She Is a Boat

Well, I finally got the other coaming on yesterday. I still have to finish mounting the portholes, traveler, winches, cockpit hatches, stove, etc., but at least she looks like a boat again. The teak also needs a lot of work, but I'm sure I'll have plenty of time for that when we get to warmer waters.

Also, once I'm in the water and off the grid, I'll have to be a lot more careful about power consumption. Among other things, that means I probably won't have much time for blogging -- this laptop is a power hog. I currently compose on the fly, but will need to start writing out my blogs on paper so I can reduce my connection times.

To be truthful, the laptop's not the problem, it's the internet connection; I use a mobile broadband connection, and if I'm not plugged in, I can literally watch the battery drain while I'm connected. I'll need to figure out a better system once I get to Houston, because I don't think it's feasible to use an inverter for charging long term -- too much waste.

Crew watch:

It looks like I'll be sailing singlehanded, but if anyone has a few days and wants to sail through New York, that would be great. I'd even be willing to linger a bit and give you a tour of the city, or at least the waterways.

Weather watch:

We've had a few cold nights, but other than some frost the other morning, it hasn't even come close to freezing. However, when I refilled my water tanks yesterday, I noticed ice in the bottom of my bilge. I guess that's not too surprising. There's only about a 1/4" of water down there -- left over from running the engine the other day -- so it doesn't take much to freeze it, and with all the other boats crowded around me and the sun so low in the sky, the hull is constantly shaded, so it just keeps getting colder. Also, note that the bilge sits directly above the lead keel, which gets really cold.

Zoe watch:

With our splash imminent, I've been thinking about how Zoe will handle it. She's spent a lot of time on the boat, but has always been able to get off during the day. Pretty soon, that won't be the case. The mooring field I'll be in as soon as she's rigged, is a long way from the dock, but it is close to a dog park, so we might have to use the dinghy to go over once or twice a day. However, I need to get her used to taking care of business on the boat. I won't go into detail, but it typically involves astro turf (with my apologies to the Astros).