Cape Fear and Heading South in the ICW

The ICW, also known as "the ditch" is a narrow cut of water that runs along the East Coast of the United States. It is famous for being long, straight, and boring. This all holds true, but it does offer one huge advantage, you get to stop for a good meal and a good nights rest every night!

The waterway is rather narrow, and when heading south after Cape Fear, the tide becomes rather dramatic. 6 foot tides are common, and that means that a lot of water will flow through the inlets creating a very strong current.  

We decided to continue heading south through the ICW instead of going offshore for two reasons:
1. It's really cold outside in January.
2. Weather in the ICW is not important. 

Rather than going offshore from Cape Fear to re-enter at Georgetown, we decided to continue mucking along in the ICW because of winter weather.  

Today, we had sustained winds of 20 knots with gusts over 35 knots in the ICW while the waves were only around 3 inches tall. Yes, flat water and 20+ knot winds! Oh, and it was in the low 40Fs today too. 

When we passed the inlets, we could look out at the ocean, where the winds are stronger since there are no trees or houses blocking the wind, and the waves out there were massive, from the mouth of the inlet to as far as the eye could see. The ocean looked like a sea of white caps, while we continued on peacefully in the calm and tranquil waters of the ICW. 

The best part of it all, when we get tired, we simply pull over to the side of the channel and drop the anchor. This lets us relax, eat, and sleep well knowing that we are safe and sound. If we were offshore tonight, we would be freezing as we struggle through the night watch, hoping to reach the next inlet. 

While the ICW might seem like a cake walk, it does have one strong feature that will dictate any motion you try to make: the currents. It is common to see a small wake form behind your anchor chain as it exits the water, as the current will be ripping through the waterway. If you have the current in your favor, you will cover many bonus miles that day, while if you are fighting the current, you will face an uphill battle. 

Be sure to check the tides to decide when you will move and when you will anchor, as the currents will be your biggest concern in the waterway.  

Once you leave Southport at Cape Fear, you will only have four inlets to contend with, and only 3 of them are serious inlets. This means that once you pass the last inlet (Little River Inlet), you will have over 60 miles of gorgeous waterway with no more inlets creating confusing tides. Everything will be easy to calculate as you make your trek with the tides all the way to Georgetown! 

Clean Working Area

Working on metal is synonymous with creating a mess. Little metal filings will bounce away and get lost forever, only to be found later by someone's bare foot!  This can be avoided though.

In surgery, surgical dressings are used to isolate the area and keep things clean. The same principles can be used when working with metal! The goal is to place dressings around the work site that will catch and collect anything that might be trying to escape. The material of choice for this: wet paper towel. 

Wet paper towel will catch and hold any metal filings that might try to bounce away. If you are working on a vice, simply drape the paper towel through the vice and under the object, and then up on the sides to terminate next to the object. You have basically created a moist diaper around the metal fitting so that anything that falls will be trapped and held.

Clean up is easy too as all you need to do is ball up the paper towel and throw it all away! An important thing to remember though, the paper towel should be moist, not soaked. If the paper towel is too wet, it will not adhere to the metal filings and they will still bounce away. I like to wet it, then squeeze it dry, then open it back up. This seems to provide the right amount of moisture to catch and hold anything that lands on it without dripping all over the place. 

Drilling Steel

While steel is softer than stainless steel, the principles hold the same; but the job will be easier! Steel is a very strong and hard metal, so drilling it needs to be done slowly as to not cause excess heat to build up.  

If you are using a drill press, which is preferred as control over speed and pressure are greatly enhanced, then you will want to look at where the belt is positioned.  

The belt should be placed on the pulleys to give you the lowest drill speed (and resultingly the highest torque). Then you want to use light pressure as you cut your way through the steel. If you are drilling a small and shallow hole, you may be able to drill dry without generating too much heat.  If you are drilling something longer or deeper, consider using a cutting lubricant as it will help reduce friction and heat buildup.

Machining a Grease Nipple

Zerk fittings are wonderful, all you do is pop a grease gun onto them and pump the lubricant right into where it's needed most! But what if you have a component that has no provision for a grease nipple? What if you wanted to make your own?! 

Our windlass was in need of grease, but to add grease, I was supposed to remove it from the deck, turn it upside down, and pour grease into the casing. This is straight forward enough until you realize that the bolts that hold it down are 20 years old and hidden behind gorgeous joinery! I would spend a lot longer putting things back together once the job was completed. 

Instead, I decided to simply pump some grease into it using a Zerk fitting. The only issue is, it has none! While it lacks the provisions for this attachment, it does have various bolts that thread into the housing and offer access to the inside when the bolt is removed. This gave me the idea to create my own "bolt-on Zerk fitting" by simply boring a bolt and threading in a Zerk fitting.

Using a drill press, I bored a hole down the center of the bolt (or mostly centered). The drill I used was a #7, as specified by the tap that I was using.  

Once bored, I then began tapping the threads into the reamed out bolt. Taps are wonderful cutting tools that are very sharp and need care when working with them. While you might feel inclined to simply screw the tap in, it is important to avoid doing this. You are not "screwing in the tap" but instead you are cutting the threads. The proper motion is to rock back and forth in your turns. Cut an 1/8 of a turn, reverse an 1/8 of a turn, then cut a 1/4 turn, reverse an 1/8 of a turn, cut an 1/8 of a turn, reverse an 1/8 of a turn, cut a 1/4 of a turn, etc.  

This slow back and forth motion will cut the threads while also reducing stress on the tap. Little by little, you will cut your way down the hole and create wonderful threads that you can then use. 

Once the threads are cut, you can then thread in the Zerk fitting. With the fitting connected and secured, all I need to do to grease the windlass will be to thread this into the casing and attach a grease gun! 

This was a redo of a previous attempt where I made a similar product while at a stop in a marina. All I had for tools was a hand drill, a clamp on vice, and a tiny tapper. The end product was functional, but didn't hold up too long. I decided to redo this project with proper tools to create a much better grease administering device. 

Oiling Wood

Varnish is often touted as the desired finish for brightwork and wood. It will let you appreciate the grain of the wood while also allowing you to inspect the condition of the wood with a simple glance!

While varnish might be the outer most coat, it should not be the first coat applied. When wood is harvested, it is wet from the tree that was once living. As it dries, it will warp and check. If you make something out of wet wood, it will soon develop cracks as it checks and dries. To avoid this, wood is "seasoned" where by it is dried slowly and in a controlled manner. This makes sure that the wood dries out evenly and doesn't develop any of those nasty checks or warps.

So, the wood you work with for your project will be nice and dry, ready for you to shape into the desired form. Since the wood is dry, if you varnish it, the wood will soak up all the varnish and need more coats.

Putting on many coats of varnish is not a problem, and it will be desired to create a very durable finish, but you don't want to start off with varnish.

At the heart of your wooden creation is dry wood. Any liquid you put on it will soak into the wood as the wood is desperate to re-hydrate itself. If water ever gets into the wood, it will begin to rot the wood from the inside and lead to an early death of your creation.

Varnish, while a wonderful top coat, is rather viscous and won't penetrate deep into the wood, meaning that deep in your creation will remain dryness. Water will, as always, find its way into this area and begin to degrade your creation.

Instead of starting out with varnish, you should consider using oil first. Linseed oil to be precise, is a wonderful oil to treat wood with as it will flow deep into the wood and satisfy the woods craving for moisture. As you begin oiling the wood, you will see the end grain literally suctioning the oil into the wood like a series of straws. It is very important to soak the end grain with as much oil as it wants until it stops drinking it up.

If you want to really saturate your wooden creation, consider submerging the wood in oil and letting the oil flow into it over several days.

You can see how the wood is actually drawing the oil up above the level of the liquid in the bucket. This is happening through the entire piece and over a few days will eventually pass through the entire creation.

After the wood has been well oiled, it should be allowed to dry for several days to a week in a dry area. Once the wood feels dry to the touch, it can then be varnished. The varnish won't soak into the wood quite as much as it would if the wood were dry because the oil has already been taken up. With several coats of varnish, a strong and durable layer will form on the outside that will glow with beauty!

The best part is, if the wood gets wet, the oil will repel water from getting inside, so the wood will not rot as easily. This isn't an excuse to use rot prone woods on the exterior of a boat, but it is a way of prolonging the lifespan of a wooden creation on the exterior of a boat.