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New year sail, the good and the bad

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britinusa
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5404 Posts

Initially Posted - 01/06/2011 : 15:21:36

Just back from our first sail of the year.

This was one of those long weekends that worked out great!

We anchored in Biscayne Bay each night, most with no wind. And got to sail every day except pull out day.

There were 10 sailboats in the anchorage on Saturday night, a great sight! Only two powerboats nearby... fuel price is obviously still an issue.

Awesome sunsets, even better sundowners!

Dropped a winch handle overboard at anchor. So it turns out the floating type really do! It paid for itself that day.

Didn't need the A/C unit this weekend, even had the cabin heater on for a few hours in the late evening.

Took my Christmas gifts with me this trip: New pair of WM gloves (the old were worn out!) and the NookColor! SWEET! Was able to sit in the cockpit on a sunny afternoon and read from it easily. (Ok, so I have a couple of programming books loaded but I do have a subscription to Popular Science magazine and and nearly a dozen free sci fi books loaded too!)

On the down side, the Dometic Portable toilet failed!
a) The hinge on the lid is a series of finger clips, several broke off (very weak concept) so the lid would flop off almost every time it was raised. Which was probably a bit more than usual because....

b) The 5 gal holding tank leaked out of the level glass on the front and again during the trail home! Used up a lot of Clorox wipes cleaning that mess up!

c) Total failure after cleaning it out and tossing it in the garbage can.

Looks like we're in the market for a new portapotti. (We still have the original but it's only 2+ gals and just doesn't cope with a 4 night weekend on the boat

)

On the up side! This was our first sail with the Bimini repositioned onto the cat bird seats. That's a winner! I did have to replace the plastic Bimini strap buckles with some older stainless steel strap buckles. The plastic ones snapped! Easy fix, was able to do the repair on the water.

In time leading up to our long weekends on JD, I prepare several Seal-A-Meal packs (Stew, Meatloaf, Chicken Tetricini, etc.) which saves us probably about $7 per main meal, just have to thaw them out in a pan of boiling water. (Don't use regular zipper type bags! They melt... ask how I know!

Saturday night at anchor, time to cook dinner (Prepared frozen Chille)

We have the princess butane gas stove, the type where the gas canister is on the right hand side of the cooker under a SS plate.
After lighting the cooker and putting a pan of water on to boil, very shortly after, the flame blew back to the canister top and flames started to erupt out of the hole above the canister.
This was not good! It certainly pays to keep an eye on the cooker when it's lit.

I turned the gas off as soon as I realized the issue and blew the flames out (big lungs!) then quickly removed the canister of gas.

This was our first night out this year, and the thought of cancelling the weekend due to a lack of hot food was not a desirable option.

After inspecting the canister and finding no issues with any kind of deformity at the tip, I also inspected the gas stove canister connection point.

The cooker's canister is lowered into position and a lever turned down that squeezes the canister into the pressure connection. There's an o-ring in the stove end of the connection. It looked very dry and that was where the gas was leaking.

We had some dawn dish washing liquid on board. I put some of that on my finger tip and massaged it into the area with the o-ring. Also put some on the metal part of the canister (the bit surrounding the gas outlet nipple).

Reinserting the canister several times and finally seeing no bubbles, I turned the gas on, no sound of leaking. No bubbles either!

Relit the stove and all was ok.

Keeping a very close eye on the cooker, we continued to use it without issue over the weekend - although I was constantly on gas watch!

I have contacted Seaward and described this to them. Really helpful folks and they confirmed that my actions were totally appropriate (BTW, although they have 10 digit option to get to the right person, I was quickly put through to the correct guy... very efficient!)

Asking if it was OK to use soap liquid, they confirmed it was fine.

Don't get me wrong on this one. We have probably cooked well over 200 meals on this stove and we have found it very reliable. The Gas canister is right at hand and any leaks would seem to be obvious. It's a great stove for our needs. We typically use up a full canister of gas, plus a bit, each long weekend on the boat.

Seaward said they would call me back after I had also asked them about the self igniter not working. One of the guys that was very involved with the development of the cooker explained the solution. Basically the self igniter had not worked, a quick shot of WD40 on the lever that operated the Piezoelectric igniter and a few manual activations was all it took to get it working just fine!

So the weekend turned out great. We had some great sailing, met some great people, enjoyed the glass like surface at sunset.

On the motor back to the ramps we saw a handle bobbing in the water. I guessed it was a boat hook. Was! so now we have an almost new short boat hook. We also saw some of those beautiful jelly fish that put their bubble sails up in flat water, Crowds of seabirds huddled in the Bay and a turtle or two.

Just a great weekend.

Oh! and a trick from one of the couples we met. They collect empty mini bar liquor bottles (gin, whiskey etc. etc.) and fill them from a regular spirits bottle. That way they don't carry glass when visiting other boats for sundowners.

Looking forward to our next trip out in late February.

<center>

Really pretty Boat on the Bay (can you guess the model?)

</center>

My pics didn't turn out so great (using my phone camera) so Peggy wants a new camera and I'll get a new portapotti

Joint Decision. (Sold)
PO C250WB 2005 Sail # 841.

Moved up to C34 Eximius

Updated August 2015

Edited by - on

glivs
Admiral

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836 Posts

Response Posted - 01/11/2011 : 07:16:52

Paul, great story, thanks for sharing. The issue with your butane stove is a good reminder not to get complacent about even the seemingly proven procedures.

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PCP777
Master Marine Consultant

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1225 Posts

Response Posted - 01/11/2011 : 08:01:04

Thanks, this was a good read. Can you send a link on the bags?

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ruachwrights
Captain

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258 Posts

Response Posted - 01/11/2011 : 09:06:11

You did a great job handling the issue with your stove. I don't think I would have done nearly as well as you did in that situation. I'll put your fix in my mental data banks for future use.

Vern Wright

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DaveR
Master Marine Consultant

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2015 Posts

Response Posted - 01/11/2011 : 10:26:40

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"> beautiful jelly fish that put their bubble sails up in flat water <hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></font id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

Those guys are actually [url="http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/invertebrates/portuguese-man-of-war.html"]Portuguese Man o' Wars[/url]. Pretty but very painful. They can grow enough tentacle to paralyze even a good size fish and have actually killed people rarely. Give them a wide berth

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britinusa
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5404 Posts

Response Posted - 01/11/2011 : 16:03:35

I can't find our FoodSaver model, but [url="http://www.foodsaver.com/index.aspx?promo=G8FPALL&gclid=COmSr4Wgs6YCFSVa7AodtjOcmw"]here's the latest version[/url]
The Bags come on a roll, we have saved a fortune using the system.

When we cook a crockpot of chille I'll freeze 2 or 3 two person meals using the foodsaver. Using the same concept we have saved stews, meatloaf, even shrimp fettucini and many more.

If you use them, allow enough room in the pack to bend it half prior to freezing (fits in the saucepan of boiling water easier.

One trick is to boil a pan of water on the boat, dump in a bag of boil in the bag rice, then put the frozen (or thawed) foodsaver meal on top of the rice in the water. By the time the rice is cooked, the meal is hot and ready to serve.

Paul

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