Master Of All Trades

"Jack of all trades, master of none" is how the phrase goes, I think.  But on a boat, it seems you need to be more than a jack of several trades, at least if you don't have unlimited funds to pay someone to maintain it.  And certainly if you insist on things being done right. From engine repair to fiberglass, it certainly helps to know how things work and how to fix them, even if you have to learn how as you go.

On our trip south we've discovered a few items that we will need to deal with.  One of them is the house battery bank.  It seems that our house bank isn't holding much of a charge anymore. So begins my deeper education in marine batteries and complex charging systems (if I do any upgrades, I want them to be compatible with the eventual addition of solar). Things I wanted to learn about anyway...but learning under the gun of a needed repair is not as fun.

I'm somewhat familiar with variants of lead-acid batteries and multi-stage chargers from my previous stewardship of an airplane.  In the airplane case, the batteries are small due to weight concerns and expensive (because they are a certified airplane part) and yet need power to crank the engine and run electronics for a while if an alternator failure occurs in flight. So, squeaking out as much life from them as possible was always a goal, and 3~5 years was considered a good lifetime for those batteries. But marine is a bit different environment.  Much larger batteries wired into banks.  The need to run things like refrigerators, lights, and equipment without a charging source for days on end (deep cycling) is a bit different than running a few airplane instruments.

I started my investigation with the obvious...take a look at the house battery bank.  I try to take a peek at all the boat systems periodically, but the house bank sits at the bottom of a locker in the cockpit and isn't the easiest to access. Add in the fact they are AGM VRLA batteries (what was once touted as maintenance-free batteries) and they were a bit out of sight - out of mind.  Well, when i dug all the stuff out of the locker and removed the access panels to the batteries, I could tell that the batteries were not in good shape.  Each of the 3 group 4D (20 inch x 9 inch x 10 inch or so) batteries showed minor signs of swelling.  The two usual causes of this are heat related: Either a sudden rapid discharge (short) or overcharging of the batteries.  Since I haven't experienced any shorts, my immediate assumption was that it was the result of overcharging.

The West Marine Battery that makes up our current house bank.

A year or so ago I had one alternator's voltage regulator fail and it was overcharging...but that problem was identified rather quickly and resolved.  Since the boat is configured so the engines charge their start batteries and then any leftover energy is used to charge the house bank, I would expect the start battery to have failed first. Since it was OK, I doubt it was the culprit.  The original charging system for the boat works in a similar manner, charging the start batteries and then letting power "overflow" from there to charge the house bank.  That left only one culprit - the Xantrex inverter/charger.

The inverter is wired to the main house bank, and it includes a smarter multi-stage charger that is supposed to do a better job of charging and maintaining batteries.  As a result, the charger needs to be set up with parameters for the type and size of the battery bank.  I guess I shouldn't have trusted how the thing had been set up when we bought the boat.  I found the parameters were set for a 3000Ah bank of wet cell batteries.  Since the actual bank is only 600Ah of AGM batteries, this is probably the cause.

Of course, this means we need to replace the main house bank. The batteries currently on the boat are from West Marine and when I checked were about $700 each.  Ouch.  Looking around, I found similar 4D AGM batteries for a little over $400 each.  Continuing my research, I found that many of these batteries aren't true deep cycle batteries and, as a result, likely won't last as long as other options. Reading a number of articles on marine batteries and deep cycling batteries, it seems that some of the best bang for the buck are golf cart batteries.  It sounds like they are better designed for deep discharges than the big batteries.  They also seem to have higher amp-hour ratings for a given size than the ones I have now.  The down side is that each battery is smaller and is only 6 volts, so I would need two batteries connected in series to equal one of the batteries I have now.

Trojan T-105 225Ah, 6v battery option.

US Battery 2200 232Ah, 6v battery option.

Two group size GC2 batteries sitting next to one another are the same length, slightly taller, and just a bit narrower in width than a 4D group size so they should fit my battery locker.  Wired in series, I would have a 12 volt equivalent with between 210 and 225 Ah (compared to the existing batteries at 198Ah). The wet cell batteries seem to be around $110 each (or $220 for the equivalent to one of the 4d's), and the AGM versions are around $200 each (about the same as the cheaper 4D's that I've found). Since these produce a slightly higher amp-hour bank that is more accepting of deeper discharges (to 50%), this may be the way to go.  It would require I get 3 new cables to wire two 6-volt batteries in series, but it seems to me the advantages may be worth the limitations.

Trojan AGM 217Ah, 6v battery.

US Battery AGM 213Ah, 6v battery.

The other question is do we go with AGM or traditional wet cell batteries.  Due to cost, I'm not interested in going with the newer lithium options (my time in the software industry has taught me the value of "trailing edge technology") and these two seem like the best choices.  Each has advantages and disadvantages.  I guess one thing that worries me about the standard flooded battery bank is if we can keep on top of maintenance.  I know they need to be checked and filled with water periodically.  With the location of the house bank being at the bottom of one of our large storage lockers, will we dig everything out and check them as often as we should?  And what is that interval anyway?  But my wallet sure likes the price point of the flooded ones, and they do have higher capacity.

Decisions, decisions...if anyone has any advice, leave a comment.

Being Slug-ish

A week or two ago one of the blogs I regularly read did a monthly recap.  In the recap they had mentioned that they spent a couple days as "complete and utter slugs" while waiting out some bad weather.  According to their account they didn't do anything except read, work on their blog, snack and catch up on some TV shows.  Usually tossing out the term "slug" implies a negative connotation, that somehow they should have been doing something more with their time.  So, naturally (and with tongue-in-cheek), I had to respond.  I quipped something about the virtues of the slug lifestyle and that it must be OK because you never hear of slugs having heart attacks.

(image from quintessentialruminations)

While my comment was intended with a hearty veil of humor, there was also a little bit of a lesson that life has been trying to teach me mixed in.  You see, my career in the software industry has always been fast paced and fairly stressful.  It was pretty rare when I would have the chance to unwind and it seems I had just about forgotten how to do that.  When I used to go on vacation, at best I may have just started to unwind a bit by the time the vacation was over.  And I'm pretty sure I am far from alone on this.  Otherwise this clip from CitySlickers might have been left on the cutting room floor...

https://youtu.be/-1bTe54j6PQ?t=2m34s

For me, the worst part is the irony between what my industry was supposed to do and what it has actually done.  Remember how these "computing devices" I've worked on my whole life were supposed to make life easier?  It doesn't really seem they have done that, have they?  Sure, it makes some things easier.  You can make phone calls more easily, and check your email, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pintrest, and other things at any time from virtually anywhere.  You now have the internet at your fingertips and can instantly find the answers to most of our questions. Yes, we have certainly made communications easier.  But making communication easier doesn't seem to have made life any easier...instead it seems to have made life more fast-paced and hectic. Now that you can receive calls and email from just about anywhere, your boss or your customers now expect instant answers at any time.  As a society, we seem to have lost patience.  And the stress from all of this seems to be killing us.

So, back to the idea of the slug.  I don't think there is anything wrong with being a slug, if that is what you want to call it.  A little slower paced, more deliberate lifestyle is something I think we all could use.  It is something I continue to struggle with but keep striving for in my own life.  My friends over at The Cynical Sailor & His Salty Sidekick just completed another post on "The Art of Being a Slug" and, while being another humor infused post, I think it does have some pretty good lessons to offer if you just think about it.  So I will ask you to go and embrace your inner slug...the life you save may be your own.

And I'll leave you with something appropriate from the Eagles...


Learn To Be Still by siouxnavajo

Lots of Learnin'

Since the beginning of the year most of the "work" I've been doing on the boat falls under the category of learning.  I've got a number of projects that I would like to accomplish and all of it is stuff I really know nothing about, so I've been spending a lot of time Googling these various projects.

The first project is one I started in December.  I would really like to replace the fabric bimini top on the boat with a hard top.  There are a number of advantages to having a hard top.  First, I won't need to deal with replacing the fabric on a semi-regular basis as the sun takes its toll on fabric and sewing of the top. More importantly, it provides a wide and stable platform for working with the main sail boom, something I consider to be a safety enhancement.  It will also be a nice platform for mounting solar panels.  And there is no point in creating a new set of dodgers for my current top if I intend to replace it.  So, I've been talking with a guy in town about options for creating a simple hard top and looking at other designs for ideas on getting one made for a reasonable cost.

Speaking of solar, that is also on the list of upgrades I would like to make soon.  Currently, the only ways I have to keep the batteries charged on the boat are to run the engines, run the diesel generator, or plug it into shore power.  Since I would like to spend more time out of marinas and on anchor (and not have to burn lots of diesel), I need a greener way to keep the batteries topped off and solar power seems like the best option.  Having a catamaran, and particularly one with a hard top bimini, provides a lot of space to install solar.  Recently Kyocera came out with some solar panels that produce up to 325 watts of power at 40 volts DC and they are reasonably priced.  With the right maximum power point tracking (MPPT) controller, two of these panels could produce somewhere in the neighborhood of 240 Amp Hours of juice a day.  So, I've been looking at solar packages similar to this one to add to the boat.  I also performed a power inventory to see how much power I think I will need in a day.  Of course, a lot of this is still guess work as I don't have really good numbers for how we will be using power.  Things like the refrigerator (one of the big power hogs) is easy, but other lifestyle uses are still somewhat unknown.

I also need rebed both of the large salon side windows on the boat.  It seems that Leopard didn't have a good process or didn't use the best materials when they were originally installed. The result is a failure rate on the seals on the windows on most of their older boats is near 100%.  The windows have no mechanical fasteners and are only held in by sealant.  So, I've spent a lot of time looking through all the questions and pictures on the Leopard owners group on Yahoo.  It sounds like a bit of a tedious and messy process, but I think I have a handle on it.  Guess I'll find out soon as the sealant needed should arrive later today.  Then I just need a couple warm dry days to do the work.

One other task has popped up that I wasn't planning on.  When I was showing a fellow Leopard 3800 owner at the marina my new Mantus anchor, we noticed that the fiberglass structure that the anchor roller is mounted to has started to crack.  The roller and bail now move some when they shouldn't move at all.  Since this area takes a lot of load while anchoring, it will need to be repaired.  So, with my very limited knowledge about fiberglass repair, I've been researching that as well.  Looking at the other Leopard, his boat has a significantly thicker fiberglass structure than mine, so I guess someone might have figured out an issue with the boat in between when mine was built and when his was.  In any case, looks like I'll be doing some pretty serious fiberglass layup work in the near future.

So, filling my head with boat fixing knowledge, hopefully I can execute some of it well.

Not The Way We Wanted To Arrive In Brunswick

After spending the night at Palm Cove Marina in Jacksonville Beach, we get an early start so we can make it the rest of the way to Brunswick.  The wind is again on our nose, expected to clock around to the northeast in the afternoon...so we might as well just continue motoring up the Intracoastal Waterway (ICW). This time was different though, for the first time there will be no captain or instructor or other help, just my wife and I and our Leopard 38. I know I am ready and my wife was too.

We cast off lines, depart the dock, and motor down the narrow channel back to the ICW and we were soon making our way north in the crisp morning air.  The clouds from the previous day were long gone and it looked like it was going to be a better day than the previous one.

Ironically, this part of the trip does provide a little more of a navigation challenge than the previous day, but we got good briefings on the route from the captain as well as my friend and former broker Pete, so we figured we were in pretty good shape.  It is always good to have local knowledge and on this section it would definitely help keep us out of trouble.

Turbulent Atlantic Avenue bridge in the distance.

The ICW is in a pretty wide river through Jacksonville, but there is one area where the most of the flow squeezes under a causeway bridge.  This was the first challenging spot on which we were briefed. Going under this bridge can be a bit tricky if there is much flow...and of course we were fighting the current a bit when we got there.  The boat speed dropped from 7 to 4 knots as we made our way under the bridge and steering became a bit squirrely. I'm glad I was warned about this and the passage under the bridge, other than slow, was uneventful.

Soon the ICW opened up into the St. Johns river and my wife and I were looking at a naval shipyard that had some large military vessel in dock.  We were admiring the ship while allowing a wide berth to anything military (seems like a prudent idea) when it donned on me that we were briefed about this as well.  Sure enough, I check the chart and the shipyard was where we needed to make a turn in order to stay on the ICW.  Glad I caught that before we motored for a half an hour in the wrong direction.  Of course, just after the turn there is also a bascule bridge (fancy term for a draw bridge) that we needed to open (unlike some motorboats, our 59 foot mast doesn't fit under these so well).

Marina at Fernandina Beach

In the confusion of getting back on course, I forgot to check the name of the bridge...but wanting to get a call in sooner rather than later I took a guess and haled the bridge using the name of the street I found on the chart. Now I've heard stories of bridge tenders that won't respond unless you hail them with exactly the right bridge name on exactly the right channel.  Perhaps it was the entertainment of my abrupt U turn or maybe this tender is just nicer than some, but fortunately for me he was more forgiving and simply responded with the correct name.  I requested the next bridge opening and he told me to continue my approach (I knew that the bridge was on-demand and figured this would be the response, but I've also been told to be as nice as possible to the bridge tenders because they can easily make your life difficult...and besides there really isn't any reason not to be pleasant to someone providing you a service).  As soon as we cleared the bridge I radioed back that we were clear, thanked him, and wished him a nice day.

Just like stacking dominoes...only bigger.

The next point that we were briefed on is the submarine base at Kings Bay.  The ICW comes right up along side this restricted area and you need to make very sure that you turn when you are supposed to, or I imagine you will have some explaining to do to with some people that have big guns and no sense of humor. You also cannot cut the corner here because, while the river seems wide, it is very shallow outside the channel markers.

As we motor up the inlet toward the base we seem to once again be fighting the current (the joke about the wind and current always coming from the direction you want to go in a sailboat seems to be holding true) and we were making between 4 and 5 knots again.  I move over to the edge of the channel in hopes that the shallower water might reduce the currents effects a bit and we did pick up maybe half a knot...better than nothing.  We come up to the base and I see warning signs and a patrol boat sitting at the entrance.  I keep a watchful eye for the ICW markers and make our turn right when we are supposed to.  So no conversations with grumpy military officials for us that day. And sorry, no pictures were taken in the area either.

Once we turned onto the ICW, the depth dropped from the 30 or 40 ft. we were seeing back to the 8 to 12 that is more typical of the ICW.  Even thought we were still fighting a bit of a current, our speed did pick up some as well.  We continued motoring up the ICW, meandering through the countryside and enjoying the sun and scenery that floated by.  I did wonder if we made the right decision going up the ICW since it wanders around a bit in northern Florida and Southern Georgia.  Probably best for us newbies to just enjoy the wandering up the ICW though...even if it does take a bit longer.

Eventually the wandering did get the best of me and I noticed that ahead in the Saint Andrew Sound, a little south of Jekyll island, we were going to be close to the ocean in a rather wide sound. The wind was going to be coming close to setting us up for a nice beam reach through the sound.  So, as we got to that area, we pointed the boat into the wind for a minute and raised the sails.  The wind was blowing over 20 knots so we did reef both the main and the genoa.  We turned back on course, trimmed the sails and pulled the engines to idle.  Finally...we were a sailboat...well, almost.  Since we didn't have a long time to sail, I figured it was best to just keep the engines running at idle instead of shutting them down and restarting them a few minutes later.  So, technically with the engines running (even in idle) we were still a motorboat, but we were sailing...and with the reefed sails we were making the same speed we had been with the engines engaged.  It felt good!

The 15 or so minutes seemed to pass by very quickly and we were soon at the point where we needed to turn into the narrow and shallow ICW channel behind Jekyll island.  Oh well...at least we finally got to sail our sailboat...and that was great.  We furl the genoa, engage the engines again and turn into the wind and drop the main.  Back to full motorboat mode again.  We throttle the engines up and with my wife at the helm I was forward to secure the main sail, halyard, and reefing lines.

As I return to the cockpit my heart sank.  I notice what appears to be steam or smoke coming from the starboard engine room hatch and that faint smell of hot metal from an engine overheating.  I quickly check the engine temperature gauge and find it pegged in the red even though engine alarm had not gone off.  My wife, still being very new to the boat simply didn't notice difference and since she was looking forward, she did not see the steam and (probably thanks to her encounter with Zicam) didn't pick up on the hot engine smell.  So, I quickly shut the engine down, grab a fire extinguisher, and go check the engine hatch.  It does seem like steam and not smoke so I slowly open the hatch.  Steam billows out of the engine room...but fortunately there is no fire.

If there is one thing I learned in aviation, it is that redundancy is a good thing.  One of the advantages of a catamaran is that it has two engines and in our cat one engine can push it along at a pretty respectable speed (at least 3/4 of full speed with both engines).  So, we continue to make our way along the ICW on our port engine while we try and figure out what to do. We are perfectly safe at the moment, but you see, this new captain is pretty sure he will have a problem trying to dock on a single engine in a crowded marina.  I've gotten pretty good at maneuvering with the two engines...but this was a bit much to ask of myself.

Not the way you want to arrive at a marina.

We decided to avail ourselves of the services of our newly acquired SeaTow membership (think AAA of the ocean) and get towed in to the dock. They get us into our slip and we get the boat tied up.  I'm sure glad I bought that membership, the "free" tow would have otherwise cost us $600.  I also have to thank the folks at Brunswick Landing marina, even though we got there late, they stayed and helped us get tied up and give us the key cards to the clubhouse/bathhouse before they left for the evening.

Rover sitting quietly in her slip as the sun set.

With all the steam in the engine room we weren't able to assess the situation with the engine even after we arrived.  The next day we rent a car in order to go shuttle my car from Palm Coast to Brunswick and then hopped on a plane back to Denver.  So, assessing the engine will have to wait until I return in a week. This certainly wasn't the way I wanted to end our first trip in Rover just the two of us, but it seemed like the prudent thing to do.

Creaking Dock Lines

While I've spent some time on boats, I've never lived on one parked at a marina for a couple months straight (our boat has been tied up in this marina since December) so I was not aware of how much dock lines can creak and groan.  But the other night the winds were up a bit and our boat was regularly tugging at her dock lines.  And each time a line pulled taut, it would creak or groan.  This is not something that is conducive to sleep, especially when one of the cleats  is attached to your bedroom.  The sound travels through the line and straight into the boat.

So, after a rather sleepless night, I decided to do a little investigating since I'm sure I'm not the first person to experience this.  Sure enough I found a number of discussions on the subject and various remedies.  The cause is apparently friction and can normally occur in a few key ways.  Rubbing against the boat seems the most obvious, especially if you have lines running through hawse pipes (holes in a boat designed for anchor and dock lines to pass through the hull to a cleat or storage).  They can also rub a bit against the cleat itself and lines can also creak due to internal friction.  None of these are good as the friction causes wear.

The quick fix seems to be to wet the lines and that helps lubricate the fibers and help prevent the friction and the noise. I went out with a jug of water and soaked each of the lines and they immediately quieted down.  Of course this is not a permanent solution unless it rains a lot...in which case you likely won't be getting the noise anyway.  There are various chafe guard options from ones you can buy to making your own out of old rubber hose and similar materials.  This should work if your lines are rubbing on the boat, but I don't know how it would work for noise at the cleat and I'm pretty sure it won't work for the internal noise.

Many of the dock lines I have came with the boat and are rather old and I have no idea the last time they were washed (BTW...you need to wash dock lines regularly to remove dried salt that causes excess wear).  Because of this they are also fairly stiff to handle and use.  I had heard one recommendation to soften lines by soaking them in a bucket of water with some fabric softener.  Since the water worked for quieting down the lines, I decided it was time to give the fabric softener idea a try.

I grabbed some cheap fabric softener at the store and started soaking some spare lines I had in a mixture that was fairly heavy on the fabric softener.  I let them soak for a couple hours and then pulled them out to dry a little.  I then swapped out the lines with ones in use and gave them a soak as well.  The last couple days I haven't had any more creaking, so hopefully that will help for a little while.  In the end I probably need to get some new dock lines as most of the ones I have are rather old and some are not in the best of shape...maybe I can find ones that are better about creaking...who knows (if you do...please share).  And for those following along that are still in the earlier stages, hopefully this info will help spare you a sleepless night at a dock.

Of course, the ideal solution is to not be tied to a dock so long...but while all the work is being done, I will unfortunately be tied up a bit longer.

A New Temporary Home

After getting stuff we think we need and doing some cleaning, it was time to move our Leopard 38 from the back yard dock that was its home to the marina that will be its new home for a couple months as we refit and supply, and I continue to learn. We get up early and drive up to St. Augustine to pick up the captain/ASA instructor and bring him back to Daytona for our trip.

We go through the boat and do some safety checks and start the engines...well...try to anyway. The starboard engine won't start. Actually, it shows absolutely no signs of life whatsoever. Funny...worked just fine during the survey and sea trial. The instrument panel shows no voltage at the battery...I mean ZERO, and the alarm isn't sounding either. Out comes the multi-tester (thankfully the prior owner left it behind, and with some exercising of the selector, it started working) and it shows the battery is good. Huh. I wiggle a connector that looks like it may be coming from the instrument panel and voila, we hear the buzzer at the helm. Guess I'll need to look at that connector when I have a little time. We fire up the engine and finish our checks and everything looks good.

While the engines are idling, we do a refresher talk on maneuvering a catamaran. As we are talking the port engine alarm goes off. Doh! We look over and it is overheating so we quickly shut it down and go inspect. Check the sea strainer again and look around and find nothing amiss. So we start the engine back up and the temp drops to 180°F (where it is supposed to be) and holds steady. Best guess is that something floated or swam by and plugged the cooling water intake and it was freed as soon as we shut down the engine...but we keep a watchful eye on it for a little bit. It has been an interesting day so far, and we haven't even left the dock yet.

We do finally leave the dock. We make our way "through the ditch" (the intercoastal waterway or ICW) for this trip, no real sailing to be done today as the winds are light and our destination is on the ICW. My wife gets a refresher on the basics of navigation and markers, and we otherwise have a pretty uneventful trip swapping time at the helm. The only thing of note is that the starbord engine temperature is running just a bit high. Guess I'll need to add checking the heat exchanger to "the list". By the time we get to our marina, the long days with little sleep have caught up with my wife and she nods off on the settee. I practice docking with the instructor. We make several "touch and goes", and I seem to be getting the hang of it. The instructor thinks the stiffness in the controls might be hampering my efforts and suggests we get the cables replaced. Guess I'll add that to "the list" as well. Yep, boat ownership is already looking exactly as others have described...the art of fixing your boat in exotic locations...we just seem to be lacking the exotic locations thus far.

We get our boat (yeah, I like saying that) into the slip (ok, two slips...it is over 21 foot wide) and tied off. This will become her new home for a little while. It is a pretty nice place to be holed up for some repairs. It is in a fairly protected location, the facilities are nice, and the price is even better. The only real drawback is that it is a pretty long distance from an inlet so I won't be getting much sailing in...but we are here more for maintenance and docking practice so that will be OK for now.

Of course I quickly learn why people joke that boat stands for Bring Out Another Thousand, our slip has 50A electrical service, but our boat only has a 30A cord. We try to locate an adapter, and the only one we could find was at the West Marine in Daytona. We get the adapter and get the boat plugged in (we really want to get solar added, but for now any electrical will be nice...and is included in our dock rate). Our first night aboard was good although I think my wife was less happy since we didn't yet have a blanket and she was cold. The next day we grab a throw at the local Big Lots and that did the trick for her. It did seem a bit more like camping or a hotel room though, as we didn't have any propane or a pot to cook in. But that is OK -- we were busy enough without having to worry about making dinner.

We got to spend a couple nights on our boat before heading back to Denver to get our affairs in order there. And we did get to have drinks with our broker and his wife before we left. I really need to stop calling him our broker as he has really become our friend Pete.

Thankful for a few Freedom Chips and the Wisdom to Use Them Well

It's Thanksgiving Day in the U.S., and we have been busily preparing to take possession of our future home afloat. While I don't generally like those "I'm thankful" messages that seem to be so pervasive (and not always sincere) and pop up in our social media society always connected conscience this time of year, today I decided to write one. So my apologies for writing this, and I do hope you find it interesting or at least sincere.

Actually, I hadn't planned on writing this at all.  My intention was to try to catch up on some of the reading I've wanted to do but am terribly behind on. I was reading the Cost Conscious Cruiser (one of the books that was so generously gifted to me and that I plan to pay forward in the future) and in one of the stories, it made mention of the phrase "Freedom Chips".  If you have been researching cruising much, you have probably heard this term used for money a number of times now.

Freedom Chip

I think it is a great term.  In our society we seem to be well trained to try and collect money but not to really see what the true cost of that effort is.  Sometimes there is a specific goal for the money and it is needed (food, shelter), but most of the time it seems it is just collecting money for the sake of trying to "keep up with the Joneses", to prove success or justify our existence.  We trade it for the newer shiny car, the bigger house, the big flat screen TV, or other symbols of our success.  At least that is what I feel I've spent most of my adult life doing anyway.

Calling money freedom chips makes the actual transaction much more clear.  I've traded my freedom for these chips by sitting in a soft-walled container staring at a glowing box on my desk (OK, I was diligently writing computer software) for 40 to 60 hours each week of my adult life. I would then trade these chips that represented my lost freedom for the bigger house, the newer car, the 65" big screen TV, or even just putting them in storage (bank) for later use.  Once or twice a year I may even trade my freedom chips in for a little freedom, a vacation from the other 50 weeks a year where I was trading my freedom away.

Since we started this idea of leaving it all behind and going cruising, we have been converting some of these symbols of our success back into freedom chips.  We've spent some of our chips to learn to sail and will soon be spending a lot more of them to acquire our traveling floating shelter.  Over the next few months we should have far fewer symbols of success and far more freedom chips.  We intend to trade a larger percentage of our chips for freedom as we move forward.  Freedom to spend our time the way we want.

We will always have to trade some of our freedom for chips and some of those chips for life's necessities, but we hope to find a balance that better favors our freedom and not symbols of our past "success".  The realization of our role in the rat race and the desire to change that role is what I'm most thankful for this year. Hopefully as we move forward we will spend our freedom chips wisely.

A Blog Is More

When I started this blog, the primary goal was to document our quest to become full-time cruisers so we could explain and answer questions for our families.  I also thought it would be fun to have a journal so some time in the future I could look back at my naive thoughts and theories. I had also hoped that perhaps some of the information would be helpful to anyone else considering this lifestyle change in the future.  You know...learn from the mistakes of others because you don't have enough time to make them all yourself.

Found on the internet.  Might originally be from despair.com

Well, over the past year and a half (wow...it's really been that long...where does the time go) I've actually met some pretty interesting people thanks to blogging.  Thanks to other blogs, I've met some neat people and I've increased my knowledge level (I hope) and certainly my reading library, and thanks to a couple mentions in other blogs have apparently reached a larger audience.  While I don't post as often as I would really like (only so much cruising-related subject matter while I'm land-locked), I do get page views daily from people around the world.  I interact with several other bloggers who I consider "virtual" friends...having never met them in person (yet). All in all, pretty cool.

One particularly interesting thing that has happened is that this blog has helped introduce me to others in my area that share similar goals. Who would have thought there would be a fair number of people in Colorado that either dream of, or are working toward, a cruising lifestyle.  I mean, after all, we are about 1000 miles from the nearest ocean.  I guess I shouldn't be surprised though, Coloradans do tend to be a pretty active lot.  When we were learning to scuba dive in St. Croix, I can't even remember how many times we were told "Did you know that Colorado has more certified divers per capita than any other U.S. state?"* Truth is we probably drag down any rating more than bring it up.

Anyway, getting back to my point.  I've had a few folks from Colorado reach out to me and tell me they are interested in cruising.  I've had dinner or drinks with a couple of them and have found another who periodically needs "crew" when he goes sailing out on the local reservoir. It's been fun to meet folks with similar interests and swap stories. Not a perk I expected from having a blog, but welcome nonetheless.

If you've thought of saying hi, please feel free to drop us a line.  You can send us email at gmail.com by using the blog name, ThisRatSailed, as the user name.

*I have no idea if this statistic is true, but I do periodically hear on the local news that several cities and perhaps the state is ranked among the most active on a pretty regular basis. 

Teaching a Not So Old Dog a New Trick

I previously wrote about our dogs' first swimming lesson.  As I had mentioned, our younger dog is very timid and for the first lesson it was all we could do to get him to walk down the pool ramp far enough to get his paws wet.  We had been thinking about this issue. One of the problems with the "public dog pool" is that it is for employees and dogs only. We couldn't be in the pool to help coax him in. Another problem is that we couldn't bring treats into the pool area so that wouldn't be any help (not that he was as food motivated as our other dog anyway).  We figured at the apparent rate of progress, his learning to swim may cost us a fortune.

Well, while at a local discount store, we found an 8 foot round by 30 inch deep Easy Set pool (a.k.a. big blue blob) on sale for $35.  Hmmm...the cost of getting one of these and filling it would be about the same cost as a single half hour swimming lesson.  That might be worth giving a try to reduce the time and cost of introducing our timid dog to the water.  It's not really enough to swim laps in, even for a 40 lb. dog, but it should at least allow us to introduce him to the water and swimming at his own pace.  So, while I would prefer to be getting rid of things at this stage, we bought one.

Dog Training Pool - A.K.A. The Big Blue Blob

Since the dogs will need life jackets on the boat, we picked up those as well.  An internet/sailing/blogging friend on s/v Smitty recommended the Outward Hound jacket. The design appears to have changed from the one pictured, and we found the newer style was exactly the same as the one sold at our local Petsmart so we picked them up there (and they were even on sale, yay).

We set the pool up on a tarp on our patio as it was the only reasonably flat space that wouldn't kill grass. The blue blob is, as the name suggests, easy to set up.  You lay it out, blow up the inflatable ring around the top, and fill with water.  The result is a pool big enough to float a medium sized dog.  We then put the vest on our older dog and used it to lift her into the pool with one of us outside the pool and one in the pool.  The new dual handle design of the vest is handy for lifting a 40 lb. dog...at least into a pool.  When our older dog touches the water, she immediately begins trying to swim.  I don't think she likes water...or at least the pool...but she definitely can swim.  We wanted her to go first so our more timid dog would see and maybe think it isn't that scary...yeah, trying to play psychological games with our dogs.

We then put the vest on our timid dog and brought him over to the pool.  We slowly put him in the water with my wife in the pool. Lots of praise, but he just floats there as we hold on to the handle of the jacket.  And when he starts to tremble a bit, we take him out.  That's enough for the first day.  In the following days our timid dog and the pool meet several more times and each time he becomes more comfortable with the life jacket and the pool.  The last time he was in the pool my wife was able to take him to one side and I would call him and he would swim the 6 or so feet over to me unassisted.  He doesn't really seem much more comfortable than our other dog, but is definitely making good progress.  Thus far the pool seems to be to be a success.

Our older dog in her lifejacket

Our younger, timid dog

One thing we have noticed is that the life vests don't provide as much buoyancy as I thought they might.  Specifically, they don't seem to hold the dogs head as high as I would have thought they would with the extra flap of foam up front.  They do seem to keep them afloat and maybe we're just being nervous parents. The pool is fresh water, and salt water is more buoyant, so I'm sure they will work out just fine.

The other thing to note about this experiment is that even these small pools require constant maintenance if you intend to keep them filled for more than a day or two. The pool holds 640 gallons of water, so we don't want to keep refilling this thing.  And this pool doesn't have a pump, much less chemical systems to help out. We only intend to have it filled for two or three weeks, so we buy the less accurate test strips to test the basic chemical balance.  For chemicals, instead of buying pool specific chemicals, you can use a few household chemicals such as bottled bleach and borax.  To figure out what you need to do, there is a handy online pool calculator where you enter in your test info and it will tell you how much of what chemicals to add to keep your pool safe.

Thus far, the pool is working out well.  We will likely empty the pool this upcoming weekend and take the dogs back to the public pool for more of a real swim. Based on all the information I've been able to find, the treated water should be fine for the lawn, so it will serve one last purpose watering our lawn. Hopefully our dogs, and particularly our timid one, will find the pool a more comfortable experience on their next visit. Who knows, maybe soon our dogs will be as comfortable in the water as some dogs another internet friend has mentioned in their recent post.

A Little Progress

Feeling much better after the little medical issue (well, except for the whole health insurance thing and what "The Affordable Healthcare Act" may or may not mean...still need to research that).  We are pushing along on a couple fronts, but progress has been limited.

Having done a fair amount of looking at various boats, we definitely like the Lagoon 37 and the Tobago 35.  We think we would prefer the Lagoon 37 as it is just a bit larger and has better storage options, particularly in the galley.  Unfortunately, there are very few of them on the market right now. We do have a couple leads we are pursuing so hopefully there will be some good news to report in the near future.

Realizing that we haven't sailed a boat in over 6 months, we did manage to remedy that this weekend.  We rented one of our Colorado sailing school's J/22 boats (the same boats we used during the ASA 101 and 103 courses) for a half day to help knock the rust off of our basic sailing skills. No, it's not a catamaran and is far smaller than anything we can live aboard, but it is the right size for the reservoirs around here.

It took us a bit longer to get the boat setup than it did the last time we were on one, but things came back to us fairly quickly.  Can't say the winds were any better than in the past, over the course of 4 hours we saw everything from 0 to 20 knots from numerous directions.  It is probably a good thing that it started out on the calmer side.  We were able to practice a number of the basic maneuvers.  After the winds picked up and seemed to be sticking around, we decided to tuck a reef in the main.  Knock a little more dust off of old memories and we got the reef in...so of course the wind dies down about a minute later...and we get to practice shaking out the reef.

We get back to the dock, get fenders deployed and dock lines set and docking the boat went off without a hitch.  Almost looked like we knew what we were doing...almost.  I'm sure no one noticed that I probably should have started with the stern dock line instead of the bow one (they like us to enter the slip bow first).  But no fiberglass was chipped or paint was scratched and only the fenders touched the dock so it went well.  Overall, other than a few glitches that were to be expected, we met our goal and had some fun in the process.

Now if we can only find "our" boat.

If you're going to live on a boat, you should know how to swim.

Makes sense doesn't it?  If you are going to live surrounded by water, might make sense to know how to swim.  Of course, my wife and I know how to swim (we are actually PADI certified divers) but our two dogs haven't been raised around water. So, how does one introduce dogs that don't even like baths to swimming?  Lessons, of course.

When our oldest dog had surgery on her leg a number of months back, the doctor recommended physical therapy and gave us the name of a place that actually does PT for pets.  They did conventional stretching and exercises and they also had water treadmills and a pool. We found that, in addition to their clinical work, they offered open swimming and private swims for dogs as well (like a public swimming pool for pets). So, while we work on other aspects of our plan, we figured that we might as well get them introduced to the water. This weekend we did just that...our dogs had their first swimming lesson.

The "lesson" was reserved private pool time with one of their employees. We weren't sure how the dogs would do.  Our oldest dog has had exposure to their water treadmills during her treatment and in general is more of an adventurous free spirit so we figured she might do OK.  Our other dog is very timid and we wondered if he would even get in the water at all.

So, we start off by just introducing them to the pool area.  It is an above ground pool with a ramp leading up to a deck that partially wraps around the pool. While I was walking our timid dog around the pool deck to get him comfortable and my wife was talking to the employee, we hear a splash and there was our older dog in the water flailing around. She didn't look happy and was trying to get out so  I run over and grab onto the handle of the life vest as the employee (wearing waders in the pool) comes over to get her.  The employee then leads her over to the ramp across the pool so she could easily get out on her own.  Not the best start, but at least she was swimming.  I can only presume she fell in, but I wonder what she was doing.  The employee thought maybe she was trying to sniff at the water and lost traction on the slippery edge of the soft sided pool.

We managed to coax our older dog into the pool a couple more times, and she was picking up the whole swimming thing pretty fast.  When she wants to head to the ramp to get out, she can swim faster than the employee can keep up walking in the waders.  Overall, I think it went well, at least she found out she can swim (and hopefully when to hold her breath).

Our younger, more timid dog was another case.  In the half hour we had the pool, it was all we could to to coax him to walk down the ramp towards the water.  We did manage to get him, of his own accord, to step into the water.  We consider this a win (did I mention that he's timid?).  I think it will be a few more lessons to get him comfortable, but hopefully he'll get there.

Overall I think it was a good thing to do. Introducing them to water and swimming in a reasonably safe and controlled environment seems like it should pay dividends down the road.

My Sailing Library Groweth

Wasn't it just the other day when I wrote about starting to sell stuff in preparation for our move onto a sailboat?  Well, one exception to this is that my wife and I are trying to learn all we can about our soon to be new lifestyle.  When possible we've checked out books from the local library (not that you can find a lot of books about cruising or sailing at a library in Colorado...skiing maybe, sailing not so much) and we've slowly started picking up books such as "Inspecting the Aging Sailboat" as we started shopping for a boat.

Well, one of the blogs that I regularly read (the entire sailing list is on the right), "The Retirement Project"  posted that in their cleaning up to get ready to go, they were going to give away a number excellent sailing books, many of which were on my must read list.  Well, in a complete reversal of my recent luck, I actually won the book giveaway.

I'd like to thank Deb and TJ of The Retirement Project for their help in advancing our dream towards reality.

One of the things I've always heard about the cruising community is that they are kind, generous, and willing to help.  I think that this giveaway is a nice example of that mindset.  In that spirit I fully intend to pay this gift forward when we are done with them.  Meanwhile I will soon have an expanded library of sailing books to read.

The Annapolis Book of Seamanship

It's winter, we're in Colorado, and I'm trying to find a buyers agent (thank you to those who suggested it) so we can purchase our first sailboat.  Unfortunately, as is usually the case this time of year, it's been cold and snowing and just not conducive to anything sailing.  Trying to keep something sailing going on in my life while we try to locate a good agent, I stopped by the local library to see if I could at least find a little light reading.  As you might imagine, libraries in a land-locked and rather arid state don't have a lot of titles on sailing, but I did manage to find The Annapolis Book of Seamanship.

I would not consider this book to be "a little light reading" (although the hardcover version might be useful as a self-defense weapon).  It seems to be more of a reference for everything you need to know as a sailor. While I haven't read through it all yet, what I've read thus far seems to provide more detail and theory than the textbooks we used during our sailing classes (so it appeals to my engineering side that loves to know how things work).  I now better understand the sail plan/rig options and the concept of hull speed and am getting a jump on understanding the use of a spinnaker (one sail not covered in any of our classes yet).

While I would prefer to have electronic copies of most books that will be going on the boat (they can be heavy you know), there are some that I think we want in print so we can access them even if we have no power or charged batteries.  I was thinking our class texts would be good candidates for print copies, but maybe this one will take the place of a couple of the other books...if I can find a paperback version.

Off Grid and Off Land

One of the big appeals of the Cruising Lifestyle to us is the ability to live off-the-grid.  As we work to narrow down our boat options, I'm currently taking a look at all the various systems and how to best meet our needs in a low-impact (both ecological and financial) manner.  Things that we pretty much take for granted on land by just paying a bill now need to be taken into greater consideration.  Propulsion, electronics and lighting, heat and air conditioning, cooking and refrigeration, hot and cold running water, etc. all require additional thought.

Lets take that last item of hot and cold running water as it makes a good example.  To have water on a boat (yes, there is some irony here as you are floating in it) you need a means of holding fresh water, filling the tank, heating the water, pressurizing the system so it will run, and getting the used water back out of the boat.

Live-aboard boats typically have fresh water tanks, so the only real concern is the size of the tank (and  I have no idea what to say about the size we might need at this point).

Filling the tank is another story.  To get fresh water into the tank, you can fill it up at a marina or run water jugs from shore in a dinghy, but that costs time and fuel in addition to the cost of the water itself.  You can run a water maker to convert that water you are floating in to fresh water, but that takes energy and you need relatively clean sea water to begin with.  Catching rain water seems to be the lowest energy usage option, but requires the weather to cooperate as well as appropriate clean surfaces to catch the rain and the ability to channel it into storage.

ECHOTec Water Maker components

Now that you have fresh water, you want some of it to be hot.  Homes can have solar hot water, and I did find at least one supplier of smaller marine solar water panels.  Due to the power consumption requirements, I don't think an electric heater is viable.  Tankless gas (propane) heater is a typical option. but that uses gas that then needs to be supplied to the boat.  Some systems use the heat generated by the engine(s) to heat water, but those require the engines to be run periodically to keep the temperatures up.

Getting the water flowing, both to the sinks and showers as well as from them, requires pumps.  There are manual pumps as well as electric ones.  I suppose you could run pumps on other fuel sources, but I imagine that is incredibly inefficient.

So, there is a lot to consider just looking at hot and cold running water.  Other systems have similar considerations.  Now we don't want to be spending all our time (or for that fact money) lugging fuels and water to the boat.  We also don't want to be leaving a large carbon footprint.

Electricity seems to be the best "fuel" option for many things.  With solar and wind generators, it should be in reasonably good supply.  It can run pumps, refrigeration, lights and electronics.   There is no doubt that we'll have solar and possibly wind to generate power.Unfortunately it isn't very efficient for cooking (I've heard a microwave can drain a typical boat battery bank in a matter of minutes).  Seems that propane fits the bill here. Would be nice to find a lower impact option.

For hot water, solar would be nice if it would work and propane makes a reasonable backup. For propulsion (when we are not using wind), electric would be a nice option, I just wonder if the technology is up to the task.  Otherwise we will be relegated to either gasoline or diesel.  Maybe we could do a hybrid....hmmmm.

Charter Day 4 - Back on the Horse...er Boat

When we booked this trip, our original plan was to do some cruising around the bay and the gulf coast and spend several days at anchor.  Unfortunately hurricane Sandy and our experience a couple days back took care of most of that. Now we only have two days left, having to return the boat by 5pm the second day.

Fortunately we awoke to lighter winds, in the 15 to 20 knot range.  My wife and I talked about taking the boat out for a sail again.  Since things seem to be calming down, we agreed that we should, knowing if we didn't feel comfortable we would just head back. So, we have breakfast, head over to the hotel for a shower, and then prepare to head out to try again.

We left the marina just as we did two days prior, without incident.  As we made our way out of the marina and past the St. Petersburg Pier, the swell did pick up a bit, but nowhere near as bad as it was the last couple days.  We again head into the wind, unfurl the roller furling main to a reefed point that was about 3/4 of the total sail area.  We bear away and I reduce the motor to idle.  This configuration was giving us reasonable power so I shut down the motor.  We were sailing!  I think we'll forgo any headsail for now.

I'm pretty sure my wife was a bit nervous at first.  But the conditions were calmer and I think we had the mainsail set better for the conditions so we seemed to fall into the groove of sailing the boat pretty quickly this day.  We did a number of maneuvers not too far from the marina and everything went smoothly.  So after one of our tacks we were heading south...and I was thinking that there's an anchorage only a couple hours or so away at the rate we were going.  My wife seemed comfortable now, so why not see if we can get a little more experience in these last two days?

After sailing along in the same direction for a bit I think my wife was on to me.  I had looked at the charts previously and knew of this anchorage.   It is a small bay created by Pinellas Point and the Sunshine Skyway bridge approach.  Not the ideal scenic anchorage or the longer trip we had initially planned, but it will do.  It appears to be protected from the northeast winds at least.  So when she asked, I confessed the  idea.  She was fine with it so off we went on our abbreviated adventure.


View Tampa Bay Short Trip in a larger map

We sailed south for a while, found the channel that we needed to get to the anchorage (at least without running aground) and motored thru the channel.  We made it to the anchorage in a couple hours and do a spin around the little cove to see where we think we should anchor.  Closer to the highway and deal with the noise or a bit further away where it seems less protected from the wind?  We end up choosing a point about half way between.

Have I mentioned yet that this boat doesn't have an anchor windlass?  Well. it doesn't.  It was quite a bit of fun to try dropping the anchor by hand.  We were in about 10 feet of water and my wife was trying to keep the boat in position as I lowered it.  After the anchor contacts the bottom, I had my wife put the engine in idle.  Given the winds, this was a bit of a mistake.  The boat started getting blown away from the anchor fast enough I wasn't able to keep a count on how much rode (chain/rope) was let out.  I had my wife give it a little more power and I was able to tie off the anchor at what I estimate was about 100 ft.  Since we only needed 7:1, a 10:1 scope should be more than adequate to keep us put.

After setting the anchor I watch a couple poles abeam us to verify we were not dragging the anchor.  I then set the anchor watch feature of the chart plotter as an extra safety measure.  Two lessons learned here: 1) we need to work on our hand signals during anchoring and 2) any boat we get will definitely have a windlass (at least a manual one).

While we are making ourselves lunch, we realize that the "protected" anchorage is still allowing the boat to blow around a bit.  Ok, it's swinging in an arch of about 120 degrees. This exposes the broadside of the boat to the chop a good percentage of the time. While I know what to do to prevent sailing at anchor on a cat, without another anchor or extra rode, there didn't seem to be much that can be done about the situation on this boat.

My wife and I talk about the situation and decide that maybe we didn't want to spend the night like this.  We've spent the night at anchor several times on this trip and this boat just feels unstable when it is at rest.  Add the swing and chop from the winds and  it just doesn't seem like a good idea at this juncture.

Since this post is getting rather long, I'll cover the return trip and some of the lessons learned in the next post.

Charter Day 2 - What Have I Done?

The past few days tropical storm/hurricane Sandy had been approaching the US and we awoke this day to the storm starting her pass by Florida.  Yes, she was well east of us (all the way across the width  of Florida and a good distance out to sea) as well as a bit south of us, but because she was a big storm, this was still causing some stronger winds all the way over in Tampa Bay.

After breakfast and making use of the showers at the Vinoy hotel, we see a couple sailboats out in the bay sailing with reefed sails.  We decide to get going thinking that, if we don't like the conditions, we can always come back to the marina.  So we get ready to go...for the first time by ourselves in a large-enough-to-live-in boat.  Taking into account the direction the wind will blow the boat while we were in the slip, we remove the spring lines  and all but the one dock line that will help us keep the boat under control until we get a bit of speed coming out of the dock (when the rudder becomes effective).  We set the one line as a running line so my wife could cast it off while standing on the boat as I motor the boat out.

We leave the slip without incident and make our way out of the marina and the protected cove. As we leave the protection of the cove we notice the seas were choppier than the previous day.  By the time we made it far enough away from the St. Petersburg pier, it seemed we were in 3 ft seas...and this was in Tampa Bay.  The winds were from the northeast, so the fetch was all the way across the  bay.

Raising the main on this boat is a little different, as the main rolls up inside the mast.  Since the winds were a steady 20kts and gusting higher, we wanted to reef the main, so we prepare to partially unfurl the main.  Unlike having reef points, with a roller you have an infinite ability to reef the sail.  So, we take our best guess and bring the main sail part way out.  We get the main set, and I shut down the engine.

With the rough water the boat slowed and we started losing directional control.  So, I started the engine again and I opted to bring out a little of the head sail so hopefully it would give us a bit of power without overpowering the boat.  Since I was at the helm at the time I asked my wife to do it, but she seemed to be having some difficulty with the rigging of this boat, so I set the autopilot and went to help.  We got the head sail about 50% unfurled and I set a broad reach  course and put the engine in idle.  This time we were getting some power.

The roughness of the seas  combined with our control difficulties made the decision to just head back to the marina an easy one.  Maybe this wasn't the best day to be making our first leg of a trip by ourselves on a boat with which we have little experience. I head the boat up into the wind to get us heading back in the general direction of the marina and ask my wife to re-trim the sail. Again she was having difficulty.  It was about this time that I start to realize that something more was wrong.

The rough sea, the gusting wind, and the rolling and healing of the smaller mono-hull boat all combined to scare my wife much more than I had realized.  Add in the urgency of needing to get the sails set before we lost steerage, and I was apparently more barking orders than calmly discussing them, and the combination of it all was too much for her.  What have I done?  Have I just pulled the rug out from under all of this?  To my wife, I am very sorry for being part of the problem.

After getting the sails trimmed, I decided the best action we could take was to start the engine, drop the sails, and just motor back to the marina.  I start the motor, head the boat into the wind and set the autopilot, and then furl the sails.  On the bright side we didn't have a problem with the roller furling head sail, but I apparently got it rolled so tight that there was about a one foot triangle still out when I ran out of furling line.  I was able to get the main furled and we motored back to the dock.

At the end of our lesson the prior day, we were told that we could pick up a Sailing Florida employee to help return the boat to the slip, so that is what we did.  I figured having someone else take over at this point was the prudent move.  The boat was uneventfully returned to it's slip, but the damage may have already been done to our long term plan.

We decided the best course of action for the rest of the day was to get off the boat and look around the St. Petersburg area instead.  As the day came to an end, we watched the sun set on the gulf side.

A pretty sunset and much calmer on the lee (protected from the wind) side..and you can still see some surf.  Not a bad end to a rather trying day.

Cruising Course Day 5 - ASA 104/114 Tests and Maneuvers

Every day so far Captain Tracey making coffee has been our alarm clock...but not this day.  Since we were in Bradenton, he spent the night at his place in Bradenton, so it was just us students on the boat.  I got up and made the coffee.  My wife says I'm an early riser...I've just not been good at sleeping when the sun is up since I left college.

Being in port, we were once again able to take advantage of marina showers.  The Twin Dolphin Marina has a nice setup with a number of nice clean private bathrooms upstairs with plenty of hot water.  After the shower we had eggs and bacon with potatoes for breakfast, finishing up some of the provisions.

We then took our ASA 104 (bareboat chartering) and 114 (cruising catamaran) written exams.  Both exams covered the material out of the respective books (Cruising Fundamentals for 104 and Multihull Cruising Fundamentals for 114). The 104 exam was a similar format to the 101 and 103 tests with 50 true/false questions and the remainder as multiple choice.  Unlike the earlier tests, these focus more on the various systems found on a larger boat (engines, plumbing, electrical, propane), trip planning and navigation, weather and emergencies.  Here are a few examples of the types of stuff on the test:

• True or False: Diesel engines use special spark plugs.
• True or False: Float plans are filed with the Coast guard.
• Multiple Choice: What should you do if you find yourself dragging anchor?
• Multiple Choice: Using a supplied chart, plan a course between different points and determine your ETA and fuel requirements.  Provided performance specifics, calculate your speed and fuel used.
• Multiple Choice: What is the proper phraseology to hail someone on the VHF radio.

The 114 exam was a bit different.  It consisted of less than 50 questions with point values ranging from 1/2 point to 2 points (100 point total).  There were true/false questions, multiple choice questions, and short answer questions.  The test focuses on the differences between a cruising monohull and a catamaran.  Here are a few examples of the types of questions found on this test:

• True or False: Jack lines are not needed on a multihull because they are more stable.
• True or False: Catamarans have good windward ability.
• Multiple Choice: How can you reduce sailing on the hulls while at anchor?
• Multiple Choice: Excessive speed in heavy seas can cause what to happen?
• Short Answer: Explain the various types of bridge decks found on catamarans.
• Short Answer: How does the stability of a multihull differ from a monohull?

After taking the tests, we took the catamaran out for some maneuvers.  We went out and practiced heaving to, which is a tiny bit different in a catamaran due to the limited travel of the mailsail boom, mostly just a bit touchier in getting the boat to stabilize.  Then we practiced man overboard drills...and practiced, and practiced.  It's a good thing though, as my wife and I as well as the other couple will eventually be the sole crew on a boat, getting this maneuver right when short-handed is an important skill.

After the maneuvers, we went back to the marina and those of us that didn't get to take the boat out of the marina now got our chance to maneuver the boat in the marina.  With the breakwater that protects the marina, there are a couple of pretty tight 90 degree turns...especially tight for a 41' long, 23' wide boat.  With the twin engines, even a catamaran that large is pretty maneuverable.  I was able to put it back in the slip without too much difficulty.

We then sat down and went thru the tests.  Unlike our other course, we got to find out exactly which questions we missed...not that there were many.  Neither of us recall our exact scores on the 104 exam other than they were both above 90% (and I think my wife did slightly better than I did).  I got a 95% and my wife got 87.5% on the second.  So, we both passed and now have our 104 and 114 certifications.  Yea!

Technically this is the end of our course, but we weren't scheduled to pick up our charter until the next day.  Tracey let us and the other couple that was there for the 104/114 course stay on the boat an additional evening so we didn't have to go hunt down a last minute hotel.  We're getting a lot of experience with what it is like living on a boat.

Cruising Course Day 4 - Cabbage Key to Bradenton

Do I need to say it?  Coffee, anchor, and away we go once again.  Same start as all the previous days...but we did sleep in just a bit later.  The winds were again with us, up slightly from the previous day so after motoring out of the bay, we were able to raise the sails and travel by the power of the wind.  Apparently much of Tracey's earlier trip was missing the wind so we've been pretty lucky the last few days.

As with the previous days, we again took turns manning the various lines to raise the sails and then each of us took turns at the helm.  We've also taken turns cooking, washing dishes, and of course lounging around on the boat as we travel.  Yeah, it's a rough life.

I haven't really mentioned it yet, but thus far we've made breakfast, lunch, and all but yesterday's dinner while en route.  Breakfast ranged from fresh fruit and yogurt to omelets, lunches were generally just sandwiches, with hot dinners as varied as corned beef and cabbage to a spaghetti casserole.  All in all, we've been eating well and cooking has been easier than one might think.  The boat came with a 3 burner propane stove as well as a refrigerator and a freezer (we're told it doesn't keep ice cream well though) that runs on the house batteries.  Having a seawater pump for the sink helps save fresh water supplies while washing dishes and the Dawn dish soap didn't seem to have problems with it.

We made good time on this leg and arrived in Bradenton in the afternoon.  While this was the end of our 282 nautical mile trek, it was not the end of the course.  We will be staying on board another night and doing some maneuvers that we didn't have the chance to do during the trip the following day.  Having done a fair amount of cooking we chose to eat at the restaurant at the marina.

One other thing happened that day: After disappearing for a while, Captain Tracey came back with our tests for the 104 and 114 course.  Nobody really wanted to take the test while we were sailing (I personally wanted a little more time to study), so we postponed it until the next morning.

Thus far we have learned quite a bit about what it is like to live aboard a sailboat while traveling.

Here's the rough map of this leg of the trip:

View Cabbage Key to Bradenton in a larger map

Cruising Course Day 3 - Marco Island to Cabbage Key

As has become the routine, we awoke to the morning coffee making ritual followed by raising the anchor and continuing our journey.  Our winds from the prior day continued so after motoring out of the nice protected anchorage, we were able to again raise the sails.

Anchorage near Cabbage Key

As seems to be the case when you are actually going somewhere in a sailboat (instead of just puttering around a reservoir), we set and trim the sails and head on without having to do much adjustment or re-trimming.  The hardest part of sailing these past couple legs have been avoiding the crab pots. The captain must be getting more comfortable with his student's skills too as he disappeared into his cabin for a little while during this trip.

A little while after we were underway, we see a powerboat heading straight for us from about our 2 o'clock.  As they get closer you can tell the boat has that gray "government issued" look to it and indeed it was the coast guard.  They swing around behind us and come up along side.  We've been intercepted.  As it turns out, they were looking for another sailboat that had radioed a mayday and then contact was lost.  They asked if we had seen them and when we said we had not they asked us to let them know if we see this boat.  I hope those folks are OK.  It is nice to know that the fine men and women of the Coast Guard are out there, and it is also a stark reminder that everything worth doing has some risks.

We sail up the coast past Naples, Fort Myers Beach and pass by Sanibel Island to enter Pine Island Sound as we head toward our planned anchorage across from Cabbage Key.  I'm once again at the helm and bring the boat into the anchorage and drop the anchor.  We set out the proper 7:1 scope for an overnight anchor and I take a range-like sighting off a couple trees (one behind the other) on an island off our right to watch for dragging.  We don't appear to be moving and so we set the chart plotter's anchor alarm and call it a day.

Several folks go for a swim off the back of the boat.  Two of our group head a bit closer to the nice homes at our anchorage.  A "nice" lady apparently comes out of her house and asks them if they are aware there are crocodiles around.  Yeah, we get it, you don't want us peasants swimming near your fancy abode...well sorry, but the waters are public here.

Cabbage Key

After the swim we break out the dinghy and head over to Cabbage Key for dinner at their restaurant and to watch the sunset from their water tower.  After a few minutes at the water tower, the mosquitoes change our mind and we take refuge back at the restaurant for dinner.  After dinner, we hop back in our little rubber floating "car" and head back to our floating "house".  Another nice day in the books.

And trying something new...a rough map of this leg of the trip:

View Marco Island to Cabbage Key in a larger map