Posts need more bunny rabbit...
”But in the end all of these ideas just manufacture new criminals when the problem isn't a lack of criminals.” -JRB
If these pictures are annoyingly large I can put up large thumbnails or something...I'm not sure how people would prefer to see them.
Somewhere there are also pictures of me sewing the sail but I can't find them just this minute for some reason.
I have nothing to offer in this thread... but I am sure enjoying it. And my God, that island is beautiful.
“A gun is a tool, Marian; no better or no worse than any other tool: an axe, a shovel or anything. A gun is as good or as bad as the man using it. Remember that.” - Shane
They actually really liked having the boat in there...it was a giant, custom-built hawk screen as far as they were concerned.
I'm just really glad it's enjoyable...to be frank the last six months of my life have been a pretty exhausting grind and I haven't been able to write much of anything and enjoy it at all. This thread is kind of my way back, to just write about something I thought might be fun for people and to talk about my current life experience which is pretty unusual.Originally Posted by Gadfly
Very good work !
reminds me of the "Boy Mechanic" book put out by Mechanic's Illustrated circa 1950s - 1960s. They showed how to build real projects like boats, crossbows etc....
What you build, you know how to repair.
Well, it's a good thing I can repair it...surprisingly rough this morning in the bay and the big boat came down hard on the little boat while swapping moorings, braking the coaming on the bow, which was annoying. But it's true, I built it, and as a result if something goes wrong, I know what to do.
That's an overriding principle of off-grid life and ocean commuting, in fact.
This morning I got weather I wouldn't consider rough, exactly...but the only other boat out there was chugging along at idle, bouncing all over the place. I think he couldn't go more than 8 or 10 miles an hour. I pulled out of the bay and gunned her up, but that's a hull built exactly for rough conditions, so I was not too concerned. Still I always watch the gauge cluster pretty carefully. You never know what's going to go wrong and there's no alarms in that old thing, just gauges that indicate you're either in the right range or the wrong one.
Today I got about halfway across when I noticed the ammeter was reading a bit low. I have never really trusted it as my sonar reads consistently higher voltage than the old needle but still... I kept an eye on it and the battery voltage looked like it was dropping. I was about even with Danger Reef which is ominously but fairly accurately named and I thought I'd better throttle back and check the motor.
Sure enough, the alternator belt had snapped and the batteries weren't being charged. That's kind of a decision point...do you keep running and hope you have enough spark left in your battery to make land, or do you try to fix it? I didn't trust the batteries to make it as far as I needed to go, so I opted to fix.
I keep spare everything on board just in case so I knew I would have a spare alternator belt. I got the new one swapped on pretty quickly and then it was just a matter of "is there enough juice in the batteries to restart the engine?"
I got a "click" followed by mild to moderate swearing.
Ordinarily at this point I'd hook up the spare gas tank to the little kicker motor and just push in at slow speed. But the engine had been running well and I knew I needed gas soon, so last night (of course) I emptied the 25l kicker tank into the mains. So it was either start the engine or call in a Pan Pan and wait for a tow.
I let the batteries sit for about ten minutes, since particularly the deep cycle holds a lot of slow power, meanwhile keeping an eye on Danger Reef. I was drifting towards it but not really fast...but enough to make me uncomfortable. I could probably have gotten the kicker going for a little bit on the liter or so of fuel left in the tank but man, I did not want to be trying to time my last bit of fuel to push me away from the reefs. I guess I do keep enough silicon tubing around that I could have siphoned fuel back to the kicker tank but of course the minute I shut the boat down I was rolling all over everywhere. It was frustrating as I'm just recovering from my annual lower back strain incident: every year or so I manage to freak out my SI joint enough that I spend a few days to a week really immobilized. About ten years ago I had a really bad SI sprain and ever since then, it seems to pick seemingly minor incidents and responds by locking up with some substantial discomfort. In fact, the reason I didn't update this thread on Monday was that I took a sick day because I couldn't stand up on Sunday, just crawl, and on Monday, I didn't think I could walk down to the boat. By Tuesday I was feeling a lot better and I went in. But of course the thing I was doing when I strained it this time was...working on the motor in the bay, when some rollers came in and tossed me around right as I was reaching way to the back of the motor on my hands and knees. So having to do even minor engine work in the open water, pitching and rolling everywhere...it wasn't the best feeling.
Anyway, I put her in neutral, throttle wide open, switched both batteries on and got click...click...chug...chug...and then she caught and ran. I sat out there idling fast for a few minutes just to be 100% sure she wouldn't stall on me when I throttled down and put her in gear, but no problems. I ran her a bit slow at first just to drag out the charging time a bit, but after five or ten minutes of chugging away from the reefs, I hit the throttle and motored in. The kicker tank will be refilled this afternoon, and the battery I suspect is dragging things down will get replaced. Plus: a new spare fan belt for the spares locker.
Big lessons: never stop watching the gauges,always keep spare parts, don't empty the kicker tank.
This is your commute? FFS. I have been feeling sorry for myself having to drive through Mississauga, apparently I don't have it as bad as I thought.
Are you still doing the magazine? I don't see you on the masthead...
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