Keep It Simple, Sweetheart

01 August 2012

My honey sippin' on a cold brewski while fixin' up the lawn

My mom is planning on selling her house in the near future in order to downsize, so in between boat research, talking to brokers, and looking at boats for sale we are helping her around the house with a few chores to get her market ready (can you call a house "her"?).  As we have worked on these chores, I've realized that owning a house is much like owning a boat in many ways.  You have to keep a constant watch for anything and everything that could possibly go wrong with the plumbing, electrical, electronics, leaks, wood integrity, bug invasions, mold, mildew, etc., and all of this while keeping up with the never-ending daily cleaning and maintenance.


Like us, she has put a lot of energy and time into her beautiful home, which she LOVES, but it has come time to downsize and simplify.  While on a smaller scale, I can so closely relate to her situation.  The work we put into The Hammer was a labor of love.  We made a ton of memories working on her, and the education was priceless.  She became a home more so than just an old boat, and the transition she made from "that old rusty steel boat" into a truly great boat was amazing.  However, no matter how much our emotions were in it, it was time to downsize and simplify.  We have many reasons for selling her, the main reason being that it was just time to move on to something simpler and more comfortable for living aboard and cruising.  Being that cruising and living aboard are the entire reason we want a boat in the first place, we decided it was time to find something better suited for us and our sailing future.


The search for Miss Right continues, and we have finally begun to narrow our search.  We are looking for something a little smaller than the last boat (Groupe Finot 42') but bigger than the first (Irwin 32').  Plan B Endeavour 37's have caught our eye the most, but we haven't ruled out the others we have been interested in just yet... Pearson, Irwin, and Morgan between 36 and 39 feet are all still in the running for now.  We have weighed the pros and cons of every type of boat, because every boat does in fact have her good and bad qualities.  Taking into consideration what characteristics we think are a must, and what compromises we are willing to make for those musts are helping us figure out which boat will meet our needs the best.  


Because Endeavours are in the lead as of now, we would love your input.  If you have experience with this type of boat, what are your thoughts, good and bad?

Food Day Tuesday: G.F. Zucchini Bread

31 July 2012

Zucchini bread was a favorite of the captain's growing up, and I've heard time and time again about how delicious his mom's Z-bread is.  My search for a way to make a tasty gluten-free zucchini loaf has been going on now for several weeks, and I believe I have finally figured it out.

G's mom and her boyfriend grow zucchini and squash in their yard in Indiana.  When we saw her last week in Tennessee she gave me a box full of the biggest squash and zucchinis I have ever seen in my life.  What better excuse to cook my honey's childhood favorite?

ENJOYING MY MOM'S AMAZING KITCHEN WHILE WE ARE VISITING

Ingredients:

• 1 cup grated zucchini
• 1 cup brown rice flour
• 1/2 cup tapioca flour
• 3/4 teaspoon xanthan gum
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon pumpkin spice
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1/3 cup olive oil
• 1/4 cup egg whites (somewhere close to 2 eggs worth)
• 1/4 cup coconut milk or almond milk
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract 

LOOK AT THIS BEAUTY

Directions:

1. Oil a bread pan, or line with parchment paper (I find parchment paper easier).  
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
3. In a large mixing bowl mix together brown rice flour, tapioca flour, baking powder, baking soda, xanthan gum, salt, cinnamon, and pumpkin spice.
4. Add in oil, egg whites, lemon juice, milk, and vanilla.  Beat to combine until smooth.
5. Add in the zucchini and stir in with a fork.
6. Evenly pour batter into prepared bread pan.  Bake for 55 minutes to an hour. 
7. Remove bread from pan onto a rack and allow to cool.  Very yummy with Earth Balance butter spread!

FRESH OUT THE OVEN

Give it a shot- it's pretty easy to make and actually really good.  Enjoy!

Kissing Frogs to Find the Princess

29 July 2012

Take a look at our new boat. . .

USS Yorktown docked in Charleston, SC

. . . Just kidding!

At this point we have looked at A LOT of boats, and several have caught our attention for another look.  We are still in Charleston, SC and have spent a couple of days looking at boats around the area.  Friday we spent the morning looking at a Westsail 32; the outside looked fantastic, but once we realized it was a kit boat we quickly lost interest.  If we do end up going with a Westsail, it will definitely be factory finished rather than a kit boat.  We continued our search today, but nothing that we looked at caught our attention.

It has surprised me how difficult it is to boat shop for the right boat.  Being that the last boat was bought as a project we weren't too picky since we were planning to re-do everything anyway.  Our first boat was an Irwin, and we actually keep finding ourselves comparing every boat we look at to her.  Although she was a bit small for our crew of three, it was a GREAT boat that we had a blast cruising on in a reasonable amount of comfort.

We have a very long list of things that would make the perfect boat for us, but after all of this "shopping" around it has occurred to us that it will be next to impossible to find every single quality and characteristic that we want in one boat.  Now that we have realized that, we have shortened the list to the most important things to us:

1. A wrap around galley with plenty of space.  
2. Comfortable cockpit that can accommodate entertaining plenty of friends and family.
3. Two comfortable sleeping quarters.
4. Enough deck space for me to practice yoga, store SUPs and bicycles, etc.  
5. No more than 5 foot draft.
6. Plenty of headroom- at least 6'1" (G is 6').
7. Several opening hatches and ports.
8. Sturdy, sea worthy, and comfortable.
9. Plenty of tankage for fresh water and fuel.
10. Good reputation for blue water cruising.  

What was most important to you when you bought your boat?

~ C

Duck Hunt

26 July 2012

Johnny chilln' with Spudz Mckenzie, Alex from Stroh's and Gidget the Taco Bell Dog

   We have made our way up to Charleston, SC.  C's family lives here and it's a great midway point to stop and relax from looking at boats.  So far we have looked at boats in Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina.  To be honest most of them have started looking the same.  A few cookie cutter boats without any personality have been scratched off of the list.  So far we have narrowed the list down to:

  (DRUM ROLL PLEASE)

Morgan O/I

Westsail 32 

Irwin

Endeavour 37

Gemini 105 

The last one was totally different we know, but was added just for spice and good measure.  Opinions are being solicited at this point.  Over the next couple of days we will be visiting with family, helping out with yard work, installing a ceiling fan, visiting some brothers, and living the dream!

-G

Food Day Tuesday: Moroccan Style Chicken

24 July 2012

It seems that I missed last week's food day Tuesday post, so I will owe you an extra one sometime later in the next week or so!  ;)  Even though we are not on a boat at the present moment, I went through some food pictures and dug up one of our favorites to share for today.  

I'm sure everyone knows how much I LOVE cooking with spices (especially my two favorites, Turmeric and Ginger), and if you like spices as much as I do then you will love this dish.  

Ingredients:

• 1/2 pound boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into cubes
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• 1/2 onion, chopped
• 1 garlic clove, finely chopped
• 1 carrot, sliced
• 1 stalk celery, sliced
• 1 1/2 teaspoon minced fresh ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon paprika
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1/8 teaspoon ground turmeric
• 3/4 cup chicken broth
• 1/2 cup of fresh crushed grape tomatoes
• 1/2 cup cooked (or canned) chickpeas
• 1/2 zucchini, sliced
• 1 1/2 teaspoon fresh lemon juice

Directions:

1. Sprinkle salt over chicken and brown in a large sauce pan over medium heat until almost cooked through.  Remove chicken from pan and set aside.
2. Saute onion, garlic, carrots, and celery in the same pan.
3. Once veggies are tender stir in ginger, and all of the spices.  Fry for about a minute, and then mix in the broth and tomatoes.
4. Return chicken to pan, reduce heat to low, and simmer for 10 to 12 minutes.
5. Add chickpeas and zucchini to pan and bring to a simmer again.  Cover pan with a well-fitted lid and cook for another 15 minutes, until zucchini is tender.  
6. Stir in lemon juice, and enjoy!

~ C

...and then she was gone

22 July 2012

It was a whirl-wind; it happened somewhat impulsively... and then she was gone.  Yesterday morning we sold our beautiful Gremlin's Hammer.  But no worries- we had only sensible, good, solid reasons for doing this. Our plan B has taken off much quicker than we had anticipated, which is a good thing.  There are still a few weeks left before we have to be back at work, so we are taking the next few weeks to do a little coastal traveling (UNLESS someone needs crew for a week or so?).  Yesterday evening we drove to the west coast of Florida to hang out for a day or two, and afterwards we plan to slowly drive north and play along the way.

We are most definitely NOT giving up the sailing dream, but simply taking our time to fully research a few boats and shop around to find the right cruising sailboat for us that will be our home for many years on the water.  And YES, we are going to keep the blog going so you guys can keep up with the upcoming boat plans and adventures!

~ G & C

WANTED:

THE SHE-GREMLIN

WANTED FOR: MESSING AROUND WITH BOAT TRANSMISSIONS

19 July 2012


We have been taking a little hiatus to reevaluate our plans.  A deep breath and step back have allowed us to relax a little and get excited about the next step.  Plan B is still in the works, and is for now, going to be kept quiet.  Don't worry though, because as soon as the plan starts to solidify I promise we will share the details!  


I would like to thank all of our readers and followers for ALL of your emails and comments!  You guys are awesome, and it was really cool to receive all of the comments and emails from you regarding the last post.  Although we may be somewhat quiet on the blog for the next week or so while we get our course of action together, we will be back with boat updates in the very near future.  


~C

Freedom

13 July 2012

Enjoying our FIRST morning breeze as dirty cruisers

On September the 9th 2009 we bought what was left of a old forgotten rusted steel sailboat.  As the story goes we sold our soul to create what is now known as Gremlins Hammer.  Today is our day.  This morning we moved her out to the mooring field to pre-stage for the beginning of our return to cruising life tomorrow.  


We will be shifting from refitting to enjoying our floating home.  Thank you for all the kind words and positive support over the last three years.  Stay with us as the adventure is just starting.


-G

Puppet Master

12 July 2012

Crack in the Rigging

It was no secret that our rigging needed some attention.  One of my responsibilities at my paying job is to be a qualified rigger/crane operator.  After a thorough inspection of our rig from top to bottom, we made a punch list and ordered the parts necessary to update our rigging.  We ordered our Sta-loks from Mack Sails and they got here the following day.  Because we had previously bought our sails from them, they gave us a sweet deal.  

Tools needed for the job:  

1. Electric grinder with a cut-of wheel
2. Combination wrenches
3. Screw driver
4. Black Sharpie
5. Small tape measure
6. Face shield
7. Small pair of channel locks or needle nose pliers- something to get the rings out with
8. About 3 beers worth of time

The quickest and cleanest way to cut the 1 x 19 wire rope is with a cut-off wheel.  

After threading the first part of the Stay-lok onto the wire, you have to unlay the outer wires.

Once that is done, you slide the wedge over the core strands and re-lay the outer strands.

After the guts have been installed it then is time to compress the complete terminal end.  Put it back into your turnbuckle and set the proper tension.  We had to add knuckles to our rigging between the turnbuckle and the terminal end because we lost some length due to cutting the ends off.

-G

Spoiled Rotten

 11 July 2012


"Oh my, that Gremlins Hammer has got it made.  They have a freezer, you know."


"WOW they have ice on their boat??"


"YES, isn't that amazing??"


"Oh yes, they are spoiled rotten for sure.  It must be awesome to be them."


Okay okay I realize people are probably not this impressed, and that this is not exactly how the conversations are going behind our backs.  Actually it's probably more like, "Wow they are really excited about having ice... did they just crawl out from under a rock?  Weirdos."  But guess what... WE HAVE ICE!!  And I am stoked!  


A second Engel freezer/fridge was another one of our new boat "toys" that we picked up on the drive home from the Miami airport.  The Engel supplier in Jupiter, Florida has a Scratch and Dent selection, which basically means if there is a scratch in the paint- even a very small, unnoticeable one- the price comes down tremendously.  We bought a 45 quart, although we intended to buy only a 40 quart to match our old one, because the price was so good on the S&D 45 quart.

Our first 40 quart Engel freezer/fridge has been with us since the old boat, and has been put through a lot.  Though cruising, flooding, and aging this little gem has been a trooper and works just as well as it did the first week we had it.  It has been used solely as a fridge for the past few years, and as much as we cook on the boat it was a bit difficult to stock up enough food for more than a couple of days.  Clearly this is not a crisis, but if we ever want to go cruising and not eat dry/canned food the whole time we're underway then a freezer is a great thing to have.

He just got the new freezer/fridge wired and ready to use yesterday.  The new 140W (7.63A) Kyocera solar panels were mounted last week, and the control panel and wiring was finished yesterday morning.  I posted about this briefly in an earlier post, but the solar panels were one of our trip-from-Miami boat "toys" as well.

Solar Panel Control Center

140W Solar Panels

Control Panel

Once the solar panels were set up we were getting enough juice to hook up the second Engel.  I decided to use the new one for the fridge, and the old one as the freezer since the new one is a little bigger.  

The Captain is now happy to be able to have more than one cold Coors Lite in the fridge at a time!  What small luxuries are you excited to have?


~ C

Food Day Tuesday: Turkey Sweet Potato Pie

10 July 2012

A favorite of my hubby's, this pie puts a healthy spin on Shepherd's Pie.  I substitute sweet potatoes (a superfood for type O's) for regular potatoes, and ground turkey for ground beef.  Is it actually as good as the old traditional English dish?  I think so, and I get rave reviews every time from the captain.  If you don't believe me, give it a try... you just may fall in love.  :)

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 pound ground turkey
• sea salt and fresh ground pepper
• 1 teaspoon poultry seasoning
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1 pound sweet potatoes, cubed
• 1/2 onion, chopped
• 1 carrot, grated
• 2 ribs celery, chopped
• 2 tablespoons butter, divided
• 1 tablespoon flour (I use gluten free brown rice flour and it works just fine.)
• 1 cup chicken stock
• 5 ounces frozen peas
• 1/2 banana
• Few dashes of Worcestershire 
• 1 cup mozzarella cheese (a neutral cheese for type O's)

Directions:

1. Heat oil over high in skillet.
2. Add meat and season with salt, pepper, and poultry seasoning.
3. Boil sweet potatoes in a pot for about 15 minutes, until soft.
4. Add onions and carrots into skillet with turkey.  Next add the celery; cook, stirring occasionally for 5 minutes.
5. Heat 1 tablespoon of butter in a small pot over medium.  Add flour to butter and whisk for about a minute.  
6. Stir in chicken stock, and season with salt, pepper, and Worcestershire.  Let it thicken into a gravy texture. 
7. Once thickened, stir gravy into turkey skillet.
8. Stir in peas, and turn off the heat.
9. Drain potatoes and return to their pot.
10. Add the banana and remaining butter to the potatoes.  Season with salt pepper and cayenne pepper.
11. Mash to combine the ingredients, and adjust seasonings to your liking.
12. Place meat mixture into a baking dish and top with sweet potatoes.  Cover potatoes with mozzarella, and bake at 425 degrees for 5 minutes.

~ C

Thank Goodness For Cold Beer

09 July 2012

No, we didn't fall off the face of the planet.  We haven't posted in a few days because we have been extremely busy putting in a lot of hours into the boat every day.  It has been a tough week, working through a lot of miscellaneous projects and issues around the boat.  Back to that word patience I was recently talking about...  

Anyway, to write about every little thing that we have tackled mentally and around the boat over the past few days would be monotonous for me and boring for you.  In order to keep it short and sweet, I'll quickly sum up what we've been working on and save the whole stories for a time when we find ourselves bored *insert hysterical laughter here*... whatever THAT word means... 

The engine is RUNNING (great news!!!) but is still being tweaked for a few more small issues, which has taken up most of our time and energy.  We worked on the rigging yesterday (I will post about this later on this week), and the nav lights and mast work throughout the week as well.  There have been several other minor things here and there but those are the main projects going on for now.  I promise I will post about how we did each of these projects with pictures once we get them each finished.

~C

Pole Dancing

06 July 2012

On wednesday he climbed to the spreaders while I stayed at the mast base.  We taped twine to the base end of the pre-existing wires, and he pulled the wires up and out through the mast at the spreaders, also pulling the twine through.  We tied off the twine at both ends.

Today our ordered steaming/deck combo light came in at West Marine.  The regular bulbs it came with were immediately replaced by LED lights.  I winched him up to the spreaders in a bosuns chair with a bucket of tools.  We ran the wires by taping the new wire to the twine we had in place from Wednesday.  From the mast base I pulled the new wire down by the twine while he fed me the wire from the top.  Once we had completely pulled the wire through he mounted the light onto the mast.

  

This evening he worked on hooking up the wires to the DC breaker.  A little more mast work is still on the check list for the next day or two.

~ C

Odds and Ins

05 July 2012

This has been a week of little odds and ins.  I'm thinking this is a good sign that biggest projects are behind us.  The KiwiGrip non-skid application was completed as of this morning- it looks and feels great.  

This week he has been all over the engine compartment on both sides, above, behind and in front of our perkins diesel getting it back in good shape.  We ordered a new temperature sender and replaced the old faulty one, flushed the antifreeze, bled the fuel lines, connected the mechanical tachometer, wired the new electric tachometer, installed the raw water alarm, installed the fuel gauge for the new tank, and hooked up the hoses for the fuel tank.

We did a little bit of interior work while we waited on ordered parts to arrive.  In this picture is some bulkhead trim, and the box for our auxiliary DC panel right after it was cut and varnished.  While not pictured (to come in a later post), some other trim work was done around the floor and in the head.

Our GPS and NavPod were mounted onto the pedestal.  The NavPod above the GPS contains our raw water alarm, bilge high water alarm, and our GMI 10.  

On our way back up from Miami a couple weeks ago we made a stop at E-Marine in Ft. Lauderdale.  We picked up two more solar panels for an awesome price- about half of what we paid for the first two.  G had to take off, rearrange, and remount the original two that we bought a year and a half ago to make room for the new ones.  We will have plenty of juice, no doubt.

We have a bunch of mast work to do, including (but not limited to) installing our wind indicator, swapping out the old VHF antenna for a new one, mounting and running new wires for the anchor, steaming, deck, and spreader lights.  Yesterday we began pulling out the old wires (2 out of 4), but a little storm came and rained us out of that job for the day.


After spending the day working hard around the boat, we enjoyed a few cold beers and the firework show put on right in our "back yard."  Johnny got his own beer in hopes that the fireworks wouldn't upset him too much, but it was a lost cause.  He spent the entire thirty minutes growling, barking, howling, and jumping trying to save us all. A big thanks to Johnny for protecting the entire dock from those evil fireworks last night!  Hope that everyone had a fun and safe Fourth celebrating that beautiful thing called freedom.


~ C

Food Day Tuesday: Honey & Whiskey Glazed Salmon

03 July 2012

Since I love sharing and talking about my food and cooking experiences the Captain suggested that I designate a day to post on my favorite recipe of the week.  Hmm.... okay, twist my arm!  You may also notice that I have added a tab to the blog named "Recipes" which will contain a link to every recipe that I post.  For my very first official Food Day Tuesday, I've decided to share another good salmon recipe.  I mix up our meats/proteins throughout the week to get a varied diet, but we eat a LOT of fish since most types of fish are excellent for O blood types.  Jack Daniels is probably not awesome for you, but it DOES taste good!

Ingredients:

• 1 pound salmon
• 3/4 cups Jack Daniels
• 2 tablespoons of honey
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons soy sauce
• Fresh ground pepper
• Cooking spray 

Directions:

1. Combine the Jack, honey, ginger, brown sugar, soy sauce, and pepper in a dish and marinate the fish for at least an hour.
2. Spray a grill pan with cooking spray.  Cook salmon for two minutes on each side.

Easy or what?  While I marinated the salmon, I grated up a carrot, some fresh ginger, and a cucumber all together and spread it out over a spinach and baby spring mix.  I made a light salad dressing with extra virgin olive oil, a quarter teaspoon of ground ginger and a quarter teaspoon of ground turmeric.  Once the salmon was cooked I tossed it on top of the salad and dinner was served!

Enjoy!  

~C