A catch-up of Robin’s Stuff

So every now and then I need to post an update of photo’s that Robin has captured.  She quietly captures some special moments and I can’t really say they fit together with special meaning other than it’s a look at what’s important to her… and that alone says a lot about what happens in her mind.  No wonder I love her so much I can’t stand it!

On the NE end of St Thomas there’s a little place called Red Hook.  It’s a hogepodge of marina’s, bus terminal and shops that seems to attract tourists, cruisers, and locals.  So we’re wondering down along a path close to the water on our way to Fish Tails for lunch and this lizard scampers right across the path and stops to take a look at us.  Robin grabs the camera and gets these shots:

Stops to look and make sure we're OK to continue along the walkway

 

As we tied the dinghy to the Government Dock to clear customs at BVI there was a very fast herron sitting on the dinghy next to us. Robin captured a blurry photo over my shoulder as it lept into the air at the last moment.

So just to give you an idea of how many opportunities there are to photograph wild life Robin turned around to get a great pose of a Pelican watching her attempting to photograph the herron:

This one was curiously watching Robin photograph a nearby herron... we didn't do too well with the herron but this guy saved the day!

 

One of Robin's absolute fascinations is with rainbows. This one was captured as we emerged from light rain showers on our way to White Bay, Jost Van Dyke on the west end of BVI. Pretty cool huh?

Perspective on boat storage

Here's the view of our boat with tie-down and hull support. Anchors were drilled with an augar about 6' down.

Now that we’re well on our way for the 2012 season I thought it might be helpful to document what we did to prepare and what we’ll do differently this season for boat storage.  Many people don’t store their boats during storm season and choose to just find a good location to “hide out” and a lot of people are like us.  We like a break from the boat and would take time off anyway so hurricane season makes sense as a good time to leave.  There’s a financial incentive too since removing Tookie and placing her in a secure yard, even though it’s in the window save us a LOT of money on insurance.  The savings more than pays the storage costs for us since our hull value and insurance costs are so high.  So here’s what we learned about storage:

• Select your yard early.  The good ones book up early and it’s hard to decide which one as there are good and bad stories about all of them.  Last year we didn’t select our yard ’till late March.  This year we’ll select it in January.  When you do this you have to pay up with a deposit so it forces somewhat of a schedule on you but in reality we all have that anyway as there needs to be a plan for hurricane season.
• How do you select?  Read up in the cruising guides and online accounts but the best thing we know to do is talk to people that have recent first-hand experience with the yard.  Check with your insurance broker; they don’t really recommend yards but you can ask them if they’re familiar with your preferred yard and if they’ve insured boats that use that yard.
• Strip the boat of all windage as much as you can.  Make sure you put this in the hurricane plan you submit to the insurance company as it can help you get a better quote.  It’s a pain to do this but it also gives us a good opportunity to inspect the sails and canvas.  Usually there are some minor repairs that you’ll find and the off-season is a good time to address them so they don’t become major.
• Mold is a big problem for boats being stored in the Caribbean.  Make sure your boat has some ventilation and when you do this it means some moisture can get in during hard driving rain.  Ensure this drains to the bilge or out the bottom somewhere.  We seal the hatches with tape (and yes it’s a pain to get off months later but a little solvent based cleaner works fine).  We also leave solar powered vents set up to flow air through the boat.  Our secret weapon to deter mold is moth balls.  We hang ladies nylon hose “bags” throughout the boat with each holding 1-2 cups of balls.  We know of several boaters that have done this and it seems to work extremely well.  Just plan for 2-3 days to air out the boat when you recommission.  Some people put dehumidifiers on board and pay someone to check them.  I’m reluctant to do this since I’m not real keen on having something with that much power operating and relying on a “service company” to do their job while I’m away.  But I have to say there are a lot of people with way more experience than us that do this and haven’t had any problems.
• Remove ALL food except unopened jars and cans.  We know of cases where insects bore right through plastic bags and make a mess.  Lock-tight containers should be OK but we don’t chance it.
• We leave the solar panels connected with the Solar Boost charger.  We’ve done this for storage at the dock in Florida and at the yard in the Caribbean.  No problems so far and no batteries that need replacement when we get back.  BUT we have maintenance free batteries.  If I had wet cells I don’t think I’d do this unless I had a good battery watering system in place and a guy that would check water level for me that I trust.

Robin vacuum bagging bedding and linens into one compact package. She's taking Yoga now and I think she's invented a new pose. We're calling it the Swan Boob Smash pose.

• Vacuum bag all linens and clothes left on the boat.  We use the kind you can get at Walmart that suck down with a vacuum.  Robin uses the boob smashing technique to help on large items and everything is fresh and usable when we get back.
• Clean all the stainless with Spotless Stainless before you leave.  It’s the only cleaner we’ve used that works.
• Remove valuable electronics’s from the cockpit and store them below.
• Store the dinghy out of the sun below the boat if you have a cat and can do so or deflate it and protect from sun damage.  If you store it outside make sure it’s locked and secured.  There is so much trouble with engine theft we’ll store the engine on the boat this year.
• Double dose all fuel with stabilizer.  We fill the tanks although there is controversy about doing this.  After you dose with stabilizer run the engines a while to make sure it’s circulated through the fuel system.  Run the dinghy engine dry after doing this by removing the fuel hose while the engine is running and letting it stop by itself.
• Flush out the holding tanks.
• Wrap throttles and winches in Saran wrap.
• Make a list throughout your cruise of “parts to get” while you’re home.  Double check it for anything you missed and be sure to bring it with you when you leave the boat.
• We didn’t return to the boat until January and in hind sight this was a mistake.  It meant that the yard moved our boat several times to make room to launch other boats when most people want them back in early November.  When they moved our boat they took all the tie-downs loose and more importantly they didn’t re-attach our dingy with chains as we’d left her.  The boat right next door to us did the same thing and their dinghy and engine have never been found.  Next time we’ll come back to the boat in November like everybody else and launch her unless we have a firm agreement with the yard she’s not to be moved until we get back.  Part of the problem was caused by our late planning last year which resulted in placing the boat in a slot that was not really good.  It had poor access that required moving several boats to get to the ones that were on the inside.
• If you can, hire someone to photograph your boat and check on it.  It makes life a lot less stressful to look at a photo of her periodically.  Obviously you should get local references and first-hand recommendations for this person.

Here's a viw of the bow looking back. You can see the dinghy under the boat. Next year we'll at least remove the engine and store it in the boat.

 

I hope this helps make your boat storage uneventful.

Chris