In Pursuit of a Dry Bilge: Kracor Water Tanks (& a cocktail recipe)

My step-dad TC and Don on Heiress (Cape Dory 31)

For my non-boaty friends, a bilge is like a miniature basement; a compartment on a boat that sits in the lowest area - under the sole (floor) - below the waterline. It's purpose is to collect & contain liquids - everything from waves-over-the-boat sea water, to leaking engine oil & diesel, etc.  A wet bilge is normal, so automatic bilge pumps are installed to keep the levels manageable.

A little water in the bilge is normal and acceptable.
But I'd prefer ours (above) to be dry & dusty.

The contents of bilges can be informative, because other than wet marine environment condensation running down the interior walls of your hull, the other stuff boaters find in bilges is often evidence of some looming project (a split in the sanitation hoses, a leaking oil seal, corroded gas tank, weeping through-hulls, etc.) I'll go on record and say it; we want a dry bilge. Our salty, seasoned, sailing friends shake their heads at this seemingly naive & futile goal. But determination works for salmon swimming upstream, and we're determined.  If you're not into bilge water source diagnostics (and if you're not a boater, I don't blame you), scroll to the bottom of this post for a groovy cocktail recipe that has nothing whatsoever to do with bilges or boats. And thanks for stopping in.

Mopping pooled water around the caps of the tank under the nav berth

 After finding tiny rivers of wetness snaking down the sides of the bilge from three directions, we traced those little water maps back to the sources and found pools on top of all three fresh water tanks after recently filling them.  We reduced the level of the water in the tanks by running the faucet, and took the caps off to have a look at their sealing abilities.

One of the existing caps on our Kracor water tanks

One of the existing Kracor water tank cap gaskets

They were probably original to the boat (17 years old), and looked like they needed to be retired. We jotted down the serial number and manufacturer of the tanks, and called Kracor to ask about replacement caps. Steve at Kracor took our call, and he was kind, helpful and very knowledgeable. He deduced the make and model of our boat by the serial number of the starboard tank, because they were custom made for Cape Dory and Robinhood boats. Then he informed us that the openings and caps, which are actually called clean out covers, are manufactured to be splash proof, but *not* water proof, so the tanks should not be filled to maximum capacity. Now we know. (And I wonder; how does that work when we're heeled over?)

New cap & gaskets arrived in the mail; big difference!

 When I explained that I wanted to order replacements for our old and slippery "splash proof clean out covers",  he said we'd save money by ordering them directly from the supplier Kracor orders them from. (How cool is that?) And the company - Claire's Marine Outfitters - recently opened an Ebay store, to make online ordering easier. So, for $14 each, we got three new caps for our water tanks. Yahoo!

Much better = not leaking. :)

 Boaters are all too familiar with the concept of Scope Creep; when your original plan for a project stretches and grows to take more time, more supplies and more money.  Well, of course, once we got the tanks open, and saw the slime on the original caps, we used flash lights to explore the interior of the fresh water tanks.  Too Many Floaties.  :(  So, we began - in earnest - researching all the different ways and products used to clean fresh water tanks. But I'll save that for another post.

Canadian Smoke Jumper (think: pancakes at a campfire)

I found this drink - a Canadian Smoke Jumper - online here, and since Don a) loves Laphroaig, b) loves all things maple, and c) is a fire fighter, we had to make it. The recipe calls for equal parts:

Laphroaig Single Malt Scotch Whiskey
Crown Royal Maple Finished Whiskey
Simple Syrup

We erred on the side of sweet-caution, and reduced the simple syrup by half, and will probably reduce it further in the next round. If you like smokey, peaty scotch, and maple scent & flavor - like pancakes by a campfire, you might like this drink.  Enjoy!

Thanks for stopping by!

One Year as Boat Owners (& a Force 10 Sea Kettle Grill for sale)

Pacific Ocean skies above Florian's sails off the coast of Ventura

We took delivery of s/vFlorian - our Robinhood 36 - one year ago. I keep a folder of all boat related images on iphoto as a visual documentation/log of our projects, and as a reminder of our progress. In a year, we've taken a little over 2500 boat pictures.

This is how happy boat owners look (photo by our wonderous friend, J.H.)

Now, to be fair, I'm trigger happy on the shutter, and I like to document *everything*. This comes from being so visually oriented that I'm pretty much lost if I don't have visual cues in life (things like math & numeric time tables make me cry). But being turbo-girl on the camera is a benefit  I think, because when I scroll through the photos, and jot down the projects we've accomplished on the boat in the past twelve months, it's a loooong list, and I'm pretty sure I would have forgotten half of them without this pictorial diary.  I have many blog posts to write, to share all the repairs, upgrades and retrofits we've tackled, and I hope to write more this summer.  And in the meantime, we've got a Force10 kettle grill for sale. (See pics below.) Did I give you whiplash with that subject change? Ooops. Sorry. :)

This globe kettle was in the lazarette on our boat, and after a little cleaning, it's ready to grill.

Force10 still makes marine stoves, but I don't think they make kettle grills any more.

The stem of the kettle grill, to attach to your pulpit rail.

Propane connection on the grill (propane tanks are not included in this offering)

The manual to the Force 10 Sea Kettle Maine Barbecue

The hot plate and grill inside the kettle. It works fine, or use it for parts.

Hinges for the cover work great, as does the vent.

 If you're interested in buying this little sea kettle, send me an email at bdelpesco   at  mac  dot  com. I've got a box to ship it pretty much anywhere, and if you're in the area of Los Angeles or Ventura, you can just pick it up. Grill season is here. :) (Sold)

Sunset in Ventura, CA

Winter & Spring Sailboat Projects

Birds will ensure frequent visits to your boat over the California
winter, because you'll want to scrub all the crap they splatter
on the deck & sail covers before it petrifies in the sun.
If you're really unlucky, you'll have to remove their nests
from under your dodger. (Not us, but our slip neighbors; what a mess.)

We've spent weekends working on the boat here and there over the winter, but not as frequently as we did in the Fall and Summer. When it's raining, windy and cold, we'd rather stay home, and work on the plenty of other things that need our attention.

Try not to drop your key card on a windy day.
Especially if it might fly out of your hand before
you even get the gate to your dock open.
But if you must, be sure to drop it at low tide
 so you can crawl precariously down
the slippery rocks to go retrieve it.

We've accomplished a decent pile of projects, which we'll write about soon. The assortment included water-tank clean out, a new stereo, an overhaul of the propane system & new tanks, a bilge mystery and a leak in the Vetus Water Exhaust system.  When we sleuthed the cause of water-where-it-shouldn't-be (the exhaust), we both tried to fold, twist & squeeze into the lazarette to access it, but we failed. We called on a professional to help. A small-ish professional.

Jose, showing how it's done. Getting to the exhaust to replace the Vetus.

After watching the Amazing Jose (abt 5'5") fold himself
just right, and twist & scrunch ever so slowly to get into our lazarette,
I felt sure I could fold enough too (I'm 5'11").  It wasn't easy, but I did it.

 The mistake in my effusively enthused accomplishment (the pic above was snapped as I was coming back out) was that Don thought for about 2.5 seconds, and announced that from now on, if we need anything else in the lazarette worked on, I'm the Go-To-Gal for the job. Durnitt.

Little puddles of rain water coming in the anchor
hawsepipe and  settling at the base of the mast.

 In our search for a dry bilge, some of our next projects include a re-do of the hawsepipe, a new mast boot, re-bedding cleat screws on the foredeck where we've got water coming down the thread of the screws - and then, of course, lots of mold abatement. :) More on that later too. I know, I bet you can't wait.

But even with the rainy chill, and the list of projects,
we did find some unseasonably beautiful days
here and there, which gave us an excuse to take breaks
 and sprawl in the cockpit in the sunshine
with a cold beer and an ear-to-ear grin.
We are SO glad Spring is here!

Happy New Year (and a little carpet install)

Winter sunset in the slip on s/v Florian

Florian has a nice teak & holly sole (floor)

The previous owners of our sweet little boat took very good care of her. The sole (floor) is almost 17 years old, but it looks great, with just a few scratches here and there. We thought it might be wise to protect it with carpet, and give our bare feet a surface to land on that's less slippery when wet, and less chilly during the winter. Boat carpeting is spendy, so we went looking for an alternative.

We used butcher paper to make a template on the floor

 I use black butcher paper to seal the back of my art when I frame it, so I have a big roll of the stuff on a dispenser in my studio. I cut a length off, brought it to the boat, and we made a template of the shape and size we needed to cover just the center-line of the teak, with holes for the drop-down dining table legs to lock into their little recessed collars.

Shopping the remnant carpet store

I found a carpet remnant manufactured for school floors (water proof and tough) for about $40.

Laying our template over the remnant

We flipped the carpet remnant, and flipped our template, and traced the shape on the back of the carpet webbing.

Don uses a straight edge and a knife to cut the remnant

With cardboard and a big cutting surface underneath, Don cut the carpet to size.

Cutting non-slip to lay under the carpet

I bought a roll of non-slip carpet backing for about $9. and we cut & placed it between the sole (floor) and the carpet to eliminate any slipping, and to protect the wood from the course surface of the carpet backing.

The floor is prettier than the carpet we've
covered it with, but it's protected now

Here's a nice, old fashioned Winter cocktail - the Applejack Rabbit

Fill a cocktail shaker half way with cracked ice

Add four shots of your favorite Calvados (apple brandy)

Squeeze the juice of one small lemon into the shaker

Add two teaspoons of real maple syrup (or more if you like sweet)

Cap & shake mightily.

Strain the drink into chilled glasses and top with a thin apple wedge.

Put your feet up, take a deep breath and enjoy this dandy little drink.

Happy New Year!

Boat Yoga: Squeezing tall bodies into tight spaces

Don helping Dave Perry work inside the
port side cockpit locker

When we took delivery of Florian in the Spring, Dave Perry, the broker from Robinhood Marina visited to go over some of her particulars during her re-commissioning. With a little twisting and folding, he slid into the port side cockpit locker (above) which lead me to believe we'd be able to do the same thing. After several attempts, not so much.  We've learned pretty quick that trying to fold, twist & contort your body to fit into small spaces is a normal endeavor on a boat. It's a bit more challenging when you're tall, and both of us are just too long to fit into many spaces on Florian.  But that doesn't stop us from trying. We refer to these contortions as Boat Yoga.

Port side settee battery compartment bend

Shop-Vac stretch to the anchor locker in
the V-berth - a low cobra pose?

Port side cockpit locker reach-in

Squeezing into the bilge to sponge out water -
a modified sunbird pose?

Sideways in the engine compartment
- a marichyasana pose?

On the galley (kitchen) floor, replacing a
water accumulator - modified eagle pose

Accordian-man; trying to reach a hose under
the sink - a Natarajasana?

Folded in the head (bathroom) to upgrade
toilet parts - a tortoise pose?

Dangling in the Lazarette, hanging on with a foot to
reach exhaust hoses - Locust pose

Post Boat Yoga Reward: Bread & Whiskey :)

Our boat is 36 ft with a 10'8" beam. I imagine a bigger boat has larger spaces to squeeze into, no? Do you fit into the crawl spaces on your boat?

Energy Efficiency on a Boat: upgrading to LED bulbs

Beautiful weather and a lot of fantastic boats at the Annapolis Boat Show

In October, Don and I went to the Annapolis Boat show to look, touch, test and ask questions about at all the latest boat gear. We enjoy the historic maritime atmosphere of Annapolis and we also get to see friends who live nearby.  One of the items we wanted to look at was LED lighting made by IMTRA. Florian arrived in California with incandescent bulbs throughout, which had a significant impact on our battery levels after only a few hours of reading time with two lights on in the evenings. In the interest of energy savings, and brighter output, we ordered and installed a few single LED bulbs from other manufacturers online with mixed results. We had heard about IMTRA, but hadn't seen their product first hand, so we visited their booth, and knew instantly that we found the new LED's for our boat (at "show special" pricing too).

The first LED bulb test during the summer - from a different manufacturer than IMTRA

After the boat show, a box of IMTRA LED lights and adapters arrive!

s/v Florian has screw socket reading lamps and dual contact bayonet down lamps

The dual contact bayonet incandescent bulbs (on the left)
 required an adapter (right) before we could replace them with the LED

The dual color LED bulb on the downlamp over the Navigation desk.

With the on & off cycle of the Nav desk light switch, we can illuminate the navigation area on Florian with a red or white light. The Dual Color LED uses a smidge over 1.5 watts (vs the 8 watts in the old bulb). Pretty sweet.

These bad-boys are my favorite bulbs. 

IMTRA makes these awesome Corona bulbs that put out serious lumens in either cool (200 lumens) or warm (181 lumens) light. I've got two cool (brighter) lights over my galley area on Florian, so instead of supplementing my previously dim incandescent bulbs with two or three candles to chop salads & sauté dinner in the evenings, I have what looks like squinty-bright sunlight washed evenly over my stove and sink.  I'll take a photo this weekend and add it here so you can see. (Update: see IMTRA lit photos below)

Before LED's - evening in the galley on Florian with an incandescent bulb and a candle

Oh, that? It's a Rum & Tonic - a wonderful little drink our friend JH introduced us to. He also supplied the ingredients, and joined us for an inaugural tasting of this concoction:  put ice in  a couple of glasses, pour a few fingers of Pampero Annivarsario Rum (a richly fragrant, dark rum, distilled from fermented molasses) over the ice, and squeeze a *generous* slice of lime into each glass, dropping the remnants of the rind into each drink. Top with tonic water and enjoy.

A benefit of bright Corona LED bulbs in the galley;
Hey, look at the mildew growing around the fixture base. Ew. 

Even in daylight, boat interiors can be a little dim. 

 This photo above was snapped mid day in early December when we were looking at Florian with the dealer. All the lights in the cabin were on so we could survey her bones and lines and particulars to see if she was the boat for us, but even with the lights on in the middle of the day, there were lots of dark and shadowy areas. By upgrading to LED's, we'll reduce the draw on the batteries, while simultaneously increasing lumen output. We can control the color and temperature of each light, depending on where it's located and what it's used for, and the life of the bulbs are significantly longer, and run much cooler than their incandescent cousins.

The starboard salon just after sunset, with Imtra LED bulbs (corona) installed.
Much brighter than the daytime & incandescent bulb photo above.

The galley and starboard salon just after sunset, after installing IMTRA LED bulbs

Walking in Annapolis, on our way to the sailboat show

If you've not been to a boat show, but you own a boat, I highly recommend attending one. In the course of a day or two, you get to touch, test, try on, ask questions & read literature about, and compare various manufacturers of the latest advancements in boating supplies and merchandise, all in one place. You can research like crazy online (I have my hand up), but there's a lot of efficiency in looking at so many offerings, side by side, in your hands, face to face in one place. An added benefit is the reduced show pricing; everything we purchased in Annapolis was discounted, and shipped from the east coast to California - either for free, or at the most (in our case for a generator), $15. And if you're not in the market to buy anything for your boat, it's still fun to walk the show, explore the newest boats and talk to fellow boating enthusiasts and experts. If you do attend boat shows, which are your favorites? Should we go to the Miami boat show? Because, well, you know, a trip to Florida and the Atlantic isn't a bad way to spend a few days in February, right? :)