Rope Cleaning Station

Ropes become lines the moment they enter the vicinity of a boat (unless you are the select few ropes that remain a “rope on a boat”). The trouble is, these sheets, halyards, jacklines, and other control lines all get dirty over time. Between the salt that gets into the fibers and the algae that grows on them if they don’t dry out enough, the lines become filthy!

When you remove a line from a boat and turn it back into (dirty) rope, you may want to clean it. Washing machines are not a good idea as all the agitation will form infinite knots in your ropes. Many detergents (especially fabric softeners) will actually weaken the strength of the rope. You are pretty much left with the option of a bucket filled with Dawn Soap and water.

You could simply mix the rope around in the bucket for a while and try to work the dirt out of the rope fibers the best you can, but this will end up with a dirty rope where the only thing that came out in the wash were the good intentions.

The next option is to add a brush to the equation. A good scrub brush will help loosen and remove dirt and other contaminates from the rope and its fibers, but scrubbing a rope can be rather challenging.

A friend of mine made this apparatus to facilitate the cleaning process of his jib sheets. The brushes are simply clamped to a sturdy table, allowing him to work the rope through the brushes with both hands to really clean them up well. The rope that is waiting simply soaks in the soapy water of the bucket, helping to loosen any filth that is on the line.

Photo and idea courtesy of: Scott Erwin

As the rope gets cleaner, the water can be changed out to prevent the clean rope from stewing in the old filthy water. The process really makes an impossible task much easier, and the end result is a much cleaner jib sheet once it is returned to it's home on the boat.

Coração Negro

The English translation means “Black Heart” and this fruit is aptly named. 

It may start off green, but as it ripens, this heart shaped fruit will turn pitch black! Even more unique is the flavor within. 

The flesh of the fruit is white with large black seeds. The fruit tastes like Strawberry-Banana candy and it is delicious! 

Tentakeel

One of our more creative shirt designs is called Tentakeel!  

Some boats have full keels, others have fin keels, but no one ever talks about this setup! 

Weather Routing Software

You head out to sea because you want to sail to somewhere far away, but which way should you go?

Wind direction can have a drastic effect on your ability to cover ground under your keel. If you are running, it will be slower than a broad reach, and still slower than a beam reach, but certainly faster than if you are beating. What does this all mean?

It doesn’t matter because there is a computer program that will interpret all the weather data and spit out a simple command: “GO THAT WAY”. You no longer need to know what you are doing or why you are doing it because a computer will tell you everything you don’t understand.

The program takes the forecast information and breaks it down into 4 scenarios depending on the models. There is the US and the European model, as well as the Predict Wind version of each. The colorful program even shows you where you will be at each time interval and which direction to go next!

Look at the little boats scoot across the hypothetical screen, aren’t they cute?

Looks like the GREEN boat is in the lead, woohoo!

Come Friday, the yellow boat seems to be the slowest of the pack!

RED and GREEN seem to be neck and neck!

RED has taken the lead!

Here is another lovely example of a program playing the role of Captain while you are merely a deckhand to the computer overlord. Hurricane Chris is looming to the NW of the boat and the computer is suggesting that the GREEN boat should head up into the hurricane and sail on its navigable semicircle.
Why? Because the hurricane is predicted to move straight and this would give you favorable winds to sail quickly.

What if the hurricane turns Easterly? Now what?

Weather routing software is nice to confirm what you have already decided is prudent and best. It can be used to run out theories in your head, but it should not by any means be the Captain of the ship. The software runs under the premise that the forecast is correct and as we all know, the forecast is never correct. This means that the suggested route is not going to be as expected!

If you still feel the need to have a program tell you where to go, don’t go to sea yet. Take some classes on weather and weather routing, read some books, and learn the material yourself. First, so that you can judge if the electronic information is prudent, and second, so that you can still navigate the weather should your electronic leader die at sea.

Teapot shower

Living in a boat and especially cruising demands a lot of resourcefulness. If something breaks or required too much electricity, it can be a frustrating situation or a puzzle. On the way down the ICW, our water heater broke and we were unable to take hot showers. This wasn't a problem at the time because it was summer, but as the weather got colder and we crossed the Atlantic, nothing felt better than a soothing hot shower. In order to make this possible, I simply boiled water in a teapot and poured it into our insecticide sprayer shower! Normally, we would leave this shower out in the sun and it would heat the water since we had covered it in black tape. This wasn't an option when we were underway because the sun wasn't hot enough and there was a lot of salty sea spray. The teapot worked so well even though it was a silly concept.

Moral of the story: don't deny yourself simple pleasures when at sea. If you need something like a hot shower, make it happen with whatever means you have!