So that happened…

Posted on by
Reply

So today I sorta kinda a little bit set the boat on fire.  Not to worry though I did stop to take pictures: :)

I pulled off the dodger and initially I covered all of the screw holes with duct tape (I fixt it!) but then I thought better of it and decided to weld them up.

Well, I dropped some molten metal into the sink and the funny part is that my special welding beanie cap is what caught fire.  Ironically I also had a bunch of heat-shrink in the sink, (it works!)

 

Dodger “Before”

I did actually get a lot done on the dodger though.  Turns out the dodger is made out of frikken stainless steel! :)   (and it’s DAMMEND HEAVY!

Dodger After (sorta)

And so it begins.

Posted on by
Reply

We’re supposed to have like a solid week of nice weather here in Seattle, and so I visited the boat just to reacquaint myself a little bit.

The only part of the hull that I’ve found so far that really scares me is the rail that supports the Companionway hatch.

ug. You can see how large portions of the rail have completely rusted away, and the top rail is caving in and quite wavy instead of nice and flat.

I’ve been completely avoiding even thinking about this project because it just seemed like so damned much work.  But I got out the impact driver and started beating on the screws that hold the doghouse down.  One thing led to another and I guess I kinda started a major project:

Tomorrow: the entire dodger is coming off :)

 

 

I fixt it!

Posted on by
Reply

IMG_20130325_121926

The storage bin in the seat of the cockpit catches rain and it’s been bugging me since I got the boat. I need to wire brush and sandblast the thing, cut straighter lines and weld in some new material so that I can instal proper hatches. I’ve been thinking about this for nearly a year, but today I drilled a small drain hole in the bottom.

Tada! I fixt it!

Me: Modern hunter gatherer

Posted on by
Reply

We’ve had like one 60 degree nice spring day and I got a little too excited about gardening this summer.

I’m pretty excited to be back in the house and working on the garden.  But I’ve decided that this year I’m gonna do things a little differently and plant a lot of stuff in buckets that I can take with me if I decide to go live on the boat or RV instead.

So Every couple of days I go on a quest to the local bakeries for some free food grade frosting buckets.   It’s pretty funny how the employees at the bakeries ALL see the helmet and ask how I’m planning on carrying a bunch of buckets on a bike.  Turns out, not that hard:  

When I’m lucky enough to get a matched pair I turn them into these cool self watering pots.  Total cost: about $ .30   :)   I hope this cucumber likes his new house!  I know I’m gonna like weeding & watering a lot better this year.  The ‘plan’ is weed-eat the weeds a couple times a year and be done with it.  It’s also kind of neat to be able to recycle some stuff around the house and put it to a better use.

Just a couple hundred more buckets to go!

To Dazzle or not to Dazzle, that is the question

Posted on by
Reply

I’m a bit of a history buff, I also came of age in the 80′s listening to british synth-pop and so naturally one of my favorite records of all time is OMD’s Dazzle ships, Oceana was built in 1938 and has more than a few connections to the war, and last but not least I’m kind of a huge dork.

So for a while I’ve been toying with the idea of combining all of those attributes at once and painting Oceana with a muted camouflage pattern used on WWII “Dazzle Ships”  I was messing around on photoshop, and I think I might just have to try it. What do you think? I’m also thinking of a huge Zorro “Z” in the center to pay hommage to Oceana’s previous owner Guy Williams

feelin blue

Posted on by
Reply

I’ve been completely slacking in posting to the blog, mostly because I’ve actually been extremely productive working on the boat. Well, at least it feels productive even though It’s taken me weeks to get any sort of ‘product’

But today I think is a milestone because I actually FINISHED a boat project!!!!  It’s been really hard to not start fifty other tasks, but I’m determined to get Oceana seaworthy in a methodical and logical way.

To that end the first task is to stop water ingress, and so  I’ve been duct-taping holes and then slowly welding up holes and then actually welding panels.  But the first big project I decided to tackle was to finish the installation of the forward hatch.

Before:hatch 'before'

 

Anyway Here’s the “after”

 

Hatch

But wait!! There’s more!

Blue LED's

I can’t tell you how cathartic it’s been to actually fix something, it looks pretty damned nice if I do say so myself. I can’t wait to dive in and spend the summer working on the ole gal… oh, wait, how the hell did October happen!?

If you want to see all the detail work (AKA Bondo) that went in to this check out the image gallery (here)

Free cold beer

Posted on by
Reply

Ok, so for a few weeks I’ve been kind of manic about how much $$ I am spending by eating out for every meal.  The bottom line is that living on a boat (or trailer in my case) it’s hard to deal with a meal without running water and refrigeration. But, I mean I have the all of the stuff in storage, so I decided to do something about it.  I’ve spent the last couple weeks installing a couple of Oceana’s solar panels (worth $600 or so) and ($500) fridge onto the van. Turns out, these damned projects cost a lot more than you think, 100′ of wire ($40) doesn’t go as far as it used to in the olden days I guess!  It was more involved than I expected, a new solar controller ($100), new second AGM battery for the van ($225), new caulking and weatherproof sealant ($125) heck, I spent $80 on frikken stainless bolts! And I’m not even really counting all the $$ I spent on stuff I already sort of had, like $100 for a ‘better’ multimeter or a couple hundy for a drill & bits to replace the one that got stolen recently. All told I’ve  probably spent $900 just to temporarily install the equipment I ALREADY OWNED!!!!!  AAARGH!! [hgallery3 id="4931" render="single_img"] How many Chicken McNuggets could I buy with $900? So anyway, today I finally finished ‘stage one’ and have working solar, and it totally produces enough amps for my little cooler sized Engel refrigerator!  yay! :) I was all set to go to the store and buy some groceries, when I realized it’s been like a month or so since I’ve cooked anything in the trailer.  Turns out I can’t find the little burner baffle things that actually make the propane stove work. So basically, I have a couple of grand worth of equipment and a huge amount of labor and effort, into this project just to make a six pack of Corona cold, and I still can’t cook a damned meal!  The beer was damned good though.  cuz it was like totally free….  like from the sun and shit!!! PS I’m typing this in a bar with WiFi and a hamburger and a beer.  (sigh) another $30 gone!:)  WiFi bridge is next project.  As soon as I raise another couple grand I guess. And then just to make things worse, I actually went shopping today, and the damned food cost way more than Jack in the Box would.  WTF!?  

Namo

Posted on by
Reply

Arrived in Namo B. C. today pretty early so we dunked the dink and I had a nice day fishing.  Man, getting totally skunked though!

Well, I mean not TOTALLY, I did catch 2 TINY Ling Cod.  Makes my total for Canada five lings, and not a keeper in the bunch Sad smile

So I gave up and decided to troll for Salmon, and I caught a small rockfish.  Which is probably not good since I was using divers and rockfish live in rocks hence I was trolling the bottom.  Which seems like a good way to lose trolling gear.

Port Hardy

Posted on by
Reply

IMG_4181I explored Port Hardy a little bit.  There’s a pretty good sports store, so I bought some fishin gear.  Went fishin in the cold rain and froze my butt off. Caught nothin but shivers.

When we filled up with Gas there was a pair of Bald Eagles perched on an abandoned barge.  But When I went back to take a picture they were gone.

The next morning we went back to the fuel dock to fill the water tank, and they were gone then too. I was kinda bummed that I missed the picture the first time.

Then, when we left the dock about thirty Minutes Later, there they were!  IMG_4208

Unfortunately most were blurry, so I didn’t get any really  good ones of the pair of them, but this one of the male didn’t turn out so bad.IMG_4218

Simplicity is complicated

Posted on by

Cruising on a fancy yacht like Nu Explorer has been incredibly educational for me about my own boat; Oceana.

Nu Explorer has every amenity: heat, power, a dive  compressor, a regular compressor, Satellite TV, Internet and telephone, 2 big screen chartplotters with dual radars and a separate computer too, Microwave, Full-size BBQ, Oven, trash compactor, Bigscreen HDTV, A FLIR night-vision camera, AIS, EPIRB, Life rafts, Air Conditioning, hydraulics bow and stern thrusters, a crane, stabilizers,Hydraulic and electric windlass’s (fore AND aft), TWO generators, TWO VHF’s, SSB, Spotlight, Widow Wipers, running water, electric heads.

As nice as it is, It’s a TON of work!!!

In short, it’s really made me miss OceanaSmile Everything on Nu Explorer is a 2-man job.

As different as these two boats are, they share a ton of similarities as well. #1 obviously is that they are both steel, which I’m starting to really like.

#2 they are designed to be ‘world cruisers’ however N.E. does it through sheer might and expense and consumption, which is just about 100% the opposite of how I want to live my life.

OTOH I also now think I “need” a 13’ Dinghy with a 50hp outboard & Electric tilt!   Devil Seriously, I don’t think it’s possible to ‘cruise’ without it!!!  Going 20 miles to town is pretty nice when you’re comfortable, dry and going 40 mph.

IMG_4007

Obviously it’s different for everyone,  my list will not be everyone else’s but here it is:

Electric heads. Sorry, but I’ve spent too much time F’n with manual heads, not gonna do it anymore.

Watermakers are really nice.  As is running water, especially lots of it, especially with high pressure and high flow rates, especially with outlets on deck.  But mine is going to be WAAYYYYYY simpler and mechanical.

Solar, Solar, Solar!  Interestingly; Oceana already has more battery capacity than Nu Explorer does! Yay Smile The Microwave is kinda nice too, but really not in the cards, I’m going to very seriously limit 110v power suckage!

LED lighting.  When I refit Oceana, I am completely trashing the 120v (household) lighting in favor of 12v LED lighting.  Everywhere

For me, a thing many consider optional will most definitely be a priority: and that’s A.I.S. It is incredibly useful to be able to call a ship by their name, and also to see them coming around corners.  And for me, a class b transmitter is a no-brainer.  Just pure awesome nerd gadgetry!

The other is NEMA 2000.  I am not going to dick around with 0183 ever again.  I can do it, but it’s a huge pain in the ass and I hate it.  Nu Explorer has a lot of nice electronics, but they are not well installed, and not well integrated. It drives me mental.  Oh, and Oceana will have a couple Macs on it.  Windows just completely sucks, at everything.

BOSE outdoor speakers: Thumbs upoh yeah baby! BOSE super custom electronics, and HDTV video switching systems, not so much.Thumbs down Oceana does need a decent sound system though.

Yep, gonna keep it simple! K.I.S.S.  I just gotta figure out where to mount the crane to lift that sweet, sweet dinghy!