The binding cracked me up though:
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Book Binding Fail
Got my copy of "The Complete Rigger's Apprentice" today. Full of great stuff.
The binding cracked me up though:
The binding cracked me up though:
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Sail: Dude Sail (No. 2)
Wendy and I changed the oil the weekend before last. We only managed to pump out about 8 quarts rather than the 11-12 listed in the manual. Seems like a lot to leave in there. Is that normal? Jonathan (the P/O) recommended changing while its still warm, but I think next time we might do it first thing in the morning to see if we get more out. Also getting gobs of black soot blown out of the exhaust if I rake the throttle. I may replace the exhaust hose to the transom soon -- looks like this dates back to 1982 (although looks in good shape, and I don't get any fumes).
Also, hopefully will start on sprucing up the exterior varnish next weekend. Had originally planned on stripping some of it back, but I think there's not much to lose by experimenting with lightly sanding it down and and adding a couple of coats first to see how it looks.
Took a sewing class at the Tech Shop in Menlo Park yesterday morning. They've got an industrial sewing machine that I used to stitch in reinforcing webbing straps onto the boat's LifeSling bag where the Velcro was pulling away from the bag. Also planning to make some new canvas covers. The ones I have are getting pretty ratty and the canvas guy I know wanted $500 for a new sun cover for my dodger. (Its just 4 panels of canvas stitched together!) Have ordered fabric samples from Sailrite -- seems to be very difficult to find marine canvas suppliers locally. Given the cost of getting canvas made or the cost of renting time of the TechShop's machines, it might be worth investing in a sewing machine.
The Dudes turned out for a full on Dude Sail today. Also Erin, Arjun and Wendy. Its the last day of the Festival of Sail and I wanted to get out to see the cannon fight. The wind was honking pretty hard. We stopped at Paradise Cove for lunch. Even though we found a fairly sheltered spot, we slowly dragged anchor for a 100 feet or more until we left. Was warm there, but pretty cold and overcast in the central bay. I'd estimate that we were getting 25-30kts between East of Angel Island to the city. We sailed just on the main in the afternoon and had to motor sail against the current (6kts at the gate) to make it up the city front. I've been finding that my boat sails much worse without the jib and points much worse than I'd expect.
We missed the cannon fight. We heard on the VHF that that the Californian
had lost their bowsprit and so the they gave up the fight early and headed
back to port. We motored around inside a lot of the city marinas and
piers and checked out all the ships: a replica of The Nina (Christopher Columbus's favorite), The Eagle, California, Lynx and a bunch of others. Included in those was the Bounty. Wendy and I saw the Bounty at St. Petersburg Pier in Florida earlier this year. Rumor has it that The Bounty, which starred in "Mutiny on the Bounty" with Marlon Brando was also used in the high budget porno "Pirates." Also got a good look at the bowsprit of the California. Looks like the wood failed in a spectacular way, cracking down the length of it.
Throughout the day at hour intervals, the Coast Guard was reporting a 1950's 35ft Chris Craft carrying two men that went missing from Channel Marina (?) in Richmond. It disappeared between Richmond and Tiburon in the prior 24 hours. Its hard to imagine what might have happened to them. The central bay is generally so busy that disappearing without a trace seems hard to pull off -- even a boat were to get hit in the busy shipping channels between Richmond and Tiburon. Whatever happened to them, I suspect happened somewhere else.
Also, hopefully will start on sprucing up the exterior varnish next weekend. Had originally planned on stripping some of it back, but I think there's not much to lose by experimenting with lightly sanding it down and and adding a couple of coats first to see how it looks.
Took a sewing class at the Tech Shop in Menlo Park yesterday morning. They've got an industrial sewing machine that I used to stitch in reinforcing webbing straps onto the boat's LifeSling bag where the Velcro was pulling away from the bag. Also planning to make some new canvas covers. The ones I have are getting pretty ratty and the canvas guy I know wanted $500 for a new sun cover for my dodger. (Its just 4 panels of canvas stitched together!) Have ordered fabric samples from Sailrite -- seems to be very difficult to find marine canvas suppliers locally. Given the cost of getting canvas made or the cost of renting time of the TechShop's machines, it might be worth investing in a sewing machine.
The Dudes turned out for a full on Dude Sail today. Also Erin, Arjun and Wendy. Its the last day of the Festival of Sail and I wanted to get out to see the cannon fight. The wind was honking pretty hard. We stopped at Paradise Cove for lunch. Even though we found a fairly sheltered spot, we slowly dragged anchor for a 100 feet or more until we left. Was warm there, but pretty cold and overcast in the central bay. I'd estimate that we were getting 25-30kts between East of Angel Island to the city. We sailed just on the main in the afternoon and had to motor sail against the current (6kts at the gate) to make it up the city front. I've been finding that my boat sails much worse without the jib and points much worse than I'd expect.
We missed the cannon fight. We heard on the VHF that that the Californian
had lost their bowsprit and so the they gave up the fight early and headed
back to port. We motored around inside a lot of the city marinas and
piers and checked out all the ships: a replica of The Nina (Christopher Columbus's favorite), The Eagle, California, Lynx and a bunch of others. Included in those was the Bounty. Wendy and I saw the Bounty at St. Petersburg Pier in Florida earlier this year. Rumor has it that The Bounty, which starred in "Mutiny on the Bounty" with Marlon Brando was also used in the high budget porno "Pirates." Also got a good look at the bowsprit of the California. Looks like the wood failed in a spectacular way, cracking down the length of it.
Throughout the day at hour intervals, the Coast Guard was reporting a 1950's 35ft Chris Craft carrying two men that went missing from Channel Marina (?) in Richmond. It disappeared between Richmond and Tiburon in the prior 24 hours. Its hard to imagine what might have happened to them. The central bay is generally so busy that disappearing without a trace seems hard to pull off -- even a boat were to get hit in the busy shipping channels between Richmond and Tiburon. Whatever happened to them, I suspect happened somewhere else.
Friday, July 25, 2008
Double Braid Splicing Guides
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIa8G5J8Gb8
- http://tw.youtube.com/watch?v=6sQn5ZMKgNI
- http://www.thecoastalpassage.com/eye_splice.html
- http://www.neropes.com/SPL_DoubleEyeSplice.aspx
- http://www.yalecordage.com/html/splicing_instructions.html
- http://www.duckworksmagazine.com/03/r/vintage/sbj/eye/splice.htm
Saturday, July 19, 2008
Sail: Overnight at Richardson Bay
We had plans to do an overnight at Angel Island this weekend. We got there late in the day and the mooring were had filled up. It would have been possible to fit in except that some of the boats were tied up crosswise on the mooring field leaving the only free space requiring us to tie a third line onto a mooring already having two other boats attached. We passed by and sailed up to Richardson Bay and dropped the anchor. Got out the part lights and grilled steaks.
The wind picked up during the night. I still haven't got a GPS. Between the rocking and not having an alarm for dragging anchor, neither of us got much sleep.
In the morning, we motored to Horizon's in Sausalito who have recently reopened the docks. Docking was a little interesting -- we we're still waking up when we arrived and both of us forgot to put the fenders out.
The food was pretty good. But at fifteen bucks a plate and only four options for breakfast, Sam's might have been a better choice.
Wendy got into a bit of an altercation with another boat on the way back home. On a broad reach on a starboard tack we met another boat on a port tack, making us the stand-on vessel, and the the other boat the give-way vessel. The guy at the helm clearly saw us. He closed until we were a little more than than a boat length apart.
Wendy called "Starboard." He called "by the lee." Hmmm... That's a new one. Not sure what he means, or what difference it makes. It doesn't since he'd sailed so close to us we had had to turn down and were be the lee now too.
Still closing.
I called, "you're on port tack. We're on starboard. You have to give way." He shouted back, "are you going to make me gybe?"
Not sure what to think about this. By this time, he'd so close to us that the only option was for one of us to gybe to avoid running into each other.
I shrugged at him. Clearly it was his responsibility. With a groan and rolling eyes, eventually he gybed out of our way.
While, its true Wendy could have headed up early and sailed behind him to prevent him having to gybe, the other boat had the same option and, but also the responsibility to get out of the way. If we'd both of headed up, we'd have run closer to each other faster - it the the stand-on vessel's responsibility is to avoid this situation by keeping their heading.
Douchebag.
We changed the engine oil when we got back.
The engine manual says it takes a little under three gallons of oil. Since there's no sump valve, the oil has to be pumped out. I bought a pump that attaches to an electric drill to do this. We managed to get about 2 gallons out. Not sure where the rest of the oil has gotten to. Its possible its some of it was still coated around the engine, but it seems unlikely. Its possible it was just low on oil, but this also seems unlikely and would suggest that a gallon of oil can be added between the low mark and the full mark on the dipstick.
Next time, I might try changing the oil first thing to see if I get more of it out.
The wind picked up during the night. I still haven't got a GPS. Between the rocking and not having an alarm for dragging anchor, neither of us got much sleep.
In the morning, we motored to Horizon's in Sausalito who have recently reopened the docks. Docking was a little interesting -- we we're still waking up when we arrived and both of us forgot to put the fenders out.
The food was pretty good. But at fifteen bucks a plate and only four options for breakfast, Sam's might have been a better choice.
Wendy got into a bit of an altercation with another boat on the way back home. On a broad reach on a starboard tack we met another boat on a port tack, making us the stand-on vessel, and the the other boat the give-way vessel. The guy at the helm clearly saw us. He closed until we were a little more than than a boat length apart.
Wendy called "Starboard." He called "by the lee." Hmmm... That's a new one. Not sure what he means, or what difference it makes. It doesn't since he'd sailed so close to us we had had to turn down and were be the lee now too.
Still closing.
I called, "you're on port tack. We're on starboard. You have to give way." He shouted back, "are you going to make me gybe?"
Not sure what to think about this. By this time, he'd so close to us that the only option was for one of us to gybe to avoid running into each other.
I shrugged at him. Clearly it was his responsibility. With a groan and rolling eyes, eventually he gybed out of our way.
While, its true Wendy could have headed up early and sailed behind him to prevent him having to gybe, the other boat had the same option and, but also the responsibility to get out of the way. If we'd both of headed up, we'd have run closer to each other faster - it the the stand-on vessel's responsibility is to avoid this situation by keeping their heading.
Douchebag.
We changed the engine oil when we got back.
The engine manual says it takes a little under three gallons of oil. Since there's no sump valve, the oil has to be pumped out. I bought a pump that attaches to an electric drill to do this. We managed to get about 2 gallons out. Not sure where the rest of the oil has gotten to. Its possible its some of it was still coated around the engine, but it seems unlikely. Its possible it was just low on oil, but this also seems unlikely and would suggest that a gallon of oil can be added between the low mark and the full mark on the dipstick.
Next time, I might try changing the oil first thing to see if I get more of it out.
Saturday, July 12, 2008
Sail: Sam's
- Meghan, Wendy, Eric.
- Anchored for lunch at Angel Island.
- Sam's for Margaritas. Eric and Wendy: hammered.
- Honked at by a tanker on the way out of the gate.
- Hot cocoa on the way back home. Mmmmm.... cocoa.
- Conversation for the day:
Q: Is it OK to ditch you internet date by email?
A: Yes
So long Santa Cruz. Bring out bald guy.
Saturday, July 05, 2008
Sail: Night sail
We had big plans to take the boat out for the fireworks on the 4th July. In the end the prospect of kicking back and taking it easy all day proved too much to overcome.
However by the evening we rustled up the energy to cycle out to Shoreline Park from home in Mountain View to see the fireworks from the bay. Like a scene from E.T.
Wendy and I took the boat out together the day after. We had plans just to do a quick evening sail and come back. However, the sailing was so good that we kept going out on of the gate and didn't get back until after dark. The Lopolight I installed worked a treat. This is the first time just the two of us have been out on the boat by ourselves. I tried out the boat's autopilot for the first time when we raised and dropped the main. Also awesome.
However by the evening we rustled up the energy to cycle out to Shoreline Park from home in Mountain View to see the fireworks from the bay. Like a scene from E.T.
Wendy and I took the boat out together the day after. We had plans just to do a quick evening sail and come back. However, the sailing was so good that we kept going out on of the gate and didn't get back until after dark. The Lopolight I installed worked a treat. This is the first time just the two of us have been out on the boat by ourselves. I tried out the boat's autopilot for the first time when we raised and dropped the main. Also awesome.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)