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.

Composting Toilet

Most boats have a holding tank system which keeps your poo in a smelly soup. We keep our poo in dirt!

When I bought Wisdom, it had the standard marine head with septic hoses running everywhere. The hoses were old and reeked of toilet wastes. It seemed that no matter how much I cleaned them, they always smelled. The head was rather old and after rebuilding it a few times, I decided to ditch the traditional method and convert over to a composting toilet.

The way it works is the solids and the liquids are kept in separate areas. The liquid tank fills up rather quickly and needs to be dumped weekly. The solids tank actually lasts a very long time. With two people using it, we choose to dump it every 6 months. It is not full, nor in need of being dumped at 6 months; we simply feel that it has been long enough. When we dump the solids tank, it doesn't look like a pile of poo. Instead, it looks like dark dirt (though I wouldn't put this on the vegetable garden)!

The composting toilet we chose is very comfortable to sit on and use, and it fits well in the boat. I did drill a weep hole in the section that holds the pee bucket so that shower water would drain out. 

Installation was also very straight forward. Remove the old head and all associated plumbing, then attach the compost toilet to the sole. The kit includes fans and hoses and all sorts of attachments to the toilet, but we decided to try it out as it is first, then install the rest of it if we felt the need.

Two years later, we still haven't felt the need to install the other parts. The head sits in our head/shower and quietly serves its purpose without much intervention. 

But what about bugs and flies? Well, that is where the dirt comes into play. We found that using pure peat moss and poo was a wonderful breeding ground for gnats and flies. By mixing in a fair amount of diatomaceous earth with the peat moss, nothing would spawn. We mix the diatomaceous earth in until the lot of it takes on a grey color, that seems to do the trick!

If the pee bin ever begins to smell, we simply pour in a cap full of white vinegar. That will neutralize any smells instantly, once again restoring peace to our floating home. 

The boat began to smell much better once the heads were switched. Removing the old smelly poo hoses and replacing them with the compost made a huge impact on the quality of life below deck!

Since these composting toilets work as standalone devices, they would also work great in cabins, RVs, and other boats. 

First Ice of the Season!

Winter is certainly upon us! We have been enjoying this warm winter with days in the 60s and nights in the 40s, but now the temperatures have finally dropped and the water is cooling off as well. This morning we had our first hint of ice! 

While it is only skim ice, it is the first sign of the chilling water temperature we are floating in.

This is by no means an impressive amount of ice, last winter is still fresh in our minds when the ice formed and stayed for weeks! Last year, the ice was so thick that some rather crazy people decided to try walking on it. Tempting death, they managed to walk from one marina to another on the thick and sturdy ice that had formed. I was content with just looking at the foot prints in the snow covered ice from the safety of the pier!

Our Floating Home

Maddie and I live in our 45 foot sailboat year round. We live here with our two pets, Morty (our corgi) and Sammy (our parrot), through the heat of summer and chills of the winter. We spend most of our indoor time right here on this bench. 

It is amazing how versatile such a small space can be! The cabinets behind us are storage for booze, diesel for the stove in the lower right corner of the picture, plates, pots and pans, and electrical connectors. Behind our backs is more storage, where we keep towels, electric heaters, ropes, paints, plumbing connectors, and paper towels. Under our seats are two of the eight water tanks in the boat, along with the water pump. The table itself also has space for storing the bedding supplies, as well as games. 

We eat, work, and relax at this small table. Maddie opens the leaves to do her paintings and I use the table for all the other projects I have done in the boat. I even built the rigging for the whole sailboat sitting right there! Add some more pillows to the bench and we can stretch out to watch a movie on our laptop computer. 

The boat is only 45 feet long, and yet we spend most of our indoor time on that bench in a room that is 7 feet long by 8 feet wide. When you have a well laid out common area, it can take the place of multiple specilaized rooms that would require much more space. I originally wanted to live in a tiny house, and then discovered sailboat living (which offers unlimited mobility to the tiny house). I think tiny houses and boat designers should work together to maximize the amount of living with minimal space! 

I have learned to organize my things more efficiently thanks to information about tiny house living. I feel that tiny house design could benefit by taking cues from sailboat interior layouts.

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.