Sunday Evening Projects

The captain had a whim tonight. The aft deck has always been somewhat inadequately lit for hanging out on after dark. I've dealt with it by bringing candles out and having a little string of tiki lights, but it's just been something that's bugged us. Barbecuing is next to impossible without a flashlight. So we went on an excursion to the local hardware store...


And bought some supplies.


One of my favorite things about us is the way we work together on projects. We both have MacGyver brains and are constantly coming up with creative ways of accomplishing things. Brock's "cheap bone" is a huge influence, yet he has learned to listen to me when there is the time and place for a more expensive, quality approach. His initial thought was to throw up a plastic J channel and put some rope lighting in it. At $1.98 for 8 feet, that would certainly have been the economical way to go.

But it's KJ. And she's classy and quality and workmanship in every way. And so we decided to make our own channel for the lighting. And put some ornate trim on it. Once it's painted white, I think it will blend beautifully into the style of the boat.


And the effect at night - wow. It's a very welcoming indirect light, perfect for entertaining. With some paint and tidying, we have a great outdoor room after dark.

Total time from concept to working product? Three hours. Nice job, Magic Brock!

Not-My-Two Update

Still adorable! They're 20 months now ~ walking, running, talking (in their special twin language mostly).


Little Jamie came and climbed right up in my lap, no shyness at all. Such dolls! It's always amazing to see this little family I had such a huge part in creating. Being a surrogate mom was one of the coolest things I've ever done.

The Story of KJ's Rudder

She's been a "bit of a dog" around the docks ever since I've had her - her handling more than a little sluggish and slow to respond. We've pieced together some of the reasons why and no, nowhere on the list is the phrase "Bill Garden is an idiot." He designed the boat as she should have been in 1952. One rudder, given the sailing rig. One rudder, big enough to catch the wash from the large 33" x 34" propellers.


Ah, but wait, my astute readers! Remember that refit she had a few years ago? The one where they put new engines onboard? When they changed the prop size to 20" x 22"? But somehow neglected to foresee the part where none of the wash from the faster, smaller props was actually reaching the rudder anymore?


Enter my Magic Brock, and the Uber-Talented Welding Twins, Dean and Joe. Some sheet metal, a good old wire feed welder, little bit o' time and *POOF*!


An extended, articulated, hinged, mechanical fin that now catches the prop wash!



I've seen it built, in action, and throughout the whole process. I *still* don't get quite how it works.

Anthropomorphization

To a very high degree, as my daughter would point out. She's fond of noting Mama's quirks and peculiarities.

And yet I can't help but think that my darling Katherine Jane prefers her bath water WARM. She seems...happier...when I scrub her down with nice, toasty water to cleanse all of that coarse, gritty salt off of her.

Brock is off at a meeting tonight and I'm caring for our girl in all the ways she needs after being out and about, playing in the salty, cold water of the Sound. It's past dark, but that in no way negates the need to get that grating debris rinsed off right away. And so I was out there, communing with my beloved wooden boat. Just the two of us. And the warm water from the hose.

From a logical perspective, I'm quite certain that I must be correct. Salt dissolves more quickly in warm water than cold, right?

Solubility is function of temperature of solvent.

The solubility of a given solute in a given solvent typically depends on temperature. For many solids dissolved in liquid water, the solubility increases with temperature up to 100 °C.

Consensus seems to be that at a simple level, yes, warm water dissolves salt mo' bettah than cold water (and it gets non-simple in a hurry:

• Biopharmaceutics Classification System
• Solubility equilibrium
• Raoult's law
• Dühring's rule
• Hot water extraction
• Flexible SPC water model
• Hydrotrope)

But the basic thing that I noticed?

KJ really likes her warm baths. And I like it when she's happy.

The Cherry On Top

Of an incredible weekend:

It's tough to take good wildlife photos with a point and shoot, but here's my best attempt for the day.

We got into the middle of a pod of orcas this evening. It was absolutely incredible. We were crossing the traffic lanes when we saw them breaching to the south. I saw one come completely out of the water - that was a first for me. Earlier, the radio was chattering about them being just north of Blake Island, so we knew they were in the area.

We got outside of the shipping lanes and waited for them to pass us. They were spread out all across the water and there was no way to avoid their path, so we cut the engines and floated as they came closer. At one point, a group of 8 came within 20 feet of the stern of the boat, in a row. I'll have to find out more about behavior - they were shoulder-to-shoulder (or whatever one would call that ) and swimming in perfect unison. Hunting, perhaps? No words to describe it ~ we are so lucky to live here in the Northwest. My dad is visiting from Ohio in a few weeks & we will take him to the San Juans. Hopefully, we will find the pods there as well.

We Have It Good

The cam lock system worked! Not that we're surprised. Now we have enough fuel onboard for heat for the winter and some playtime too.

The only hitch in the giddy-up came later when we were transferring the fuel from port to starboard tank to level out the boat. I went down to do an engine room check and discovered fuel pouring off of the starboard tank. Guess we didn't factor in the fact that even when just using the transfer pump, the starboard tank still only has that stupid little 3/8" vent. The system got pressurized and it started to leak out of the tee on top.

Easily fixed (plug the 3/8 tube and open the fuel fill on that side - voila, new vent) and we didn't lose very much at all. Just a bit of clean-up with the absorbent pads and we were good.

That's the main reason to have an immaculate engine room. Anything amiss shows up instantly when there's not gunge and muck to hide it. The pink fuel pouring over the white tank was immediately obvious.


We had Brock's work-partner and his family onboard one night. Lotsa fun, good food at night, fishing in the morning. Megan did catch one silver that was too small to keep (which was what she wanted, being a non-violent earth mother type). She caught, she threw it back, all was well.


Then we dropped them off and headed out to one of our favorite little anchorages for the night.


Port Madison is the closest cute little hideaway we have. It feels miles and miles away from anywhere. When we've only got one night outside the locks, that's usually our choice.


And the rest of Sunday? Fishing, football, and reading on the aft deck. Doesn't suck!

On The Water For The Weekend

Pretty iffy Internets where we are going, so pics must wait until we return...but we are out enjoying a blissful, calm, sunny afternoon on the sound.

Hope you're having a good one too!

Tonight's Magic Brock Adventure...

...begins with a hole in the fuel tank...


...and a wicked cute smile from the captain...


...and then the drilling commences. I hid upstairs from the ungodly noises.

We had to move all the fuel from one tank into the other and now Katherine Jane is heeled over pretty hard to starboard. It's very "Poseidon Adventure" climbing up the stairs and hanging from the walls.

A few weeks ago, we turned KJ around in her slip and I thought that was really weird and disorienting. Wasn't nuthin' compared to being on her side. I think the hardest part for my brain is the "not moving" part. On some level, I keep expecting her to lean back over on the other side of the wave. The angle is not the freaky part - it's the lack of movement WITH the angle.

So it goes a lot like this: I'm fine. I'm dizzy. I'm fine. I can't stand up. I'm fine. Hold onto something. I'm fine. Are we done yet?

We're adding a fuel fill and a fuel vent to the port tank so that we can fuel at a much faster rate without the Geyser of Diesel effect that we have now. Anybody remember a few years ago when I got a faceful of diesel the very first time we put fuel in KJ? I kept thinking it must have been my fault, something I did wrong, heck, I don't even know anything about boats after all. Turns out it wasn't my fault at all.

The vent for the 1500 gallon fuel tanks is one 3/8" copper pipe. High volume of liquid in...air goes where?

It only took fuel spraying up at Brock's shirt once before it was decided that we would be fixing that problem, once and for all.

Enter tonight's festivities.


There were many pieces to choose from.


And a disappearing Brock.


Well, almost. I could still see his knees as he stood in a garbage bag inside the tank. Which did fail slightly and left him a little diesel-y. We'll just be throwing the pants out, thank you very much.

What is it with boys and their quirks? At 8:10, as he broke the second drill bit, I asked him if he wanted me to run to the local hardware store to pick up a few more just in case. After all, the tank is made of 5/16 steel. And the Home Depot does close at 9:00. No, no, don't think I'll need it, he says.

At 8:40, he breaks the last drill bit with two holes left to drill. Suddenly, the ball is in my court. I dash out the door, zoom down to the store, arrive with 7 minutes to spare.


I took pictures of him by just shoving the camera through the hole and aiming in the direction it seemed he was likely facing. You can see the new fill spout on the interior of the tank on the left side.

Finally, at the end:

Finished cam-locks! (Well, they'll need paint and clean-up, but they are operational!) So now we'll be able to take on fuel much more quickly and safely, with less risk of those pesky EPA reports and fines. And we'll also be able to get fuel at more commercial places with higher gpm requirements, which translates to saving money over the course of a 3,000 gallon fill.

Back to level now, please.

And Another Thing I'm Not Really Good At

I picked 'em by name. I picked 'em by looks. I picked them completely randomly without looking at them. I picked 'em by stats.

I was consistent in my inability to pick a winner. Someone should be able to turn that into profit simply by betting against me.


On the plus side, the bugle guy (no, I don't know if it's a bugle...I have no idea) played "Fly Me To The Moon" just for Miss NJ. And Brock *almost* got an Exacta.

It was fun. Not sure I need to go back again, but it was a good way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

Brunch on the Royal

Lovely morning - second deck to ourselves, many Mimosas, gorgeous (if windy) weather.


The young ones swore they weren't going to have any fun. I think they lied.


It's good to be engaged to a man who wakes up with brilliant ideas every day. I can't wait for the day when I get to call him my husband!