If you're lucky enough to live to 100, the years between 50 & 75 are your third quarter. That segment in life could be the waning of your physically agile years, so it's a good idea to stay active. It's also a good time to challenge your brain to keep things limber up there - by mastering something new. We decided to go sailing, and this is a chronicle of our journey.
9/4/12
Prop Wash & Anchor Rode
We had a great Labor Day weekend laboring on s/v Florian. We re-installed new, longer rope with a new splice to our existing chain, and put the anchor back on with a new shackle, minus the last 6 chain links that were corroded.
Stiff, twisted rope in the anchor locker. With Don on deck using the windlass
and me down below wrestling rope kinks, we eventually got it all off the boat.
The splice in our chain/rope was too stiff & swollen to fit through the windlass. After several attempts - both wet and dry - we decided to pull the chain, rope and anchor off Florian so we could lay it all out in the garage at home and take a closer look at the entire rode.
Anchor and rode off the boat and in the car.
We cut the fat, old splice off, and I was amazed at how fluffy and light the interior of the nylon strands are, considering how hard and stiff they were on the outside from compression and 16 years of silt & salt water.
After cutting the splice, the rope opened up, like a flower.
(I know, that's a total girl-statement, but I get to. (: )
The anchor shackle screw pin was corroded, and the last 6 links of chain were pretty beat up too.Don used a plumbing wrench to get the shackle off, and we bought new, longer rope. We had a new splice made to our existing chain (70 ft), after cutting the bad links off. I'm interested in learning to splice, but since keeping the chain and rope connected is rather crucial, I'll opt to leave this new splice to a professional so I can relax when we're anchored, and I'll practice splicing with the old rope.
The previous shackle had to be wrenched from the anchor
We haven't been able to identify the manufacturer of our chain. It could be Simpson Lawrence, since we have a SL Windlass, but after calling them (now Lewmar) to ask if they sold chain in the mid 90's, the support staff had no answers and little interest in finding one.
Do you know of a chain manufacturer that stamps the links with SL?
*UPDATE* At the Annapolis boat show in October 2012, we had the good fortune to speak with Kevin Donahue of Lewmar, formerly Simpson Lawrence. He helped us identify that the SL on our chain stands for Short Link, and that it's 3/8 BBB, likely manufactured for Simpson Lawrence by ACCO back in the early 90's. Mystery solved! Thanks, Kevin!
Pile o' rode
We re-attached the anchor to our partially new rode and fed it through our cleaned and greased Windlass (more on that in the next post). It's a tall pile of rode with not a lot of fall in our anchor locker, so we'll have to be mindful of kinks & hockles by letting the full length of chain and rope out without the anchor in deep water so it can untwist and right itself once or twice a year.
This is a 20 second video Don shot with the GoPro - to test the camera & dive housing mounted to the whisker pole, and to see if he could clean the prop from the cockpit. :)
After lots of labor over Labor Day weekend, it's time to relax on Florian.
After ticking off a list of To-Do's, it was time to relax with a cold brew in the cockpit. The weather was beautiful in the marina (though we heard a big Southerly swell from Pacific storms was not fun out on the water, and most of the boats that left in the mornings came right back.) We hope you had a safe & fun (and productive, if that's on your list) Labor Day weekend. Happy September!
It truly is amazing how much of a different language it is, even though it's English. But one day, if you're around boats long enough, eventually there's a neat moment when you realize that you understand everything being said and aren't running it through a mental translator anymore. Kinda like in "The Matrix," when Keanu Reeves abruptly sits up from his chair and says, "I know Kung Fu."
I like your trend toward boat project reporting Belinda, it's something I've been meaning to do more of on c.o.t.s. but I never seem to take enough pictures when my hands are covered with goo or sanding residue to give a good accounting! Thanks for the motivation :)
Thanks for the encouragement, Dane. I laughed out loud at the image of Keanu - sitting up and announcing his new-found martial arts skills. I'll be sure to shout it out with the same surprised panache when I've mastered all the boat lingo I'm digesting. And I say Yahoo if you start to post the details of your projects on Cadence. It's a wonderous way to share.... we are learning so much from the folks who've posted before us. Hang a rag in a belt loop, and you'll be able to clear just enough fingers to press the shutter without gunking your phone. Go for it. :)
I'll bet you're looking at the chain link upside down. It's probably 7.5 rather than SL Notice that the long leg of what you call an "L" slopes rather than being straight, and the bottom of what you're calling an S is flat like on a 5. 5 versus S. 7.5 is about the dimension of 5/16th inch chain in millimeters.
Hi, I realize this is an old post but - did you ever find out for certain if your chain was S-L or 5.7? - this is the only info on the Internet I can find about this chain.
I have the exact same chain ID. It fits my 3/8" AnchorLift WildCat perfectly. Same 9.8 links per foot as my 3/8" SS chain. I was hoping it was HT or G4 instead of proof. As I understand it BBB has longer links. Bought mine used off a 54' Hatteras for our 37' CSY.
@sailorsedge - We did get a confirmed ID on the chain, from Kevin Donohue at Lewmar (formerly Simpson Lawrence); the stamp on the chain denotes Short Link (SL) and he confirmed that ours is BBB 3/8 chain with a pitch of 27.5 and a Working Load of 5600 lbs. I hope that helps.
7 comments:
Most of these posts are another language to me, but I still love reading them!!
You are a cool bowl of strawberries with whipped cream on a hot day for reading our blog. Really. Thanks, Mel!
It truly is amazing how much of a different language it is, even though it's English. But one day, if you're around boats long enough, eventually there's a neat moment when you realize that you understand everything being said and aren't running it through a mental translator anymore. Kinda like in "The Matrix," when Keanu Reeves abruptly sits up from his chair and says, "I know Kung Fu."
I like your trend toward boat project reporting Belinda, it's something I've been meaning to do more of on c.o.t.s. but I never seem to take enough pictures when my hands are covered with goo or sanding residue to give a good accounting! Thanks for the motivation :)
Thanks for the encouragement, Dane. I laughed out loud at the image of Keanu - sitting up and announcing his new-found martial arts skills. I'll be sure to shout it out with the same surprised panache when I've mastered all the boat lingo I'm digesting.
And I say Yahoo if you start to post the details of your projects on Cadence. It's a wonderous way to share.... we are learning so much from the folks who've posted before us. Hang a rag in a belt loop, and you'll be able to clear just enough fingers to press the shutter without gunking your phone. Go for it. :)
I'll bet you're looking at the chain link upside down. It's probably 7.5 rather than SL Notice that the long leg of what you call an "L" slopes rather than being straight, and the bottom of what you're calling an S is flat like on a 5. 5 versus S. 7.5 is about the dimension of 5/16th inch chain in millimeters.
Hi, I realize this is an old post but - did you ever find out for certain if your chain was S-L or 5.7? - this is the only info on the Internet I can find about this chain.
I have the exact same chain ID. It fits my 3/8" AnchorLift WildCat perfectly. Same 9.8 links per foot as my 3/8" SS chain. I was hoping it was HT or G4 instead of proof. As I understand it BBB has longer links. Bought mine used off a 54' Hatteras for our 37' CSY.
Regards
@sailorsedge - We did get a confirmed ID on the chain, from Kevin Donohue at Lewmar (formerly Simpson Lawrence); the stamp on the chain denotes Short Link (SL) and he confirmed that ours is BBB 3/8 chain with a pitch of 27.5 and a Working Load of 5600 lbs. I hope that helps.
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