Yesterday afternoon, a few of the liveaboards in the marina got together and had an impromptu dock party. A couple of pork roast were marinated and cooked in the smoker, (thanks Kieth) some great Spanish rice & vegetables were mixed up (Tim) along with some fried plantains. With beers all around, a great time was had by all, including "Angel," Tim & Julie's Pekingese.
Our plans are beginning to solidify a bit. As reported earlier, I got a part in the play. We had our first read-through this week and rehearsals start next week. That will keep me busy until May.
Bev signed up for a 7 week Phlebotomist class to get her certificate to work in a medical lab. Once she has the certificate, she should be able to get a part time job just about anywhere, including the Bahamas. (Since she has no pension, she will need to work at some point.)
Things are looking more definite regarding my granddaughter, Chandra. I think she will be visiting us this summer. So...that means we stay here at least through June. Pray the hurricane season leaves us alone.
While we're sitting here in South Pasadena, we are also doing some more refits on the boat. We've already installed the wind-powered self steering gear. The next job will be to install more solar panels and a watermaker. The solar panels will help power the watermaker, which turns salt water into fresh. This will allow longer passages and fewer stops at marinas.
We may also install yet another new toilet. The 15 gallon holding tank I installed last year is proving too small with 2 people aboard. There is no room for a larger one, so I am considering the Airhead, a composting toilet that doesn't use a holding tank at all. It desicates and digests the waste and turns it into compost, which can then be buried, used as compost or dumped out at sea with no environmental hazard.
I was a bit put off by the cost, ($1000.00) which is why I didn't do it last year. But now that we're planning longer passages, it will be necessary.
As for those longer passages, sometime in the fall, once the hurricanes are gone, we will be venturing out to the islands. All the locals tell us that this boat can reach almost all of the Keys (most sailboats can't because the water's too shallow) and that we could spend months or even years just exploring all the possible anchorages in that area. Should we tire of the Keys, there's always the Bahamas. After that, who knows? "Only time will tell."
1 comment:
Mike,
We installed an airhead in our Fisher 30 last year. We have one season on it. We have mixed emotions about it. We used it (two of us) for 5 weeks straight. One issue we had is that there was an insect hatch from the compost/waste and they got in the electronics of the 3" pancake fan and shorted it out for good. Luckily we had a spare with us. It is very fussy about the amount of moisture in the compost. It needs to be damp and crumbly. Too much moisture and you get a pot full of rotted slime that is difficult to get back under control. It takes a while to get the compost action started. We used enzymes, which seem to help. You cannot skimp on the peat moss, otherwise, slime. Turn the crank every time you walk past it. Forget about the coffee filters. Try to keep urine out of the compost. Do not clean it out completely. We had best results by removing about half of it at a time with a small garden shovel (Fun part). Replace most of what you take out with more peat moss. Be patient when you order one. 80 uses, not even, probably 40.
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