short poles that hold the safety lines around the boat so we don’t accidently fall off.  He had a funny joke but too embarrassed to write it so I will, “My stanchions are kept straight while watching my wife strip.”  Or something like that…Ha ha I was stripping wood and he was straightening stanchions. Ha ha ha

Ben just woke up and he said he blogged last night so I'm sure he has the pictures. He is the night owl and I'm the morning dove.

I'm ready to start my day!

smile

Pam

Bens blog

I'm tired! Ben now has a blog so read his tonight. Ha ha. No seriously. I don't know what it says but it's about today I guess.
Www.sailblogs.com/member/cricket/

That was so cheap of me. I know. Isn't it his turn to do a few blogs?
Blessings
Pam