There are a bunch of strange terms in the boating world. One used in regards to sailboats is a shoal fin keel. There are lots of different types of keels and I thought some photos of the last haul out of my sailboat might help in understand what a shoal fin keel is. This is… [Read More]
Dinghy Concert
Beautiful video! You just have to love the song, the singer, and how relaxing it is! Fabulous! 4th Annual Clarkes Court Bay dinghy concert in Grenada. Grenada is part of the Windward islands in the Caribbean sea. North of Venezuela, Trinidad and Tobago; south of St. Lucia .
Garmin 441 GPS Chartplotter
I purchased the excellent Garmin 441s chartplotter in the spring of 2011. So far, I really like it. I would not claim to have fully utilized it or played with every feature – there are many! I agonized over where to mount it. I have seen a lot of installations with the unit inside the cabin… [Read More]
Port Light Seals
The port light seals (gasket) on my sailboat were becoming dried out and would stick when I opened the window. I do not have any leaks (that I know of) though. I had read that the best way to freshen/recondition these seals is to work some white Vaseline into them. This past week, I took… [Read More]
Fuel Pickup
I removed the pickup line from the diesel fuel tank of my Hunter 34 sailboat. I was hoping to find an obvious problem that would explain my recent “out of fuel” problem documented here. The fitting/assembly came out of the tank easily and I didn’t break or lose anything!! Yeah! Sadly, the “obvious” was missing. Even under… [Read More]
To be cold or not to be cold
I arrived back home after a week long trip to find my kitchen freezer working just fine but the refrigerator not very cool. This is the side-by-side type of appliance. A little research revealed that most kitchen refrigerator-freezer units send cold air from the freezer side to the refrigerator side. So, that was good news. I… [Read More]
LED Cabin Light Testing
This is very un-scientific but is yet another data point for me. I installed the festoon LED cabin lights mentioned here and waiting til it was dark outside. The results were ok but not what I was hoping for. The cabin was not well lit. Rather, very dungeon like. From this test, it is clear… [Read More]
Naked
I hated to do it but it seemed like the right thing to do. I removed the canvas from my boat. The Bimini and Dodger both came down and are safely stowed below. I happen to be at the boat in Florida this week and saw the storms building in the Atlantic. I figure if… [Read More]
Bilge Fuel
Many boat captains are not aware of the need for Bilge Fuel. This is kind of frightening when you consider that nothing works without some kind of fuel, right?!? After having been away from my boat for awhile, I checked the bilge in my sailboat today. I was very pleased to find a good supply… [Read More]
A Fuse
I have this neat 12 volt electric fan on the boat. Last time I plugged it in, the inline fuse blew. I made a trip to the auto parts store to pickup a new fuse today, installed it, plugged the fan in, and ….. nothing. I took a look at the fuse and, yup –… [Read More]