Gremlin's Hammer: 04/01/2012

"Quality H2O!"

Adam Sandler in Water Boy

16 May 2012

As we head into summer time I thought a good subject to touch on would be DEHYDRATION. This is an issue that we constantly try to address when we are working on the boat in the southern hot summer months. Between 60 and 70 per cent of our body weight is due to water; our bodies absolutely cannot function with out it. It is crucial to ensure that your water intake is equal or greater to your water output. Humans lose water from the body from sweating, urinating, and even simply breathing. Dehydration does not occur quickly, and therefore cannot be fixed immediately. Rather, it can take up to several hours to recuperate from becoming dehydrated because the body has to take in the water, and then correct the fluid deficit and allow electrolytes to redistribute.

Some of the symptoms of this condition are muscle cramps, lack of sweat, nausea, vomiting, heart palpitations, weakness, light headedness, and lack of urine output, and can lead to complications ranging from mild to severely life threatening (kidney failure, shock, electrolyte deficit and abnormalities, coma, and more).

Basically being dehydrated is BAD, and can have REALLY REALLY BAD consequences if you do not get enough fluid intake. To make sure you stay hydrated on a regular basis (not just when you are doing physical labor or in a hot environment) it is a good idea to have good habits and maybe even a routine. Some ideas that we have tried are...

Starting the day with a big glass of water is a great idea, which gives us a good jump start to the day.
Eating lots of raw fruits and veggies throughout the day helps us stay properly hydrated as they are loaded with water (and an added bonus is that they are loaded with vitamins and nutrients as well).
Keeping a BPA free water bottle (we prefer Nalgene) with us allows us to take advantage of whenever clean water is available and get a fill up.
Being aware of environment, weather, and types of physical activities helps us to prepare; we can judge how much and how often we need to hydrate based on the conditions we will be in throughout the day.
A BIGGIE: Always increase water intake at least a half an hour before engaging in rigorous/hot physical activities (this is particularly important to me before I walk into my Bikram hot yoga classes... I learned this the hard way).

On the more positive side of this post are the health benefits of STAYING hydrated all the time...

Detox! Water helps get rid of toxins and waste in the body by pushing them out through your sweat and urine.
Better temperature regulation, which means a more properly functioning system and body (consider a water-cooling system on an engine).
Keeping everything flushed and clean improves the body's ability to fight off illness and viruses.
Better weight management due to the fact that water improves digestion, as well as flushes out fat byproducts.
Better lubrication for joints, spine, eyes, and brain, which means they will all function more properly.
Pretty skin! It improves the condition of the skin by keeping it supple, moist and clean, which means less wrinkles, less break outs, less dry skin (and so on...).
Better oxygen transport to muscles, making the muscles more efficient, active, and strong.

We usually stick to distilled or filtered water over tap when we can. A water maker was one of our recent investments, and is how we plan to keep an adequate amount of safe drinking water on board when we start cruising again this year. A hard lesson we learned when cruising before is that water kept in jugs for drinking can turn green and fuzzy on you at a very bad time, and Coors Lite simply does not cut it when mildly dehydrated on a very hot day on the water.

Coconut water is a BIG favorite of ours, and is incredibly hydrating. It contains a bunch of electrolytes, making it the ideal drink after a hard workout or after very hot day out in the sun.

How do you stay hydrated?

~ C

Locked Up!

13 May 2012

Have you ever had to leave your dog at a kennel for several days, and after you dropped him off had to walk away with his sad little face watching your each and every step toward the door wondering if you were ever coming back for him?

This scenario is exactly what I am dreading. We are planning to fly out to St. Lucia and spend a week next month. Unfortunately Johnny will not be able to make the wedding, so we will have to make arrangements for his stay at a doggie hotel here in the states. Johnny has not been away from both of us for a single full day since the day we adopted him almost a year ago, so not knowing how he will handle the situation makes me nervous.

J with his bed and stuffed kitty-cat (his most prized possession)

First of all it is no secret that J does not get along with other dogs very well at all. Will a kennel even take him for us? Secondly I know how anxious he gets when we leave him for the day. This is a situation with which he is familiar and can be sure of our return because of the pattern; even so, he still gets anxious and upset. Leaving him for a whole week may make him feel abandoned. What if he becomes so stressed out that he quits eating or quits pooping? Thirdly will someone else give him the attention he needs? Will someone else be able to understand his body language, woofs, and facial expressions to know what he needs like we can? I want to be sure that he gets a clean place to sleep, and that he gets to pee, poop, and eat when he needs to.

Today I started making phone calls and doing some research. I found a nice place in Florida that will take him, despite his little dog-hating "quirk." We were assured that he would be fully separated from all other animals and would have a nice big room for him to have all to himself. His bed, food, treats, and stuffed cat will all go with him so he will have plenty of familiar things around him. I read the reviews on the place, and I feel better knowing that it is a clean kennel and that they have a very attentive staff. When we get back to the boat I plan on taking Johnny on a little tour of the doggie resort to introduce him to it, and maybe when we leave him there it won't feel so unfamiliar and scary.

Any advice on this subject?

~ C

36 Days Until...

11 May 2012

...the Big Day! Is it just me, or is time flying? Five weeks left until we get hitched, and thanks to the help of Mom, Sis, and Trudy the planner the planning has gone smoothly. There are only a few loose ends to tie up: the final dress alterations, paperwork (to be done upon arrival that week), the suit for my sexy groom-to-be, and of course a few cute new outfits and bikini for me to wear on the trip; I don't often get to show my girly side between our boat work and our money-making work, so this will be my week to sass it up!

For those who don't know yet, we decided to get married in St. Lucia. We opted for a week long vacation wedding with a very small group of seven immediate family members other than a big fancy wedding that would last one day somewhere close. So not only are we excited about celebrating the new Mr. and Mrs. Gremlin, but also about enjoying a beautiful vacation after being at work for several long weeks.

The big stuff is pretty much all set; flights are booked, rooms are reserved, and the ceremony and post-dinner are planned. Now we just have to learn a little bit about the area and figure out what to do and see while we are there. I wanted to familiarize myself a little with the culture, history, and geography before deciding on what is a must-see or must-do. Here is a little info on this beautiful island.

The Arawak Indians were the first to settle on the island (somewhere between 200 and 400 AD), and were known as Iouanalou, or "land of the iguanas." Somewhere between 800 and 1000 the Caribes replaced the existing culture with their own, calling the island Hewandrau. Although no European presence was established until the 1550's by Francois le Cler, it was believed before more recent evidence that Columbus discovered St. Lucia in 1502. With the later evidence it is believed that Juan de la Cosa (Columbus' navigator) may have discovered the island in 1449. The Dutch came and established a base in the early 1600s. The English began trying to colonize in 1605, making a couple of failed attempts at doing so. In the mid 1600s the French had come to the island and bought the land for the French West India Company, which obviously irritated the British and created a continuing Anglo-French rivalry for over 150 years. All of the first settlements on the island were French, and by 1780 twelve settlements and several sugar plantations existed. The British made their first invasion and in 1814 they had finally made the island theirs. The island of St. Lucia spent the following hundred years settling into a stable democracy and that is where it stands as of today. It was under the British control up until 1979, when it became independent within the British Commonwealth. St. Lucia is a stunningly beautiful island where the French influence is still evident in the locals' creole dialect. Today, the local economy depends mostly on banana tree crops and tourism.

St. Lucia is a part of the group of Windward Islands located off the southeast coast of North America. The Windward Islands were born from volcanic rock. Rain forests, peaks, rivers and beautiful beaches are all a part of St. Lucia's diverse geography. Part of the charm and beauty of the island is the drastic geographic transition between its coastal and inland areas. The humid tropical conditions are moderated by the NE trade winds, maintaining the climate between a comfortable 78 degrees F / 26 degrees C and 90 degrees F / 32 degrees C.

Needless to say there will plenty to do and see in the week that we are there. I will be doing some more research on sights to see and things to do, and will post it later on in the week. If you've been to St. Lucia before by boat or by plane we'd love to hear what cool things you did while you were there!

~ C

Written Sources:

http://www.lonelyplanet.com/st-lucia/history

http://www.geographia.com/st-lucia/lchis01.htm

http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0107931.html

Pictures Source:

http://www.worldatlas.com/webimage/countrys/namerica/caribb/lc.htm

Book 'Em Dan-O

09 May 2012

As we both love to read, we built two very spacious bookshelves on the boat behind our settees. Now they are not only packed from bulkhead to bulkhead on either side of the saloon, but they are actually stacked up in front of the first row of books. There are easily 200 or so books onboard, including reference books, cruising books, boat part manuals, travel essays, philosophy books, history books, routes and maps, etc all packed into the space we built to devote to stashing a FEW books, along with provisions and gear. We quite literally have our own library onboard, which is awesome except for three main reasons:

Books take up space; on the boat space is very precious and very limited, ESPECIALLY when cruising.
Mold and mildew is an issue onboard and paperbacks are a playground for those things.
Books are heavy, which believe it or not, makes us sit lower in the water than is desired when looking at the overall amount of supplies on long-term cruising.

Last year my brother asked me if we had ever looked into an e-reader. Truthfully I really didn't like the idea of it. Something about EVERYTHING being electronic these days makes reading a "real" book somewhat nostalgic, and I suppose I wasn't ready to make the move to an electronic reader. I resisted it for as long as I could until finally my brother bought us one for this past Christmas. I was skeptical, but finally this month I bought and downloaded our first e-book, and got to know our Kindle.

Guess what... It is AWESOME. The awesome features of this Kindle are:

The "Ink Screen" reads like real paper, and there is no glare. This means we can read outside in the sunlight with no problem.
It is thin, light, and small. It can easily fit into a small bag or even a big pocket, and it holds up to 1,400 books.
The battery can easily last for up to one month, and is chargeable through a computer.
The text size is adjustable; you can make it as large as needed according to eye sight. This means that reading glasses are not necessary.
You can borrow books for a couple of weeks from the public library!
Prices of e-books are a little cheaper than buying the hard copy.
Don't know what a word means? You can click on it and it provides a full definition.
You can highlight, make notes, and place bookmarks throughout any book.

Impressive, huh? If you're not impressed yet and you are a liveaboard and/or cruiser, then think about these benefits...

Because we can keep tons of books on it, we can start freeing up space on the boat (we'll keep our hardcover reference books, maps, and manuals). Doing this will provide us with more space for provisions and gear.
No more mold playgrounds!
A huge weight lifted off the boat, which means more room for supplies... or a few extra pairs of shoes!

But what would happen if it got wet?? Good question. My sister gave us a water and weather proof dive case for our Kindle to keep it dry. All of our important electronics (cameras, laptop, etc.) have a water and weather proof case for dinghy rides and other wet activities.

I have to admit that in a world that is so highly digitized, computerized, and robotized, there is something comforting in picking up a good paperback to read. However the benefits of having an e-reader as a liveaboard/cruiser far surpass the feeling of nostalgia I get from that hard copy book.

~ C

Boat vs RV: Grill

08 May 2012

Before we left the boat for work back in February we stripped her deck clean. The reason for doing this was to keep any gear from walking off in the middle of the night. As a disclaimer we have never had anything stolen from the boat, parking lot yes but actual boat no. One of our favorite cooking appliances is our Stainless Steel Magma Grill. We mount it on the aft handrail and use it quite often.

Instead of stowing it in our storage unit down in Florida we decided to bring it with us. Onboard the grill is teed into the main propane line. Here we utilize the small cylinders. Magma even thought of mounting folding legs underneath. The legs fit so snug that I actually forgot about them until I was trying to figure out how to set the grill up to use.

At the RV we cook on it about twice a week. Enough for a couple of dinners and some leftovers for lunch. What kind of grill do you have?

-G

Boat vs RV: Head

07 May 2012

Honey Bucket and Toolbox

Another way an RV is like cruising is the Head. Ours went out last week. The valve that controlled the water flow cracked from age or pressure. The honey bucket itself was somewhat dated so I decided to just replace the entire unit. On my day off I drove the hour and a half to Camping World and picked up the new pot. The swap out only took an hour to complete. We are back to being a happy camper.

-G

Dog Days

06 May 2012

It's been almost a year since we adopted Johnny from the SPCA. During that time we have learned to love him for all of his little quirks. Like us, he is unique. He communicates to us with body language. In this picture his big floppy ears are tucked way back. I have learned that he does this when he is ready to run. Running is without a doubt his favorite exercise.

The Admiral and I have our own speechless language as well. After working on the boat all this time we have learned each other more so, we feel, than our non-boating counterparts. We love the fact that when we are stuck in a cramped boat we still brush up against each other to flirt. ( Even when we don't have too) wink wink!

-G

Pump Inspection

02 May 2012

Pump parts and Tools

The Jabsco pump has been properly cleaned, inspected and measured. All of the hardware is within specs and will be used during the rebuild. The new pieces to be replaced are: gasket, impeller, inner bearing, and seal. A new pump is well over $500 USD. The minor rebuild kit was $30 USD. The money being saved is going straight into our "Ever After" fund.

-G

Pumps Gone Wild, scene 1

29 April 12

Jabsco Pump

A few weeks ago I wrote that I was going to rebuild our intake pump. We brought the main pump along with our spare to rebuild while we were away from das boot. The parts arrived and I had the perfect day to work on them. The admiral drove down to Columbia today to meet up with her mom and baby sister. The trip was to try on the mystery wedding dress.

Plate off with view of impeller and cam

Usually it rains on my only day off, but today was perfect. The sun was shinning and the temperature was in the mid 70's. We are lucky enough to have a picnic table right outside of the RV, and so I started the Intake Pump Disassembly. This pump is a baby compared to the ones I work on at work. One of the pumps at work actually pumps 177,000 gallons per minute! That's not a misprint, it's a BAP (Big Ass Pump)!

Wear Ring

Our LAP is a beauty all to herself. She's a Jabsco 11850-0701. It is a self primer and ready to go. The tear down took about 30 minutes. During the disassembly I found the problem. The inner seal was cracked; allowing water to squirt by.

Parts laid out for inspection

These are the tools that were used. One of the tricks of the trade is the paint can opener. I use it to remove wear rings. Another thing I do is to put all of the technical paper work into clear sheet protectors. Most of the time my hands are dirty, oily, greasy and occasionally bloody. The protectors keep the documents clean and handy. After I am finished I just pop them back into a three ring binder.

I keep a wood chisel to remove gaskets. It's better than a putty knife. The next step is to clean up the housing and take a few measurements to verify that the parts are all within specs. Here are some handy sites for parts if you have a Jabsco.

xylemflowcontrol.com
fairfieldsupply.com

-G

Killing Time

27 April 12

We started this blog to keep up with the rebuild phases, along with sailing and our adventures. Since we are out of state working at the moment (working 72+ hours a week - each!), we don't have a whole lot to post about. One good thing about being away from the project is that it gives (forces) me to think about "The List". You know what list I am talking about. Every home owner, traveler, especially boat owner knows about the To Do list.

I keep mine in a cheap 3 subject notebook. During each phase I have kept a different color book, and I never throw them away. They are carefully stowed away for reference, and I have lost count of how many times I needed to pull them out to flip through the pages to find a measurement. This justifies to the admiral of why she should support my notebook habit.

Being here and giving my plan a look through each night helps me catch any errors in the scope and allows plenty of lead time to order parts. I whittle my lists, doodle, draw technical pictures and prioritize the "must do X before Y" bullets. Each week we receive a box or two in the mail. It is actually fun for us to open the boxes of do-hickies and mentally picture where and how they will be installed. How many times have you purchased a product, got it to the boat, climbed all the way in to the back of the lazarette, stood on your head while being a contortionist only to realize you forgot about buying a lock washer for the installation? I have!

While we hate being away from the boat it is in fact a blessing in disguise because it helps us to effectively plan our boat work.

-G

Domino Dancing

21 April 2012

C on the East side of the stones

We both had today off of work, and since we only get one day per week we wanted to make the best of it. There was a rumor we had heard; it was about the so called American Stonehenge. Here is the story. A dude shows up in Elbert County, GA at one of there many Granite companies. You see, Elbert County is "The Granite Capital of the World". Anywho, the gentleman tells the company that he represents an out of state group of people that would like a huge monument built. In short, he used a fake name but had the greenbacks to pay. In 1980 this big "Rosetta Stone" was unveiled. Officially named the Georgia Guidestones.

After packing our lunch, looking at the 2009 road atlas, we hit the road. It took us a little over a hour to get to the town but another 45 minutes to actually find them. It seems the town has mixed feelings about the stones so they don't advertise or put up any signage.

The monument consist of six stones; one vertical in the center, four vertical in a fan pattern, and one horizontal on top. The four outer vertical stones have a repeating message engraved on them in eight languages. Each big side has it's own language with 10 suggestions. The cap stone on top has shorter messages on four sides.

I thought the holes cut into the granite was the coolest part of the site. One hole indicates high noon and allows a sunbeam to account for the day of the year, another lets you peer the North Star, and the last slot identifies the Sun's equinoxes and solstices.

Other people did not think much of these stones and the vandalism was apparent. Even though the site is in the middle of a cow field out in the country people have still attempted to destroy them. The quiet digital sentry watch from atop a telephone pole across the road. Do you know of any interesting landmarks where you are?

~ G

30 Months: How Far We've Come

September 9, 2009: The day we bought the boat

20 April 2012

Over the past 30 months we have come a long way from the disgusting, dirty pile of rusted steel that we stumbled across in the boat yard at the END OF 2009. We have been through more on our boat and with each other since that day than I could ever attempt to write about on this blog. Our hearts have been in it 110 percent from the beginning, and while we almost reached our breaking point on a couple of occasions, we are very happy that we never walked away from the boat. Looking back on all that we have accomplished together over the past couple of years helps us to remember that there is nothing that we cannot accomplish together in the future as long as we put our minds to it. Looking back also reminds us not to take even the simplest joys for granted.

It is absolutely amazing the things that bring you happiness while you're living on a boat and rebuilding it at the same time. We lived on The Hammer through the entire rebuild, with the exception of staying in a hotel on the days that we painted the inside of the hull. This includes when it was gutted and had holes in it. We slept on an air mattress in the middle of the boat squished up like a taco on top of the ribs and stringers in the dead of a Florida summer.

Summer 2010: Swiss Cheese

Summer 2010: Largest section replaced

As G always says... "YOU GOTTA WANT IT."

As construction on the boat continues, I become increasingly grateful for what we have. After spending the scorching SUMMER OF 2010 working on an empty hull that looked like swiss cheese, I thought I would ball my eyes out with tears of joy the day we finally had everything welded back into one solid piece. When we built a bed to sleep in I had the same sense of over-joy all over again.

Summer 2010: We slept in the middle on an air mattress

The luxury of an actual bed

Eating out for every meal for the better part of a year is hard on the body and the bank account. When we got the galley built up enough to cook in (JANUARY 2011), I was ecstatic to be able to cook right there in my own home. I loved (and still love) that I can prepare wholesome meals for us and for half the price of eating out every day.

2012: Saloon

2012: Galley

Eventually came the water system, and we had running water on the boat as of LAST SUMMER. Now I could wash dishes in the galley instead of using a water hose to wash them out on the dock. I couldn't quit giggling and talking about it for months out of pure giddiness over this simple addition to the boat.

The list goes on, and on, and on...

2012: Companion Way

2012: Settee

The strange looks I get from people are priceless when I express my excitement over the fact that we have working cabin lights in almost every compartment of the boat, a toilet to pee in, a floor to walk on, a table to eat from, settee cushions to lay around on, a stereo to jam to, a decent mattress to sleep on, an engine that cranks without too much trouble, etc...

2010: Happy Day- First coat of paint

2011: Happy Day- First Splash Day

There have been many important and hard lessons learned over the course of our rebuild. Many projects are still to come, as we are far from "finished," if there is even such a thing on a boat. I feel confident that there are still many more lessons to come our way. I appreciate them all, however the most important lessons that I will keep with me forever are: