It’s a small world after all.

This is a story all about how, my life got flipped, turned upside down….No, no wait. It’s not, this post has nothing to do with that. This post is about me, crewing on a 37 foot sailboat from San Franciso to Seattle.

Actually, that is not going to turn out to be the case either. I did crew on a sailboat from San Francisco back up here to Seattle, and could write about that. But we all know how that post would go.

I’d start with something about my flight down, and some boring stuff about meeting up with some friends in SF. (Friends I love, who did not bore me at all and always buy me delicious burritos when I visit). Or about meeting the boat and crew, and us doing some touristy stuff in town while we waited for a good weather in which to head north in.

I’m sure I would include some stuff about how cool it was sailng under the Golden Gate Bridge (it was), and getting a little queasy as soon as the swell of the Pacific hit us. Probably a quick blurb about some sort of hangover too.

I’d try to convey the feeling and power of sailing on a small boat in a huge ocean. I’d fail…..miserably. Same goes for trying to describe sailing at night, alone in the cockpit. Actually steering by a star, feeling the huge unseen swells lift the boat up and set it back down as it rolls by underneath. Seeing blue streaks approaching the boat on a pitch black night, and freaking out trying to figure out what they were, until I realized it’s dolphins swimming along side the boat and leaving bio-luminescence trails behind them as they swam.

I’m not gonna do that. I’m gonna tell you the story of how/why I came to be on that boat in the first place. It’s gonna be one of those “It’s a small world” kinda stories.

Like most some sailors, I want to sail on the open ocean. And, plan to do so on my own boat one of these days, but really wanted to do it on someone else’s boat first. So, one rainy day back in March I decided that instead of taking our usual summer vacation to the San Juan Islands, I would see if I could find a boat to crew on going down the coast from Seattle to somewhere south, San Francisco or further.

I started looking in all the usual places you look to do this sort of thing. What and where those “usual places” are, I honestly could not tell you. Because literally, the first web forum I went to that day (http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/f30/) I found a listing for crew entitled “Crew Wanted – La Paz Mexico to Seattle – Early April 2012”.

I was like “What. the. WHUT”? I immediately responded to the post and sent the guy an email. He writes back a couple days later. After a few emails back and forth, we decide to meet for a few beers and a burger at a bar up the hill from my office.

Quick Flash back
Over Thanksgiving 2011, Me and Tawn flew down to La Paz, Mexico (Do you see where this is going?) to visit/hangout with our friends Dawn and Pea on their boat Deep Playa. One night hanging out Dawn and Pea, and some other friends Aaron & Nicole on Bella Star, we were introduced to the owners, Craig & Cindy, of a boat named Cool Breez’n, and had a few cocktails with them on their boat.(Now you REALLY have to know where this is going!).

Flash forward five months. I’ve sorta forgotten about that particular night in La Paz, and getting ready to head up the hill to the bar to meet the Owners/Skipper of the boat I’m asking to crew on. And at this point, I am still under the impression this is just some random, internet guy.

The morning before I’m to meet this guy, I decide to do a quick internet search on the boat name Cool Breez’n. A few googles later and I’m checking out Cool Breez’n’s website and reading a story about them in La Paz, Mexico with some of their friends Aaron and Nicole.

And once again I’m all, “What. THE. WHUT. It’s a small fuckin’ world”

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Big summer project

Last month we pulled the mast off the boat. We did this for a number of reasons. One of those reasons according to random passerby/dock neighbor is we; and I quote “Hate sailing”. Thanks person I hardly know for rubbing that little turd in my face. :)

The other reasons for pulling the mast was to replace a lot of old and aging equipment and hardware.

Specifics? You want them? You got them:

Replaced the old spreader lights with nice super bright LEDs from Dr. LED. More specifically, these: Kevin Spreader lights

Replaced the old VHF antenna with a new Shakespeare Low-Profile AIS Whip Antenna

It claims to be AIS enhanced…..not sure if that matters, but I guess it cannot hurt.

We are also replacing all the Halyards and standing rigging.

But the main, number one reason we pulled the mast was to replace our aging radar and navigation system. Up until now we had a Furuno radar and the Nav system was one of my old laptops connected to a hand held Garmin eTrex GPS.

We will still have a laptop as a back up, and paper charts as well. But, our main Nav solution is a Simrad NSE8

And this is the super sexy radar:
Pretty sure the 3G is just some marketing bullshit, but it is instant on. Low power usage, and the broadband radar is super freakin detailed. I might actually use my radar now for something other than sizzling my nuts with radiation….i’m pretty sure that’s how radar works….sorta.

We also put a Maretron WSO100 for wind and temp mounted on top of the mast:
Best part about this wind indicator is NO moving parts. So the birds will have to actually put in some effort into trashing it.

We have not have a reliable working wind indicator or knot meter on Palarran for 2 or 3 years now. I am stoked.

I’m also rebuilding/modifing my tri-light/anchor light. And installing a mount so I can install a wifi antenna on the spreaders. But those two will be separate post.

That is not all we are doing. We also redid how our windlass was (incorrectly) mounted. And pulling the compression post so we can tear out an old leaking fresh water tank. That little side project resulted in us finding out the compression post may be compromised and need to be replaced.

In short, the entire post could be boiled down to: $$$KAFUCKINGCHING$$$ and a kick to the bank account.

Posted in Installations, Palarran | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Full disclosure

Today, or was it yesterday? Either way, I setup a Associates Account with Amazon.com and will from time to time be linking items Me or Tawn use on the boat or tools I’ve bought and liked or what the fuck ever.

Anyway, bottom line. Sometimes an item or picture will link directly to amazon. From this I may get a very small, probably not even worth it, percentage from clicks and/or purchases. I don’t really like ads, on the site. But I figure this is an unobtrusive way to try and make a dollar or two from this site.

Oh and it’s me…or Tawn posting these things. There will be no random automatic post from Amazon or bots. Just things we use or have used that come in handy on the boat.

Here are a couple examples.

Something for the ladies:

And one for you fellas:

Oh and one other thing. If you have ad blocker on, the pictures will not show up. So there’s that.

Posted in Random Oddness, tools | Tagged | Leave a comment

This could come in handy.

We spend a fair amount of time as live aboards trying to prevent unwanted things from growing on our boat. Things like mold, moss, barnacles, what the fuck ever that hairy thing is that shows up in the scuppers after we have friends over for a bbq/drinks in the cockpit….the list goes on.

As I understand it, dirt dwellers will, from time to time water their lawns in order to encourage their lawns to grow. Even when I lived on land, I did not understand this concept. Actually, I did. I just hated mowing the lawn. So I would purposely NOT water my lawn in the hopes that it would not grow. Which, among other habits, did not make me the most popular house in any neighborhood I lived in.

Following this Link will take you to something that was designed by and for dirt dwellers and thier desire for green, healthy lawns.

If your are anything like us (meaning):
a.) You live on a boat
b.) You don’t fill your tanks on a regular basis. But, wait until the tanks are completely dry at 9pm at night, half way through doing the dishes before filling them
c.) Hate waiting till the tanks are full and over flowing before running up on deck in your boxers and sock feet to pull the hose from the fill tube.

My idea is to figure out how long it takes to fill my tanks, then hook this little unit up to my hose, and set the timer to that. No I can fill my water tanks AND take a nap, check the crab pots, or find a pair of industrial strength rubber gloves and remove that hairy thing from the scuppers.

Posted in Palarran, Tools | Tagged , | Leave a comment