Old Dinghy ... new job!

Over 10 years ago, when we lived in Key West, we found a old plywood dinghy in the mangroves after a storm. No one claimed it, or even wanted it, except for a couple of kids that were always up to no good. We needed to clean / scrub the side of the boat and I thought it would work well for that. It was not much of a boat. The dinghy was just big enough for 2 and maybe a bag of potato chips if it was a small bag. It was so bad it was fun. Wife and I painted it up and named it the "Feliner."

At about happy hour time we would get a beverage, some soda crackers and Vienna sausages and take to the water in the Feliner and go to the other boats in the marina and ask for that French mustard the snobs like.We often got mustard and always good conversation. The second round of a beverage was also often provided.

We found that the Feliner would fit on the bow of the boat for storage. It turned out to be a useful craft in its own way. It always got comments like " will that float?" We also had many requests to use it to do little odd jobs.

After more than 10 years it did become unusable as a boat. So what to do with it? We set it on end and made it into a book shelf on the happy hour screen room. It now resides with the old outboard as nautical art.8-) 

Navigation Insturment Interference

Navigation instrument interference may come from the lighting in your boat. The new LED lighting or the compact fluorescent bulb type may cause interference with your electronics. The new LED lights have a mini circuit board in them that controls the voltage through the LED component so it will not be overloaded and burn out. The more LED’s in the fixture the more little components in the light. Some of these lights may cause interference with radios, televisions, wireless telephones, remote controls and navigation equipment. Moving these products away from the light may get rid of the interference.

The Compact Fluorescent bulbs may also cause interference to the same components. Navigation or communication equipment operating between 0.45-30 MHz are most effected. Moving the light away may help. Incandescent lighting may have to be used to eliminate the problem.

More of these types of lighting fixtures are being used because of the low electric consumption they have. Just note they can possibly be a problem.

Even my dog's electric flea collar messes up my magnetic compass slightly if he rests his head on the compass. I do not know if it would mess with the digital compass. I need to check that out since the dog is the Navigation officer.

Worm farm...Fishing??

After we moved off the boat and on to land my wife has gotten in to gardening and became a member of the local garden club. She now is a Florida Master Gardner and the president of the club. She ask me if I would mind if she had a worm farm that would make high quality dirt for the gardens. I had no objections, I figured they would not be noisy and I might get a supply of worms for fishing as a bonus.They are not good fishing worms, they are to small. The fish like them but you can not get them on a hook. They started out in a box the size work boots would fit in. The next box they were moved to is trunk size. It is about 2'x2'x3' and it is not much bother or in the way and the worms are quiet. The little worms recycle the paper that goes through the paper shreader and some left over salad greens and what ever else she put in the box that they can eat. I just water them once a week.

This week end I got to help harvest the worm dirt. First you scooped out the dirt and put it in a bright area. The worms do not like the light so the go to the bottom. Next you scoop up the dirt, picking out the worms and putting them them in one container and the worm free dirt in another. After that we had to make new bedding for the worms with peat moss and shredded paper, wet it and then release the worms back in the box. Last we had to clean up and save her new worm dirt. I did not find enough big worms to even collect for fishing. She said we should have done the separating a week ago and we would have had bigger worms.

Even though I did not get worms for fishing, the worm farm has some advantages. It gets rid of the shredded paper and my fishing friends THINK I have worms.  

Key West people.

The first time I went to Key West was in 1961 on a trip with my dad. The way I remembered it was a sleepy artist colony like place with with a interesting waterfront area with fishing shacks. Dad did not show me anything that I thought was strange or out of place. I thought it was a neat place to go fishing.

The next time I saw Key West was in 1998. I had gotten a job at the Marathon Hospital, and a few of my co-workers grabbed me after work and took me to Key West for the night. The place had changed in 37 years, and it was no longer the sleepy place I remembered.

I changed jobs and started working in Key West proper. I found it was a small town with lots of visitors. The residents were all a bit different. Nobody was from Key West. No one cared where you came from, and no one asked questions about your past. If you wanted to tell them, that was OK, and some would tell you a little about themselves. I quickly learned about Island time. Island time is registered in days. We will do it ( sometime )Tuesday...  If it is Key West formal you needed shoes and a shirt. No one objected to anyone doing something "his way" if it did not cause a problem. It was the tourists that caused the problems.  I found I got along well and fit in with the local group.

Key West is not a cheap place to live. It is hard to find a real job in the Keys, and let alone a job that will pay enough to live there. Then, there is the pull of becoming Key Wasted every night. There are more registered bar and restaurant seats in Key West than permanent residents. But it is still a fun place to live. I have been out of the Keys now for over 10 years and I still wonder why I left and also why I stayed there as long as I did. The best thing I came away from the Keys with was a wonderful wife. That has made all the difference and is one of the reasons the Keys are special to me.   

In Our schooner anything over 6 knots is a gale

I built a schooner rig day sailor. It is one good looking boat on the water, and with all 3 sails up, it takes very little wind to move her. A 3 to 5 knot breeze is about right for a nice sail. At about 6 knots the boat's sailing characteristics start to change and she becomes much more tipsy. It is a flat bottom boat and has a 4' dagger board. A little heel is needed so you have a water cutting edge formed by the bottom of the boat and the side of the boat. As the wind picks up, it becomes harder to maintain or keep the heel angle so the boat sails well. Changing the sail set on the main sail or foresail changes your balance as well as where you sit and how you sit. You do not have time to untangle your legs to change your position when a big gust hits.

A 10 knot gusty wind can be wicked in the boat. You really have to keep alert, think and plan what you are doing. Things like tacking can start to be unique. The schooner dislikes passing through the eye of the wind. As you turn into the wind, the boat wants to stop and then sail backwards. At the same time, the heel shifts from one side to the other. With the loss of head way and then going backwards, your tiller shifts the boat back to the eye of the wind. All the sails are now flapping uselessly and you now have lost the last 20' or so you had gained just before you started to tack.  In order to tack, you must first release the foresail, next, pull in the mainsail, and smartly push the tiller to leeward.  Further, you must back-wind the jib (to help the bow swing through the eye of the wind) and lastly  re-establish a good heel, so that the cut of the boat's chine will cause it to track nicely.  This method of tacking can be done without too much loss of headway. Two people can do it but it is easier with three people.

We have decided that if the wind is above 6 knots, it is Gale force winds for the boat and we take our sloop instead. You want to enjoy yourself on a sail, not come back with your blood pressure higher then when you went out. It still is a fun boat but best in a light wind.    

Two AM and I am wide awake

At 9:30 or 21:30 hours I came down with a head splitting headache. I have had headaches all my life and most of the time I can prevent them from going out of control with out having to use RX Medications to do so. Not this one. The RX Med I have works in about 20 minutes but the side effects last for hours. The headache is gone, but my body feels rubbery, my eyes do not want to stay focused on things, I feel tiered, but can not sleep.

I keep going over things I need to do in my head, many things seem joined in a nonsensical way and all seem overly important. By I writing  them down some of the confusion goes away. When I look at the notes the next day they do not have much importance for the most part. Tomorrow I will feel tired all day with little energy to do much. Now my head has cleared up but I feel tired and I am wide awake.I figure I have another hour before I will be able to sleep. I will weed my e-mail, dump junk from some of my files and do little net surfing. This may just be a little productive time to do some of the non-important things I do not do normally. The headache could be my brain's way of making me shut down. I must really need to go sailing for a week or ten days. Now that is a good idea...Think positive...Put that down in my note to read tomorrow. Something good may come out of the headache. I feel better just putting the ideas down. I think I will just try for some sleep...

algae on dock ropes

Down here in Florida there are a few months of the year we get an algae bloom and algae will grow on almost anything. The dock lines on your boat can turn green and black in just a few days. Fiberglass surfaces, aluminum and steel surfaces, glass, woodwork, and almost anything can get a green covering.

The dock lines do not have to be replaced just because they turned green. First check your lines to see if they need to be replaced. If chaff damage or major strand damage is found they need to be replaced or repaired. They can be cleaned by soaking them overnight in a bucket of weak bleach and water. This will kill the algae and get rid of the green. If the lines are stiff soak them in a laundry fabric softener and water.

If you wash your lines in a washing machine, put them in a mesh bag so they will not tie up the agitator. Also ask your wife first ( Very Important ) or use a Laundromat. A laundromat is the best bet, but the attendant can be as mean as a mad wife.