Cleaning Eisenglass

Eisenglass is the clear window sections of your dodger and cockpit enclosure. Isinglass is a substance derived from fish swim bladders.

Aside from similar pronunciation, they also have another common characteristic: cloudiness. Isinglass is a powder, and Eisenglass will become opaque as dust and grim build up on its surface. Most people fear general maintenance around Eisenglass because they fear damaging it. It is common knowledge that if you rub dirt off Eisenglass, you can accidentally scratch it! This leads a lot of people to sit back and squint through the opaque windows in their dodger instead of doing something about it to restore its clarity.

You shouldn't be afraid of cleaning your Eisenglass, all you need to do is take special steps as you work. The most important thing to remember is that you need to always work with wet Eisenglass. If it is dry, dust and dirt can scratch the surface. By wetting the surface with a wet rag, all the dust is moistened and turns into a soft mud that can be easily wiped away. This will reduce the bulk of the grime that is obscuring your vision.

After this step is completed and the Eisenglass is now much better, but still dirty, it is time to take to professional cleaning products!

It was recommended to me, and I am now passing on the information to you, the use of RX cleaner.

This spray cleaner works wonders at removing the leftover grime and polishing the surface of the Eisenglass, leaving behind a crystal clear result.

All you need to do is wipe the surface with a wet rag to remove the majority of the loose grime, then dry with a dry rag. Next you spray the cleaner over the surface of the Eisenglass. I prefer to spray around the border and an X across the middle part.

Then I wipe in a circular motion the surface of the Eisenglass to spread around the cleaner. Once the cleaner has dried a bit, I switch to a new dry rag and buff the surface one more time.

The results are spectacular! I had not cleaned my Eisenglass in 6 years and it was scuzzy! The whole process took only a few minutes and brought the Eisenglass back to life! Now we can see out through the dodger as we sail.

Sea Sickness

Yeah...I get sea sick.

Luckily there are two things that help me through it: Herby is very understanding, and I know the cause. The problem is, sometimes the cause can't be avoided. When the waves are even slightly choppy, I can't go down into the cabin for more than about one minute without running back out and adjusting my breathing so as not to puke all over the place. It's definitely a handicap when it's raining...or night time. I've tried taking Bonine, which supposedly makes people less drowsy than Dramamine, but I was a useless blob for an entire day after taking it. True, I wasn't throwing up, but I also wasn't any sort of help whatsoever. It just wasn't worth it.

I know that if I stay outside, I'll be completely fine. The problem is, the cozy bed, the food, and the bathroom are all inside. It's not the most comfortable situation, but so far, it's been worth it. Herby fetches food for me when I'm hungry. He built a middle insert in the cockpit so that we could sleep outside during rough nights. I even got these rubber tubes to help me pee over the side so that I don't have to go down into the cabin every couple hours to relieve myself. It's a handicap for sure while sailing long distances, but honestly, I view it as completely worth it.

Sometimes I casually throw up over the side or into a plastic bag, but at least I'm cognitively present when we need to reef or drop a sail. So far on this trip, we've made an effort to always anchor in protected waters, but it won't be like that in the ocean. I sincerely hope that the rumors about adjusting to the rolling waves after a few days at sea are true, but if they're not, I know I'll be able to sleep outside and have an understanding husband who will cook and grab me snacks.

The Importance of a Dry Run

It may seem boring for us to spend the first three months of our journey in the Chesapeake bay, but there's a very important reason that we are doing so.  We needed a dry run.  It's helping us figure out the important things before we cross an ocean, so that we know that when we do set out, we are as prepared as we can possibly be.  I have only gone on one sailing journey in which I actually helped sail and it was two years ago.  It was extremely important for me to have this time in the Chesapeake to relearn all the skills that have been laying dormant for the past two years.  I am also gaining practice with things that I didn't even learn the first time around such as attaching hank on sails and putting in a triple reef.  As I do these things for the first time, I'm not only learning how to do them, but I'm also gaining a better idea of how the boat works as a whole.  This knowledge then helps me control it more effectively when we are at sea.

Besides the technical knowledge, however, this trial run has also given us important practice with things like rowing to shore and provisioning. We have learned how much fruit we consume in a week versus how long it will remain edible and we have also learned that we suck at keeping our garden alive while detached from shore hoses. Along those lines, we have also gained an understanding of how much water we tend to use in a given week, allowing us to ration appropriately when showering and doing dishes. 

That brings us to our rain water collected. We have had plenty of weather while away so far, which has shown us that we can collect more than 60 gallons of rain water in a single down poor. We learned the hard way that we can't sit on our flexible solar panels, but we were able to replace them with new ones within a couple of days since we were still in Easton, Maryland. It is far better that we figure these things out while still in familiar territory rather than discovering that something isn't working the way we had planned in the middle of our trek to Bermuda. Though it might not be as fun to follow along with or watch on YouTube, this trial run was completely necessary for us to prepare for the year of travel ahead.

Orientation of Through Bolts

When through bolting hardware, you might not pay much attention to which direction the bolt is facing. This may seem like a very mundane point to ponder, but this small detail can have a significant effect on the outcome of your project.

You may feel inclined to simply insert the bolt from which ever side you are standing on, but the truth is there is a right and wrong way to position a bolt.

To begin, lets look at a standard bolt. You have the head, smooth shank, and threaded portion. The head allows you to grasp the bolt with tools such as wrenches and sockets. The smooth shank is often overlooked, as it merely connects the head to the threads. The threaded portion is where the opposing nut attaches to give a bolt its fastening abilities.

The truth is, the smooth shank that is often ignored is actually the designed load bearing area of the bolt. This region of the bolt bears the most bulk and thus strength of the bolt. The threaded portion is actually significantly thinner as the threads are cut in, making the thickness of material reduced by the depth of the threads.

If you through bolt a high sheer stress object with the nut facing the most load, you risk sheering off the nut and causing a catastrophic failure to whatever you were trying to retain. The head should face the high strain working areas, as the head is right next to the smooth shank and thus is the strongest side of the bolt.

In the example below, a bracket was through bolted to the mast that will act as the attachment for all the turning blocks. Under full load, this bracket will be subjected to the full fury of the reef lines and main halyard. Since the halyard is located on one side of the bracket, that side will also be bequeathed with the heads of the bolts. The other side which will be under slightly less load will contain all of the acorn nuts used to hold the bolts in place.

Next time you go to through bolt a piece of equipment, be mindful of which end will be subjected to the most strain and place the heads of the bolts accordingly.

Synthetic Lifelines

Synthetic lifelines allow you to replace your questionable steel lifelines with dyneema that will provide you with a very lightweight lifeline that is immune to corrosion and easy to install yourself. The only specialty component that you need to make the conversion is a gate latch that can be spliced onto a synthetic lifeline. These latches cost around $70 each, and are readily attainable at most chandleries.

Synthetic lifelines are tensioned with lashings that attach to the pulpits. If you cut your lifelines a bit short, you don't need to worry since this will only require you to use a longer lashing.

The biggest issue with synthetic lifelines is chafe. You need to be mindful of sheets rubbing on them, as well as chafe from the stanchions that they pass through. The other issue is the spliced portion of the lifeline will not fit through the stanchion.

Chafe from the sheets can be managed by adjusting the sheet leads, but the chafe of the stanchion can not be avoided. The lifeline will rub on the stanchion because the lifeline passes through the stanchion. The trick is to polish the passage through the stanchion so that the chafe point is reduced.

As far as the splicing goes, there is a trick to work the splice around the stanchion. The splice is simply passed over the outside of the stanchion so that the bulk is bypassed. Be sure to leave enough room to scoot the spliced area over to inspect for chafe.