Rope Fenders: Completed Core

The rope fenders are finally bulked up and ready for test fitting. Rope fenders of this size are very time consuming to make but they offer many serious advantages over inflatable fenders. 

They will not pop
They serve the purpose of fender and fender board
They will not fly away in the breeze
They will close the hole in the gate to keep Morty (our boat dog) from sliding out

The core is completed, but the outside covering needs to be tied. The process of tying the cover over the core will continue to bulk up the fender even further. It is easiest to hang the fender from a halyard and work on it standing, but it has been rather cold these past few days; delaying the completion.

Ocean Sailing: Calm Days

Calm days will make up the majority of a voyage. These are the wonderful days of sailing along with a calm ocean swell. The winds are light and consistent as you calmly move along through the water. No one wants to ask about these days because they want to hear the epic days of heroic action taken to fight the breaking waves and ferocious winds.

The truth is, most sailing is spent relaxing while the boat whisks along through the water. 

We lowered the mainsail because it kept slating with the seas. We didn't loose too much speed over ground because the main was actually robbing wind from the drifter. When the mainsail was out of the equation, the staysail and drifter were able to fill up and pull us along.

Ocean sailing is very relaxing and peaceful. Most people would probably crank up their engine and power along at hull speed in these conditions, but we are not capable of doing that with our electric engine and tiny battery bank. 

Many people view this as a drawback to not having a long distance motor, but we view this as an advantage. If we had a long distance motor, we would be tempted to crank up the engine and power our way through the seas instead of relaxing and enjoying the ocean and all of its beauty. 

We don't cover many miles on these calm days, but we don't feel exhausted at the end of the day either. The whole day is spent lounging around, reading, eating, and doing whatever strikes your fancy. There is no rush when under sail on a calm day! We know the winds will eventually change and we will end up sailing along under reduced sails, blasting our way through the ocean at 8 to 9 knots. For the time being, we enjoy our peaceful days where we mosey along at 2 to 4 knots.

If you are planning an ocean voyage, you should consider your time at sea a gift of peace and relaxation. Take advantage of your time at sea where you have minimal distractions and all the time in the world! Each day begins when you wake up and ends when you feel like it, rather than when your alarm clock goes off and when your shift ends. If you find yourself on a calm day with no wind, consider leaving the engine off to enjoy the peace and quiet of the sea instead of listening to the roar of your engine.

Ocean sailing is going to mostly consist of these calm relaxing days with a few days of storms scattered in there. The stormy days will give plenty of notice in the ways of cloud formations and increased ocean swell from a new direction (the swell will radiate out from the center of the storm, so the storm will be in the direction from the swells origin). When a storm approaches, early preparation will make them seem like a mundane occurrence rather than a special moment that stands out in your mind. Then you can continue sailing along in the nice and calm weather that predominates on the ocean. Don't let the fear of the rare storm keep you from enjoying the peace and tranquility that ocean sailing has to offer.

Ocean Sailing: Rough Days

Rough weather is an unavoidable part of sailing. You can plan to avoid major systems or closely watch the forecast, but at some point you will get caught in bad weather. I must emphasize though, it is a minor part of sailing and most sailing is done under full sail in calm conditions!

Maddie and I did a trip during the summer which took us down the Chesapeake Bay and flanking the coast as we made our way offshore as far south as Kill Devils Hill, NC. I find it hard to say that we sailed to North Carolina as the closest we got to it was 4 miles offshore. 

We sailed in July because it is a very calm month according to the pilot charts. Winds should be around Force IV most of the time and the chance of gales was minimal. I figured this would be a good time to introduce Maddie to ocean sailing!

Most of our trip was calm, but when a storm would roll in, it was serious! The amazing thing about ocean storms is they are predictable and you have plenty of time to prepare for them, you just need to know what the warning signs are.

Clouds are your best warning to approaching storms. They tell you what the weather will hold for your immediate area and warn you from miles away. When this photo was taken, we were sailing along under full sail in winds blowing 10 to 12 knots. The large fluffy clouds along the horizon tell you that the weather is rather stable and the winds will be light. Then you can see the large towering cloud on the left. That is a storm in development and the top of it tells you which way its going. The top end of the cloud is being blown by the upper higher level winds and points in the direction the storm is going to be moving. 

We spotted this storm during one of our half hourly scans of the horizon. We saw that the storm was far away and blowing in our general direction, so we devised a plan. We lowered the main sail, raised the trisail, and hove to for the night (when we expected the storm to hit). If it were earlier in the day, we would have continued sailing under reduced canvas and watching the storm and its movement. Since it was late and we were ready to go to sleep, we decided to end our day earlier and heave to now.

The wispy clouds in this picture are the biggest talkers in the sky. They tend to indicate that a front will be rolling in tomorrow or the next day. If you see just a few of these cirrus clouds, then don't listen to them, but do take the clouds seriously when they begin to fill up the sky. This picture was taken looking off our starboard side and the anvil cloud (storm cloud in the first picture) was off our port side. The combination of all these clouds made us decide to rig the storm sails for the night even though it was only blowing 10 to 12 knots. 

We must have looked like idiots flying our storm sails in a gentle breeze, but the key to ocean sailing is preparation. I would rather rig the storm sails and float around in calm weather than to await the storms approach and rig the sails during the storm. We slept very peacefully that night. Every hour I would poke my head out the companionway and see how things were developing. Conditions deteriorated that night and by the following day we were sailing in a nasty storm.

By that night, it was blowing 20 knots. By the next morning 30 knots. The storm peaked around 1pm, blowing around steadily 37 knots. Strong storm wind will kick up the seas, and the longer the storm blows, the larger the seas will become. This is why a squall with 50 knot winds and a duration of around 15 to 20 min will not have seas as high as a lesser storm that blows for days.

In the early morning, the seas were already rather large. Look at the water on the left and right side of the picture and you can see that this is a large wave coming up on us the height of our stern rail and not just the horizon in the distance.

There are two schools of thought when it comes to storms at sea:

Light displacement sailboats that are capable of avoiding the storms
Heavy displacement sailboats that are capable of riding out the storms

I personally feel that the middle ground boats are not optimal in the ocean. They are too heavy to escape the storm yet too light to offer the comfort of a heavy displacement in a storm.

Wisdom is a heavy displacement sailboat so her motion is slow and lumbering. This translates into a calm ride in rough seas. We never get slammed around and the full keel keeps us on track as the seas rise and fall around us. 

As the day progressed, the seas also continued to build. We all stayed calm because we never felt that we were in danger. We had plenty of warning that the conditions were going to worsen and took the appropriate steps to maintain our safety.

When we saw the signs in the clouds, we reduced canvas and set course for further offshore. The only dangers that we would encounter during the storm would be breaking waves and a lee shore. Breaking waves can be calmed by the slick when hove to and the lee shore can be avoided by keeping enough seaway. 

Rough sailing is not the norm when it comes to ocean travel, but it will occur at some point. The way to keep them from becoming the highlight of your ocean voyage is to be properly prepared and take the necessary steps to ensure the safety of the crew and vessel. This way, the stories will be about the voyage and the destinations; rather than being about the storm that took the ship.

Longdog wants to know what happened to the rope fenders

They are coming along. They have taken me a long time to make because the process is slow. Each layer involves cutting longitudinal lines and seizing them to the ends, followed by wrapping the whole thing in a coil. They have been gaining bulk, but a post of each layer added to them would be insanely boring! So I have not mentioned them.

The very last layer was done differently, instead of coiling the line around it like I always do, I did a bit of macrame. It's called a chain stitch.

By coiling the line in a chain stitch, I was able to add a lot of bulk to the fender quickly.

The next step will be to wrap the whole fender in a series of half hitches. This will also be a very slow process but if they tear or get cut, the whole thing will not untie. Then I will be able to mend the broken area without worrying that the fender will unravel.  

LED Lighting

The old dim florescent light

Wisdom came with florescent lights mounted throughout the boat. A total of 9 lamps could evenly distribute a pale yellow glow. Each lamp consumed 16 watts,  burning 144 watts to light the whole boat. The truth is only 2 lamps worked so the boat was rather dark inside. 

I decided to update the lights rather than replace high energy consuming bulbs. I decided to convert all the lights to LED!  

I took a stroll over to West Marine and suffered incredible sticker shock as I gazed upon small lamps with prices ranging from $23 to $52 per lamp! I returned to the boat without any lamps but full of ideas. 

The lamps they offered all reminded me of lights I had seen before in IKEA. I made a trip to the closest IKEA and discovered that their cabinet lights are 12v DC! The best part is that a 4-pack only cost $22!

I decided to place the IKEA lamps over the existing holes from the old lamps. This allowed me to complete the conversion without replacing the ceiling. 

Each lamp had 3 holes that we not evenly spaced, one for the wires, and two other areas for the screws. I simply placed a set of 4 lights evenly spaced to cover the 3 holes. I also added a few extra lights in dark areas of the boat.  

The IKEA LED lights provide more illumination than the florescent ones and only consume 3 watts between 4 lamps. This allows me to have interior lights on while anchored out and not worry about my house battery bank holding up. 

The conversion itself was more involved than I had anticipated (like all boat projects tend to be). I had to lower the ceiling in each part of the boat to remove the old lamp, then (by the use of a jig I made out of the box the lights came in) install the 4 new lights in their respective spaces and run the wires. 

IKEA lamps are 12v DC which means you can cut the fancy IKEA connector off and wire the lamp directly into the boats 12V system. LED lights are polarized, so be sure you connect the lamps positive to the boats positive (you can trace the wires inside the transformer to figure out which wire is positive).

I have read that if the lamps are connected with their polarity crossed, they will either die instantly or else have a shorter life. I did not want to find out so I made sure it was correct before I connected it to the current. 

Once the lights were wired and tested, the ceilings and all their associated mouldings were reinstalled.  

The new lights provide plenty of light to live and read by while producing minimal heat.  

The downside to the cheap lights is they are not marine grade. I don't believe they use tinned copper wiring, and I don't expect them to last forever. They have been working wonderfully since 2012 and for a fraction of the price, I think they are doing just fine!  

When installing 48 lights (which only draw 36 watts when they are all on), cost became a significant determinant. My cost from IKEA totalled to $264. If I had bought them from a marine store such as West Marine, it would have cost me around $1,104.

These little cabinet lights deserve some credit, they can light up a tiny living space with minimal electrical consumption, they look modern, and they are flush mount!