Tag Archives: Puget Sound

Seattle Boat Show This Weekend!

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We are headed for the Seattle Boat Show this weekend. It’s always a nice time wandering the isles looking at all the stuff we don’t really need and probably can’t afford. But it is still fun looking. Mostly, I like crawling around on boats.

`What?’ cried the Rat, open-mouthed: `Never been in a–you never–well I–what have you been doing, then?’

`Is it so nice as all that?’ asked the Mole shyly, though he was quite prepared to believe it as he leant back in his seat and surveyed the cushions, the oars, the rowlocks, and all the fascinating fittings, and felt the boat sway lightly under him. Continue reading →

Restoring our teak decks

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Some people love teak decks, some people hate them. We are firmly in the first group. To me, real, seaworthy boats have teak decks. But I understand why others, faced with a significant cost of repair, choose to pull the decks off and go with non-skid fiberglass. Lower cost, and lower maintenance in the years to come. I’ll admit that could be us in a few years.

It started small. Like most repair projects. A few open seams in the deck caulking, a few exposed screw heads. With winter approaching, it seemed prudent to address these little issues now. We just need to fix this little spot here, that little spot there. And like most projects, it grew. And then grew some more. In the end, we just about did it all. I suppose I should correct that last statement. We (Kim and I) didn’t actually do any of it. Mike Thomas of Thomas Marine Interiors did all the real work.

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Alas, Poor Windlass

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Thirty four years ago, the Ideal Windlass Company manufactured a nice little windlass. Serial number 937. Since that time, that little windlass has been dutifully serving it’s masters on the bow of our boat. Last month, it finally decided to go on strike and refused to do the job it had been conscripted to do. It would pay out chain nicely when anchoring, but was just too tired to pull it all back in again.

Ideal claims that parts are available for 99% of their products manufactured since 1940. (I doubt most companies could make that claim about their products.) An email exchange with Ideal proved them right — at least for the part we needed. A quick call to Ideal when we got back from our trip and the exact replacement motor for our 34 year old windlass was on it’s way to us.

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More Light, Less Power

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Archimedes came to us with fluorescent overhead lighting. The fixtures are about 12 inches long and built into recesses in the ceiling. Each fixture holds one ten watt tube. Sadly, they don’t produce much light. In fact, a previous owner went so far as to line the insides of the recesses with aluminum foil in the hope that would reflect a bit more light. I don’t think that was terribly effective. The tubes just don’t put out much light.

We have seven of these fixtures. Four in the main salon, one in the aft stateroom, and one in each head.

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Gulf Islands – Observations and Errata

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We just finished two weeks in the Gulf Islands of British Columbia. We’ve been going there for a number of years. We try to visit old favorites and make some new discoveries each time we visit. This year, the weather was fantastic. Some years are sunny, some are wet, some a combination (this is most common). We had sun, warm, and flat seas almost the entire time. It clouded up one afternoon, rained in the evening and through the night, and was clear and sunny the next morning. Perfect!

This is what boating is about.

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