Sailing Fizzgig
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In Boat Dog

On Being a Boat Dog

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You have lived your life on land. Existence is good. There is yard, a nice bed, and a readily available, steady supply of food. Your humans take you for walks, you get to bark at the squirrels and reclaim your territory each new day. Then one day, your humans start putting stuff in boxes. It happens fast. There are more boxes and strange humans coming to the house and leaving with things that all smell like your humans. A few months go by and you are loaded into the truck and driven to a new den surrounded by water and new, unfamiliar smells. This den never stops moving. We will go days without shore. The first time this happened, I was scared to pee. They wanted me to go on the den but I didn’t want to be a bad dog. After two days, I finally gave in. My humans…

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In Boat Life

Is that guy drifting?

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We are watching The Money Pit at anchor with the boat slowly changing direction as the wind changes. Caroline: We have a new neighbor, that boat was not there before. Me: Welp, I guess I can’t run the genset to top off the batteries. 30 minutes pass… Caroline: Is that guy moving? Hey, I think he is drifting! We hailed the boat on the radio with no response so we jumped into the dinghy to give a hand. Banged on the boat and an older gentlemen eventually came out half dressed. “What is goin’ on?” Sir, you are drifting and are about 20 feet from the rocks. Can you fire up your engine so we can help you back to your mooring ball? A few minutes later he was tied up. Little bit of drama in the anchorage.

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In Boat Life

Caroline and India run everything

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The entire boat is set up so India and Caroline can run everything when my job takes me someplace crazy. We got a super lightweight dinghy so they can move it. (Of course they have never had to because there have always been SeaGlass boys nearby). The winches are oversized and the anchor is double stout. We even bought a generator after making darn sure Caroline and India could lift it. We store this generator in one of the engine compartments. This morning Caroline wanted to make water and do laundry. The latter requires the generator. Caroline went to lift the genset out of the engine compartment and could not get it up and out. I asked India to help without looking as I want the girls to be self sufficient. After lots of grunting I got up to take a look at India doing an awesome squat workout with…

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In Electrical

Geek Post: Waponi Woo Power Systems

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When we bought the Waponi Woo she had 800 AH of AGM batteries. This means that we had 400AH of actual energy to use while off shore. While 400AH sounds like quite a bit the the average household in the WA state uses around 1041 KWH of energy per month (35 KWH/day, 289 AH/Day) Coverting KWH to AH is :[Kwh = AH * V / 1000], assume 120VAC. Per <https://www.electricchoice.com/blog/electricity-on-average-do-homes/> The batteries were also approaching 10 years of use. Most AGMs, when treated well can last 7+ years with declining energy storage. Around July of last year we had to run our small generator to get enough power into the batteries to get one engine started. We would then run that engine long enough to get the second engine started. I would usually do this in a serepticious manner as to not let the inlaws know how bad the power…

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In Boat Life

The Dangers of Mexico

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My parents traveled down from Sandpoint, ID towing their Airstream with the Baja Winters caravan. The caravan disbanded in Los Barilles for about eighteen days to give everyone some free time. It was here my mother encountered one of the most dangerous tasks one can undertake in Mexico. We warned her to be careful; she was told it wasn’t safe and to keep her guard up but she didn’t listen. She was fortunate; she escaped with bruises and a broken bone. It will be six to eight weeks before she really starts to recover from the surgery; she will dance again. What happened? She walked on the sidewalk. A cover was missing from a utility hole and she walked right into it. To be fair, I did the exact same thing in Cabo San Lucas and was lucky enough to walk away with just a few bruises. After two days…

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In Mexico

And we thought our boat was big.

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Until Mr Spielberg’s* ship came cruising into the harbor. Mousetrap’s beam is bigger than our length. India has already informed us that this huge boat was completely acceptable to her as a means of transport. Stats: http://www.charterworld.com/index.html?sub=yacht-charter&charter=sailing-yacht-vplp-7480 *This is a rumor and it is darn near impossible to find out if it is his or not.

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In Baja Ha-Ha

The Baja Ha-Ha: We Made It!

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The morning of October 31st we left San Diego for Cabo San Lucas with the Baha Ha-Ha Rally. Captain Paul Wright joined us as crew for the trip. We were incredibly grateful he was able to join us as this was India’s first overnight passage and we were quite sure how she was going to handle it. (She handled it like a pro) Leg One: San Diego to Bahia Tortugas (Turtle Bay) 376.5nm 50hours 36minutes There was a rolling start in San Diego due to light winds. A few hours after the official start they stopped the rolling start and everyone turned off their engines and started putting up their light air sails. We hoisted the Parasailor in light wind and headed almost directly to Turtle Bay under sail. As the evening progressed, the winds picked up a little. The swell picked up but remained consistent and on our stern…

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