Comparing a few pumps...

Some battery tech of interest, Badtux on twitter, and in the "Just how stupid are we? department...

A while back, I needed to get a new water pump for the galley of the manual sort. My first choice where manual galley pumps has always been Fynspray and I really love this pump...

Which I'm sure you'll agree is a seriously cool bit of plumbing. The problem is that the current price of $369.99 is way more than I'm inclined to spend. That's just silly expensive. So I looked at a less expensive Fynspray which I've had before that worked just fine...

 

Obviously not as sexy as the handsome bronze one but it is an excellent pump albeit with a price tag of $148 which is still too expensive considering how simple a pump it is. So I checked out this one...

The Whale V pump ($86) that I've had good luck with in the past would be OK except it tends to need service fairly often and Whale spares ($21) are, shall we say, highway robbery or something akin to it.

So, what's a poor boy going to do?

Here's the pump I've been using for the last six months with nary a problem. It works just as well or better than any of the pumps mentioned so far...

 

With quality as good as the Fynspray and better than the Whale,                                             I'm a pretty happy camper. So much so that I bought an extra one just in case. The $10 price tag makes me smile every time I find myself pumping a glass of water.

Need I say more?

Listening to a whole lot of covers

So it goes...

Something I've been thinking about...

Some thoughts on compassion, a case of interest, and Randy gets into Tango mode...

Yesterday our propane bottle ran out of propane, which was a non-problematic affair. The good news being that our spare tank was full, so changing over took only a few minutes. The bad news was that it was raining, so I got wet. That said, there was nothing on the stove cooking where a momentary pause might create havoc.

The 20 pound bottle lasted 96 days, providing most of the meals consumed in that time period at a cost of only $0.26 dollars a day.

I’ve been trying to get my head around the idea of induction cook-tops on boats. Researching induction cooking on boats is problematic as most info is about how great having an all-electric-boat with scant discussion on how it really works.

Some say I’m way behind in terms of tech, and my life would be better with an induction stove. Mostly citing the price of propane as I could run an induction stove on solar.

While I suspect some can run an induction stove on solar, it requires more solar panels and a larger battery bank.

I love solar panels and readily admit they are a needful addition to any cruising boat. Still one only has enough room to deploy them, which limits the number of watts available.

The scary part for me is the god-awful amp draw of the induction cooker combined with an inverter. One test I’ve seen boiling just enough water to make one cup of coffee came out at eight amp-hours.

With that sort of draw, I shudder to imagine what sort of mayhem a large pot of chili will impact on my battery levels. Combine that thought with the time it takes my solar panels to replace that amount of energy and I get nervous.

Worse yet, I’ve had bad luck where inverters are concerned. As an inverter is a needful chunk of an induction system, I’d feel the need to have at least a spare inverter as a backup. The same might go for the actual induction cooker as well, since longevity of home electronics aboard cruising boats can be a dicey affair.

Suddenly, the whole idea of an induction cooker looks a lot less like the best thing since sliced bread anymore.

At least for the moment I'll be sticking with my ENO propane cooker as it does everything I want at $0.26 dollars a day.

Listening to the Iron Leg Radio Show

So it goes...

What stuff costs...

Thoughts on the climate emergency, a podcast worth listening to, and in the "180° turnabout blame their victims two-step" department...

We just bought some propane at the going rate of $23.99 for a 20 pound bottle. The bottle it's replacing lasted 89 days  which gives us a daily cost of just shy of $0.27 a day.

Considering we hardly ever eat ashore, cook three meals a day, and bake a lot I think that's actually pretty good.

Listening to Living More

So it goes...

We still have coffee in the morning...

A blogger with a mission, Senator Barry Goldwater with an apt prophecy, and in aid of a good cause...

I'm having some serious issues with the stove on "So It Goes" and the answer to whatever the problem is seems way too elusive for what is, in essence, a very simple system... But, more on that another day.

In the meantime, we're using our SeaSwing type stove (a Force 10 SeaCook) so no great hardship.

Speaking of the SeaCook stove, we finally got tired of buying silly expensive burners for it and simply bought a small single burner stove at KMart that fit right in and works finest-kind (something the Force 10 short lived, silly expensive burners never did) for twelve bucks. I expect it will last a lot longer as well...

Listening to Tony Joe White & Country Soul Revue

So it goes...

Those little eureka moments...

Just a bit of right wing political behavior, Moldy Chum points out something of interest, and about those thirty job bills...

The redesign/evolution of the galley continues and other than working out a better gimbal for the single burner stove and some more storage tweaks, it's now just a matter of putting all of the bits together and simply get to building.

Of course, that's after I finish the new dinghy...

The eureka moment on the whole project came about when I quit thinking in terms of a two burner with oven stove (as cool as it was) and realized I only needed a single burner which I never would have considered if we had not bought our stove top oven which radically made me rethink the whole cooking process...

Listening to Mr Big

So it goes...

Speaking of #3 Rippingille stoves...

I've just started listening to an audio version of "Riddle of the Sands" (you can get it here for free) and as often as I've read this book it never gets old and is easily the best sailing yarn I have ever come across...

The funny thing is... as many times as I have devoured the "Riddle of the Sands" I have never had a clear picture of exactly what a Number 3 Rippingille stove actually looks like, so on a whim did a search and found the very thing...

A seriously cool stove!

Is not the internet wonderful?

Funny thing, I always expected the #3 Rippingille to look something like an old brass Optimus instead of a precursor to what most of us think as a proper boat stove (like the Camp Chef).

Listening to Jo Mama

So it goes...

Saving a few bucks is always nice...

We really like Harmony House products and they are the backbone of our long range provisioning plan. So it is always nice when you can save a bit when stocking the larder and as Harmony House is having a 15% discount through Sunday... It's kind of a no-brainer for us.



Just use the code MOM

A new culinary pursuit...Solar!

One of our favorite blogs "The Adventures of Sailing Vessel Macha" just got a solar cooker and they are well...COOKING!

I've always wanted to sort out a solar cooker for "So It Goes" as they make all kinds of sense in the tropics and I like the idea that you can cook stuff without heating up the interior.

Of course, some folks who know me better might just say I'm really cheap and that's the attraction!

How cool is this?

Some time ago I mentioned the Camp Chef stove as a great example of stuff that works on boats as well or better than marine stuff... I also pointed out that it was a whole lot cheaper!

A couple days back I got an email from one of the Boat Bits faithful with the picture and a note that told me that he was happy with his Camp Chef and he had baked a chicken... HE went on to say the chicken was good!

Color me all warm and fuzzy...

Have a happy Tiki 4th of July...

The 4th of July for me has always meant beach, surfboards and Tiki drinks...

When I was a kid, the whole Tiki bar thing was quite the rage and seriously hip. In these modern times the whole Tiki fad is looked down on by many as a pinnacle of kitsch but it was a LOT of fun, and I'll go on record as saying we could always use a whole lot more FUN!

Plus let's get real... What better place to have your very own movable Tiki Bar than an ocean-going sail boat?

Of course to do it right you need LOTS of RUM! Lucky for us that down here in the Caribbean you can buy a good rum for less than $4 a liter (and you'd be dumb-as-nails to use anything better for Tiki drinks) various fruit juices and some serious Tiki mugs...

I mean you really do need the Tiki mugs as they strike just the right note and the whole point of the excercise is striking the right note! Of course you can always use coconuts and hollowed out pineapples but for me Tiki mugs are the serious stuff (and who wants to waste good drinking time hollowing out a pineapple?).

Of course you need the recipes because, while most things on boats are not rocket science, mixology of the Tiki variety IS and before you are ready to come up with your own special signature Tiki/Boat drink it is best to spend a bit of time learning from the masters and working on the classics!

"Sipping Safari" is a great place to start but any of the Beachbum Berry books will do...

I would be remiss in not mentioning that for a proper on-board Tiki party that the old T-shirt is something of a faux pas and that at the least a real Aloha shirt is the minimum for Tiki chic (leis however are considered to be something of an over kill)!

Have a happy 4th...