A Bucket-Load of Fun! Another Product Review

Posted on by

As much as I love how beautiful it is when we’re out on the water up here in the Pacific Northwest, there is one thing I am looking forward to experiencing when we voyage to the other parts of the world: warm water. The water up here is killer cold. This water is so cold that the idea of swimming or snorkeling in it makes me want to run screaming to my hot shower. But I love snorkeling and always wish I could see under the water when I’m in shallow areas in the kayak or in puddler. My secret dream is that I had been a marine biologist. Alas, another life perhaps.

So I was very excited when my daughter gave me this Reef Scope bucket from Top Shelf Marine for my birthday, just in time for our trip to the Gulf Islands.

We stopped at a marina in Seattle so Claire could give me her present. Yep, that’s our girl.

I was so excited that she thought about this as a gift for me! She knows I’m always wishing I could see all the little animals that hang around the docks. The view from the bottom of this bucket is awesome! It’s just like wearing a good scuba mask, without the fogging up and getting wet problem. And the bucket is big enough that an adult can put her head down inside it. Also, I don’t have to remove my jacket!

We couldn’t wait to use it so we flopped down on the dock together and were rewarded by seeing a beautiful jellyfish swim by. Do you know how gorgeous those are underwater?

The Reef Scope is a sturdy 5 gallon bucket with an extra strong, yet totally soft handle. The acrylic lens is 1/4″ thick, and you can actually use this as a bucket as well as an underwater viewer because it’s that well made. I appreciate that the handle is soft enough that it doesn’t hurt my hands when the bucket is carrying my treasures. The bucket comes with a lens protector made of expanded PVC. I understand from Brad at Top Shelf Marine that it is completely waterproof and UV stabilized, so it sounds like it will last a long time. But I’m probably going to get one of those canvas bucket inserts you can buy at the hardware store because I don’t want to take a chance on scratching the lens. It’s protected on the bottom by a little rubber ‘foot’ that holds the lens above the ground. Nice touch!

Lest you think this bucket is just for kids like me, think again! Mike can use this bucket to check our hull and rudder. If you are in warmer areas and you are lucky enough to scuba dive or snorkel, you could check for the presence of dangerous, toothy marine animals by using this bucket from the safety of your dinghy.

Mike hanging off the back of Puddler, watching the fishies. We both spent a lot of time in this position.

I got this photo hanging off the dock up in Sidney, BC. The lens makes everything look bigger, which is cool until a spider crab suddenly appears in your field of vision. Yikes! They are pretty scary looking up close and personal like that. Also, looking underwater is so hypnotic it’s easy to forget yourself and lean WAY over. Children should not be left alone with this thing.

Yes, the water is beautiful but deadly cold.

If you don’t have a useful bucket on your boat, you can probably find a place for one of these. It would be a dandy place to store hats and gloves on the boat. At $49.99 it’s a pretty pricey bucket, but because it is so well built and useful, it’s completely worth it (especially since Claire paid for it). Now that I have mine, I will never be without one.

 

This one is from the Top Shelf Marine website.

 

 

Post Vacation Project: Engine Control Panel

Posted on by

The engine control panel on Moonrise had definitely seen better days. After 37 years of  sun, rain and the occasional kick, the plastic was cracked in several places. The location of the panel, behind the helmsman’s legs has always been inconvenient for reading gauges. It was always a little embarrassing when we were showing the boat and I started the engine.

Original Engine Panel

After 37 years, this is what the engine control panel looks like. What kind of owner would let such horror continue?

What had me stumped was finding a replacement for the panel itself. After our vacation I got serious about finding this part. Sailing Specialties Inc. (http://ssicustomplastics.com/) turned out to have a panel that had dimensions close to the original. The part was about sixty dollars with shipping.

Some assembly required.

Reading the gauges had always been difficult since they were low and behind the driver. I bought new gauges and installed them in a small project box just inside the companionway.  I chose not to install the ammeter thinking that I would buy a digital battery monitor at some point. This freed up a spot for the fuel gauge which used to be tucked in a corner of the quarter berth. This location at the companionway makes it much easier to check the engine’s vital signs but of course it would be nice if they were more visible while steering the boat.

Locating the Instrumentation just inside the companion way makes it easier to keep an eye on the engine.

So, with a minor adjustment to the old engine panel opening, I installed the new panel. To update the boat, I replaced the old engine power switch with a keyed switch. That makes Moonrise more secure as well. Since the instruments are tucked away inside, the panel now just houses the engine start controls. If at some point I want to add a gauge, I can always do so. For now, I think I’ll just enjoy the clean, uncluttered look of the new panel.

It can’t get much simpler than this. From left to right; Turn on Power, Heat Glow Plugs, Start Engine.

This weekend, our traditional rainy weather arrived. I buttoned up this project just as it began to rain in earnest. Now I won’t have to worry about water finding its way onto the electrical system, causing corrosion or worse.

The Menopause Sucks!: A Series of Rants*

Posted on by

This is a blog about our plan to transition from being a couple raising children and owning a home to a couple sailing around the world on a yet-to-be-determined boat. As we reflected on our Who Are We page, we are firmly in the middle of life. This has its pleasures, more free time being the biggest one. But this can be a dark time for women, a dark and dreadful time. This can be a time filled with horror and fear, and not just because Halloween is closing in on us. What, you may be asking as you shake in your shoes, could be causing this otherwise sensible and even-tempered woman to be filled with horror and darkness? Is it criminal activity in her neighborhood? No, sweet readers. It is not. It is criminal activity in my body. This criminal is known by the sobriquet ‘The Menopause.’

‘The Menopause’, as we call it in our house, sucks. I am not making this up.  No one could possibly make up the cosmic joke that is menopause. I am the first woman in my family to go through ‘natural’ menopause. While the the other women in my family have had their lady parts taken out, I still have mine, not that they are doing much for me. Therefore I had no idea what to expect.  I avoided reading about it  because on some level I must have known it was going to be filled with expletive-type experiences.

Craziness. It’s not just for PMS anymore.

What, you might be asking yourself, does The Menopause have to do with sailing? It has absolutely everything to do with it, even down to the fact that after menopause there is no need to take up three square feet of space storing those unmentionable feminine hygiene products. So far this is the most positive result I’ve experienced. Consider the following chart of accurate data:

What is needed in order to be an effective sailor: (a knowledge of the boat and sailing basics is assumed)

  1.  Use of language
  2.  Memory
  3.  Emotional strength and containment
  4.  Muscles
  5.  Body visibility, ie the ability to be seen by others
  6. Bladder strength

What The Menopause will take from you without your permission: 

  1. Use of language
  2.  Memory
  3.  Emotional strength and containment
  4.  Muscles
  5.  Body visibility, ie the ability to be seen by others
  6. Bladder strength
Are you seeing an overlap here, a pattern? Do we need to break out the Venn Diagrams?

Lest you forget what you learned in Algebra I.  In this case, imagine one circle directly over the other circle. That’s right, you’re catching on! It would be just one huge circle with a thick edge. If you are a math type, then in my case A=B.

I started to do one massive post on this topic and then realized that I had way too much material. Really, The Menopause offers so many rich opportunities to rant, whine, and stomp my feet in frustration that there is simply no way to say it all in one post. So there will be multiple posts fleshing out some of the subjects so accurately stated in my data charts above. It may be that I will come up with more. I can’t remember everything just now. Or ever.
Not much has been written on the interweb about the effects of menopause on sailing and/or vice versa. Doing the ‘google’ on those two topic words produces an irritating number of websites devoted to ‘sailing through menopause’. As if. They have nothing to do with boats and are useless to me. Suzanne Giesemann, Navy Commander, World Sailor, and professional Medium/Psychic,  wrote a blog post about her ennui due to Menopause Mood Disorder™ back in 2009. I felt I’d found my kindred spirit! But then she followed up in the comments section that she found a little supplement that made it all better. Oh, come on! Really, Suzanne? I mean, you are one of my personal heroines! I’ve read all your books on sailing! Hell, I OWN your books! Your name is the SAME as my middle name! Et tu? I was crushed with disappointment.
I feel like The Menopause is a good topic for this blog on occasion. Think about it. Many of the women who are out there cruising around are middle aged women. They’re either looking forward to menopause, are in the middle of it, or have already said goodbye to it. I wonder how some of them are faring? (And their partners, too.) If I had a research grant, I would perhaps do some study of the effects of the sailing/cruising lifestyle on the  sufferings of menopause. My hypothesis? Cruising might make a lot of it better. On the other hand, having a hot flash down in the tropics cannot be anything but hell on earth.
Between this series, the product reviews which are still in the works, and the series on cheap tricks, I should so busy in the coming weeks I might forget to apply my hormone creams. Be warned. We try to keep this blog ‘family friendly’, light and fluffy like marshmallow cream,  but emotions run high on this topic and you’ll note number 3 above regarding emotional containment. So if you are the sensitive type, don’t say I didn’t warn you.  I may have to break out choice expletives to get my points across as sometimes those are the only words that manage to surface through my menopause fog. I’ll try to remember to disguise them with the use of ***, but no promises.
*Your experience may differ, and if it does, consider yourself lucky.