14th March 2016

Winter Boat Projects

Someone asked me recently if I was getting bored in retirement yet. I assured them NOT! In fact, with all the preparations to be made for the big journey ahead, I have no idea how I would have got it all done if I was still working. Thanks, CMHC, for paying me to stay home and work on boat projects 🙂

Here a few things I have been doing to keep busy:

Taking a Navigation course. Digging up some old skills (when was the last time you were asked to “solve for x”?) and learning some new ones (navigation also has its own language – a cocked hat? Really?)

Stitching a new wheel-cover. Kinship’s wheel got a new paint job over the winter, so the grungy and slightly worn old cover had to go. Stitching leather, even when the holes are pre-punched, can be a tough job.

Updating important equipment. Kinship came with two essentials for an ocean passage, a first aid kit and a ditch bag, but both were vintage 1998, so they came home for an inventory and update this winter. A quick trip to Ontario Medical supply with a 5-page order for re-fill supplies, and the First Aid Kits are updated and ready to go.

The Ditch Bag is that critical thing you grab on your way into the life-raft, so you definitely want it to be complete. A few trips to the Chandlery, and some on-line shopping for emergency rations, and it is now ready to go too. Here’s hoping we never need it!

So, boredom? Not an issue!

14th March 201614th March 2016

Winter Training

by Matthew

Sailing a boat is an easy skill, you can stick a kid in an Opti, explain a couple of key ideas so they can go up wind and watch them teach themselves. Sure, some of them are going to end up downwind and need a tow back, but an afternoon or two they will get it. That said, sailing a boat well and safely over long distances is a life long learning experience. The progression is continuous, I can’t remember what it was like not to be able to sail, but I still see the ocean of knowledge and skills I need to improve or acquire.

The course in Antigua was really eye opening for me. I have not done any practical training for about 10 years and being coached by good instructor was interesting mix of dealing with my bad habits and checking where my skills are on the RYA scale and then working out what is needed to improve them. One of the real benefits of the course was practising things that we don’t normally use in the day to day of our boat. Other than Man over Board drills, using manual coastal navigation techniques on board was great fun and a real challenge. We have spent a lot of time in the familiar waters of the Ottawa River and Kingston Harbour and when we venture further, we review the paper charts, but all the navigation happens on the chart plotter.

Over the last couple of winters we have done a course or two to allow us to round out our skills, the previous 2 winters were on safety, this year in was navigation. Long before we came up with the idea of our course in Antigua, we looked at available classroom courses here in Ottawa through Advantage Sailing. Kathleen chose Coastal Navigation which is a natural next step for her. Not wanting to be left out, I decided to take Celestial Navigation.

Coastal Navigation is a tough course and Kathleen has been working hard, I am sure she will do well in the upcoming exam. She was far enough into her course before we went to Antegua that the work she did for her Day Skipper qualification was just an extension of the classroom work.

I took Celestial Navigation mainly for fun, but it turns out that the RYA requires sea sights and reductions for Yachtmaster Ocean, so now I am keeping my eyes open for a sextant to add to Kinship’s navigation gear.

Learning to use the sextant is a real history lesson, a skill that dates back over 250 years. Before the development of reliable and accurate clocks, navigation was far more of an art than a science. It was not until Cook’s time that there was an accurate method of finding longitude and this method of sextant, clock and astronomical tables has not changed much since. John Harrison’s work on solving the problem of finding longitude at sea in the 18th century underpins all celestial navigation today. If it is hard to understand a world without GPS now, imagine a world where all you had was a latitude and ded reckoning. There is a great book by Dava Sobel and a TV mini series both called Longitude that details the incredible technical and political obstacles that Harrison had to overcome to prove his timekeepers.

https://youtu.be/ecrf8KhVcyo

Harrison’s H4, the first practical marine chonometer

20th February 201614th March 2016

Starting a Sewing Projects Page

by Kathleen

I have had a serious sewing habit all of my life, so imagine my delight when, upon taking up sailing with Matthew, I discovered that boats have unlimited potential for sewing projects! Since my first winch-covers for Penny, I have upgraded my sewing machine to a Sailrite, and learned about all kinds of fabrics and threads suitable for boat projects. I also joined boat-sewing groups, and have posted a few of my projects there. Now I think it is time to start consolidating the pictures and instructions to share with other boat-sewers and to leave myself a trail to follow, should I ever want to repeat a project. Here goes, in no particular order:

Christmas Gifts for the Captain:

His own personalized shopping bag, just for the fun of it. My sister-in-law has an embroidery machine, and is always willing to help out with my projects.

Quilting Practice:

I plan to make Matthew a “Runner’s Quilt” out of all his running bibs that were previously proudly displayed on our refrigerator door at home, but must now fit on a boat somehow…making a lap quilt for him seems like a good solution (everything on a boat must serve more than one purpose)

I have only ever made one quilt, and it was many years ago. So I decided to start small, and using some leftover bits, made a sampler in order to get a bit of practice before launching into the big project. I was so pleased with how it turned out, I made it into a cushion.

The Drogue Project:

That one has its own two-part blog with instructions, Part 1 and Part 2.

After the first season on the boat, I took it home to make some improvements. In order to fit in the locker, the bundle needed to be a bit shorter. It also needed some much more substantial handles. The final touch was to add its name in bright contrasting white letters, and a bit of reflective tape, in order to make it easy to find and identify in the kind of conditions under which it might be wanted. Here is the final version:

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