Industrious

2012 November 7
by Mike

Although I wrote yesterday that we had very little to do to prepare for the passage to Trinidad, that didn’t mean that we’d be lying around sunbathing until we departed. In fact, we were quite industrious yesterday:

In no particular order, our busy day had us:

  • Repairing our dodger
  • Improving the hanging organizer in salon
  • Improving the hanging organizer in head
  • Improving the towel rack in galley
  • Changing the spark in the Honda generator
  • Repairing our water funnel
  • Checking and adding water to batteries
  • Checking bow and stern flotation chambers for water
  • Cleaning bow lockers
  • Lubricating the windlass
  • Doing laundry
  • Cleaning the cockpit
  • Cleaning the lazarette
  • Cleaning and lubricating the steering quadrant
  • Checking and exercising the seacocks
  • Designing and sewing new salon organizers (not completed)

As most boaters will tell you, once you begin working on a task it often dovetails directly into another job or two. That happened on at least a couple of occasions yesterday.

Today, we hope to replace the line on our trampoline as it’s showing a bit of chafe in certain spots. We also may go aloft to give our rigging a pre-passage check. Fun, fun, fun!

16 Responses leave one →
  1. LaDonna permalink
    November 7, 2012

    Do you mind to post photos of your storage solutions? We just bought a boat and I need ideas

    • November 7, 2012

      The hanging organizers that I described are essentially hanging shoe racks. We have one that we cut down and modified into two separate pieces, one hangs in the galley and the other in our berth. We also have a couple that Rebecca sewed from scratch out of Sunbrella. One of those hangs in the head and the second hangs in the salon. There are pictures in multiple spots on the blog already. Search “storage” or “sewing” or something like that and you’ll probably find pics.

  2. Lyndsay permalink
    November 7, 2012

    Thanks for the post Mike, I had to look up “lazarette” so now I’ve learned my ’something new’ for the day.

  3. Jennifer permalink
    November 7, 2012

    You two really are hard core. You make your seacocks “excercise”.

    • November 7, 2012

      The saying “If you don’t use it, you lose it” applies to seacocks too!

  4. November 7, 2012

    Here is a store that carries everything for storage solutions. You dont need to buy as they are somewhat expensive, but they can give you ideas

    http://www.containerstore.com/welcome.htm

  5. Cameron permalink
    November 7, 2012

    Once again proving that I have the maturity of a 12yr old…hard core…seacock…exercise…and that pic of Rebecca…(chuckles immaturely) LOL. You’re one lucky man Mike.

  6. Patrick permalink
    November 7, 2012

    Guess we both worked hard today. Worked on a 3 strand rope eye splice from extra rope from a swing I put up a few years ago. Came out alright (would not trust it for a boat as its 1/4 inch thick/ not done well), but I will definitely use it on future canoeing trips. Used a variety of your videos to educate myself and then found some quick step by step weaving guide. Had no fancy tools on me, just used scissors, knitting needle, masking and duct tape. Thanks again for all the experiences you share every day, they helped me out today and they sure will help me out 10-15 years down the road when I own my own boat.

    Patrick

    • November 8, 2012

      Good job! Our friend Kirk was just doing some three-strand splicing the other day too. It’s definitely a skill where the more your do it, the better you get. I don’t use any special tools when I do 3-strand either. If you try your hand at splicing double braid though, you’ll definitely need a set of fids.

      • Patrick permalink
        November 8, 2012

        could you use knitting needles instead? Not exactly sure what fids are, from a quick google image search they look similar to knitting needles.

        • November 8, 2012

          No. Fids have a hollow section which allow you to attach the core, cover or entire line to it. A seeing needle would not. I recommend Selma fids.

          If you look at the splicing videos on our YouTube page you’ll see what I mean.

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