‘All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing’

Yesterday two of my favorite blogs got political...I've been much conflicted about the whole idea of using Boat Bits for my political thoughts and rants ( and yes there are many) so have opted to try and stay as far away from politics as possible...Take a moment and read Sailing Anarchy and Navagear...but face it it's time to get real.

Yesterday I realized in planning our trip next year ( to Europe) that all of the possible courses I was considering were not stopping in the land of my birth because it is simply becoming a "hassle". Sadly I'm not alone as a whole lot of our charter clients are doing some very serious shucking and jiving to avoid traveling on any flights that makes them go through the NHS gauntlet and I should point out that these clients are mostly of the fly first class we don't care what it costs brigade and include movie stars, European movers, shakers and politicians who don't appreciate being treated like crap.

Don't get me wrong I am all for security and being proactive on those that endanger those close to us but there is a big difference between security and an abuse of power that accomplishes nothing.

I'll quote a bit of Sailing Anarchy's take on NHS in which I agree 100%...

" They'd love to demand y'all get a boating license and monitor your every movement, all in the name of "security" of course, but they know they can't pull that off - yet. It is a load of crap, put forth by an administration that has clearly demonstrated it can't find it's own ass with both hands."

Birthdaze...

One of our favorite blogs Never Sea Land is having a birthday today...

Always a good read with interesting stuff and can you spell...M...E...R...M...A...I...D...S?

Check it out!

World cruising routes ... Windows of opportunity

One of the things people in the real world don't get about people in the sailing world is that if you want to go someplace it is a very seasonal thing... You just don't point your boat at Europe and go. For instance, right now is the time to go to Europe from the East coast or Caribbean and not a very big window as Hurricane season (June through November) effectively closes it. So in truth you are looking at a couple of months and if you are not able to go right now you pretty much have to let the calendar roll around till this time next year... 747's make a lot of sense!

Which is where I am at the moment... I'd really like to sail back to Europe now but as I have some commitments and suchlike which I can't finish up here in time to make the window so I'm caught here in the Caribbean for another year. Not such a bad thing as we are going to use extra time to hit some of our favorite places, find some new ones and I'm sure Europe will still be there next year...




Which is a roundabout way of mentioning the fact that we will be doing some extended voyaging in the near future and that the new version of Jimmy Cornell's World Cruising Routes just came out! This book is in its sixth edition and in a highly updated form with a lot of new stuff much improving what was already very good. One might also note that a lot of the time/sailing windows in the new edition are now shorter as a result of global warming and weather pattern shifts we seem to be having. Required reading for anyone in need of crossing oceans.

Future fare...

I've been spending some time working on a minor revamping of the electric drive on "So It Goes" trying to make it a somewhat more integrated system which has been the stuff of much gnashing of teeth and banging head against bulkhead. The hard part of electrical propulsion is not making the boat move ( that is surprisingly easy) but the sorting out the various voltages, charging systems and storing of energy in a way that makes some kind of sense instead of the Rube Goldberg sort of mess that most boats tend to become when electrical propulsion gets added to the mix.

Of course I put a lot more demand on my boat system than most in that we live on the hook and are mobile so shore power is never an option and when you add in the three computers for video editing, running a charter business with all of its communication needs and all of the other stuff that living aboard 24/7/365 entail...Safe to say we take the electrical system to the max.

There is however hope and I've spent the last couple of days sorting though catalogs and spec sheets looking for some kind of break through that will make the idea of an integrated system come closer to reality and am happy to say I have found some very promising widgets that show a lot of promise. Hopefully over the next few months I will be able to report some in depth tests and reviews as I slowly revamp the system while meandering towards Trinidad and Venezuela for the "H" season.

While we are down island we will be shooting several film projects on various aspects of cruising, living and working aboard...More on that soonish!

The other project on the list is to finish the book project which has now grown into two books, one on boat building from the keel up and the other on the refurbishment and improvement of older boats and classic plastic. I'll admit that I am enjoying the process of writing and covering some new and different territory than what is already out there ...

Upgrading the poor mans Hybrid system...

I hate to say it but all good things have an end and in this case I'm sad to say that our much loved Honda EU2000i generator expired a couple of weeks ago. Well not exactly as the motor still works like a champ but the electric side is no longer with us. Now considering that the sucker has been pumping out electricity for about six years without a fault while we did everything we could think of to abuse it. In the six years it more than paid for itself many many times over.

So we'd like to welcome the new poor man's hybrid system to the boat and it is... A Honda EU2000i as looking at what else is out there it is still the best thing going. Not perfect as I still find the changing oil problematic (has no one in Japan ever heard of a drain?) both in pouring out the old oil and the filling with new... But hey I never do it very often, so no big deal. The other thing is that due to the geometry of the gas tank interior I found it quite easy to overfill the tank from time to time. Another hassle which has nothing to do with Honda is that it would seem that whenever I filled the tank some big power boat with a humongous wake would come by just as I was starting to pour and I always wished there was a better way.

As it happens there is a better way. Unlike a lot of small generators the Honda EU2000i has a fuel pump which I realized just might be strong enough to pump gas from an external tank. With a brand new Honda what better way to begin its life on So It Goes than taking a bit apart and drilling holes!

The modification needed is really very simple...

First you find a 5/16" brass hose barb ($1.80) with a thread in one end then remove the vent (simply take out the retaining pin on the inside of the cap) drill out the vent hole and tap for whatever thread size your 5/16" hose barb requires.



Screw the barb into the tapped hole.



Add some 5/16" ID gas hose ($1.20 a foot) with a outboard tank connector of your choice (I used OMC as it was the cheapest at Island Water World in St Martin at $6.95) that will connect to whatever outboard fuel tank you have laying around.




That's it. Real simple and real cheap! It even works!



Now I can run the motor for 25 hours without having to refill (I used a three gallon gas tank) and no more pouring gas over my toes when some idiot with a big wake drives by.

Dinghy Dilemma.... ongoing

The whole dinghy thing is some kind of frustrating and the sort of thing that keeps you up long into the night much like world peace and perpetual motion machines ( though to be honest I am pretty sure that world peace just may be easier to achieve than a dinghy that does it all....)

The much maligned ( deservedly) Caribe 9L just found another sharp object in an over crowded dinghy dock to commit seppuku on. Just a tiny prick but enough to make repair a needful thing. Of course the super expensive two part contact cement needed has again gone way past its shelf life so the repair requires yet another purchase ($35) which will work well but again not be usable in a couple of months when the next repair is needed ( maybe we have found a marine perpetual motion money maker?)

On the other hand Barton makes this super wonderful Clamseal for the what seems a reasonable cost of around $20! Its easy and positive and the one I put on last year is still leak free...So the big question is the choice between messy glue job that takes a few hours to do right or a two minute wonder cure that works and is a whole lot cheaper...DUH!



Installing is simple....A quick two inch slit with a sharp object....





Slide/cram the sucker in.....


Screw the two parts together...


Blow the sucker up and hey presto leak is gone with a total time for the on the water repair being less than two minutes!

This is something that should be in anyones dinghy kit and if you are a life raft toting sort of person I'd make sure you had a couple packed away in the ditch bag...

But back on the dinghy front I have pretty much given up on the nesting dinghy option as they just do not seem to make the cut and while there are some excellent designs out there I just don't feel that the added hassle in building is worth the added size of dinghy in a smaller space on deck. So it pretty much comes down to a hard dinghy and eight foot is about the limit my deck will take. The short list was pretty easy...Having cruised with a Bolger Tortoise on Loose Moose 1 & 2 we were really happy with it but now that we seem to have more stuff the Brick was quite enticing as was the Fast Brick concept. The other short list contender was Rubens Nymph ( also by Bolger) as I've lost track of how many normal Nymphs I have built over the years and it is one of Phil's great designs. The added foot of beam in the Rubens will make for a much more stable and capacious dinghy.

And the winner is...Bolger's Rubens Nymph which is covered in "Instant Boatbuilding with Dynamite Payson" Dynamite can sell you the plans.

Anyone want to buy a Suicidal Caribe 9L with a Mercury 15HP?

A good blog, a good read...

One of the nice things about the whole blogosphere is that in these days of advertising led editorial decisions by the sailing magazines that you are still able to access the sort of content that someone building/ buying a boat or cruising might actually find of some use. Don't get me wrong there are some good articles in the yachting press but far too often The cruising guide to the out islands of somewhere or other begins with something like "We were met at the airport by the fleet manager for XXXXX charter company who whisked us to our fifty foot XXXXX catamaran for a much needed seven days of cruising...Not exactly a real cruising guide is it?

Keep in mind that I have a charter business and while I am all for people chartering (Please do I need a new guitar, a new surfboard, and a bigger boat!) but lets face facts and admit that sailing for a week on a bare boat does not make someone an expert on a cruising area. Hell I've been in the Caribbean for over ten years and I'm still getting to know my way around!

And as long as I'm burning bridges and talking about cruising guides why not throw a bit more gasoline on the fire and just say that cruising guides which are more about advertising than useful information are somewhat suspect as well...But we will leave that for later when I get the new Nomex long johns!

But I digress and rant ( sorry) but there is good stuff out there and with a little looking we can find what we need...A truly great blog Sarana at Sea which is jam packed with all sorts of goodies by someone who is out there doing it so actually has a clue to the big picture is an excellent case in point. I stumbled onto the blog while researching a new wind vane project for So It Goes and there was excellent information on the subject of trim tabs which hooked me in long enough to find that Eric has been quite the busy beaver and had all sorts of handy project ideas...Good stuff that.

There was some mention to a forthcoming Cruising guide to Central America which has now come to fruition as Explore Central America by Eric Baicy & Sherrell Watson
and it is most excellent. Delivered as a PDF file for the bargain price of $13 it is a no brainer. Life would be a lot simpler if all of the cruising guides were on this level of information content and clarity.