Sitting Out Weather

Day 14: April 8, 2014

Second Wind, A Seaward 26 RK

We started our day with a great breakfast of bacon and eggs.  One of my longtime balboa sailing acquaintances emailed us and asked if we would add some pictures of the inside of the cabin of the boat.  I have commented that our new boat is much more comfortable than the old Panache so I decided that since this day has been another sitting and waiting day, I would conduct a tour of our living facilities. 

First of all, this boat is a very well

The Galley with our one burner butane stove

made boat with much attention to detail.  The entire cabin interior is finished fiberglass; smooth and clean.  This makes for easy wipe downs to freshen up the insides.  We also have a pressurized water system so that getting water is as easy as opening a faucet.  The Balboa had hand pumps.  This system is both good and bad.  It is easy but it can also lead to wasteful water use.  There is also a shower but I assume that we will not use it.  The boat has a 20 gallon water tank and a 20 minute shower will completely empty the tank. 

The galley area has an ice box that we use for storage of beverages and paper goods.  The sink is behind the ice box.  It is a bit out of the way but, like the rest of the interior, smooth and easy to clean.  There is adequate counter space to which I have added a foldable extension.  On the back side of the counter, I have built a wooden radio console which also contains 12 volt outlets and a Sirius radio docking station.  (The antenna wire broke before we were able to use our Sirius radio so it is not functional at this time.)

The Head/Shower Room

I have mounted a crane that has our GPS/Chartplotter on it.  It will swing around and face the outside to be used in navigation while we are underway.

Continuing on around, we have the head/shower room.  We have a composting toilet which is a real Godsend for us.  We used to use porta-potties that had to be emptied every other day.  That meant that we had to find a marina every other day and many of them had posted signs prohibiting the dumping of porta-potty waste.  They were hard to empty without making a mess.  Our composter separates the solids from the liquids.  The liquids don’t seem to cause environmental concerns so they can be dumped and the solids don’t need to be dumped for about 3 weeks for two people.  And,marina officials require that the solids can be put in a plastic bag and put in a dumpster.

Ahead of the shower complex, the salon has a folding table that drops down and 

And the Salon

then slides to the center of the boat.  The bench on the port (left) side and the pilot birth on the starboard side are both very comfortable.  They are situated such that you can sit up straight.  That was not the case on the Balboa.  In the center of the salon there is a long narrow post through which the centerboard slides up and down.  In the Balboa, the centerboard swung up into a shallow trunk that went from the front to the back of the salon.  At the aft end of that trunk was a hand winch used to raise the 1,200 pound centerboard.  It was a lot of work to get the board up and down.  This one has and electric winch that pulls the board up by pulling a rope.  It is soooooo easy!  While we are on the subject of centerboards, the Balboa board always leaked around the pivot pin.  We always had water in our bilge and would awaken most mornings to an inch or so of water on the floorboard.  This boat is dry.  For us, this is such a luxury. 

Our food and most of our clothing storage is under the pilot birth on the starboard side of the salon.  It works well since it is dry.  There is also storage under the bench on the port side as well.  We have more food stored there.  We are carrying enough food for a month.  We have a Yeti cooler in which we keep perishable foods.  This Yeti is amazing.  It has really thick walls and a tight fitting lid that is held down by stout rubber latches.  It maintains ice three times as long as traditional coolers.  In previous years, in warm weather, we needed to find ice daily, but now we go at least 3 days.



The V-berth

The V-berth is wider and longer than the Balboa’s and the ceiling is significantly higher.  Getting into and out of a V-berth is not an easy feat for us older folks so the wider and higher, the easier.  The triangular shape of the bed is still a bit of a challenge with both of us wanting to have foot room at the forward end, however, over the past 13 years of this cruising, we have worked it out.  This bed had a memory foam topper that the previous owner put on it and I must say, the jury is still out on that.  There are curtains that draw across the head of the bed and snap.  They do a nice job of keeping light out of the sleeping area when one of us is sleeping in and the other is restlessly doing something else.

A couple of quick items that we did yesterday.  After breakfast, we decided to walk into town to get a few more groceries.  The walk was about 3 miles round trip and it was good for our bodies to get off of the boat and walk.  The bike path on which we walked wound through the palm and strangler fig groves all the way into town.  We met a number of friendly folks most of whom greeted us in Spanish.  Our son who lived in Miami for a year informed us that only 7% of the folks in Miami speak only English.  We also met a really beautiful reddish snake lazying its way across the path.  It was at least 4 feet long.  I felt that it had the marking and coloration of a copperhead, but I was unable to get a good look at its eye and head so I wasn’t sure  My reference says that there are no copperheads in south Florida so I was wrong.

Back at the dinghy, as we got ready to embark, we met a 18 inch iguana sunning herself on the middle bench of ole Dink.  When she saw us she jumped down into the bottom of the boat and then scurried around trying to get back up.  She finally made it, slid into the water and disappeared into the depths.  Neat!

  The temperature was near 90 degrees and forecast was for high winds and possible thunder storms.  As the evening arrived, the skies got dark, the wind came up and the rains came pouring.  The winds swung from the south to the west and this made a completely new dynamic with regards to the anchorage.  The boats all swung around and one 40 foot boat, whose crew was on shore, began dragging her anchor.  The crew, a young couple with two pre-teen kids, came out and worked for the next 20 minutes trying to get the boat off of the lee shore and get her anchor up.  Other folks joined in the rescue.  The wayward boat was jammed between the shore and a 45 foot boat making it quite a challenge but they finally got her free and headed to the harbor concrete wall where she spent the night. 

Dinner was NY strip steak and fettuccini alfredo and wine. Great!  Bed but little rest in the blustery night.