It Happens in Three's

Last week (12/15) I took off Wednesday and Thursday from work because I needed more time to get the heater installed.  Up until then I had only been using the weekends to work on it and progress was pretty slow.  During the week I get up at 0400 to start my day and don't usually get home until 1900.  We then have dinner, relax for an hour and hit the sack by 2130.  With this kinda schedule nothing else gets done Monday through Thursday so weekends are reserved for everything else, including chores and projects.

So, Wednesday morning I wake up in the middle of the night for some unknown reason and realize that it's pretty cold in our room.  I take a look at the thermostat and it says it's 56 degrees and the system is on but no heat is coming out.  Not good.  I jump outa bed and tear apart the settee in the Main Salon to get to the reverse cycle system hidden underneath it.  When I pull open the panel to the compartment I find a block of ice where the heat exchanger is supposed to be.  This is what I feared would happen.  The water temperature had finally gotten down to that magic point where everything just freezes up.  I knew it could happen, just didn't expect it so soon.  It's been unusually cold this month, way below normal, and it's finally caught up with me.  I tried cleaning the water and air filters hoping that might help but it had no affect.  This system was beyond hope of operation for this season.

So now I have a real problem.  We have a couple of electric space heaters but there's no way they're gonna keep this boat livable.  I gotta get this diesel heater going right away.  Cheri took Bella over to the Perfect Pet Resort (check it out) to hang out in comfort for a few days while we worked in the cold.  Our dog gets better treatment than we give ourselves.  We gotta rethink that one.

The first thing I did was cut holes in the bulkheads for the return air duct.  I hadn't really planned this part out until now so I kept it easy and ran it to a high spot on the aft bulkhead of the aft cabin.  This will draw the air back through the boat and hopefully help to heat this section of the room at the same time.  It's also the easiest way to run the duct.  I had originally wanted to run it under the reefer in the galley because it would have helped to evenly distribute the heat to the other side of the boat.  This option would have required way too much effort and I just didn't have the time for that now.  Easy is good.  So I got the return duct hooked up and while I was in the cockpit locker I also ran the combustion supply and exhaust lines and wrapped the last with braided fiberglass mat as an insulator.  The exhaust line can get smokin' hot so it's a good idea to protect everything around it from melting down.  Once I got this done Cheri and I ran the fuel line.  The kit comes with a coil of copper tubing to be used for this but I found it to be about 10' short so we went out and bought a 50' roll.  Should be enough, eh?  We ran it under the cabin sole from the fuel tank, past the engine, out through the generator compartment under the cockpit and into the locker.  Here it connects to the fuel pump and then runs up to the heater.  The fuel pump needs to be mounted at an upward angle between 15 and 35 degrees to keep air pockets from forming which would kill the fuel pressure.  We used a special fitting at the top of the fuel tank and ran the riser tube down through that, cutting off the bottom at a 45 degree angle so it sits about 2" off the bottom.  That'll help to keep tank grunge out of the line.

With the fuel taken care of it was time to run the power and control lines.  The kit comes with a nice bundle of wire that's connected at one end to the heater through a pre-assembled multi-pin connector.  From there it branches off into three bundles; fuel pump, power and ground, and a 6 wire bundle to be connected to the thermostat/control.  All of these required adding connectors of one type or another.  The fuel pump and power went fine.  By the time I started in on the thermostat line it was 2000 (8pm) and I was getting pretty tired.  This line uses a six pin connector that requires adding pins to #18 wire and inserting them into a two piece connector.  Once the pins are in they have these little prongs that pop out on either side to hold it in place.  The first pin I put in went fine until the wire pulled out and I had to get the pin back out to redo it.  Couldn't get the pin out.  Drove me completely nuts.  Cheri tried and it drove her nuts too.  Just as we heard the boys coming down the dock with the straight jackets I chopped off the pins, cut off the connector from the control box, and soldered the connections to complete the circuits.  Enough is enough.  If I ever have to unplug this thing I'll add the proper connector then.

With this completed I hooked up the power and we fired it up for the first time.  We heard the heater wind up, sounding like a turbine engine.  Pretty neat!  We verified the fuel pump was running by the click, click, click sound it made.  We felt air coming outa the vent in the Main Salon but it never got warm.  After a few minutes the heater shut itself off and all was quiet.  We sat there for a minute or two, all bundled up in our winter coats and hats, long johns, two shirts, pants, doubled-up socks and gloves.  Hmmm.  I started it up again and it went through the same cycle, then quit.  I knew in my heart that it was just trying to pull fuel through the line and wouldn't run until it had pressure but here it was, 2330 (1130pm) and we had everything riding on this baby.  We both said a prayer and tried it again.  Success!  Two minutes before midnight we had heat, twenty hours after beginning this marathon.

The following day we woke up to a warm and cozy boat.  We decided to take some time off and finish the heater the following day.  I still needed to tidy up the wiring and secure all the ductwork so the job isn't quite finished yet.  Around noon we were headed out the companionway when I glanced over at the Nav Station and saw that the batteries weren't being charged.  Huh?  As I looked into it I found there was no voltage on our #1 shore line connection.  I went out to the cockpit and saw that the little indicator light on the power cable was lit, showing that voltage was present.  When I unplugged it I found the white neutral connection was fried on both the cable and the socket.  I then remembered having to reset the breaker yesterday morning while we were running the fuel line.  I think the boat had been rocking with the wind and the plug had worked itself loose causing the connection to arc.  Bummer.  I spent the rest of the afternoon and about $200 making this repair.  Grrrrr, what else could go wrong?

I had to ask, didn't I?  Somewhere in the midst of repairing the fried wiring the heater shut off.  ???  I turned it back on and it seemed to work OK.  It shut off once more later that evening and once again reset OK.  The next day we actually made it out to finish our Christmas shopping and while we were out I called Bryan at Annapolis Cruisair to ask about the heater shutting off.  He said the factory preset is for 10 hours on the heater but that it could be re-programmed for continuous running.  He sent us an e-mail with the code we needed to do this.  When we got back to the boat that evening it was 54 degrees inside.  Yikes!  I installed the new code and it's been working fine ever since.  That was just a glitch though, doesn't count as a real problem.

OK, so that does it, right?  Not quite.  That evening the water pressure pump started running on it's own, non-stop.  I pictured our freshly filled 250 gallon water tank being pumped into some unseen compartment and I began tearing the boat apart.  The first place I looked was the pump itself and found it shaking like crazy and spitting water all over the place.  I killed the breaker and the water leak stopped so the crises wasn't such a crises.  When I looked at the pump up close I found that the housing had cracked and the motor driven piston no longer had any support, making it wobble all over the place.  Every time it tried to pump, water would squirt out the cracked housing.  No big deal.  I can fix this.  The next day I went over to West Marine to find that they didn't carry the part I needed but could order one for me.  It would take three weeks for delivery.  Not good.  I couldn't see Cheri putting up with having to hike to the marina showers for the next three weeks.  The salesman told me I could replace the whole pump and they did have those in stock, only cost me $480 too.  No thanks.  I went home and searched on-line, found a supplier (Pump Agents.com) who had my part in stock and could have it to me by Wednesday, 3 days.  OK, that's do-able.  We'll have water pressure back in time for Christmas Eve.

Just so ya know life isn't all work and no play we went out last night (12/19) and bought ourselves a Christmas present.  It's a 37" LED flatscreen that's only 1"deep.  It's the widest screen we could fit on the boat and it's going at the foot of our bunk (we're gonna be able to watch movies in real comfort now!  I'll be guaranteed to fall asleep every time).  We also got a mount that's made to fit the screen right up against the wall which is perfect because I still hafta squeeze by to get into bed.  We also got a cool-man audio system for it.  The screen has four HDMI inputs so we'll be able to hook up the awesome movie system (click here and scroll to the bottom) my cousin Steve gave us as well as the Mac-mini (click here for more on that) and still have room for more.

As you can see, I'm now up to my ears in unfinished projects.  We got hit with a few problems (a few?) but managed to keep from crying.  We're warm and comfy and can smile when we look out the port and see people walking across Tracey's Creek.  Huh?  It's been so cold for the last month that the ice is now 4" thick all around us.  We got that heater going just in the nick of time.

Cheri and I send our wishes for a merry Christmas and that the new year brings you good health and plenty of joy.

Plan C, Revision 32

This past weekend (12/11) my main goal was to finish the duct work for the D5 installation.  I had previously run all the ducts for the heated supply air through each compartment on the port side of the boat.  I only needed to run the return air duct and for this I needed to have the heater itself mounted.  In this picture the heater duct is black.  The gray duct is for the Cruisair reverse cycle A/C and heat that was installed last Winter.

The heater comes with a nice heavy duty mounting bracket with all the mounting holes punched through and ready to go.  It's even painted.  I planned to mount this bracket to a plywood shelf that would be attached to the inside of the hull on the port side, aft in the cockpit locker.  I chose this location because it provided the most clear distance around for running the ducts with the least amount of restriction.  I would attach the shelf to the fiberglass hull using 3M 5200 adhesive and add fiberglass mat with a 4" overlap for strength.  This was the plan.

Before committing myself to plywood I made a cardboard mock-up shelf held together with duct tape.  The location I had chosen doesn't have a straight flat surface in sight and I want to have a close fit for good adhesion.  It's also important to have the heater sitting level once it's installed.  Using cardboard I could make all the necessary adjustments with a box knife.  With my mock-up held in place I marked corrections, cut, marked, cut and marked some more, until I felt I had it really close to perfection.  This sounds like a pretty easy chore until you mix in the fact that you're inside a cockpit locker with a floor that slants at 45 degrees and it's so confined that the only way to turn around is by standing up with your hands over your head and exhaling while you turn.  Oh yeah, did I mention that it's 24 degrees out today?  Now that I've set the stage, let's continue with the story.  I trim up my mock-up shelf to perfection, then take it out to the dock where I trace the parts out onto my plywood and cut them out.  Before I screw and glue everything together I decide to stick it together with some duct tape and take one more check, just to make sure I got it right.  I climb back into the locker and hold my shelf up in place with one hand and place my level on with the other.  I watch in amazement as the level slides off the side and crashes to the floor of the locker before slipping into the bilge.  Hmmm, not quite level.  What happened to my perfect measurements?  As I'm climbing out of the locker the shelf collapses in on itself and falls apart.  I take this as an omen and sit down in the cold to rethink what I'm doing.  Grrrrrrrr.

Cold air is really good for concentration and clear, level headed thought.  It's also good for uncontrollable shivering.  I was just reaching this point when I realized that attaching the shelf to the inside of the hull probably isn't the best way to go.  The heater weighs about 25 pounds.  Take that out in some choppy seas and we'd probably be looking at a hole in the side of the boat and a $3000 anchor rattling around in the bilge.  So, in that same cockpit locker is a bulkhead made of 1" plywood that separates it from the aft cabin.  I decided to turn the heater 90 degrees and mount it on the bulkhead.  Now, instead of facing fore and aft it'll be facing port to starboard.  It'll be super strong there but there are several downsides to this location.  Sound will be transmitted through the plywood so I'll hafta put in a sound barrier, probably rubber bushings or something.  The real problem is that now the heater is mounted perpendicular to the run of ducting which will add a restriction.  I'm still within the #10 limit of the heater so it'll be OK but the return side will also have a bend in it and that might put it over.  I feel like I've reached one of those "no-win" situations.  I'm going to put it together and see what I get.  If there's any problems I'll rework the ducts to open them up some.

Right now I've gotta get this thing going.  On Friday we woke up to find the creek completely frozen over.  Monday, 12/13, when I jumped off the boat to go to work I found the dock was covered with ice and then, just to make a point, it started to snow.  So far we're doing OK.  The heater project is moving forward.  Cheri spent the weekend with some of that plastic foam insulation that's backed with aluminum.  This stuff is about 1/4" thick and I didn't think it would do any good at all.  She cut panels of it for all the ports and hatches and covered the exposed side of the hull in the forward stateroom.  She covered that and the mast with some quilted material which gave it a real nice look.  After the first day with this stuff in place the boat stayed very toasty down below and we don't have to run the reverse cycle heat as often.  The cabin sole is now warmer too, probably because all that heat is being forced down into the bilge.  We opened up some of the storage compartments under the floor and found them to be not warm but definitely not freezing cold either.  So now the boat is really comfortable and hopefully that'll hold us until the diesel heater is finished.  I can always count on Cheri to come up with the best solution.  The real wall we're up against here is the water temperature.  It's been dropping like a rock since the end of October.  Just last night I sat down and re-read the manual for the Cruisair reverse cycle system.  It says in there that if the water temperature gets too cold we stand a chance of the heat exchanger freezing up and causing damage.  That might be kinda disappointing.

Just as a side note:  While I was re-reading the Cruisair manual I discovered that the little booger is totally programmable.  Ever since we moved aboard we've been fighting this hurricane type noise when the thing is running.  It's so loud we've been turning the system off in the Main Salon when we watched a movie.  We've been turning the system off in our stateroom at night because it was keeping us awake....with the fan on low!  So now I find out I can re-program the fan speed.  I dropped it from 38 (factory setting) to 25 and also programmed it for intermittent running.  Now when it runs you can barely hear it and when it gets the room to the set temperature it shuts off and waits until it drops below the preset before turning back on again.  This is wonderful!  There's all kindsa stuff you can do with this system.  I think I'm gonna sit down tonight and re-re-read that book again!

The Heat Is On

A while back we visited the Annapolis Boat Show with the mission of finding a heater for the boat that would get us through the winter.  We talked to Bryan Marshall from Annapolis Cruisair (Cruisair website) and settled on an Espar Airtronic D5 kit.  The D5 is a diesel burning forced air heater the size of a shoebox.  It consumes about 1/10th gallon per hour and produces up to 18,000 BTU.  This little baby will be hooked up to our 150 gallon fuel tank, which should be more than enough to get us through the winter.

So, we bit the bullet, laid down the big bucks and ordered a kit.  With the Boat Show discount we paid $2900 which is a good deal but still a major outlay for us.  Bryan was really helpful and let us split the payment over two paydays.  Annapolis Cruisair runs out of a small shop, boxes stacked up everywhere, everyone's friendly and laid back.  They called me the following week when my parts came in and, being anxious to get started on it, I jumped in the car and raced over.  Because this thing is so small I didn't really give any thought to the weeks worth of laundry, five bags of groceries, two suitcases and Bella's travel crate already in the back of the car.  Silly boy.  When I got there the office manager and her dog walked me around to their receiving dock, rolled up the door and pointed to this humongous box.  She helped me wedge it in through the back hatch of our Ford Escape, wished me luck on the install and ran off to find her dog.  I would later need a crowbar to get the box out of the car.

Back at the marina I unloaded the contents of the box into a cart and hauled it out to the boat.  The kit has just about everything you would need for an "average" installation.  Two sizes of flexible duct (90mm + 75mm), vents, reducers, clamps and other hardware, fuel line and pump, exhaust hose and more.

Before you do anything else you're supposed to sit down and plan out the system.  Because of the amount of heat generated the unit must have free flowing air.  Each restriction in the air duct accumulates and causes heat buildup at the heater which will automatically shut off at a predetermined temperature to prevent "component meltdown". To help with planning the system and reduce restrictions, Espar has assigned a numerical value to every component.  Ducts are specified by diameter and length and also by if they're in the primary or secondary system.  Primary is the main run and secondary would the part that goes out from a "Y" to a vent.  There's a rating for 90 degree bends and for different types of outlets or vent plates.  The heater itself is rated as a 10 and the combination of everything else must be less than that.  So, the first thing I did was to ignore the installation manual, skip the pre-planning-by-numbers and begin installing the ducts.  I got the main run of 90 mm ducts installed with a "Y" for each of my planned outlets, four in all with reducers and smaller ducts for each.  Then I sat down and calculated the number total for what I had.  Came out to 14.75.  Hmmm says I, could be a problem.  I read through the book, went on-line and read all of the Espar info there and discovered that the two sources didn't totally agree on the ratings.  I decided to go with the book because it favored my design by about a point.  I was still over 10 though.  I hadn't cut through anywhere for the vents yet so I modified my original plan a bit.  The vent locations I chose are in the aft cabin, Main Salon, forward cabin and the forward head.  If I use closeable vents and 75mm ducts on three of the lines then the ratings for everything from the "Y" to the vent can be ignored because most of the time these lines will probably be closed.  It says that right in the book.  The line in the Main Salon will be 90mm duct with an open grid vent that will always be open and provide enough flow to prevent the heater from overheating.  I plan to run a return line from the galley back to the heater to provide even circulation throughout the living area.  This'll also be 90mm duct with an open grid vent.  OK, so now when I calculate it all out I come up with 8.0.  Perfect!

So, here it is, first week of December and I still don't have the installation finished.  November didn't provide much free time to work on it because of holiday travel and family obligations.  At least that's my excuse.  Next weekend I hope to complete the air duct installation and maybe run the fuel line.  I still have to make a mount for the heater itself which will be located portside aft under the cockpit.  The mount will be made from plywood and glassed in to the inside of the hull.  Never done fiberglass before so that should be fun.  Also have to run lines for combustion air and exhaust and power control and thermostat from the Nav Station.  Let's see......about three more weeks 'till Christmas, still gotta do some shopping for that.  My four day work week just got canned for the next month so I'm down to a two day weekend.  The night's are now getting down into the 20's and the water temperature is in the 40's.  Our reverse cycle heater is still keeping us toasty but probably not for too much longer.  I'm startin' to feel the heat but it's not coming from the D5.

Mickey Made Me Do It

Since May, 2010 we've gone from a 3700 sq. ft. house with a finished basement to a 45' boat with two storage sheds; one 10' x 12' and the other 5' x 10'.  Over the last few months we've been concentrating on downsizing even more.  The smaller shed was in Upper Marlboro, about 20 minutes away.  We grabbed it to take care of overflow at the last minute when we moved out of the house and realized we had way more stuff than we had planned for.  We've been slowly weeding out what we didn't need and have finally eliminated the smaller shed.  The other one is about 5 minutes from the boat in Deale.  It's a shed in a fenced-in lot but it's bug infested with ticks, fleas and mosquitoes, and now we find we have a problem with mice too.  When it rains the lot becomes a mud bath and the door leaks so all our stuff gets wet.  I don't know which is worse but when combined it convinced us to find something better.

What we found was a really nice temperature controlled storage warehouse in Edgewater, just south of Annapolis.  This place is pretty sweet.  It's three stories high with interior-only access by two large elevators.  Each floor has isle after isle of storage units, all sizes.  When you come in through the gate you punch in your code to open the gate but then have to enter it again at the door to get in the building.  This is because each unit is tied to the front desk and they get an alarm if one gets opened without the code being entered within a certain amount of time.  There's music playing throughout the building, it's clean, secure, high tech and, did I mention clean?  We signed on for their smallest unit, 5' x 10', so now we're pushing again to down-size even more.  What we really want is to have a place to store our out-of-season clothes and a "few" odds and ends such as tools.  And spare parts for the boat.  And Cheri's clown and face painting stuff.  And about 5 suitcases, backpacks and duffel bags.  Oh yeah, all our scuba gear too.  We have two wardrobes for the clothes and some nice modular shelving that we kept from the house.  We're able to store stuff pretty much floor to ceiling and still have a narrow aisle down the middle.  We also keep a small stepladder in there so we can reach the stuff way up there.  This should work for four more years.  Then we'll hafta dump all this stuff too.

Saturday, 10/23, we took a break from playing the storage game and went sailing.  The folks on the boat next to ours have been friendly since we first moved in and we have been trying to get together with them for a sail.  We talked about anchoring out overnight together but ended up just sailing around each other outside of Herring Bay.  We spent about two hours taking pictures of each others boats and it turned out to be a lot of fun.  You don't get many opportunities to have pictures of your boat under sail.  There are photographers who will chase around you in a speed boat and take beautiful pictures but they charge hundreds of dollars.  We got about 90 shots of each boat, did some simple editing and ended up with some really great shots of both boats.  And had fun doing it.  Here's a link (LVD Under Sail) to some of the pictures.  We also got a video of La Vida Dulce coming about (LVD tacking).  It's kinda bumpy because Diane was trying to open a beer while she was shooting the video so you gotta hold on tight while you're watching it.  Those prone to sea-sickness should avoid it all together.  One more thing.....yes, I know the sails are luffing.

Winds of Change

Last Saturday, 10-16-10, we had a fairly strong wind blowing steadily out of the West all day.  It apparently blew all the water in the Chesapeake over to the Eastern shore because the water in our little creek all but disappeared.  People that had been in the area for many years were saying they had never seen it that low.  Our boat draws 4' 7" and it was sitting on the bottom.  The deck was so low below the dock that we had to climb halfway down the piling to get aboard.  We were fortunate that our boat was tied close to the finger pier before the water disappeared.  The folks across from us tied theirs off in the center of the slip and when they came down to board it they found it was too far from the dock to get aboard.  Pete and Sharon were planning to leave the next morning for North Carolina by way of the Intracoastal Waterway (ICW) and had brought all their supplies with them for the trip.  Around 8PM Cheri and I were down below having dinner when we heard a commotion on the dock.  When I looked out from our cockpit I saw Pete climbing back onto the dock, soaking wet.  I'm not sure what happened, didn't want to embarrass anyone with probing questions, but apparently he was pretty determined to get aboard.  The water couldn't have been more than 4' deep but I imagine the mud-covered bottom was pretty soft, coulda sucked him down another 4'.  It was pretty cold out, in the 50's, and I offered him some dry clothes but he declined, thinking he had a weeks worth of clothes stashed in somewhere with all his gear.  Could also be that he turned down my generous offer because he's 6'6" and about 140 lbs while I'm 5'10" and 195 pounds.  Woulda made for an interesting lookin' outfit, I'm sure.  So, in the last two weeks we've gone through some pretty good tidal extremes, all or nothing you might say.  Makes you very aware of what a living thing the Chesapeake Bay really is; forever in motion, sometimes mellow, sometimes extreme, always calling for your attention.

For those of you who aren't familiar with the ICW, it's a 3,000 mile long waterway along the East and Gulf coasts of the United States.  It's made up of canals, rivers and other natural waterways that tie together to form a protected inland passageway for commercial shipping (barges and the like) and pleasure boats.  The original design called for a canal across northern Florida to tie the Gulf and East Coast waterways together but this was never completed due to "ecological concerns".  I think they were concerned that if they cut through at the northern end then Florida might float away and connect with Cuba or something.  Congress signed authorization for the ICW in 1919 and the Army Corp of Engineers maintains it.  Or at least they're supposed to.  The project has been underfunded throughout it's history and the stated minimum depth of 12' is  rarely maintained.  Shoaling and inaccurate charts are a constant problem.  In spite of these detractions, the ICW provides a safe, inland passage and is a great alternative to traveling or transporting goods by way of the open ocean.

Herrington Harbour North is apparently a popular spot for folks getting ready to head South for the Winter.  It's a great yard with every service you could need for outfitting and preparing your boat for a long-haul blue water run.  Since September we've seen quite a few boats come in from other places, get hauled out and set up "on the hard" for just a week or two while the hull gets fresh paint and other maintenance needs are tended to.  Then they disappear.  Of course some of them are already being hauled out for the duration of the Winter but a significant number of them are going back in the water for a cruise to warmer zones.  One of these days we're gonna disappear too.

Cheri and I have been working on making our boat feel more like a home by adding some things to "personalize" it.  We got a cool-man shelf from Home Depot for over the head of our bunk.  It has a rail around the open sides that gives it a nice nautical look and the whole thing gives the appearance of a headboard.  With the lights out the wood matches the teak interior perfectly.  Turned out to be a good spot for Cheri's lighthouse collection.

We also added a three tier hanging wire basket in the galley for storing fruit and veggies.  We used a wood bracket that was intended for holding a heavy duty curtain rod and hung it on the post beside the sink.  It looks nice but we need to figure out a way to secure it when we're under way.

We put in wall-to-wall carpet which goes a long way towards making the boat feel warmer, cozier, more like home.  Cheri made a template from heavy brown paper and we took it to a carpet shop in Silver Spring.  We chose a quality carpet that's stain resistant and guaranteed for 20 years.  It's a tight weave and is sculpted with a leafy vine design.  Very cool.  Using her template they cut the carpet to fit and bound the edges all around.  The binding was actually the most expensive part.  This was definitely a really great improvement.  Thank you Sharon Malatich for the suggestion.

We added two small brass table lamps with cut crystal globes at the base.  We disassembled the lamps and added pull string switches to replace the in-line switch on the wire.  While we had them apart we filled the glass globe with sea shells that Cheri's sister had collected when they lived in Puerto Rico.  After we put the lamps back together we ran the cord through a hole underneath the base and hard-wired them in to the boat's 110VAC.  We then ran some bailing wire around the feet of the lamp, down through the hole to some screws inside the cabinet to prevent the lamps from moving around when the boat heels over.  Now they're secure and the cord doesn't show.  They add a really nice look to the main salon and provide some nice lighting for reading.

We also added some background lighting behind the cabinets on both sides of the main salon.  The overhead comes down low over these cabinets and where it would normally join the wall there is a gap about an inch wide so you can reach up there and hide wires or stash your jewelry or contraband or something.  Just inside the lip we ran a string of LED lighting on a strip of tape.  It provides a really nice glow above the cabinets but you can't see the source of the light.  It's a nice effect and provides enough lighting to be able to see the popcorn bowl while you're watching a movie.  That's important!

Speaking of movies.....my cousin Steve Ward has given us a very cool gift.  It's a Western Digital Media Player (link to more info).  This thing connects to a 2TB (terra byte!) USB hard drive which can store something like 800 full feature movies and almost a gazillion CD's.  The media player works with a PC or a Mac, which is good since we have a Mac mini but more importantly, we could set up a stand-alone system in our stateroom once we get that 37" flatscreen.  The real beauty of this thing is having instant access to all our entertainment and having it stored in a 11" x 7" x 5" box.  No need to find storage for hundreds of DVD's and CD's.  More room for beer!

Great Adventures

This past Monday was Columbus Day, where we recognize the single most fantastic example of dead luck navigation (referenced in "Maiden Voyage") in the history of mankind.  Of course it's also a great time to ponder the advantages of suppression and annihilation of indigenous peoples.  Being a four day weekend for me and Cheri, we pondered the cold weather coming soon and headed over to the Annapolis Boat Show on Friday to talk to some guys about marine heaters.  Great ponderers that we are, we'd already narrowed our choices down to two manufacturers of forced air diesel heaters (Espar and Webasto).  They're both very similar in construction.  The concept is the same as the gas heater in your home, fire heats air which is blown through ducting to each room.  These are much smaller though, contained in a 7" x 21" cylinder.  The heater will go under the cockpit and have ducting running inside cabinetry on the port side of the boat.  Should be a fairly simple installation so I'm going to take it on myself.  Oughta get a few blog entries outa that!

The weather this weekend was simply gorgeous and on Sunday we had our friends Anthony and Luzma over for the afternoon.  We got them to come under the ruse of teaching us how to use some Spanish language software.  What we really wanted was an excuse to go out sailing.  After talking about software for 10 minutes we cast off around 1530 and sailed out across Herring Bay and out into the Chesapeake.  Winds were about 15 to 20 knots out of the West so we headed North for a while  before turning around and heading home.  For some reason I was thinking the sun set around 1900 but it was already ducking behind the trees at 1830 as we rounded red #2 on the way back to Herrington Harbour.  We pulled into our slip just as it was getting dark.  After getting things back to "in port" mode we sat down to a great Peruvian dinner of grilled chicken with some potato kinda stuff and some screaming hot sauce to dip it in.  Wowza!

On Monday morning we had Karl and Cindi Ervin join us for a sail.  They live on the boat two slips out from us and are totally rebuilding their boat.  Because of the extensive reconstruction they haven't been sailing in two years.  We thought it'd be a good excuse to go out again and also to make some new friends.  Once again the weatherman was calling for light winds, 5 to 6 knots, but when we got out there we had 15 to 20 knots out of the South.  Perfect!  We headed over to the North end of Poplar Island, right at the mouth of Eastern Bay (Link to Chart of the Bay).  It's my understanding that Poplar Island is man-made and is where they dump all the dredged up material from the main channel.  We sailed past R 84A which marks the eastern side of the main channel for large ships traveling up the Bay to Baltimore.  This is an interesting spot for navigation because the main channel comes up from the mouth of the Bay along the western shore.  Just before it gets to Herring Bay it crosses over to the eastern shore and continues up to the Bay Bridge.  Ships travel the Bay at a pretty good clip, at least 20 knots, and you really have to keep an eye on things to stay out of their way.

We had passed R 84A and headed into Eastern Bay when I took a look at my watch and realized we should head back if we were going to get in before dark.  We came about and returned on a course of 240 degrees magnetic.  As we got past Poplar Island I noticed a large ship far to the South headed up the Bay.  We were moving along at about 7 knots and I felt we could probably hold our course and come in behind this big dude.  As we passed R 84A again and ventured into the channel I kept my eye on the ship, which was now beginning to look quite large.  As I watched, it's bow began to come around and point directly at us and I quickly realized he was in the section of channel that crosses over to where we were.  Yikes!  We came about again and veered out of his way and then as he passed close by, came about again to resume our course which took us right across his stern as he passed by.  The stern wave from this sucka was pretty big and we almost buried the bow on the second wave.  Woohoooo!

The sail back to Herrington was really nice with a steady 15 to 20 knot breeze.  We sailed right up to R2, passing several other boats that were motoring their way home (not that I'm competitive of course).  After passing R2 we dropped our sails and motored towards home.  As we passed the halfway point, G3, I noticed a change in pitch of the engine.  I looked over the stern and saw there was no water coming out the exhaust.  I reduced throttle and ran below.  When I pulled the engine cover back in the galley I found water swirling around under the engine.  I ran over to the other side and pulled open the engine cover and got blasted by water.  I yelled up to kill the engine but with it off I was unable to find the source of the leak.  We fired it back up again and quickly found that the raw water cooling hose on the heat exchanger had blown off and was gushing like Old Faithful.  It turned out that the hose clamp had failed which was better than having the hose itself blow out.  Karl put the hose back on as I grabbed a clamp from one of the lines on the holding tank up forward.  He installed the clamp and we fired up the engine and headed into the harbor at low RPM's to keep the pressure down.  Just as we came inside the jetty at the entrance to the harbor the hose blew off again.  This is a much worse spot because the channel here is very narrow with shallow water on either side.  We shut the engine off long enough to get the hose back on and Karl held it in place until we could drift up to the first dock we came to.  Once tied up we shut off the engine and Karl replaced the hose clamp.  He told me the clamp wasn't on very well the first time but he got it on better the second try.  We motored slowly home and felt very relieved to be tied up in our slip again.

So now I've got another project.  I need to pull the hose and either replace it or clean it out because Karl noticed that it was seriously calcified inside.  This probably means that the heat exchanger needs some attention too.  Might as well take a look at the impeller while I'm at it.  One other thing.  Underneath the engine is a fiberglass pan that's intended to catch oil drippings and because of that does not drain into the bilge.  I found that it holds approximately 12 gallons of water.  I filled up my 5 gallon bucket two and a half times, dipping water out from in front of the engine with a 6 ounce plastic cup until 2100 last night.  Are we having fun yet?  You betcha!

A Little Wind and Rain

On Thursday (9-30-10) we had Tropical Storm Nicole blow through.  It was already raining hard when I headed out for work at 0615 and I only got a few miles down the road before I turned back due to flooding and high winds.  I knew the worst was yet to come and if the roads were already that bad then I was better off staying home and taking care of the boat.

Cheri was working from home that day so we weathered the storm together.  The rain was really coming down and later reports showed 5" to 7" had dropped in our area.  Around 1000 the wind began to really howl and I saw one gust as high as 52 knots.  That's blowin' pretty good, especially back in Tracey's Creek where it's very protected.  Normally when we come in from sailing the wind could be blowin' 25 knots out on the Bay but when we get into our slip we'll only see about 5 or 6 knots.  To see a 52 knot gust in our slip means it must be really screaming out on the Bay.  We saw one boat break loose on the next dock over from us and three slips up from ours a boat's genoa got shredded.  The only thing we had on our boat was some water running down the mast into the cabin.

The wind and rain continued throughout the day.  The level of the creek rose steadily throughout the day too.  By 1930 that evening the water was about 2" below the  decking on the dock and high tide was still 3 hours away.  After losing power and being closed up in the boat all day we decided this was a good time to drive into Annapolis for a movie and some ice cream.  Uhm, probably not the wisest move I've ever made.  The deck of the boat was riding about 45" above the dock at this point and once we jumped down we realized it was gonna be a task to get back aboard.  Of course we were already off so we decided to deal with it when we got back.  What the heck, right?  Driving into Annapolis we had second thoughts about the movie after I calculated that high tide could conceivably raise the water level another 9".  To prevent this from being a total loss we stopped at Baskin Robbins for a quart of mint chocolate chip ice cream before heading home.

When we got back to the dock we found the water was now just a fraction of an inch below the walkway of the dock.  It was really weird walking out there, felt like we were walking on water.  When we got out to the boat I decided the best thing to do was grab onto the railing, put my feet on the rub rail and hoist myself up.  The rub rail is about 8" below the deck and sticks out about 1.5" with a rubber cap to prevent damage to the hull when you bump into things like the dock.  I quickly found out that in the rain it doesn't really make a very good foot hold.  My feet slipped off and I went into the creek.  I was still holding onto the railing so I only went in up to my knees.  Cheri grabbed my belt and pulled me up onto the dock and we gave this situation a little more thought.  I took off one of the stern lines going to the dock and pulled the boat right up against the finger pier.  Cheri is much more agile than me and hoisted herself aboard with no problem.  She handed me a bucket which I used as a step and I was quickly back aboard.  The next morning everything was back to normal.  I talked to the guy 2 slips down from us and he said the water was over the dock at 2330 and sure enough, we found a fish stranded on the dock further down.  I grabbed this picture off the net just to give you an idea of what we were dealing with, very similar situation.


On Saturday we had some friends, Gene and Yelena Gerashchenko,  join us for a day sail.  I work with Gene and this was the first time we've gotten together away from the job.  We had a beautiful, crisp (65 degrees), clear day with about 15 knots of wind out of the NNE.  We motored out to Herring Bay, put up the sails and shot over to the Choptank River, averaging about 6.5 knots through the water.  Gene was at the helm for most of the day, which he seemed to enjoy, and it gave me a chance to just sit back and relax.  Yelena brought some smoked salmon which we had for lunch and some really tasty Russian dessert kinda things that were like a Mallow Pie without the cookie.  Mmm, mmm, mmmmm.  Gene brought along some beer and we managed to make that disappear before we got back to the slip.  We had a great time together and toasted the day with some amaretto after we got back.

On Sunday we had another outing planned, this time with Kris and Rheba Kelly.  Because Cheri and I were going to church that morning we arranged for them to show up at 1400 and planned for a short afternoon sail across the Bay.  The weather report said it was going to be clear with light winds so we were disappointed to see it cloud over late in the morning.  By the time Kris and Rheba got there it had started to rain.  We had an enthusiastic group though so we headed out across Herring Bay to red #2 before turning east and raising the sails.  The wind was blowing smartly, about 20 knots out of the NNE, and pretty good sized waves were rolling in across the Bay.  We kept the main reefed to 60% and ran with only the staysail, no genoa.  As we passed green #1 into the Chesapeake Bay the wind had increased to a steady 35 knots and the waves were quite large.  At this point Cheri noticed that Rheba was looking kinda green and suggested that it might be a good idea to turn back.  I felt this was probably a good idea anyway since conditions were only bound to get worse as we got further out into the Bay.  We headed up into the wind, running close hauled, to find some deeper water and turned back into Herring Bay at green #1.  We were running on a broad reach at about 7.5 knots all the way to red #2 before we turned N., dropped the sails and motored back to our slip.  Much to our relief, Rheba was feeling better by the time we got back in and she didn't even barf once.  She was disappointed about getting sick but she handled it like a real old salt. On the way back we acted as a wind break for some poor pop-sickle on a jet ski.

The following Tuesday Cheri invited her team from work for an afternoon sail.  The team included Dennis Atkinson, Jim Childers and Debra Braun so there was a crew of 5 aboard since I took the afternoon off to help out.  We left the dock around 1430 and sailed NNE to take advantage of a 15 to 25 knot wind out of the West.  We ran under full sail under partly cloudy skies and had near perfect conditions.  Dennis manned the helm expertly, especially considering this was his first time at it.  Dude's a natural sailor.  I'm thinking he'd make an excellent addition to the crew next time we sail competitively.  I think we all had a great time.  On the way back we averaged about 7.5 kts and got as fast as 8.4.  Fun sail but a little chilly.

On La Vida Dulce we have two reverse cycle heating and air conditioning systems.  For the forward stateroom we have an 8,000 btu system and for the main salon, aft stateroom and galley we have a 16,000 btu system.  For several days the larger system has been giving error codes, "HP 5".  I hadn't taken the time to drag out the book to figure out what this error code means but I had apparently been going over it in my subconscious thoughts.  One night at 0145 I woke up with a thought.  This unit is located under the port side settee.  I pulled up the cushion and access panel, then removed a box of shoes and a shopping bag full of who knows what.  Under that was the vacuum cleaner and it's associated gear.  Finally I was down to the A/C unit.  What occurred to me in my sleep was that the strainer for the cooling water was probably clogged.  I pulled out the strainer, flushed out the barnacles and slime and put it back in.  I fired up the system and it ran fine for the rest of the night.  One thing that occurred to me while I was doing this.  The storage compartment that this is contained in has no drainage.  There's a through-hull fitting right there, an opening to the big, wide, wet world that could let the entire ocean in to this little compartment.  Where any other through-hull is located in the boat it can drain into the bilge and an alarm will go off if there's a significant leak.  The way this is set up, this compartment will fill up with water and I won't know there's a problem until water comes pouring out of the air return vent into the salon.  To me this didn't seem like such a good thing.  I talked to John Hellwege about it and he said not to worry.  OK.  When water starts pouring out of the air return vent I'll have him come over to help me get the boat off the bottom of the creek.  I think on this one I'll go against the established wisdom.  I'll hafta do some research on this before I start drilling drainage holes but I'd feel better knowing that water won't be trapped in there.

I finally got around to reading the manual.  The error code means head pressure is above 425 psi.  After I cleaned the strainer we continued to have error codes so the problem still wasn't solved.  After reading through the book I discovered that there's 2 air filters on this thing.  When I checked them out they were both seriously clogged with fiberglass dust from when the holding tank was replaced.  Got out our trusty Dirt Devil mini vac and cleaned 'em up.  System's been working great ever since.  Hmmmm.  Maybe I need to set up some kind of spreadsheet for periodic maintenance around here.  Maybe I should also start reading some of those manuals.