No, no, we're not that famous (yet) but I emailed the Krazy Coupon Ladies for stockpiling advice and they wrote up a post about/for us. I am so thrilled!
Check it out Here
-Christine
Saturday, November 6, 2010
Hey we got blogged about!
No, no, we're not that famous (yet) but I emailed the Krazy Coupon Ladies for stockpiling advice and they wrote up a post about/for us. I am so thrilled!
Check it out Here
-Christine
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Carbon Monoxide makes Nala go CrAzY!!
Seems Nala cat was jealous at head-spinning cat being main blog picture because look what she did:
Congrats Nala on the crazy head spin!!
So last night after cooking enclosed in a very chilly boat on our alcohol stove, then relaxing with our space heater on, we received a "WARNING EVACUATE!!! Carbon monoxide - evacuate!!!" message blaring in our ears. So we got some fresh air and I at least, felt slightly dizzy. Sooo dear readers, what do you think caused this? We guess alcohol stove because its the only thing that wasn't in the equation last winter. It's pretty scary stuff!
It also mentioned numbers and our carbon monoxide levels reached like 59 ppt. or pp something. Knowledge anyone?
-christine
So last night after cooking enclosed in a very chilly boat on our alcohol stove, then relaxing with our space heater on, we received a "WARNING EVACUATE!!! Carbon monoxide - evacuate!!!" message blaring in our ears. So we got some fresh air and I at least, felt slightly dizzy. Sooo dear readers, what do you think caused this? We guess alcohol stove because its the only thing that wasn't in the equation last winter. It's pretty scary stuff!
It also mentioned numbers and our carbon monoxide levels reached like 59 ppt. or pp something. Knowledge anyone?
-christine
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Getting in Ship Shape
Saturday we had a tennis tournament with friends. We arn't very good but it was fun to see everyone. Wes was the winner of a bobble head tennis trophy!
Sunday we celebrated mine and my cousin Dawson's B-day. Good food, good family, and the Redskins won, so it was a good day!
In boat news we decided to buy The Wirie. After doing alot of research it seemed the most user friendly and we like to keep it simple. We plugged it in and have better internet already so hopefully that carries on while we are cruising. We just have to mount it up somewhere outside and figure out how to not let water in through our hatch.
The bilge is officially finished. It turns out that the bilge pump and switch were working just fine. There was an air leak caused by the wrong sized hose clamps and an old check valve. So I replaced the check valve and the hose where the leaks were, and used the correct hose clamps. The air leak went away and now the bilge pump runs properly.
We are glad we did'nt have to buy a whole new bilge pump. We do have another on board but it is kept as a spare for cruising. Once I got the bilge pump running smoothly, I put cleaning product in there and brought the hose in and gave it a thorough cleaning. I ran the water through about 40 times and got as much oil and grime out as possible, then used the oil drill pump to suck out the last remaining water. This was the third time i've had to do that cleaning procedure but now that the bilge pump works, it will be the last! There is still water that trickles in from somewhere and our bilge pump can only suck water up to a quarter inch deep so the bilge will never be completly dry, owell.
One leak that we were worried about was at our stuffing box. The area where our prop enters the inside of the boat and connects to the engine. It had a steady leak and I finally got the courage to take a wrench to it. It wasnt so bad and after a few trys the leak stopped completly! Ofcourse when I ran the engine, I found another leak at one of the engine water hoses. Trying not to get too distressed, I eventually got that leak to stop as well.
So our boat should be staying pretty dry!
The next project is finding and fixing our oil leak. The engine surveyor thought it was at the lube oil pipe. This was another project that took a weeks worth of courage/research/procrastination. But I finally dived and and after removing the starter motor and some other eninge parts, I got the lube oil pipe out. I can't find a hole in it but it will be getting replaced regardless cuz it was alot of work to get out and its pretty rusty. If the oil leak is somewhere deeper then we will just leave it and and buy extra oil!
Our solar panels and dinghy davits are at a shop right now getting an estimate for the work. We are running out of time to be working on such a large project and I don't think I have the knowledge, skills, equipment, or confidence to tackle such a large project at this time. So we might be outsourcing our first project.
-Joey
Sunday we celebrated mine and my cousin Dawson's B-day. Good food, good family, and the Redskins won, so it was a good day!
In boat news we decided to buy The Wirie. After doing alot of research it seemed the most user friendly and we like to keep it simple. We plugged it in and have better internet already so hopefully that carries on while we are cruising. We just have to mount it up somewhere outside and figure out how to not let water in through our hatch.
The bilge is officially finished. It turns out that the bilge pump and switch were working just fine. There was an air leak caused by the wrong sized hose clamps and an old check valve. So I replaced the check valve and the hose where the leaks were, and used the correct hose clamps. The air leak went away and now the bilge pump runs properly.
We are glad we did'nt have to buy a whole new bilge pump. We do have another on board but it is kept as a spare for cruising. Once I got the bilge pump running smoothly, I put cleaning product in there and brought the hose in and gave it a thorough cleaning. I ran the water through about 40 times and got as much oil and grime out as possible, then used the oil drill pump to suck out the last remaining water. This was the third time i've had to do that cleaning procedure but now that the bilge pump works, it will be the last! There is still water that trickles in from somewhere and our bilge pump can only suck water up to a quarter inch deep so the bilge will never be completly dry, owell.
One leak that we were worried about was at our stuffing box. The area where our prop enters the inside of the boat and connects to the engine. It had a steady leak and I finally got the courage to take a wrench to it. It wasnt so bad and after a few trys the leak stopped completly! Ofcourse when I ran the engine, I found another leak at one of the engine water hoses. Trying not to get too distressed, I eventually got that leak to stop as well.
So our boat should be staying pretty dry!
The next project is finding and fixing our oil leak. The engine surveyor thought it was at the lube oil pipe. This was another project that took a weeks worth of courage/research/procrastination. But I finally dived and and after removing the starter motor and some other eninge parts, I got the lube oil pipe out. I can't find a hole in it but it will be getting replaced regardless cuz it was alot of work to get out and its pretty rusty. If the oil leak is somewhere deeper then we will just leave it and and buy extra oil!
Our solar panels and dinghy davits are at a shop right now getting an estimate for the work. We are running out of time to be working on such a large project and I don't think I have the knowledge, skills, equipment, or confidence to tackle such a large project at this time. So we might be outsourcing our first project.
-Joey
Thursday, October 21, 2010
My Favorite Topic: Foodz!
Joey mentioned today that it is a little over 60 days until we leave. I highly think it is time I FINALLY get to start provisioning. (I love food and have been waiting for this). Does anyone have any tips? Great recipes? We have an alcohol stove (single burner), microwave to use scarcely, and a propane grill out back. We don't want fancy meals, we love cheap and quick and few ingredients that keep well. One thing that we tried and actually love is hobo sailors fajita shell pizza found here:
http://chadlawie.blogspot.com/2010/02/boat-food.htmlother things we know we like
canned ravioli, spagettios, rice, spam, tuna...
cheap things like that, soooo if you have any great cheap ideas that you would love to share with us to expand our cruising diet that would be great!
What inspired this is my reading an article on the front page of yahoo today, about how to lower your grocery bill with beans and rice and stuff. I only know how to use split peas (split pea soup duhhhhh) however ---- I only know how to do that in the crock pot and I AINT exactly going to have the electricity for that, so if anyone has easy bean, pea or rice recipes that cook in less time thats really what I'm asking for.
FOOD RULES!!!!
Ok Ok only one more...
-Christine
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Let There Be LED Light
Two more weddings since the last post. Whew! Congrats to Melissa and Gene and Steve and Jess!!! No more weddings in the near future so back to boat work. Darn ;)
To see all the wedding pics click here October 2010 Weddings
Joey has almost finished putting together the jerry can wood - the project I started in May but never finished. The boards are on but we need to apply a weather proof coat.
Let us not forget that last weekend was also the sailboat show in Annapolissss!!! We went this year with a shopping list and stuck to it for the most part. We bought one thing not on the list which we needed anyways which was a boat hammock, I cant wait to figure that thing out/put it to use. Other than that we got some LED's so soon it will be up the mast again for Joey. We replaced the running, stern, and masthead/anchor lights. We also replaced the cabin lights in our v-berth and main cabin. And we got an LED utility light that will be used to light up the cockpit when needed. This will all keep our energy down when we are anchored at night and have no solar power.
Oh yeah, here is a picture of some dumpster food we found. YUM!!!! Actually it's not dumpster food it's 'freecycle' food.... less than 80 days til blast off so beggers can't be choosers right, especially since Joey just purchased the $250 wirie and though he begged for a discount they wouldn't give us one. Sigh. Our current internet is poor at best now so this will immediatly help. And it will allow us to continue blogging while we are cruising!
Tommorrow is Joeys birthday. We are gonna play some golf!
-Christine
To see all the wedding pics click here October 2010 Weddings
Joey has almost finished putting together the jerry can wood - the project I started in May but never finished. The boards are on but we need to apply a weather proof coat.
Let us not forget that last weekend was also the sailboat show in Annapolissss!!! We went this year with a shopping list and stuck to it for the most part. We bought one thing not on the list which we needed anyways which was a boat hammock, I cant wait to figure that thing out/put it to use. Other than that we got some LED's so soon it will be up the mast again for Joey. We replaced the running, stern, and masthead/anchor lights. We also replaced the cabin lights in our v-berth and main cabin. And we got an LED utility light that will be used to light up the cockpit when needed. This will all keep our energy down when we are anchored at night and have no solar power.
Oh yeah, here is a picture of some dumpster food we found. YUM!!!! Actually it's not dumpster food it's 'freecycle' food.... less than 80 days til blast off so beggers can't be choosers right, especially since Joey just purchased the $250 wirie and though he begged for a discount they wouldn't give us one. Sigh. Our current internet is poor at best now so this will immediatly help. And it will allow us to continue blogging while we are cruising!
Tommorrow is Joeys birthday. We are gonna play some golf!
-Christine
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