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Delivering Smiles by Sailboat! |
Guess who got a new set of batteries for her house bank? Three Lifeline GPL-31XTs for 375 amp-hours of juicy goodness. These beasts weight a whopping 75 pounds each, and together constitute roughly 1% of the weight of Sparklemuffin! There’s also a fourth battery for the engine. I’m positively charged with excitement!
Since reading Rescue in the Pacific by Tony Farrington, I’ve been thinking about how to cut away steel wire rope standing rigging in an emergency situation.
There are two questions that science has not yet been–and may not ever be–able to answer.
Yesterday I finally received my McMurdo Smartfind G8 AIS EPIRB, which I’ve been waiting for for a year and a half! (It took a long time to get required regulatory approvals.) This is the most advanced EPIRB on the planet right now. This EPIRB is designed to transmit its emergency distress signals for a minimum of…
Guess who gets their bottom painted?
Recently the outlet pipe of the lone 24 year old bilge pump aboard Sparklemuffin broke completely off. Better at the dock than halfway to Hawaii, eh? ‘Cuz “if anything is gonna happen, it’s gonna happen out there” as they say. The bilge pump system is super critical for any boat. One of a sailor’s (many) worst…
When I wanted to change my boat’s name, I could not find a simple set of instructions online. The USCG instructions weren’t 100% clear either. So here’s what I did that worked, step by step. Really it’s quite simple, you can complete the forms easily yourself in just a few minutes. Don’t pay someone else…
Change Primary Filter These instructions are appropriate for the Parker Racor 500 series primary filter system as installed on my vessel. The details may differ for your situation, but the general principles apply. 1. Primary filter is Parker Racor 2010SM-OR 2 micron. 2. Wear rubber gloves. Prepare a plastic bag in which to discard items….
What follows is a description of the system I use for mast climbing, recorded here for my own reference. Any equipment, system and technique you choose to use is your personal choice, and you use at your own risk, whether influenced by the information on this page or not. You alone are responsible for making…
An “around the world” experience of sailboat maintenance: engine, electrical, leaks, water tanks, sail repair, and more!