4/19/2011

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Leaving the marina.

6 Knots! Really?

I like clouds

And sunsets.

Good weekend for sailing

Well it was a good weekend for sailing.  I started out the weekend, by taking my mom for a sunset cruise.  I let her take the helm, and, I dont know if its she doesnt know what she is doing, or if she has no fear, but it didnt take long for her to have Inara saliling along at above hull speed.  I snapped a pic of GPS recording 5.6 knts, but there were times when GPS was showing 5.8 to 6.0 knts.

I snapped this pic, just to show how much she had Inara heeling over.

When sailed up to Tarpon Springs-ish, and then back to the sound to watch the sunset.

Nice way to end a work week.

Here is our track:

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?hl=en&ie=UTF8&msa=0&msid=206849941867582911940.00049efd8f50f8210b89b&t=h&z=13


Mom and Dad left Saturday morning.  I did some work around the house, and then used my pass from Brooke to get out sailing on my own.

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?hl=en&ie=UTF8&msa=0&msid=206849941867582911940.00049efd78e3da804bcca&t=h&z=11

Good times.

Its been a while

Sorry its been a while since I last posted.  You know how it goes... Holidaze!  Then trips... Work is killing me.  Then I promised my wife that I would re-do the bathroom.

So everything is settling back down, as much as life does.  In the past three months, I did have to replace the battery.

I built a PVC roller furler just to see how it would work.  Not bad.  It will take some more time out on the water to decide if its a really usable tool.  Since it only cost about $40, I am not out too much.

I took Monday and Tuesday off work this week, mainly because my parents are in town, and to take them out sailing, but then they threw in the twist that they were going to go spend a couple days with a friend.  No matter, Brooke and I went out on Monday, the breeze was just enough to move the boat along, but thats how Brooke likes it.  then in the afternoon I went out solo.  Good winds 8 to 10 knts, at least thats what the weather report said.

Electrical Stuff

Ok, so I redid most of the electrical in the boat. I can do that since she is small. I pulled out what wire I could, and left the rest.  I replaced the original distribution panel with a new one from West Marine. I am sure that at some time in the past the p/o also did some electrical work, because what was installed was such a mess.  It also confirmed some of my suspicions that a good portion of this boat had had a fair amt of water in her, as many of the low lying wiring was corroded, brittle, and falling apart.  I installed the battery in a battery box, and pushed it back into the area where on the floor layout show where it should be.  The p/o had it sitting free just under the companion way steps.  I also took out the 4AWG (i think) battery cables.  Since I am not running a starter, or other heavy duty electrical I didn't see the need for them.  I replaced the 4AWG with 10AWG wiring to the distribution panel.  I also added a bus bar for the ground system.  There doesn't seem to be any previous bus bar installed, and when I pulled out the old electrical panel and wiring, all the grounds were taped to the 4AWG that led to the battery.  Most of the wire had corroded so much that there wasn't any connection.  No wonder it didn't work, surprising there wasn't a short and fire... but of course you would have to use it to get to that point.  I wired in a new stereo, and VHF, and replaced bulbs and a new bow running lights.   So the only electrical remaining that does not work is the mast light.  I had no way of testing it when she was on the hard.  I still haven't decided if i am going to hoist Flannery up the mast or not to fix it.

Here is how its installed now.

 

I think that I will have to replace the battery, as if left off the charger for a day without use, the VHF alarms that the battery is low (below 11V).

On a side note, I dont think that I sealed the keel bolts well enough, as the bilge is taking on water (about 5gal/wk).  Not enough to reach the cabin floor, but enough.  I hope that its just the keel bolts. I will try and re-seal them in January, when I have some time off.  Also going to try and work on them while the boat is in the water :s 

October 23 - Its official! Oh and I turned 42

Even though I had a car accident two days ago, and I was feeling quite sore, that didnt keep us from getting out for a birthday sail. Brooke, Flannery and Barb, joined me for 1) a sail on my 42nd birthday, and 2) for the official renamining ceremony. We followed the ceremony posted on boatsafe.com, as it came up first on Google, and seemed to be the one most referenced in the forums.

So its official our boat is now named "Inara". 

So next you will ask where the name came from...  Well I kind of made it up.  Way earlier in the year, I had read a post on one of the cruisers forums about naming a boat, and how you want a name that you dont mind being associated with. So I was driving up US19 and there was this billboard for a new spa.  The name of the spa escapes me, but it was close to Inara.  I thought that if I change the spa names "d" to an "n" and the "b" to a "d" (or something like that) the new name would  be Inara, and that seemed like a cool name.  when I got to work I Googled Inara... Huh seems that I didnt just make up a name... Inara is the Hittite goddes of wild animals, and a character on the short run TV series Firefly.  Oh well, so much for originality...  I will say that I came up with the name first ;).

First REAL Sail - Yesterday

So I had to actually take a day off of work to get out and have my first real sail.  The only way that it would have been better is if Brooke could have come, but she was feeling under the weather. 

Anyway... what a beautiful day to go out.  The winds were between 5 and 10 knts. The water was just enough to make a lapping sound as I glided through the water.  The largest waves I encountered were when leaving the marina, and had a stink pot coming in down the channel. 

I sailed closed hauled up to Anclote Island.

Then wing on wing, almost all the way back.  I am getting better at docking all by myself, which is good.  The deck organizer sheeves need to be replaced, they get jammed when haulling up the main halyards.  And the mainsail will need to be replaced at sometime.  The leech on it is pretty frayed.  But I will just use it till it rips.

All in all a good way to spend the day.

Cabin Floor Boards

I pulled the two wood panels out of the cabin floor this week, and started working on them. As you can see from the pic they were in pretty sorry shape. I just started by sanding with 80 grit paper. The little finish that was left on them came right up, and the (for lack of a better term) oxidized wood sanded right away, leaving a nice rich teak and holly color. See pic of before and after sanding. After sanding I rinsed off with water, which approximated the color and look after finished. I ended up using some chemical stripper for getting off the rest of the previous finish, then another light with sanding 220 grit paper. Then three coats of spray Minwax varnish.