I'm so stinking excited because...

...today I ordered an ice maker for our Knotty Cat.

And for me, this is a hallelujah moment, as I cannot survive without ice. I mean whoever heard of bourbon and gingerale served 'straight up or neat'?

Really!

Anyway, I sent a pathetic plea for help over to Linda at Sea Yawl Later about what kind of items we might need for some extended cruising. In reply to my question about ice (we spent about $150.00 per month on ice this summer) she told me that her husband had bought a relatively cheap ice maker at Target and that it really did the trick for them (I probably shouldn't mention that she just maybe laughed a wee bit at her husband when he told her what he did).

So this morning after I hit Dick's Sporting Goods for a new pair of running shoes (something I felt entirely necessary as my current ones were about 6 years old and I have to blame my aching hips and feet on something), I ran (in my new running shoes, oh yes I did!) to Target.

But they didn't have one. I guess here up north, ice makers aren't in huge demand.

Hey! No problem thanks to the Internet.

I ended up ordering a Koldfront Portable Ice Maker for $143.65 complete with free shipping and no sales tax!!! Imagine! A machine that can make ice cubes within minutes of pouring water into it.

And I don't even believe in miracles.

This summer we easily spent $150.00 per month on ice so even if this thing only lasted a few months it would pay for itself. Like Linda said, it's about the size of a bread making machine (not that I own one, but I can imagine) so space isn't really an issue.

Tomorrow we get pictures of our solar panels from our electrician.

Let's hope I'm as excited about them as I am about the ice maker!

Did you really think I would post without a picture of Wilbur?

HA!!!!

Evidence of yet one more successful day at the dog park.

Knotty Cat Updates

We are taking advantage of our Knotty Cat being on the hard, and having some improvements made to her. In our opinion adding Solar Panels is a no brainer. But----aha, there always has to be a But---- we had no idea what kind or how many we should install. We mentioned to one liveaboard sailor that we'd heard about panels that can be rolled up or down as needed but he said they were worthless. Other liveaboards have solar panels mounted on their life lines and they just drop them down when they're underway. We don't have a hard bimini so mounting them up there isn't an option.

What did we end up with?

The ones that can roll up when not in use of course! Our electrician really felt that these would serve our purpose best. But then today we got a call from him that left me mildly confused (a really big surprise, right?). The original idea was to use Velcro to hold them down when in use, and then roll them up when they're aren't needed. However they came with permanent sticky stuff on them so now the idea is to lay them down permanently. But doesn't that completely ruin the concept of 'roll up solar panels' if they can't roll up?? And then there's a question about where the hell they're going to be glued down! If it's on top of the boat (near the mast), that's where Hans has to stand when we raise the main, and solar panels would last about a minute there with a big German man stomping around! They certainly can't be placed on the front of the boat as that's where we walk around on nice days.

The electrician is going to lay them down and take a picture for us first and then we'll decide.

I think we've gone and opened a can of worms with this project.


The other problem we're having is with our water pump. That damned thing caused us untold problems this summer and we finally said ENOUGH! let's just get a new one. Hans ordered one as soon as we got off the boat in August and it still hasn't arrived. It's from Japsco and I told Hans that if getting a new one is such a huge problem, imagine what will happen if we have troubles with it!! Personally, I think we should look for a different brand

This is a picture of the solar panels (on someone's showroom floor).

They look awfully long to me.

On the home front, I've been trying to keep Wilbur busy and even though I swore I'd never do it, I recently took him to a fenced in, no leash area. My daughter takes her pit bull there and assured me it was okay. The reason I hesitate is because if a skirmish should ever occur between my dog and another, my dog would be blamed solely because he's a pit bull.

We've already been there four times and so far everything's gone smoothly. I'm surprised at how many other pitty's and pitty mixes there are there.

A worn out Wilbur.

He gets chilly you know!

And in his new bed.

Food Provisioning for Your Boat

My last post was about cooking on a boat but not so much about what you might want to bring along. First of all, I need to mention that we have refrigeration (a chest type with a small freezer compartment in the back of it) on our 35' catamaran. And since it's a Bob Johnson Island Packet Cat that means we also have a tremendous amount of storage space.

However, this past summer we could only turn on the refrigerator while the engines were running or we were on shore power (we docked about once a week). So in order to retain what ever amount of cold we'd been able to generate, we used a lot of ice! And since it was a horrendously hot summer we usually went through three bags of ice a day! That added up big time (approximately $150.00/month) and we finally decided to call this usage a 'utility'.

I would pack two soft sided coolers with ice and then add my perishables, and when we had power going, I would re-freeze four 2 liter bottles of water. All of these things were kept in the refrigerator. The third bag of ice would get dumped into the captain's cooler that Bob Johnson ever so cleverly placed... well... right beside the captain's seat! We found we could fill it with a bag or block of ice, and a 30 pack, no problem!

We are currently having solar panels installed on the Knotty Cat and hope that this will allow us to keep things cold without needing to buy so much ice!

What didn't keep very well was, milk and coffee creamer. Luckily since I only use milk for cooking I found that powdered milk worked just fine. And while I like real cream in my coffee, beggars can't be choosers so once again, powder was fine! Note: don't mix your powdered milk in an old milk jug! I found out the hard way that it will spoil very quickly because of left over milk residue. I now use a left over 1 liter club soda bottle. But I only use it once. It gets thrown out and I start with a new one each time.

I bought frozen orange juice to save room and also thought the frozen can would help keep things cold. Even though it was in the refrigerator and packed in a cooler full of ice it would thaw within a day! But I only bought one can at a time so that was okay.

Luckily, cheese and pepperoni kept well, and served with crackers became a lot of our midday meals. The fridge also held bread, Parmesan cheese, ketchup, mustard, margarine, (real butter also didn't last long), jam, and mayo (mayo is really only dangerous if you stick utensils in it that have touched raw meat etc...then it becomes a breeding ground for bacteria). Eggs were kept right on top of the ice in one of the coolers, and I only bought a dozen at a time and they were also okay.

Before I started using Bisquick I bought Pillsbury crescent rolls. They did not keep and came out of the can in a horribly gross gelatinous mass (that I cooked anyway!).

We also brought pasta (not nearly enough), spaghetti sauce, macaroni, rice, peanut butter, syrup, a few canned foods like, potatoes, mushrooms, sloppy joe mix, baked beans (not enough as I love baked beans!), barbecue sauce, Picante, re-fried beans, diced green chiles (the last three items are used in a fabulous hot dip that one of my past employers used to make and I plan on posting it on a future recipe page) pizza shells, pizza sauce, powdered milk, Bisquick, pre-packaged muffin mix, brownie mix, corn meal muffin mix, Pringles potato chips, Generic Cheerios (Hans hates the real deal), and Raisin Bran (my favorite).

In Tupperware containers that I've had for going on thirty years I did bring flour, sugar, baking soda, powdered sugar, brown sugar, baking powder, and corn starch. I also brought olive oil, vegetable oil, vinegar (cider and white), powdered spices: onion and garlic powder, Italian seasoning, and my former employers gave me two boxes of Penzey Spices. I used Penzey's Northwood Seasoning on a piece of Rock Fish that I grilled one night and you'd have thought Hans had died and gone to heaven!

This sounds like a lot of food, but I only brought about a week's worth, (except for the baking stuff and spices, which can last quite awhile) because apparently I thought we'd just pull our boat into the parking lot of the nearest Food Lion or Safeway, load up, and then sail on our merry way!

Not so! I ended up shopping in a lot of little coastal markets where spaghetti was $3.50 a box and hamburger was $5.00 a pound. I rationalized it by reminding myself that this was still much cheaper than eating in a restaurant.

Needless to say we also brought coffee. We have a drip pot that we can use on shore power, and a french press that we use at anchor. The other day I bought a coffee grinder so that I can grind whole beans (and they too aren't cheap but I just happened onto a buy one get one free sale!!) for the french press as the grounds need to be coarse. You might think a drip pot and a french press are redundant but I need my coffee in the morning and just ask Hans what happens if I don't get my caffeine!! Actually that might not be such a good idea.


And let's not forget my dog food odyssey through the streets of Annapolis.



There are 4 shelves behind the door on the left and they hold my baking supplies. The door on the right has open space behind it and you can either hang your clothing or store tall things. We have two of these storage areas, one in each berth.



















The galley area after meal preparation.
















And now all cleaned up!

The microwave on the left is now gone!!! Yaaaaay!! Room for a basket of some kind to hold yet more 'stuff'.

That mini pantry to the right of it holds most of the canned goods, spaghetti, mixes, etc... and above it; that vacant space can hold bags of tortilla chips, and other light weight things that won't kill anyone in the event of the result of a stink boat wake!


The cupboards above the now vacant microwave and pantry hold our dishes, glasses, and coffee cups.

Here I am happily preparing yet one more meal during the delivery run from two years ago.

Our maiden voyage from Boston to Maryland with some very important cargo waiting to be moved down below! All 13 cases!

Wilbur was minding his own business one hot day this summer when he bought a couple of cases of Natural Light and this nasty kitteh decided to threaten him.

For some reason the kitteh's are always trying to intimidate my pitty, and this one is lucky I didn't kick its butt for scaring my baby! Actually it scared me, and I made sure I got myself and Wilbur out of there FAST!





So what I've been doing during our time ashore is stocking up on sales (like spaghetti at .50 cents a pound, 12 packs of diet soda at 3 for $11.00 etc...) then when I find that we're running low, I will hopefully have the time to find an affordable store in order to replenish our supplies.

You may wonder why I'm so cheap. Well, unfortunately I'm not a brilliant person so I've always had to work at 'jobs' as opposed to having a 'career', and add to that, the fact that I'm the offspring of parents' who were children of the depression. So needless to say I am queen of the penny pincher's!

And speaking of cheap, I picked up a yard of Sunbrella fabric at Loom last week for $5.00 (normally $30.00!!! and that, folks, is a bargain!) and I'm in the process of making it into an Amy Butler Blossom Bag (free PDF download!!!).

Pictures to follow.

Cooking While Living Aboard Your Boat

First of all, I'm not a very good cook. My mother however is a great cook, a fabulous baker, and way before decorating cakes was an art; she was an artiste extraordinaire!!! Honestly, she was doing things with gum paste when people didn't even know what the hell the stuff was. Of course my sister went and inherited my mother's artistic ability, and as a child could draw remarkable caricatures of the neighbors. And no one was ever insulted.

I inherited Mom's nearsightedness and that's about it.

But even though I'm not a good cook, I like cooking on the boat. I think maybe I feel a bit like Ma Ingalls-- like I'm living on the wild frontier (even though a store is almost always within dinghy distance).

Two years ago when we bought the boat and sailed her from Massachusetts to Maryland, we had unseasonably cold and crappy weather. Since I knew nothing about sailing (and not much has changed since then) I was appointed the title of cook and called myself Hop Sing for the duration of the trip. Much to my relief, I soon came to realize that as long as it was served hot; even dog food would have been welcome to the crew, and no one ever figured out that I'm not a very good cook!

That particular delivery took a bit longer than expected and how well I remember trying to figure out what to prepare for a cold and famished crew of four with virtually no provisions. I ended up boiling the last of the elbow macaroni, throwing in a leftover jar of salsa, dumping in the remaining Bloody Mary Mix, and grating what was left of a block of cheddar cheese. It was fantastic!!! But then we were starved!

First of all cooking on a boat depends upon what kind of devices you have at hand. We have a wonderful propane stove (never used until we bought the boat) with two burners. This is actually more than I have to cook with in our apartment (where we only have a microwave, and a convection oven). On the boat, with our stove, oven, and outside grill, I can cook pretty much anything I want.

A few months ago I stumbled across a book that a cruising couple wrote. It's a very detailed guide and I admire the work they put into it but once again I was left with huge feelings of inadequacy. You see, there's a huge chapter on provisioning and I made the mistake of reading it. Included in the book was an Excel Spread Sheet kind of thing complete with examples of how to determine what to take on board for an extended period of sailing.

For six months I was supposed to record, down to the last ounce, everything we ate at the apartment (I immediately felt like a cheat because I knew I wouldn't include the chocolate bars that I ate when Hans wasn't looking), multiply everything by 3, divide by the square root of that answer, but only after saying Mother May I, and then add up the total.

I never was a whiz at math, I certainly don't intend to become one now, and I tossed the book aside in despair. I felt depressed that this whole concept didn't appeal to me and decided that in addition to being a poor sport, I wasn't worthy of living on a boat.

And then something wonderful occurred! I stumbled across the Bumfuzzle blog. Even though very few people in the sailing community thought it was possible, this couple sailed around the world without any previous boating experience. But what caught my eye was that they didn't cook. Period. They still don't, and what's more, they don't care what anyone thinks of them. They stocked up on prepackaged food like Doritos and kool-aid, and Heavens to Betsy, they survived. And I don't think they ever once had to multiply, divide or say Mother May I!

Now, I myself would never be able to live like this, but they made me feel better about not having a detailed plan in place.

Then just a week ago I got an email from Linda at Sea Yawl Later, so I zipped on over to read her blog. I really enjoyed it, and what was obvious from a lot of her posts, was that she really likes cooking on their boat.

The polar opposite of the Bumfuzzles. But like me, Linda sometimes just went with the flow. Using leftovers and what ever she had on hand, she was having fun.

And that's when I realized that I have to do what I want to do, and in addition to ignoring a lot of the so called experts on the forums I need to quit worrying about whether I'm doing the right thing.





Morning Mimosas while at anchor.

Fruit went bad very quickly in the heat this summer and I really do hate waste. So two times (and I swear they were two of the hottest days we endured) I made banana bread.

I learned to quit buying bananas!

I also made the potholders you see here. But I didn't make them while on the boat!

Chicken and potato (potatoes can be bought in a can!!) shish-ka-bobs all ready for the grill.

Blue berry muffins complete with pirate flags.

I don't even like blue berry muffins!

But I do love the pirate flags.













Bisquick Biscuits. They're good anytime! I love them with butter and jelly, butter and syrup, butter and honey... and they are too stinking easy to make!









OMG!!! Brownies!! I never make them at the apartment. But on the boat I made them several times from a mix, and therefore very easy!! And when I realized that I was actually losing weight during out trip, I ate them two at a time.

Don't worry, any weight I lost on the boat has since been regained. It must be the nasty Big City Air!








Don't forget Wilbur! He loved placing his dinner order to me every evening.

Extra -rare was always his choice.

As though I couldn't figure that one out!

In the cockpit, after grilling our steaks, Hans toasts Wilbur our Wonderful Salty Dog.

And now that we have Wilbur on board... if we run out of provisions...remember what I said about dog food; as long as it's served hot!! I'm operating on a don't ask don't tell policy here!

So You Want to Live on a Boat, but Where do You Start?

Hans loves sailing. He loves the challenge, the water, the life.

I love water, but will probably never quite grasp the concept of sailing (I have severe problems with following direction, and would like to blame my mother who smoked while she was pregnant with me).

But I do love Hans and whatever Hans wants to do, I want to do.

So when he expressed a desire to fulfill his lifelong dream of living on a sailboat I made it my goal to do my part and research this lifestyle to the best of my ability.

And I did what any other land lubber would do under these circumstances; I turned to the Internet. Sadly, I'm a very literal person, and If I'm unfamiliar with a subject I'll believe just about anybody who professes to be an expert. Okay, I'm gullible!

So for the next year or so, depending on whichever sailing forum I was (un)lucky enough to stumble upon, I vacillated between wanting to sail away right now... blue water/freedom from the rat race/sunny skies ... to wanting to hide under my bed in fear of, Oh my God... engine failures/bad seas/pirates/custom's officials.

I still remember the day I breathlessly informed Hans (over the phone while I was supposed to be working) the exact type of motor we would need for our (still non existent) dinghy because a fellow blogger had done exhausting research on this subject and should not be ignored. And Hans said, "It's a f***ing motor! It's not rocket science! Who the hell is this joker?" And I realized I needed to relax.

So now a word of caution about forums (whether they be about sailing or not); unfortunately they remind me of my old bartending days when I was forced to spend my entire evening with the buffoon... the know-it-all wannabe... and my advice is to ignore them! At least until after you've bought your boat.

I do visit forums now and then for technical stuff (but again, beware of the know-it-all) and just last week I was furious when I stumbled across one that totally blasted our boat!

We have a Bob Johnson Island Packet Cat, and being a bit boxy she doesn't resemble a typical catamaran. A couple had expressed interest in buying one, and that's all the naysayers on this particular forum needed to read. They immediately unleashed their completely uneducated opinions like venom, but what really pissed me off was that not one of these idiots had ever set even one dirty toe nail on board an Island Packet Cat, yet they knew everything! I won't go into all the uninformed comments but one asshole in particular stated that if this couple was stupid enough to buy a Packet Cat, they better want to own it for life as its resale value was nil.

Really?

All I can say is that when we fell in love with this particular model, there were 10 of them on the market. They all sold within a year and considering the thousands of boats that are sitting out there now, rotting away and desperately needing to be sold, I think those are pretty good odds. And let me add, each one of these cats held their value very nicely! So there!

I realize the Internet is a fabulous place; it's been an invaluable resource for my sewing questions, but I've also learned to take some of the stuff I read with a grain of salt. Can you imagine what craziness you'd be bombarded with if you went onto a home buying forum? Speaking of which, I remember years ago when I was unfortunate enough to run into a parent of one of my kids' friend's. This woman held me hostage for about an hour (of which I could ill afford) while she informed me, via a very trembly voice just this side of a nervous breakdown, why she would never buy a house because of the danger of lead.

But finally, by the age of 50, I'd had it with the 'Oh My God Something Might Happen' way of life because I figured out 'Oh My God Something Might Happen' no matter where I lived, be it land or water! And when Hans announced this summer that we were moving aboard, I was ready.

We were only out for two months, but during that time we realized what was going to work for us and what wasn't. We got rid of the microwave (hellishly heavy and never used) that came with the boat, and we're having solar panels installed in order to keep our batteries topped off.

I ditched the TV (also only used once, and the absolute bane of my existance while we were on board because every day that we were moving, it had to be moved down to the settee in order to keep it from flying through the air and beaning Wilbur in the head!), and Hans finally installed some DC fans.

When we sail away in January it will be with a lot less clothes, a huge supply of dog food, and more than a weeks worth of food provisions. Yet, I've no doubt we'll learn even more about life on a boat and that's just fine.

Wilbur the Salty Dog is anxiously awaiting a new life in the Bahamas, and hopes to meet some Salty Dog Chicks.

Here is his SeaHarmony profile pic.

I have a feeling he's going to be quite popular.

Give me strength!

Finally! The Bumfuzzle Crib is finished and on its way

I mentioned earlier that I was sewing a crib for the Bumfuzzles. Everything had been going along swimmingly until I ran into 'grommet trouble', and then things came to a grinding halt.

West Marine said it would take two weeks to get 72 grommets to me, and the Bumfuzzles and I agreed that this was just too long to wait.

In the end, two weeks was nothing compared to what we ended up going through!

The online company we dealt with assured us they had plenty of grommets in stock and would send them immediately.

A week later I received 6 grommets. Total. I needed 72.

Oops! Online company apologized for their mistake and said replacements were on their way. Right now.

A week later I called them and they promised to get back to me.

They didn't.

I called again and the service rep said the warehouse wasn't getting back to her with an answer.

Well guess what! I've literally worked with this 'warehouse mentality' in the past and they can kiss my a**! In a very polite tone (after all, it's not this chick's fault that the warehouse people are idiots!), I told her that this was unacceptable, and that the grommets had better be shipped to me, OVERNIGHT, at no additional charge. I also made some other vague threats about the rotten exposure they would get via the Internet if they didn't oblige.

The grommets arrived the next day!

A butt load of grommets!

Here is the long side of the crib with the privacy/warmth flap in the down position.

And let me mention right now that the 'cutting tool' that comes with these grommets is a joke! I doubt it could cut a hole in a piece of wet toilet paper. Luckily I had an 'awl like' tool that I got a long time ago for the purses that I make, and it did indeed punch through the canvas, but each and every hole had to be enlarged, by hand, with slightly dull scissors!!

My hands still hurt!

This is where one long side abuts the foot of the crib.

Here the flap is rolled up and held in place by straps that button at the top.

The middle is a mesh insert for ventilation

(once again, the X is my ironing board support, so just ignore it!).

I desperately hope this crib works for them and if it does, I'll let you know! If it doesn't, I may disappear from the blogosphere!

While I was waiting for the grommet shipment, I stumbled upon this pirate fabric and it called out to me.

So I made Ouest (the Bumfuzzle Baby) a little dress. Since I'm pretty sure her parents' don't read my blog I feel safe in posting this picture.

Oh how I miss sewing for my girls!! They are now 22 and 23 and somehow I don't think this would appeal to them at this time in their life.

I just don't understand why!

Doggy Day Care and a Sewing Project Hold Up.

When we deliver our Knotty Cat to Florida next month we plan on leaving Wilbur behind.


For anyone who reads this blog and knows how much we love our dog, I'm sure this is a bit of a shock. However, we're going to fly right back home and I refuse to stick my baby into the belly of a plane. Hans thinks I'm nuts and stated that Wilbur would be just fine, and then actually dared to roll his eyes when I said Wilbur was far too sensitive to survive such a trip.


However he changed his mind when I told him that the crate we'd need to buy, along with the cost of Wilbur's flight, would be right around the same amount as boarding him at Doggy Day Care.


So off we went to Doggy Day Care to see if our boy 'plays well with others', and would therefore be accepted as a boarder.


Wilbur passed, and believe me that experience will have its own post.


As for my stalled project. The crib I was sewing for The Bumfuzzles has hit the skids. In the middle of the sewing of this crib I called our local West Marine to ask them if they had six packages of 12 sets of brass grommets I would need to complete this job.


They didn't. And they said it might take them as long as two weeks to get them. So the Bumfuzzles found a site that said not only did they have them, they'd send them to me right away.


The package arrived on Friday and contained a grand total of six grommets!!! Not six packages of twelve, but six grommets!!!


I kid you not.


So until the grommets arrive there's not much I can do but I feel so bad because I know the Bumfuzzles would have liked to have their crib 'yesterday'!! Not next week.












C'mon. Do you really think this little boy wouldn't be able to get along with others??