Apples... Many Apples

 

We have two apples trees on our Camano Island property.  If you have apple trees, you'll know that in the fall you get more apples than you can deal with.  You give some away (until the neighbors pull their curtains when they see you coming).  You make apple sauce, apple crisp, apple cobbler, apple pies.  It's a problem like the zucchini one - What do you do with the bounty?

Well here's an idea you may not have considered...  apples as a vegetable side dish with dinner.

Apples as a Veggy

1. Quarter, core and cut up into approximately 1" pieces enough apples to fill a 4 qt sauce pan half full
2. Chop up a medium onion
3. Mince 4 large garlic cloves
4. In the sauce pan, sauté the onion and garlic in 2 Tbsp butter
5. When the onion has softened, add the apples to the pan, and 2-3 Tbsp white wine to deglaze, and cover.
6. Cook covered until the apples have softened, then uncover and cook just until the sauce has thickened.
7. Serve hot
   

 

For variations on the basic recipe, try these:

• Add 1/2 tsp (or to taste) curry powder
• Add 1/2 tsp Garam Marsala and deglaze instead with 2-4 Tbsp Marsala wine or Sherry
• Add 1/2 tsp cumin and 1/2 tsp (or to taste) chili powder.  Deglaze instead with 2-4 Tbsp red wine

Persistence

Persistence pays off in the end, if you don't give up too early.  This is one of those cases...

Remember this post?  In it I talked about using aluminum tape to seal the top of the mast boot to the mast proper...

When it was new

Backspacing at least 10 years, we have been dealing with intermittent leaks at the mast partners.  Each thing that we have done has improved the situation... but the leaks, tho diminishing in quantity and in frequency, have persisted.  Replacing the mast boot, resealing the deck ring, and finally replacing the deck ring altogether with a composite material that won't absorb moisture and consequently change shape and break the seal have all helped.  But even after all this, there was still the occasional drip coming down the mast in heavy rain and wind. (OK, maybe I am a little anal retentive here...)

Looking up from inside revealed that the water was not coming in at deck level - hooray!  That leak is stopped!  Instead it was coming from higher up.  The only place where it could be originating was at the seal between the top of the mast boot and the mast.  However, a brief inspection (because it was raining) did not disclose any flaw there.

But.  The water simply had to be coming in there.  So I pulled the hose clamp off to get a closer look at things.  Lo and behold, the aluminum tape was just plain gone under the hose clamp!  Galvanic corrosion between the stainless in the hose clamp and the aluminum tape ate the tape, and created an opening for rain to find its way in. 

There are two lessons here.  First, galvanic corrosion is evil.  And just as importantly, frequently corrosion is hidden.  Both very much worth remembering.

The fix was easy:  remove the offending hose clamp (it really was overkill anyway - the aluminum tape is more than sufficient to hold the boot up), and apply a fresh layer of aluminum tape.

Improved Deck Ring

Eolian's deck ring was not molded into the deck because the Downeast 45 was sold with three different rigs: sloop, ketch (Eolian), and schooner.  Because each of these rigs required a different mainmast location, it was impractical to make three different deck molds.  Instead, the deck ring was fabricated from two pieces of teak and bolted to the deck in the appropriate position for each rig.  

But there has been a persistent deck leak originating between the deck ring and the deck proper.  Various attempts to seal the deck ring without removing it had been problematic, working for a while and then the leaks returned.  Eventually, I pulled the ring up and resealed it with butyl rubber. And then there was the little problem at the joint between the two pieces of wood where apparently a piece broke off of the cross-grain at the end, leaving a gap which was filled with a glob of caulk.  In the reseal, I at least used a small piece of teak for the bulk of the required filler. 

But even this was not a complete success.  I speculate that the wood would grow and shrink with moisture, working the seal.  The answer was obvious:  replace the wood with something which was impervious to moisture.  I used Trex composite decking, obtained as a scrap from a neighbor's deck replacement project.  I carefully traced the outline of the wood pieces onto a piece of paper, including the holes for the mounting bolts, took this paper home and relayed the outlines of the two pieces onto the Trex and bandsawed them out.

 

 

I made the outside edges a little rounder than the teak versions because the hose clamp that holds the mast boot to the ring did not apply sufficient pressure to  the straight sides of the original ring, allowing wind to blow rain up under the boot - thus the foam tape applied to the outer surface. 

 

 

(The mast wedges bear on the deck edge, not the deck ring)

In the final installation (also bedded in butyl rubber), I also applied foam tape to the edge, just in case my "rounding out" the straight edges was not quite sufficient to make a tight seal.

This should last forever.
 

Compression

I count 61 boats...

With the Canadian border closed due to the virus, all the boaters that would normally have made a trip up into the Gulf Islands are prevented from doing so.  Consequently the San Juan Islands are absolutely packed this summer.  In the photo above, taken while we were at anchor in Blind Bay, I counted 61 boats.  In a normal year, on a holiday weekend, we would expect 20 to perhaps 30 boats here.

This takes all the fun out of being at anchor - with every boat that you see coming into the bay you ask yourself, "OK, so where is he going to anchor...  right in front of us I presume."  And you will be right.  Then there is the tremendous amount of high-speed dinghy traffic buzzing around.  And the loud music.

We have elected to avoid this, staying at the dock for the latter part of the summer.

(Yes, we are in that picture...  Can you find Eolian?)

Do You Have a Buffing Wheel?

Do you have brass items on your boat?

If you do, then you will be familiar with the slow, inevitable change that comes over brass when it i exposed to moisture and sea air... it turns dark and dingy. In fact this is a form of corrosion.  And woe unto you if a drop of salt water should come in contact with the brass - the surface layer will de-zincify, leaving behind just straight copper.

So what is the solution?  Well I don't have a solution that will protect the brass indefinitely - clear spray paint works for a while.  But how do you get it shiny before you apply the clear spray paint?

One method is to use Brasso - it works and does a wonderful job (if you use the old formulation).  But it is a *LOT* of work, making it practical for only a few small items.

The solution for large items, or for a large number of items is a buffing wheel.

So, what is that?  It is a disk made up of multiple layers of cloth sewn together until the disk is 1/2" - 3/4" thick.  You mount it on your grinder (after removing one of the grinding wheels, of course).

When you buy the buffing wheel, also get a stick of Rouge - this is a wax-based polishing compound  that will give you a jewelry finish.  If your corrosion is severe, then get a second disk and a stick of Tripoli (never use a single disk with multiple compounds).  You would use the Tripoli to clean up things and then the rouge for final polish.

Fire up the grinder, touch the Rouge to the edge of the spinning disk briefly, and apply the brass.  You'll be able to tell when more Rouge is needed - polishing will slow down or cease.  This process generates heat and brass is an excellent conductor of heat - gloves are recommended. And while we are talking about safety, dangling clothing, long hair, etc must be kept well away from the spinning wheel. Since the spinning wheel will shed threads during the polishing, safety glasses must be worn.  Finally, be careful - the wheel will try to grab the fitting out of your hands and fling it at the wall with great speed. When polishing near an edge, arrange things so that the surface of the spinning wheel is moving off of the edge instead of onto it.

Light fixtures from Eolian.  The shade in the foreground has not yet been polished.

(The chances are that the brass fixture you are about to polish was originally coated with clear spray paint.  You can polish this off with the buffing wheel, but it is much faster to remove it first with a little paint stripper.)

Before spraying with the clear, wipe off the fittings with paint thinner to remove the residual wax from the polishing compound.

Well, it turns out that I have talked about this before - I am beginning to repeat myself...

Cabin Warmth

On these early spring days here in the PNW (actual summer, with temperatures in the 70s, doesn’t arrive here until the second week of July) the cabin is mighty cold when I get up.  With outside temperatures in the very low 50s and when there is a wind blowing, the cabin temperature is not much higher than the outside.  We sleep comfortably under our (nearly) year-round comforter, but once out from under it... wow.

So it is my job to rise earlier than Jane and light the Dickinson heater.  This only takes a couple of minutes and pretty soon it is pumping out heat.  The fan installed behind the grill above the heater disperses the heat throughout the saloon and keeps the overhead from over heating. In an hour or so, the cabin is nice and cozy, and just the place for Jane to sit in her seat with a latte and enjoy the view out the windows.

Preventing Holding Tank Collapse

Some time back I wrote a post about filtering the effluent gases coming out the holding tank vent at the stern.  As anyone knows, when the breeze is over the stern, the odor can be truly revolting, thus the need for the activated carbon filter.

It works beautifully, by the way.  Until, that is, the charcoal becomes saturated.

Then you simply discard the old charcoal and pour in a new batch.

But I digress.

While I was installing the filter, it dawned on me that, although I took many precautions to minimize the pressure drop it imposes on the vent line, those could be inadequate in one special circumstance:  When the tank is being pumped.

Holy cow - if the pressure drop was too great, the holding tank could collapse!  I don't want to contemplate what a mess that would be!  And Drew, from whom I got the idea for the filter, mentioned that he had seen circumstances where the charcoal actually reduced the H2S to elemental sulfur, plugging up the granules... even worse!

OK, something needed to be done.

I settled on a lightly spring loaded check valve installed in parallel with the filter.  Installed so that its flow direction was inbound, to allow incoming air to bypass the filter.  Here's what it looks like:

Filter with bypass check valve

I had some difficulty in locating a suitable check valve.  One without some kind of spring to hold it shut would leak holding tank off gases out the stern, rendering the filter essentially ineffective.  But if the spring were too strong, the holding tank would collapse before the valve opened.  I finally hit upon the perfect solution - a check valve designed to be installed in the "bubbler" lines in a hot tub - it opens at 1/4 psi - perfect!

Problem solved.

Starting The Season Right

Although we use Eolian year round, overnighting at the dock at least once a week, there is that special night - the one that marks the beginning of the boating season.  For us, that was last night.  We are fully provisioned and will leave the dock for 10-14 days tomorrow morning.

And every year, for the first night of the season, it is a tradition aboard Eolian that we watch one of the best sailing movies ever made: Captain Ron.

Tradition satisfied, 2020.

And following on, the next movies will be episodes of Death In Paradise.

Third And Final Hatch Cover

The first two hatch covers that I built were nearly identical, even sharing two of the three critical dimensions. The final cover, the one that covers our butterfly hatch (called that because when the flaps are open it looks like a perched butterfly, I suppose) is completely different.

This cover has two ends which are vaguely "house" shaped and one long piece that drapes from one side, over the top, and down the other side.  The old cover was in really sad shape - that long piece had shrunk up width-wise from 22" (the width of the hatch) to less than 20", pulling the two end pieces way up.  But I determined that the two end pieces were roughly the correct size and shape, so I disassembled (really easy - the thread was completely rotten) the cover and made a pattern (using Sailrite Duraskrim) from an old end piece.

An end piece pattern is made!

Then, to get the real length of the long center piece (not trusting the shrunken old piece), I simply measured the circumference of the relevant edges of the pattern, allowing an additional 2" for a hem at the bottom of each end.  Then I stitched the whole thing up using my trusty LSZ-1.

Trial fitting

The trial fitting proved satisfactory, so I proceeded with the windows, again using Strataglass.  First it was necessary to layout the location and size of the desired openings, and then add a line 1" away on the outside all the way around to make a "fold-to" mark;  to make a finished edge where the fabric meets the vinyl, I wanted to fold the edge under 1/2" for a hem.

Layout for the windows

After using a hot knife to make the cutouts and the corner notches (to allow the folding under of the hems), the cover lost a lot of its structural integrity - it became very floppy!  I had anticipated this, and so before I made those cutouts, I measured the diagonals from the opening corner marks for future reference.

Floppy!

To make the hems, I pre-creased the edges to the lines and then applied Sailrite's Seamstick basting tape inside the creases to hold the folds in place.  I then made another application of Seamstick to the hems, but left the release paper in place.  I laid the Strataglass over the openings, arranging the canvas so that the Strataglass and canvas were shaped properly...  using those diagonal measurements I took before I made the cutouts.  Then I carefully pulled the release tape out from under the Seamstick, fixing the Strataglass to the cloth and stabilizing the shape (the Seamstick not only serves to hold things in place for stitching, but it also serves as a water seal in the hem).  Then a double round of stitching to make it all permanent.  Lather, rinse, repeat for the other window.

Finally, installation of snaps to match the studs on the hatch completed the project.

Done!

Solar, And Temperature

These cool, partly cloudy spring days provided me an opportunity to see the temperature dependence of solar panel energy generation right up close and personally.

In one particular instance, it had been cloudy for at least an hour.  There was a gentle breeze blowing and the temperature was in the high 40s.  Because of the breeze and the shade, my solar panels were cool.

Then the clouds parted and the sun came out, pretty much all at once.

551.6 watts

I know it's a little hard to read, but the blue system monitor at the lower right is showing 551.6 watts.

A few minutes later, the solar panels were still in full sun - that is, no change in energy falling on the panels.  Yet, here is the output:

Later, 532.4 watts

Yup, output has dropped to 532.4 watts as the panels heated up...  that's a drop of 3%.  That is a pretty significant drop.  You folks in the tropics should be able to get a pretty substantial increase in solar output if you can figure out some way too cool your panels...

(FWIW, the biggest reading I saw came later in the day when the sun was higher, and again just after a cloud has passed:  571 watts.  I love seeing that current meter needle buried!)

New Hatch Covers, Again

When we assumed responsibility for Eolian way back in 1997, she had covers for the hatches, but they were solid canvas, making it very dark down below - not an ideal situation for a liveaboard.  So we put some clear vinyl into the covers, first stitching it around the perimeter, and then cutting away the canvas that covered the vinyl.  In this way, the shape of the original cover was preserved.  When cutting away the opening, we left a 1/2" allowance which we folded under and stitched down with a second row of stitches.

But the best vinyl we had available to us in Seattle was not the good stuff, and it clouded over in 7 or 8 years, necessitating a replacement.  Which we did.  Again.  With the same crummy vinyl.

Now here we are again.  But this time the problem is bigger.  In addition to the failed vinyl, now the stitching is rotten and the Sunbrella has shrunken up.  But, in the intervening years, I have learned a few things.

Always 100% cloudy down below

Stitching is rotten too...

So now it is time for a full fresh start.  And this time, I am using Strataglass, the top of the line vinyl ($216 for a 54"x110" sheet, and worth every single penny of that.).  It is a three-part lamination, with fluoropolymer outer layers that prevent migration and loss of the plasticizers which make vinyl pliable (without the plasticizers, vinyl is hard...  records are made from unplasticized vinyl).  The fluoropolymer layers also greatly reduce UV degradation.

Some design work was needed...

• What is the size of the hatch?
• How big should the vinyl cutout be?
• How long should the skirt be?
• How big should the bottom hem be (it should be wide enough so the snaps pass thru at least a double layer of fabric)?
• How big should the fold back hem at the vinyl be?
• And finally, where should the seams be located?  This is important to limit the fabric thicknesses to be sewn thru.

I didn't want to make the cover from a big piece of fabric and then cut out the center (following the process that got us here via the original covers), because that would be a huge waste of Sunbrella.  So I cut 4 strips of fabric that satisfied the design criteria above, hemmed them, and stitched them together, making an open square.  (Note that I am using Tenara teflon thread - no polyester thread is suitable for outdoor service.  Polyester thread will last about 5 years outside in the sun; Tenara has a lifetime guarantee.)

It was a little tricky attaching the floppy open square to the vinyl - judicious use of basting tape saved the day.  As a secondary benefit, the basting tape sealed the vinyl to the fabric, making a water-resistant (waterproof?) joint between vinyl and fabric.

Now we need corners

Now to make the corners...  I used the procedure outlined in Jim Grant's book below.  Wrong side up, you place the square over the hatch and crease the corners.  Mark the end points of the creases, which should be the actual outside corners of the hatch, plus a little wiggle room.  Stitch up the corners at a 45° angle from the crease.  In the illustration below, Jim suggested cutting off the triangles; I just stitched them to the sides.

At this point I should make yet another recommendation for Sailrite.  All my canvas work supplies come from them (including my sewing machine!), and they are constantly giving back to the community with hundreds of how-to videos and tutorials.  In fact, this book was written by Jim Grant, who I assume to be part of the Sailrite operation which was created by the Grant family way back in 1969.

Ta Da!

Now to get the full advantage of the new, clear vinyl, I have to clean the plexiglass on the hatch itself - it is dirty and water stained from the rain, etc. that the failed cover let in.

Carbon Foam Batteries

Recently a friend of mine asked me to opine on carbon foam batteries.  This is what I told him:

First, how a conventional lead acid battery works. There are two chemical reactions going on in the battery as it discharges... at the positive plates, PbO2 > PbSO4, and at the negative plate, Pb > PbSO4. (that's a very simplified version). But here's the rub... PbO2 and PbSO4 are both non-metallic powdery solids. How to keep them in contact with the plates (which, BTW are also made of Pb)? The solution which has evolved over the century or so that lead acid batteries have existed is to form the Pb plate into a kind of grid of fine Pb 'wires' supported by a Pb framework, one which will hopefully provide pockets where the solids can be kept in contact with the plate metal.

The carbon foam battery is a departure from this. In this battery, the 'plate' is actually a sheet of carbon foam. Carbon, because it is a (pretty good) conductor - perhaps even better than the Pb of conventional plates - and because (unlike the Pb plates) it is completely inert in sulphuric acid. But the primary benefit is that each of those millions of little tiny pockets in the foam serves to trap and contain the PbO2 and/or PbSO4 powders, keeping them in intimate contact with the plate.

How is this an advantage?

• First, imagine a standard car battery - it is subjected to vibration all the time the car is moving. Vibration loosens the powders, allowing them to fall out of the Pb grid, to the bottom of the battery, where they are lost forever from participating in the charge/discharge chemistry, thereby reducing the battery's capacity. In fact, if enough falls to the bottom of the battery, it will create a shorted cell. Consequently, batteries are taller than they strictly need to be in order to give a little room at the bottom for lost reactants. Because the powder reactants in a carbon foam battery are more intimately contained and therefore less likely to be shaken loose, I would think therefore that its plates could be taller while still fitting inside the standard battery form factors, creating a slightly greater amp-hour capacity in the same form factor.
•  Charge and discharge rates are determined by surface area of the plates. Not the gross size of the plates, but the micro surface area. Carbon foam has orders of magnitude more surface area per unit volume than even the best lead screen design of a conventional plate. Therefore, the discharge rates achievable by carbon foam batteries should be much higher (perhaps only temperature limited? I don't know).
•  Battery capacity (amp-hours) is determined by the quantity of reactants available. The more reactants, the more capacity. I don't know how the reactant storage capacity of carbon foam compares to the capacity of the lead screen plates.  
• Never forget that the sulphuric acid is also one of the reactants (not shown above). The acid needs to get to and circulate around the plates for the energy producing reactions to happen.  The carbon foam battery needs to make provision for sulphuric acid circulation in depth in the plates. I don't know how they address this issue. If acid flow channels have to be made in the foam, this will reduce the potential storage capacity of the plate.

So, carbon foam batteries should *potentially* have higher capacity and greater discharge rates, but whether this can be realized in practice will be dependent on the specific mechanical design of the carbon foam plates. This is an interesting technology to watch as it develops...  

Maybe someone out there with knowledge in the industry could comment?

Otter Exclusion Technology, Mk II

Well, so far, so good. I hope I'm not jinxing things by reporting this...

The Mark II version of the otter exclusion technology seems to be working.

First, one or two mothballs tucked under the lines where they are wrapped on a cleat seems to be working to discourage the otters from viewing these as their personal toilets.  This is a HUGE gain!

Our lines - see the moth balls?

The boat we share the finger pier with needs them too

...All the cleats on our finger need to be provided with moth balls if we are to discourage the otters from enjoying this finger pier.

But this seems to be the piece d' resistance... 

The first time we checked after installing these, the two big rat traps had been tripped.  No otters were apparently harmed, since there was no blood.  But those traps make plenty of noise when they go off - perhaps that was enough.

Now, a couple of weeks later, the traps and the boat are unmolested!

As I said...  So far, so good...