August 30, 2016
The sail down to the Sea of Cortez is quickly approaching. Thankfully the list of projects is shrinking and looks like there should be a green light for making the downwind cruise to La Paz in October. Looking at my original list there were two categories of items, 1. Critical to the safety of the boat and 2. Things that…
August 15, 2016
Well I suppose it should be expected that the one hatch that leaked would be over my bed. At least in Mexico and San Diego there isn’t a lot of rain so it wasn’t major issue. Mostly just a just a pain in the ass when washing the boat, since I had to remember to put a bin under the…
August 7, 2016
By dumb luck I saw a Safety at Sea brochure at Downwind Sailing, the training was to take place at the end of my refit trip but if I hunkered down I thought I could squeeze it in. And seriously, it probably is a smart thing to do given the plans to sail down to La Paz in October/November. Snapped…
August 4, 2016
The last thing you want to happen in an emergency is to struggle to know where things are located. Especially important for visiting guests who aren’t intimately familiar with the vessel. In an effort to pump up the safety margin on Strikhedonia, I have put together a laminated map of where safety equipment and potential failure points are located. Any…
August 2, 2016
Disassembly of a Harken 46 was pretty straight forward. The pictures were a big help in making sure everything fell back into place when reassembling the winch. Supplies used: Bucket for clean and dirty parts Small cleaning brush (nylon) 1” Paint brush Harken Winch Grease Harken Pawl oil Large and small flat head screwdrivers Allen wrenches Clean rags Mineral spirits…
August 1, 2016
It was an exhausting, at times overwhelming, grind, but from July 7th until August 1st I buckled down and cranked out a lot of work. The days were long often starting before 6:00am and not knocking off until after 8:00pm. I skipped a bunch of meals and made daily trips to the marine store, Home Depot, and Target (some times…
August 1, 2016
Well that didn’t last long. Dave (SV Nimrod) filled me in that the InterVolt Programmable Voltage Relay, that we both were using, are only low voltage relays and would not chop the connection in over-voltage conditions. Shit, that is no good. While the LiFePO4 don’t catch fire they can smoke and make a big mess, not to mention destroy the…