Reading

I've mainly been reading a lot lately, so there hasn't been much to blog about. I've finished a few books, and read parts of several others -- ones I couldn't get into and put aside.

For example, I finished Vanity Fair and liked it so much, I decided to download and read The Pilgrim's Progress as well, but put it down before I even reached a description of the fair. I'll try to pick it up again later, but at least I have a good idea what it's about.

Instead, I picked up Treasure Island, and should finish it tonight. It's not bad, but probably falls somewhere between Captain Blood and The King's Own -- Captain Blood being the better of the two. It's all pretty light reading, mostly with a nautical theme, but I'm also trying to mix in a few classics.

To that end, I read part of Dubliners, and plan to start Ulysses soon -- I really love my Kindle, in fact, I downloaded almost a dozen more books over the weekend. There's nothing better than anchoring out away from everyone and curling up with a good book, except maybe writing one, but I'm not there yet.

Line watch:

I've been pretty lazy lately, but did learn how to splice the other day. I made an eye-splice in one end of my double reefing line. The first try was a failure, but the second was acceptable -- it's just a neat way to hook the end over it's cleat at the end of the boom. I need to make another one for the single reef line. I cleaned up the boom as well, but need to remove a few more things and add others before she's done.

I also learned how to whip the ends. It's much easier than I'd imagined, but it too took a couple tries. I need to make up a few lines to secure gear on deck or to the stanchions and stern pulpit, but was waiting till I could do it correctly. Now, I guess I'll have to get with it.

Antenna watch:

I played around with my antenna tuner and by using an old wire cut for 20-meters, was able to almost match the performance of my vertical dipole. So, as soon as I get a chance, I'm going to mount the tuner under the lazarette, and make up a set of multiple tuned long wires and radials -- sorta like a fan dipole -- perhaps just 20 and 40 meters to start with.

In fact, I'm actually going to make up a fan dipole first, then connect it to the tuner lugs. That way, she'll already be resonant on 20 and 40 meters, giving me the best performance possible on those bands, with the tuner taking care of the other less used ones.

Once the tuner's working well, it'll allow me to use the radio when underway without having to worry about hoisting the vertical dipole which I can't use when sailing due to chafe.

Battery watch:

I think there's something wrong with my charging system, and I may also have a bad battery. I've been having trouble with the alternator, but haven't found the problem yet. Sometimes it just doesn't want to put out enough voltage to charge the batteries. However, the problem is intermittent, as it worked fine today.

The batteries are another matter. I have three of them that are all the same and divided into two banks. Two are wired together in series and used as house batteries, while the other is primarily a starter battery, but can be used along with or as a backup for the house bank.

The starter battery is wired directly to the starter and alternator (need to add fuses at some point), and there is a battery combiner that connects them all together when the charging voltage on either side reaches 13 volts.

That part works fine -- except for the recent alternator problems. However, the two house batteries don't seem to keep a charge nearly as long as the single starter battery (I can switch between the two banks from within the cabin). Therefore, I think one of the house ones must be bad, especially since they should last twice as long. Unfortunately, I'll have to wait till I get to Houston before I can test them.

Zoe watch:

We finally had a bit of cold weather, and even a little rain, but unless it's actually raining, she still prefers to sleep on deck during the day. If it's hot and sunny, she'll find shade either on one of the side decks or on top of the coach roof next to the mast. But she's normally right up in the peak of the bow or on top of the forward hatch.

Time to Reorganize the Cabin

We stayed here in Titusville a little longer than originally planned, mainly so I could go to Hamcation which I missed due to weather, but now it's time to start moving again. Most of the repairs I wanted to do have been completed, however, I'm now having trouble with the alternator, and the broken mounting bolt worked its way out again.

I'm not sure what's going on with the alternator, but it doesn't seem to put out as much voltage as before. This could be a loose belt, or something worse, but I plan to break out the manual and call the manufacturer before I get too concerned. I might just need to work on the mounting brackets again so I can tighten the belt. Unfortunately, it isn't easy to get to all my tools, which is why I want to reorganize the cabin first. That's also been one of the problems with fixing the broken bolt.

I got a good start the over the last few days and reorganized much of the forecastle. At least I can find stuff now, but I still need to organize all my fasteners and put them in the plastic jars I've saved -- peanut butter has really come in handy. However, the biggest problem I've had is getting to my tools. I foolishly buried a lot of them in the lockers under the port side cushions behind the table. With limited space, I end up stacking lots of big stuff -- dog food, guitar case, etc. -- on top of those cushions, so I have to move everything to get to them. And that includes the cushions themselves.

So, I've decided to put all the paint and other stuff that I hardly ever need under there, and move the tools over to the starboard side. Hopefully, once that's done, it'll be a little easier to tackle the rest of the maintenance problems.

We had a lot of wind yesterday, gusts up to 35 knots, so I didn't do much more that read and follow the Knicks game. I'm not really a basketball fan, but Lin's story is a really good one, and I'm glad he's doing well. I also enjoyed Jon Stewart's video, but didn't think the SNL bit was very funny.

Cool Stuff

I always enjoy learning cool stuff. One of my favorites has always been using the sun and you wrist watch to find true north. Of course that only works for local time, i.e., your local time zone, so it's not much help offshore.

However, I just learned a great way to tell time anywhere in the northern hemisphere at night. All you need to know is the current month. Basically, you use the big dipper as the hour hand on a 24 hour clock, which turns backwards, and adjust it based on the current month. If you're interested in how it works, take a look at this page:

http://www.johnpratt.com/items/astronomy/telltime.html

and if you'd like to see and read about an instrument invented during the Renaissance to help do the calculations automatically, take a look at this:

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nocturnal_(instrument)

Steve, VA7SKM/MM, checked in again tonight from the Beagle Channel on his way to Punta Arenas. I mentioned in a previous entry that this was my longest contact, 5,700 miles, but since then I've had a contact with Paul, VK2HMV, near Sidney, Australia, 9,360 miles away. Although I probably won't be able to beat that one anytime soon, it must be noted that the one with Steve was boat to boat. I think Paul has a beam antenna and runs power -- something neither Steve nor I do.

I also heard Jan, KC2IOV, tonight. She left South Africa last week on her way to Hobart, but couldn't quite copy her, so I let another station work her. She's a few hundred miles south-east of the Cape of Good Hope, around 8,000 miles away.

I think I've written about her before, but if not, please take a look at her web site:

http://www.svnereida.com/

She's been attempting a solo, non-stop, circumnavigation for the last few years, and while she's completed at least one, she's had to stop and restart several times. That's mostly due to gear failures and a capsize last year. Her blog makes interesting reading. She even met the queen -- she's a brit.

New Anchorage

As I mentioned yesterday, we re-anchored just south of the causeway so we'd be in its lee today when the winds picked up. The front blew through last night, and the sky began to clear as the sun came up this morning. The north-east winds are slowly picking up, but haven't really gotten much over 15 knots yet.

However, the skies have completely cleared and it's turning into a beautiful day. I'm sure the wind and waves will continue to build, but right now it's perfect -- a cool breeze, blue sky, and a bright warm sun.

My GPS indicates we may have dragged anchor a little to the north-east last night before the wind shifted 180 degrees, but everything seems fine now. I'll check again later today as the winds pick up to make sure we stay put. We might have a fouled anchor chain keeping us from swinging further to the south-west. If that's the case, we may drag later, which will necessitate re-anchoring.

I may put out a second anchor just in case, but will wait till this afternoon before making any decisions, after all, it could just be a display issue with the iphone chart plotter.

Hamcation

I had planned to ride over to the Hamcation in Orlando with Paul, KM4MA, tomorrow, but with nasty weather forecast for the next couple of days, I probably won't. It's deceptively calm right now, but the winds should start to pick up later in the day, with rain and gusts up to around 25 knots forecast for Saturday and Sunday. They are also warning that the ICW will be rough, but haven't issued a small craft advisory or anything like that.

We're anchored in a wide section of the Indian River with plenty of fetch, so it can get rough with winds over 15 knots. At 25, I probably wouldn't want to get out in the dinghy unless I had too, and in any case would end up soaking wet even if it wasn't raining.

We moved a little further north the other day to get away from some boat anchoring a little too close, but are still over half a mile from the railroad causeway. The high winds are expected from the north, and since it was pretty bumpy here a few days ago with similar, albeit slightly lighter winds, we're going to re-anchor right up next to the causeway and get in it's lee.

Re-anchoring is a bit of a job since I have to pull the chain and anchor up by hand, but I don't mind it much. However, it's still much better than bouncing around for 48 hours. I suppose we could go into the marina, but at $50 a day, it starts to add up. And we might find ourselves stuck there longer than we wanted since I'm not comfortable singlehanding her in high winds in tight spaces like a marina.

It's just better to avoid those situations in the first place. Once things calm back down, we'll go in for diesel, water, and other supplies, and start heading south again.