Well, we've had our first (of many, I suspect) delay of the trip.
With three solid days of rain on the forecast, we've decided to
postpone our departure until Monday Oct 3. This will give us
one clear day (Sunday) to do the final loading of the boat.
There's no point in starting out with everything soaked! ;)
Thursday, September 29, 2016
Wednesday, September 28, 2016
Provisioning!
A major buy of non-perishables at Costco, followed by hours of stuffing cans deep into storage areas.
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| Down the Hatch! |
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| "My arms aren't long enough!" |
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| "Now where shall I put this..." |
Monday, September 26, 2016
Civic Duty Accomplished, Time's Almost Up
Well, I didn't get selected for a trial, but I spent most of the day being available. This fulfilled my "one day or one trial" obligation.
Came home and tried to get some use out of the day, so I started labeling and dating our cases of canned meat with a sharpie. Otherwise, the paper labels will invariably come off and leave you with "mystery meat". We've got enough of this stuff to get us through a month if we have to!
Joan's new snorkle and fin set came in the mail today (Thank goodness for Amazon 2nd day shipping!). Bright red, as distinct from my unremarkable blue. So we're all set for underwater exploration. I've also got a new mask which has a builtin mount for a GoPro, so I'm looking forward to trying that out!
More provisioning tomorrow at Costco. Things are rapidly coming to a conclusion. I'll be glad when all the preparations are done and we can get underway!
Came home and tried to get some use out of the day, so I started labeling and dating our cases of canned meat with a sharpie. Otherwise, the paper labels will invariably come off and leave you with "mystery meat". We've got enough of this stuff to get us through a month if we have to!
Joan's new snorkle and fin set came in the mail today (Thank goodness for Amazon 2nd day shipping!). Bright red, as distinct from my unremarkable blue. So we're all set for underwater exploration. I've also got a new mask which has a builtin mount for a GoPro, so I'm looking forward to trying that out!
More provisioning tomorrow at Costco. Things are rapidly coming to a conclusion. I'll be glad when all the preparations are done and we can get underway!
Saturday, September 24, 2016
6 Days to Go
Well, the new freezer fan is helping a little, but the freezer bottom is still wandering between 22 F and 25 F. A new water bottle I placed there had not frozen in 16 hrs. At this point, we're out of time, so it'll just have to do as it is.
Sorry there are no pictures today. had a very limited amount of time at the boat today, and I used it to do an oil change, and load propane on the boat.
Our friend Scott Thorne is making all haste to get his Pearson 385 Irish Blessing ready to go by Oct 1st, and he just might make it! He was putting on the first coat of bottom paint today, and expects to have it back in the water and the mast back up by mid week! It'll be good to have Scott as a buddy boat, as he has made this trip south before.
T minus 6 and counting...
Sorry there are no pictures today. had a very limited amount of time at the boat today, and I used it to do an oil change, and load propane on the boat.
Our friend Scott Thorne is making all haste to get his Pearson 385 Irish Blessing ready to go by Oct 1st, and he just might make it! He was putting on the first coat of bottom paint today, and expects to have it back in the water and the mast back up by mid week! It'll be good to have Scott as a buddy boat, as he has made this trip south before.
T minus 6 and counting...
Friday, September 23, 2016
First two speed bumps and the trip hasn't even started!
This morning, I awoke to discover a Waterway Guide Nav Alert in my inbox. It said that the Dismal Swamp Canal was closed due to high water! It seems that they're concerned that the excess water will put too much stress on the lock gates and damage them, so they're closed until further notice. Stay tuned for updates. If they're not reopened by the time we get to Norfolk, we'll have to use the Virginia cut instead. Hopefully, if that's the case, we'll be able to do the Dismal Swamp on the return in the spring. But I hope it reopens soon. I was really looking forward to seeing it.
The other hiccup is a little more concerning. This week, I noticed that a plastic water bottle that I had placed in the bottom of the freezer section almost a week ago had not yet frozen! I got out another digital thermometer and put the sensor in the bottom of the freezer. What it reported was that, despite the cold-plate being around 0 deg F, the air temp at the bottom of the box was only 26 deg F!! Looks like I'm going to have to add another circulating fan to the freezer. Hopefully, that will get the whole freezer section down to a hard freeze without increasing the power drain too much. We were really counting on being able to freeze a significant amount of meat to get us through the thinly populated/unpopulated sections of the Bahamas. Otherwise, we'll just have to resort to our canned meat fallbacks.
I really wasn't planning on doing any more project work in these final two weeks, but we all know about how plans go on a boat! We left the boat a mess, in the middle of emptying out every cupboard and locker to decide what stays and what goes. I'll just have to find space to work around the mess.
The other hiccup is a little more concerning. This week, I noticed that a plastic water bottle that I had placed in the bottom of the freezer section almost a week ago had not yet frozen! I got out another digital thermometer and put the sensor in the bottom of the freezer. What it reported was that, despite the cold-plate being around 0 deg F, the air temp at the bottom of the box was only 26 deg F!! Looks like I'm going to have to add another circulating fan to the freezer. Hopefully, that will get the whole freezer section down to a hard freeze without increasing the power drain too much. We were really counting on being able to freeze a significant amount of meat to get us through the thinly populated/unpopulated sections of the Bahamas. Otherwise, we'll just have to resort to our canned meat fallbacks.
I really wasn't planning on doing any more project work in these final two weeks, but we all know about how plans go on a boat! We left the boat a mess, in the middle of emptying out every cupboard and locker to decide what stays and what goes. I'll just have to find space to work around the mess.
Monday, September 19, 2016
A Quick Shakedown
This past weekend, we gave the boat's systems a quick shakedown by attending the annual "hurricane" rendezvous of the Pearson Sailing Association, which was held on Swan Creek in the Eastern shore of the upper Chesapeake.
We had a great sail over, and were having such a good time that we turned around while approaching Swan Creek and sailed back halfway across the Bay before turning back to head into the Creek!
A total of four boats attended the raftup, with seven people in attendance:
Left to right: Joan Criscuolo, Bob Morrow, Anne Martin, Elaine Leigh, Bob Leigh, John Martin
Joan loves to cook on the boat, and the weekend was no exception! We never go hungry! Saturday's hors d'oeuvres included bacon wrapped scallops, and Sunday's breakfast was 3-cheese scrambled eggs and chicken-spinach sausage.
On Sunday, we got a late start back because we were just feeling lazy. Joan & Anne took a short swim and there were no jellyfish.
We got off by 1, and the wind looked like a promising 10 out of the South, but as soon as we sailed across the Swan Point Bar, the wind died. After an hour of drifting on the current, we gave up and motored back towards the Patapasco.
By then we were feeling a little nibbley, so Joan said she would fix some cold chicken with lettuce. I was expecting a snack. What I got was this:
It was delicious!
The refrigeration did well, keeping the cooler side of the icebox under 38 with no ice. The power consumption was a bit higher than I'd hoped, but still manageable. Looks like we will need around 70 Amp-Hours per day overall. Hopefully, the solar panels can make up the bulk of this, and the wind generator fill in the rest. With any luck, we may not need to run our engine to charge the batteries while at anchor!
We had a great sail over, and were having such a good time that we turned around while approaching Swan Creek and sailed back halfway across the Bay before turning back to head into the Creek!
A total of four boats attended the raftup, with seven people in attendance:
Joan loves to cook on the boat, and the weekend was no exception! We never go hungry! Saturday's hors d'oeuvres included bacon wrapped scallops, and Sunday's breakfast was 3-cheese scrambled eggs and chicken-spinach sausage.
On Sunday, we got a late start back because we were just feeling lazy. Joan & Anne took a short swim and there were no jellyfish.
We got off by 1, and the wind looked like a promising 10 out of the South, but as soon as we sailed across the Swan Point Bar, the wind died. After an hour of drifting on the current, we gave up and motored back towards the Patapasco.
By then we were feeling a little nibbley, so Joan said she would fix some cold chicken with lettuce. I was expecting a snack. What I got was this:
The refrigeration did well, keeping the cooler side of the icebox under 38 with no ice. The power consumption was a bit higher than I'd hoped, but still manageable. Looks like we will need around 70 Amp-Hours per day overall. Hopefully, the solar panels can make up the bulk of this, and the wind generator fill in the rest. With any luck, we may not need to run our engine to charge the batteries while at anchor!
Friday, September 16, 2016
Success, sort of...
Yesterday I got to the boat to check up on how the newly reinsulated refrigeration system was doing. Initial inspection looked good. The freezer side was getting down to its setpoint of -15C (about 5 degrees F) and the cooler side was staying between 2C and and 3C ( 35F to 38F). The compressor's duty cycle seemed to be greatly reduced, indicating that the added insulation was doing it's job.
Unfortunately, this was in the morning, before it warmed up.
In the afternoon, the outside temperature soared to 90, and the cooler's circulation fan was struggling to keep up. It ended up running 100% of the time, but only getting the cooler side down to 2.4C (about 36F). I think this means I'm going to have to use a bigger fan that moves more air.
I also took the time to permanantly mount and label the fan controller.
Today I moved the freezer's setpoint down to -18C (about 0 F) in the hope that the colder freezer air would give the circulation fan a little help in getting the cooler section's temperature down to where I want it.
We're going on a weekend trip this Saturday to give the system a "live fire" test.
Unfortunately, this was in the morning, before it warmed up.
In the afternoon, the outside temperature soared to 90, and the cooler's circulation fan was struggling to keep up. It ended up running 100% of the time, but only getting the cooler side down to 2.4C (about 36F). I think this means I'm going to have to use a bigger fan that moves more air.
I also took the time to permanantly mount and label the fan controller.
Today I moved the freezer's setpoint down to -18C (about 0 F) in the hope that the colder freezer air would give the circulation fan a little help in getting the cooler section's temperature down to where I want it.
We're going on a weekend trip this Saturday to give the system a "live fire" test.
Tuesday, September 13, 2016
Testing, 1,2,3 ...
Just a short update today.
I got the last of circulation fan and its wiring done, but ran out of time before I could install the fan controller. So I temporarily wired it up sitting out on the counter top, closed everything up, and applied power. It all seemed to be working fine, but the real test will be tomorrow, when I see if it can get the cooler side down to 35 while still keeping the freezer frozen. Stay tuned!
I got the last of circulation fan and its wiring done, but ran out of time before I could install the fan controller. So I temporarily wired it up sitting out on the counter top, closed everything up, and applied power. It all seemed to be working fine, but the real test will be tomorrow, when I see if it can get the cooler side down to 35 while still keeping the freezer frozen. Stay tuned!
T Minus 19 Days and Counting...
Well, I guess its about time I should start writing something, since we leave in less than 3 weeks!
The Plan
But first I suppose I should go back to the beginning. It all started about 21 months ago, when I retired in Jan of 2015. Joan and I started thinking of more ambitious sailing trips we could undertake once Joan retired in summer of 2016. What we came up with is a real stretch for us. On October 1, we will head south on the InterCoastal Waterway (ICW), staying "inside" all the way from the Chesapeake to Key Biscane Florida. From there, we will "jump off" to Bimini, Bahamas, and spend the winter in the Bahamas, making a large loop via the Berrys, Nassau, The Exumas, Georgetown, Long Island, Cat Island, Eluthera, The Abacos, and Grand Bahama. We will return to Florida and back up the ICW in the Spring of 2017. Total elapsed time will be about six months (or more)!
Having talked to many who have made the Fall trip down the ICW before, one thing that stood out was that the cold weather marches South faster than a sailboat can. Leave too late, or dally too long along the way, and you'll end up freezing your butt off until you get well into Florida! So we're leaving a little earlier than most, who often wait at least until after the Annapolis Sailboat show, and often until November first (the official end of hurricane season). We plan to keep a pretty steady pace on the way down, with no extended stops. I'm estimating we'll take about 5-6 weeks. We'll do our ICW sightseeing on the way North in the Spring. This way, the longer we take then, the warmer it gets!
"But, what about those hurricanes" I can hear you saying. Well, the way I see it, we have two things going for us. One: We don't usually see much hurricane activity that late in the season (although there have been some spectacular exceptions to this!). Two: Since we're staying "inside" and not going offshore, we'll never be far from a hurricane hole anchorage or a safe haulout location. It's not like a hurricane can sneak up on you! There is always plenty of warning. We will just have to be properly mindful of the weather and prepared to modify our plans when the weather requires it.
The Projects
This Summer, I started out with four "must finish" projects to get the boat in shape for the trip. I'm now one day away from completing three out of four! :(
Project One was the addition of two 100 Watt solar panels, and an MPPT solar charge controller, to supplement the wind generator we already have. This required building a framework structure out of stainless tubing over top of the bimini. Designing and fabricating the framework took a long time, but it's been finished and operational since mid-July.
Project Two was to upgrade to a bigger alternator with an external smart regulator. This would minimize the amount of daily engine runtime we would need to keep the batteries charged while at anchor. This was also completed mid-July.
Project Three was to improve the insulation of the icebox, which was converted to refrigeration by the previous owner. This one was super critical, as the existing insulation was so poor that the compressor ran for twice as long as it should (consuming lots of power). In addition, the freezer section worked ok, but the refrigerator section wouldn't get below 50 degrees without the addition of ice! This would become a real problem in the Bahamas, as ice is unavailable in many places, especially in the Exumas. This project became a real challenge, requiring about eight weeks to complete! Because I couldn't access the space around the outside of the icebox to inject foam, I was forced to add insulation on the inside of the box. This reduced the volume of the box, but we were already losing about half of the volume anyway because of all the ice we needed to add! The project required cutting and fitting thirteen different irregular-shaped foam insulation panels to line the inside of the box, and another nine fiberglass-reinforced plastic (FRP) panels to protect the foam and become the new insides of the box. In addition, a thermostatically controlled circulation fan was installed to move cold air from the freezer to the refrigerator section when the refrigerator section got above 38 degrees. I'm finishing it up tomorrow, and then giving it 24 hrs to cool down before seeing how well it works. Keep your fingers crossed!
The Plan
But first I suppose I should go back to the beginning. It all started about 21 months ago, when I retired in Jan of 2015. Joan and I started thinking of more ambitious sailing trips we could undertake once Joan retired in summer of 2016. What we came up with is a real stretch for us. On October 1, we will head south on the InterCoastal Waterway (ICW), staying "inside" all the way from the Chesapeake to Key Biscane Florida. From there, we will "jump off" to Bimini, Bahamas, and spend the winter in the Bahamas, making a large loop via the Berrys, Nassau, The Exumas, Georgetown, Long Island, Cat Island, Eluthera, The Abacos, and Grand Bahama. We will return to Florida and back up the ICW in the Spring of 2017. Total elapsed time will be about six months (or more)!
 |
| The Big Loop |
Having talked to many who have made the Fall trip down the ICW before, one thing that stood out was that the cold weather marches South faster than a sailboat can. Leave too late, or dally too long along the way, and you'll end up freezing your butt off until you get well into Florida! So we're leaving a little earlier than most, who often wait at least until after the Annapolis Sailboat show, and often until November first (the official end of hurricane season). We plan to keep a pretty steady pace on the way down, with no extended stops. I'm estimating we'll take about 5-6 weeks. We'll do our ICW sightseeing on the way North in the Spring. This way, the longer we take then, the warmer it gets!
"But, what about those hurricanes" I can hear you saying. Well, the way I see it, we have two things going for us. One: We don't usually see much hurricane activity that late in the season (although there have been some spectacular exceptions to this!). Two: Since we're staying "inside" and not going offshore, we'll never be far from a hurricane hole anchorage or a safe haulout location. It's not like a hurricane can sneak up on you! There is always plenty of warning. We will just have to be properly mindful of the weather and prepared to modify our plans when the weather requires it.
The Projects
This Summer, I started out with four "must finish" projects to get the boat in shape for the trip. I'm now one day away from completing three out of four! :(
Project One was the addition of two 100 Watt solar panels, and an MPPT solar charge controller, to supplement the wind generator we already have. This required building a framework structure out of stainless tubing over top of the bimini. Designing and fabricating the framework took a long time, but it's been finished and operational since mid-July.
Project Two was to upgrade to a bigger alternator with an external smart regulator. This would minimize the amount of daily engine runtime we would need to keep the batteries charged while at anchor. This was also completed mid-July.
Project Three was to improve the insulation of the icebox, which was converted to refrigeration by the previous owner. This one was super critical, as the existing insulation was so poor that the compressor ran for twice as long as it should (consuming lots of power). In addition, the freezer section worked ok, but the refrigerator section wouldn't get below 50 degrees without the addition of ice! This would become a real problem in the Bahamas, as ice is unavailable in many places, especially in the Exumas. This project became a real challenge, requiring about eight weeks to complete! Because I couldn't access the space around the outside of the icebox to inject foam, I was forced to add insulation on the inside of the box. This reduced the volume of the box, but we were already losing about half of the volume anyway because of all the ice we needed to add! The project required cutting and fitting thirteen different irregular-shaped foam insulation panels to line the inside of the box, and another nine fiberglass-reinforced plastic (FRP) panels to protect the foam and become the new insides of the box. In addition, a thermostatically controlled circulation fan was installed to move cold air from the freezer to the refrigerator section when the refrigerator section got above 38 degrees. I'm finishing it up tomorrow, and then giving it 24 hrs to cool down before seeing how well it works. Keep your fingers crossed!
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