Head Refit

I've been thinking about the toilet situation on Serenity for a while and decided to change the configuration completely. If there's anything that can REALLY ruin a cruise - it's a faulty septic system. Currently, the head pumps through a T at the 'thu-hull' fitting. If the fitting is open, then it pumps overboard. If it's closed - then it pumps into a holding tank. Once it's in the holding tank, it can only be removed by having it pumped out (through a deck fitting) by a 'head pumping system'. This means that if it's full - you HAVE to go into shore and find a pumping station.

It's against the law to pump out into the ocean within 3 miles of land - and understandably so. So, I decided to put the best system in that I felt was monetarily justified.

Here's a photo of the current system


So, yesterday, I tore out the entire system (except the tank vent hose). I'm REALLY glad I did. It had not been maintained properly and was just begging for a failure in the near future. The inside of the 1 1/2 inch hoses were lined with calcium deposits (this happens naturally from our urine) to where the unrestricted area for flow was around 1/2 inch!!. That wasn't going to be working for long in normal daily use!!

Here's a photo of the restricted hose


To maintain it properly, while in normal use, you should flush warm vinegar into the system about once a week. Vinegar breaks down the calcium deposits and keeps the hose cleaner. It's smart to put some vegetable oil in the mix as well to lubricate the pumping system. (This is lovingly known as putting the salad dressing in the head).

So, I've decided to make a system that will allow for immediate pumping overboard (for when we're in legal waters to do so) or pump to the holding tank. THEN, I'll be able to pump electrically through a macerator pump (which grinds everything to 1/8 inch or less) overboard (when legal) - OR - pump through the deck when at port. I think this is the best of both systems.

Right now, all my expensive bronze fittings - which were clogged with calcium- have been soaking in white vinegar overnight to help dissolve the calcium. I'll clean those and reuse them.


This photo shows the area where the sanitation system is. The bank or drawers on the left was taken out to access the hose system and the left bank of drawers under the bed was taken out to access the tank.

This Past Week

Toward the end of last week, Snowy started feeling bad. She wasn't being herself (an eating/sleeping/pooping machine). Her personality changed dramatically and she started throwing up and having other problems of the sort. I took her to the vet on Friday and he put her on an IV to put some fluids back into her. A shot of antibiotics, some medicine to take home and pay the lady $368. He also took some blood for a test to see if she had liver problems. A call from him on saturday confirmed that the liver had problems but not bad.

She has slowly been getting better - with a lot of help from Jan and I. Sometimes she acts normal except for her appetite. We're able to make sure she's not losing weight. Hopefully she'll be well soon.

Photo above is of her in her 'luggage prison' waiting on the doc.



On the way to Winston-Salem for Christmas Eve, I swung off of I95 and into Brunswick GA. It's a neat little town that Jan and I have been looking at for possible future stuff. The photo above is of the shrimp boats tied up to the dock.

The photo below is at the Brunswick Marina. It's a modified Grampian 26 - like the one that I refurbed a few years ago. Notice it's ports - very sleek looking from a distance. Not so nice close up. This one was sailed to GA from Canada (where they were made).

Florida Christmas

I went home to North Carolina for a quick Christmas there. Christmas is a big deal to my mom and so it's important that we always be there during the family celebration. We've alway celebrated Christmas on Christmas Eve at my mom's and so even though Jan had to work all the way through Christmas, I drove up on Saturday and then left Monday morning (Christmas Day) to head home to Florida and spend Christmas with Jan - after she got off work It was a fun trip but I was 'wiped' when I got back home.

The photo at the top of this posting is taken by a friend of mine Mark Morgan. Mark applied some cool photoshop techniques to the photo to make it look like it's frozen. The photo is taken at one of my favorite spots in the Keys. It's at Bahia Honda (which means deep bay) just south of the 7 mile bridge. The bridge in the photo was first the railway bridge and then they put the road on TOP of the bridge. It's now abandoned and they took a section out of the bridge so that sailboats could get into the bay and anchor there. I've never been there in a sailboat - but I hope to spend a night there at anchor one night.

You can see Marks website by clicking on the link below:
http://mmorganphotography.com/

Osprey at the Marina

Not much to write about today although it was beautiful out. While I was at the marina, I saw this osprey sittin on the spreaders of a sailboat on the dock.

Virginia Game

The game in Virginia went very well. It was a small stadium and I'm not sure that many people were actually watching on tv - but that's not my concern of course.


My buddy Doug
came up from Winston-Salem and I showed him the system and he hung out with me until halftime.


The photo below is one I took of the stadium as we flew over it on the way out of Roanoke.

Roanoke Stagg Bowl 34

The game here in Roanoake (actually Salem VA - just outside of Roanoke) is the Division III Championships. It's the 34th annual Stagg Bowl (which I THINK is named after a family).

The Stadium is very very small. I've heard that it's capacity is 7000 - which when you compare it to other places I've worked this year is less than a tenth the size.


We had a slow set up day due to the fact that the place is not 'cabled' for TV. Still we're in good shape as of friday night for the Saturday afternoon game.

The hotel that I'm staying at is pretty grand - architecturally. It was origianally built in the late 1800's and reopened in it's current granduer in 1995. The rooms are nice, but the building itself is pretty awesome.


Tonight, I walked into downtown Roanoke (about 3 blocks away) and found a Christmas festival complete with road closures - a large steel drum band playing Christmas music and all kinds of 'county fair' type booths. It was quite nice. It's the kinda thing that Jan would REALLY have enjoyed seeing.


Jan happens to be at her high school (which was also my high school) tonight. 21 years ago Jan was crowned homecoming queen and tonight her niece Amy was on the same stage - 21 years later in the homecoming court as well. Jan decided to travel back to NC to be there for support.

I just received a text message from Jan that Amy was elected Homecoming queen tonight. I'm sure Jan is having a great time and is all proud!

A visit to mom and dad's

I'm at a job in Roanoke VA. Roanoake is only 2 hours from where I grew up in Winston-Salem, so I flew in a day early and drove down to see mom and dad. Mom arranged for my brother and younger sister plus their families to meet us for dinner. It was good to see everyone.

Here's picture of my niece Katelyn otherwise known as PUNK. If you ever see her - call her that - it's her favorite nickname.


Here's a photo of the front of mom and dad's house. This is the house I grew up in and I actually jumped over the big trees in the background (on the right side of the picture) when I was a kid. I remember when dad planted them and I actually jumped over them. I can't believe how big they are.

Where are they going?

As long as I can remember, I've always been intrigued by a boat that was obviously headed somewhere. Not so much a boat that appears to be out for a day of fun, but the boats that seem to have a destination. My first memories of this is when we visited the coast when I was a child. To see a sailboat on the horizon slowly moving south (all my memories are of the boats going south for some reason).

I remember just a few years ago, on our first drive to Key West, sitting at the draw bridge at Jewfish creek (where US 1 enters the Keys) and watching a sailboat headed through. I remember wishing at that point that it was me. On my first cruise to anywhere - I cruised to Key West and I made a special effort to go through the draw bridge at Jewfish creek - just for that reason.

Today, I was out for a motorcycle ride along the ICW, south to Edgewater - where Jan works just to drop in and say hi to her. As I was riding along, I looked over an saw a mast moving south. Up ahead was a small park, so I pulled over to watch the sailboat head down the ICW. The boat is about the size and similar to ours - except this boat is cutter rigged and ours isn't. My thoughts quickly went to 'I wonder where they're going?'.

I'm looking forward to heading south to somewhere next month.

A Fun Evening

Last night, we had double duty with the Christmas Boat Parade at 6:30, then the Shuttle NIGHT launch at 8:47.

We went to the dock and caught the boat parade. I don't have a long lens, so I can't do justice to some of the boats in the parade, but here's a couple of photos from the dock of 2 boats that were dressed up nicely.





We participated in a boat parade back in NC with the Grampian in 2003. It was fun but very cold.

The Shuttle Launch was spectacular. Simply amazing. This time we went to the top of the Port Orange Bridge for an unobstucted view of the horizon. The whole southern sky lit up like it was daytime as the shuttle fired (but did not liftoff or come into view) for about 20 seconds. Then, the shuttle came into view and just streaked across the sky. It was easy to see the solid rocket boosters separate from the shuttle and begin falling toward earth. The shuttle continued on - looking like a star moving across the sky.

The Grampian Aground

I drove by the Port Orange Causeway this evening and saw the Grampian (the boat I sold last fall) sitting abeam the wind and moving like she was aground.

I turned around and came back for a closer look and for sure, she was aground and with the strong NE wind - she was listing over to leeward during the gusts.


I remembered the last time I'd looked at her in the marina, I noticed that he didn't use any chafing protection on the docklines. From my vantage point, I couldn't see any mooring line hanging from the bow, so my guess was that he's put her out to anchor with out any chafe protection. Then, this nasty blow we're having right now came along and the boat simply sawed through the mooring line.

It took a while, but I found the house of the guy I had sold her to and let him know she was aground. I asked him if he's used any chafing protection and he said he had it in his car - and was going to put it on during his next trip out.

She shouldn't have any real damage of any sort as long as he can get her pulled out while the tide is up. Luckily, he has towing insurance.

No Shuttle Launch

We drove to the New Smyrna Beach south causeway last night to watch the shuttle launch. There wasn't high hopes for it actually launching due to low clouds.

I'd taken the SLR with me to see if I could get a photo of it's streaking across the sky. Of all the photography I've done in my life - I've never taken a long exposure night shot. My buddy Jeff O'brien is a wonderful photographer and I've seen a number of the night shots he's taken, so I asked him for some advice on how to take a good shot of the shuttle.

No shuttle launch, but I did take a quick 15 second exposure on the bridge of cars going by.

Our Shuttle Plan

We had planned to take the sailboat down to titusville tomorrow and anchor out to watch the night shuttle launch tomorrow night. Unfortunately, we have a front coming through and we'll have 20+ knot winds on friday and I don't want to spend all day coming back from there into 20 knot winds - SO we decided to just take the boat out for a few hours tomorrow and then drive a ways south to watch the shuttle launch.

The problem is that the weather seems to be deteriorating and it's possible that the shuttle may not be able to launch.

We'll see.

Dingy on Davits

I got the dingy out to the boat and hoisted it up on the davits. Davits are the arms that stick off the back of the boat for pulling the dingy out of the water. I'm not totally happy with the set-up and I'll make a few changes to get it just like I want it. Also, I'm going to get a cover to put over the dingy so that the sun doesn't get to it while it's just hanging there. The good news is that it was easy to hoist up myself.

More Neighborhood Wildlife

There's certainly a wide variety of wildlife in our backyard. From 'gators, to turtles, cranes, egrets, eagles and now a red tail hawk.

I walked outside last evening and saw this beauty sitting on the gutters on my neighbor's house. I grabbed Jan's camera and started taking photos from a distance and slowly walked toward her has I kept taking shots. I got as close as I wanted and she just glanced at me from the side. I got bold and took a couple with the flash. I was no more than 7 feet from her and when she squared up and looked directly at me - it scared me for a moment.



Finally she had enough of the photo session and few off. I took a photo of her flying - but it was dusk and wasn't worth printing.

The Grampian Anchors Out

The boat that I redid from the ground-up is a 1972 Grampian 26. I sold it in August of 2005 while it sat in the Port Orange Marina. Click Here for a photo of the Grampian at Port Orange Marina.

The Marina was recently sold as part of the new RiverWalk Condo Project that is supposed to happen in the coming years and so all boats in the Marina had to vacate by November 1. It's tough because it's nearly impossible to get into a marina in florida. There's a mulit-year waiting list for all marinas. The easiest way is to buy a boat currently in a slip that the owner has no interest in keeping. This is what we did with Serenity.

So, as I was coming over the Port Orange bridge, I looked on the north side of the causeway and instantly recognized the profile of "Miss Janella" sitting at anchor. I suppose the current owner was not able to find a slip anywhere and so had to put her on the 'hook' in the river. She's the boat on the right.

P.S. Thanks Jeff-O, for the html tip

Tire Back On

Jan picked my wheel and tire up on Saturday for me while I was working. It only took me 30 minutes to put it back on the bike and I even did it with my favorite white "Foxy's Firewater" T shirt on and didn't get a spec of dirt on it. That's amazing - since I usually can't even eat with a white shirt on without getting it soiled.

Wake WINS !!

Although it was an incredibly boring game and it looked like Wake Forest was going to choke (like it used to years ago during and important game), they won over Georgia Tech 6-3. No touchdowns were scored - all field goals, but a win is a win.

Wake will be at the Orange Bowl now - which I'll be working on January 2nd. Pretty cool.

A game I actually care about

I grew up in Winston-Salem, NC - the home of Wake Forest University. In 1979, Wake Forest actually had a good football team and they made it to the Tangerine Bowl - where they got their butt kicked. I went to every home game that year and really followed the team closely with my buddy Danny Pope.

Then hang gliding happened and I haven't cared about a team sport since then.

This weekend, I'm working the ACC Championships in Jacksonville, FL and it happens that Wake Forest has a good football team again this year. They are playing Georgia Tech for the ACC title.


The really cool part is that whomever wins this game will go on to compete in the Orange Bowl - which I'm working as well. So, for the first time this year - I actually care who wins a game that I'm working.

Learning New Stuff

Mechanical stuff is not my favorite thing to do. I'm not really BAD at it - I just don't enjoy it so much. My brother - Buddy - on the other hand is a fine mechanic. Guess he got the genes for working on engines and stuff. My dad always really seemed to enjoy changing oil and stuff when I was a kid. It just didn't stick with me.

I've spent some time the last couple of weeks trying to find a new tire for my motorcycle and it's an odd size that cost a lot of money - PLUS the dealerships want $60 added to the price to change it out for you. The total was approaching $300 for just the back tire.

I finally found a place that discounts the tires and will put them on your rim and balance them for no extra charge. The kicker is that you have to take the wheel off the bike yourself.

I'd never taken the wheel off of a shaft drive bike, so I was a little apprehensive, but the guy at the tire shop convinced me it was much easier than you'd think.

It took me about an hour and a half to get it off - but I made a number of mistakes along the way. I could do it again in about half the time.

It's good to take the mystery out of these things.

OUPV Positive!!

Today, in the mail - I received my Captain's License - 4 months after passing my test. The Coast Guard IS , after all - part of the government :)

OUPV stands for Operator of Uninspected Passsenger Vessel.

This is a big deal to me. It represents a lot of work.

I am now officially : Captain G.W. Meadows.. I think Cap'n G sounds better.

No Sailing Today

Jan and I had hoped to take the boat out (for the first time) sometime in the last couple of weeks - but it's not been right. Jan's work days have not lined up with mine very well until this week and unfortunately the 2 days that we could have taken it out (schedule wise) didn't match up with the weather I want to take it out the first time.

I feel that it's just smart to take it out in very benign weather the first time - while learning the boat. We've had small craft advisories for the last 2 days with 10 - 20 knot NE winds. I'll just be patient.

While having lunch today, Jan and I saw a NEW duck on the pond. Here's a photo. We're trying to identify it now.

Sunday

I got back home from the Florida vs Florida State game early. Since it was a local game, I was able to drive to it and thus able to come home when I wanted to. Here's a picture of the stadium at halftime.


I went to the boat this morning and took Wasabi with me to visit my dock neighbors's peeps. Wasabi was supposed to be back in Utah by now, but because of a travel mixup, he stayed in Florida a couple of extra weeks. He leaves for Utah tomorrow.

Last Regular Season Game

Tallahassee is home to the Florida State Seminoles. The Seminoles are a tribe of Indians from this region and the team has the blessing of the tribe to use them as a mascot. It's one of the few relationships of it's type in the country.

I'll have to admit that all of the pictures that I've put up on the blogs of the stadiums kinda look alike after a while. Still, I like to take photos of the inside of the stadiums due to the grand scale of the things.




In this photo below, you can see the smallest trailer - the one that looks like an office trailer. That's the one that we're in for this game.

This is a 'floater' game - where all the computers and such get shipped in and we have to assemble it all for use in the game and then after the game we take it all apart and ship it out. It is my least favorite shows to do. There's much more work and the computers almost never work right after being shipped. We worked from 8 am to 10 pm today and still had problems when we left. I have to be at the stadium at 6 am in the morning for the noon game. Lots to do to be ready.

Relaxing Thanksgiving Day

Today, I put a serious scrubbing on the dingy. I bought this dingy back in 2004, and used it with the Grampian. I had to leave it in the water in Key West for 3 months between February and May. During that time, it became a floating reef with all kinds of things growing on it. Barnacles being the worst, once I got the Grampian up to Port Orange, I took the dingy out of the water and put in in my storage unit. For over a year, I've had no use for it - so I've had no incentive to clean it up. It took a couple of hours - using some special cleaners - to get it back in good visual shape.

Jan fixed a big Thanksgiving lunch for us and I deep fried the turkey. If you've never had deep fried turkey then you're missing out. It's not greasy in the least and it's more juicy than turkey fixed any other way. Here's 2 photos of before and after the fryer.





Snowy pigged out on turkey and promptly took a nap on a warm towel that Jan had just taken out of the dryer.

I'm now in Tallahassee for the Florida v. Florida State game on Saturday.
Happy Thanksgiving.