Planning to go Cruising

The following Quote I think is right on.

The lovely thing about cruising is that planning usually turns out to be of little use.
-  Dom Degnon

You can over plan. I have found that I never use most of the stuff I pack and have when we go out. It is nice to have but it just takes up space. What you need to take and pack are things that can have many uses. Less is better on the boat and it is quite surprising what you can do without.

Clothes you take are important. They need to be comfortable, easily cleaned and quick drying. Warm and waterproof should be in the mix also. I am easy when it comes to clothes...the crumpled look is what I am almost always in anyway. 8-)

Another quote:

At sea, I learned how little a person needs, not how much.
-  Robin Lee Graham

The first thing on planning to go cruising is to set the departure date.

The second big thing is to leave on that date whether you are ready or not.

The third is to think out of your comfort box. *-)  Be like your Dog...just go and enjoy what comes.

Birds on the boom=Bird Turds!

Birds on the boom=Bird Turds! 

Birds just love to land on my sailboat boom and many leave droppings on the boat. That puts an incentive on keeping the sail cover on the sail, the cover is easier to rinse off than the sail, but it is still messy. Putting Lazy Jacks on the boat has helped a little, but it has not solved the problem.

I thought of putting a scare crow on the boat, but I figure the birds would just sit on that too. They sell fake Owls that you can set on the boat…most other birds do not like Owls and Hawks. There is a neat articulated Hawk you can get that you hang and the wings flap in a breeze. These are nice but they are not cheap.

One suggestion was to string a line just above the boom and put old CD’s or foil on the line so the birds can see the line and the line will not let them land. With my luck a crow would take the CD’s and foil.

My sister was a big time cat lover…she had hundreds of cat figurines and cat silhouettes. Of course I got rid of most of them, but in hind sight I should have kept a few for the boat. 8-) I put a wood cut out of a cat on the boom that I had made (I used our cat Betty White as a model). Time will tell if it helps.

I have seen Big Eyes put on things and that is also supposed to be a scairer of birds but I think they look creepy. That said…I think it works. *-)

I sure am glad we have running water at the dock that I can rinse things down with. Things could be much much worse!  8-)

Boat Overcrowding

Boat Overcrowding

We are on a section of river that the speed of boats is not limited. There is a public boat ramp near by and because of it, this section of the river has a fair number of pleasure boaters. The boats speed up and down the river, pulling skiers and inflatables and the other things speed boaters do. I think it is nice when they do it safe. What I see too often is a boat that has too many people on it to be safe.

The capsize of a boat can happen in a flash, and when there are too many on board the people cannot do much when the boat starts to go. The number of passengers that a boat can carry safely is specified by the boat maker. One would think it would also be simple logic.

When I see a boat that is way overloaded, I always wonder if there is a life jacket for all of them. I saw a boat coming off the boat ramp dock the other day overloaded and full of kids. The kids at least had life jackets on. It looked like a refugee boat from Cuba. If the boat capsized, I could see in my mind that the boat motor would pull the stern down and the bow would point skyward. The kids would bob around the boat in their jackets and the adults without jackets would be trying to hold on to the upward pointing bow.

If that happened I would try to get as many kids on my sail boat as possible, but it would be slow with the sail boat. Kids and Women first!

We were out sailing the other day and passed a power boat that was having motor trouble. As we approached I ask my wife if we should offer them a tow. To be towed back to the dock by a sailboat under sail and with a trolling motor would have to be embarrassing. I asked if we could be of any help when we got near enough to talk to them. They declined our offer, and a Man on a cell phone told us that he had a friend on his way. We offered to stick around, but he said there was no need. I figured we would be not too far away anyway if he changed his mind. It would have been fun to tow him back to the dock. 8-)

Anti fouling Boat Bottom Paint

Antifouling Boat Bottom Paint

I just read an article that compared anti-fouling bottom paint. The results were informative and some results were not what I had expected. 

What I did expect was that the paints that had copper/zinc paints did much better. Most of the “Green Bio-friendly” paints were not as good. I was surprised about how well they worked over time.

The test compared 25 brands of paint that had a price range of $85 to $225. As one would expect the low price paint did not work as well as the more expensive paint. The test compared how well they worked over time.

All the paints rated fair, good or excellent for 4 months. At 15 Months 14 of them rated poor and in these the paint price was in the full range of prices. At 26 months Copper Pro SCX 67 Hard, and Trinidad high copper hard were the only 2 rated good.

I was way confused by the time I finished the article. It had a lot of great information and I found that the comparison charts were nicely done. What I gleaned from it all was that all the paints worked and would be good for one season in the water. If you pulled your boat out each year you most likely would be OK with the protection from any of the bottom paints for that season. If you do not pull your boat our each year, the high copper paints will work much much better.

The price range of paints that gave “good” results was about the $180 range. From the charts that were in the article, I liked two of the Pettit’s paints for a “one season” bottom paint. Pettit’s Copper Guard Professional single season was priced at $110. It has copper in it. And Pettit’s Vivid Free, no copper, Aluminum-safe bright colors paint, and it is about $175. 

 I like the idea of echo friendly bottom paints. They will get better I am sure. If the bottom clean and prep time is increased when you pull the boat out to do a bottom job it may not be worth the use of the paints. For a one season paint, I would go with them, but not for a boat you will leave in for a longer time. The bio-friendly paints also did not do as well in the warmer Florida waters which is also a consideration. I do not think I would go with them at this time. There are a few low copper/with bio-boosters that may be the way to go, but they were in the high price range.