With the time change coming this weekend, some sun over the past few days, and the hope that Seattle has seen the worst of her winter, we start (continue?) the S/V Kingsley upgrades in preparation for spring. Since we live aboard we started with one cockpit and a few interior projects.
1. Hang the Bill Murray/Steve Zissou portrait (purchased on Etsy). It doesn't really get any better than Bill Murray in the movie Life Aquatic...does it?
2. Install custom made roasted oak cockpit tables (mentioned before).

   Now, don't worry all of you salty sailors out there...you're right - oak isn't a great wood for the saltwater environment...however, roasted oak is a lot better, it has actually been roasted/baked to get all of the water and sugars out of the wood. It's quite dense and, well, it's way cheaper than teak. Not to mention that I'll probably take them off in the winter (they attach pretty easily).
3. Fabric frames to cover our saloon (middle part of the boat) windows.

   Not my best cutting on the two window frames but I knew captain wifey would hide my edges with pretty fabric...3 boat jobs done, more on the way - All before Spring!

   ~Paul, Amber, Kali (she slept through the whole thing)   ETC

   First of all, while this may appear like a slightly shameless plug for Clear internet or maybe even Apple computer - it's not. Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't argue with either of them for throwing us some freebies (I'll take a Macbook Air for starters) but they haven't.
   When we first moved aboard Kingsley last May we were excited to take our existing Clear internet right onto the boat. If you live in a Clear city (like Seattle...and most major US cities) you've got one of the fastest ways to install home internet - just sign-up with Clear and choose a modem, bring it home, open it, plug it in, and bam...internet. No cables, phone & TV bundles, boom - done.
   Now, the speeds aren't as fast as cable internet through Comcast or wherever, but you can blog, stream netflix, watch youtube, and surf the web easily without too much of the dreaded 'buffering'. Our first Clear modem is pictured below (on the right). We plug it into the wall and then into an Apple router (left) (which also plugs into the wall) so wifi can be spread to all of our little gadgets.

   So, this was one of the easiest moves when we left land for the boat life. Unplug, move to boat, plug in. Here's where the story takes a little turn...
   Amber and I had looked at so many boats when shopping for this one, a lot of them very similar. When we finally settled on Kingsley we discovered that some of the things we thought she had, well, she didn't. We had actually combined in our minds some of the other features from boats we had looked at onto the one we actually bought (surely that's happened to other folks, right?). Needless to say, we combined a lot of really cool features that aren't actually on the boat we own now...huh.
   Luckily for our internet aspirations, Kingsley has batteries, outlets & stuff...problem is...she doesn't have an inverter. That's a handy little device that converts battery/DC current to outlet/AC current - what's needed to plugin our Clear modem and surf while we sail the high seas (of Seattle and the Clear surrounding area). Now, I know what you're thinking - ahh, poor little sailors don't have high speed wireless internet while sailing. Well, may I direct you over to one of our past posts of a 70 foot powerboat with heated floors in the head, err, bathroom (last boat)...
   Well, enter our new Clear upgrade. After a extra challenging time dealing with customer service folks online and in person - don't get me started - we finally picked up a new Clear Voyager mobile modem. 
   The setup now: plug in the tiny modem (pic at the beginning of this post). Want to use it on the go? No problem, unplug it. It has batteries that supposedly last between 6-8 hours. It is the same 4G speed that we were used to with the old modem. You won't need a router like the Apple one I pictured above (there goes my free Macbook Air for the shameless plug) - the Voyager beams a wifi signal to up to 8 devices. Also, I imagine you could easily charge it using one of a few new solar chargers on the market (they carry a few at R.E.I.) since it has a USB charger similar to an iPod. 
   Downsides? It's super small and because of that I'm probably gonna break it soon. Battery is internal so once it goes so does the device (you can always plug it in). Clear suffers from some series corporate/customer service/retail store communication problems ("Yeah, sorry sir, I can't sell this to you here at the store because you're an existing Clear customer"), It only works in Clear cities - ours luckily happens to be one with water everywhere.
   Dear readers, what type of internet do you use on the run or at the dock? Do you block out the net on purpose while cruising? Someone's got to share about their wifi extender antenna thingys!
   ~Paul & Amber

   I don't know who said that catchy phrase, well, actually, I think it is just me saying it. Our Kingsley boat project of last week was heading over to my friends shop and working on new galley sink/trash covers (inside) and some new cockpit tables (outside). The orginals were made from plastic...not even a workable plastic - some composite that is equally hard to clean/paint (a.k.a. it is probably cheap).
   We upgraded the galley covers to bamboo and the cockpit tables (not finished yet) to roasted oak - a wood that has been literally roasted, removing water and sugars making it good for outdoor use (and cheaper than teak). I haven't installed the cockpit tables yet but I am pretty happy with our [almost] finished project.
   Do you have any recent add-wood-to-your-fiberglass boat projects? Did you use teak or something different? What do you use to maintain your indoor wood shine?
   ~Paul   ETC

   Welcome to our new Aboard series! Over the next few months we'll be adding posts to this portion of our site, describing how we do things aboard S/V Kingsley, our sailboat-home here in the Pacific Northwest. We're excited to share some ideas and ways of doing things with our readers and hopefully receive a good deal of feedback and ideas in our comment sections on each post (because we're kinda new at this and you people are smart!).             
   We start today with something we couldn't leave behind when we sold [almost] everything and moved aboard our 32 ft boat - coffee. We are in Seattle after all! 
   Be sure to check back in on our Aboard series as we'll share posts on lots of aboard topics including: cooking, cleaning, entertainment, heating, cats, kayaks, marriage:), the head, storage, books, music, apps, candles, and more!   ~Paul, Amber, & Kali

 

We like to think we have mastered the art of a good cup of Joe on land or sea. On Kingsley, we often use the ol' stand-by - not a plastic, old, plug-in coffee pot mind you (this is Seattle don't forget!) - the french press. We heat up just enough water in the teapot on our Force 10 propane stove, add some ground coffee beans to the press (ground at the store or by our hand-powered grinder), add the water when it is warm enough, wait 3 1/2 to 4 minutes (using a timer), then press...pow!

   Winter is here and we're nice and toasty aboard Kingsley with the indoor oil (plug-in) heater running, the indoor propane stove helping us cook tasty dinners, and the water heater/pressure kicking up the occasional warm shower...meanwhile, condensation is occurring.
   From doing our regular blog and magazine reading, even before buying a boat, we knew the threat is always there. Warm without too much airflow inside and cold outside is the perfect recipe for a rising humidity level. That combined with Kingsley's (we still love ya girl!) lack of insulation and two humans breathing all the time (and who knows what kind of moisture Kali gives off) and well, you get the picture - drops of water show up in a few spots.
   So, new additions this week: a few moisture trapping contraptions (top pic) for the aft lazarettes, a fan for the V-berth up front, and a cool little battery operated indoor/outdoor thermostat with a indoor humidity level reading. We had already added some wood slats for under our mattresses so the bed is dry. All of the above help, but as you can see in the thermostat photo, the stated outdoor temperature isn't that reliable - it pretty much just heats up into the 70s when the sun shines on it. Still, nothing helps more than opening a forward and aft hatch and letting some air flow. Word on the blog-street is that if we keep the humidity below 50 degrees we're OK and won't have to fight off any...gulp...mold.

   ~Paul, Amber, Kali   

   This mini boat project doesn't come close to our previous adventures in the bilge, however, I like to post even the little stuff (it will hopefully help motivate me to finish what I started here:).
   When we purchased Kingsley we had never used a push button autopilot like the Raymarine setup we have now. I had always sailed with a tiller - the only autopilot used was one that plugs in and hooks onto the tiller - I was always scared of it (for no reason really) and didn't use it.
   Fast-forward to now - we like our autopilot. Motoring 5 hours back from Port Ludlow on the man-cruise this summer got a little boring (as steering goes anyway, being out on the water was/is always better than being on land!). Having to hold onto the wheel that whole time would have gotten a touch old too. So, new autopilot good, but... 
   Inside Kingsley, with a long cord coming out of the wall, was a remote for the autopilot. It had an extra long cord (for moving around the boat and using it), all stuck on the wall in the salon. I have always been a if-you're-not-going-to-use-it-than-loose-it type guy, especially since we live in such a confined space now, so I left the autopilot remote there for awhile, then finally decided to take it off (and save it in case we want to use it later). The only reasons it seems one would use it would be if you were single-handing the boat in shallow water and needed to control direction while looking down from the bow, or possibly for solo anchoring, although, it doesn't control speed, only direction...hmmm. Another reason I wanted it off for now is that I have a hunch that it is wired directly to our house batteries (which is a no-no)...I'm still chasing a few wires that are attached to the batteries directly (from the previous owner? Hopefully not from Hunter). Here's where the wires from the wall were connected to the remote.

   Boom, done. OK, well, almost done. I took care of the remote and stuff but still have this wire to follow - I think I'll power down Kingsley when I do, just in case...bzzzt.
   ~Paul   ETC

   It was actually just a coincidence that while the wife went down the road to the spa I stayed at home and did a little Kingsley bilge cleaning. Bilge cleaning is otherwise known as: the complete opposite of spa-time (or was it?).

   For any of our club members who are soon to be boaters, our bilge is an area beneath the floor in the main area of the boat (the main area of the boat is called the salon, or more historically accurate - saloon). The purpose is to collect any water that happens to get inside the boat. When it fills to a certain level, our automatic bilge pump kicks on and sucks the water out. When we take showers on our boat the water drains into the bilge. Also, our fridge has a drain to the bilge, if it ever defrosted and started leaking the water would go there. We have a manual bilge pump also - it has a handle up in the cockpit to pump the water out if the automatic ever quit.

   The whole reason for the cleaning was to continue the work that we had started when we purchased Kingsley. Our bilge was mostly full of sand and dirt - most of which we got clean the first time around. I wanted to finish cleaning this up and have a closer look at our keel bolts (the bolts that hold our keel on the bottom of the boat...a.k.a. super important). In the picture below you can see that I pulled our automatic bilge pump out so it wouldn't start pumping the bilge cleaner overboard.

   In the end the keel bolts look fine and the bilge is looking' pretty good too. There wasn't any oil in the water from the engine - that's good. As it turns out, the wifey returns from spa to find hubby's hands soft and smooth. I may have got a little spa moisturizing of my own after scrubbing the thing for about an hour.

~Paul & Amber (at spa, doesn't count)
Everyone's Travel Club

Kingsley's captain and crew took a little time this weekend washing her salon cushions. The cushions say dry-clean only but we washed them carefully in the normal wash and they were fine (what do cushions know anyway). One little hint we learned - our cushions had little tags on them with a location code so you could figure out where they go when you get them mixed up.

SFS = Starboard forward seat...We were proud of ourselves that we actually figured that one out pretty quick! I'm sure it is a factory boat thing, any boaters out there with more hand-made type boats have code on your cushions?
   ~Paul & Amber   ETC

   So here's the deal: our propane tank, for the indoor stove/oven, sits in a locker up in the cockpit of the boat. The tank connects to the regulator and solenoid, then through the boat inside to the Force 10 stove/oven. All lockers have a drain in them because propane is heavier than air - that way if you have a leak, like we did, the propane flows out of the locker/boat. The picture above shows what our drain hose looks like (it's the black horizontal one).
   Problem is, the slight dip in the hose was preventing propane from getting out. We figured this out because our locker had a slight smell of propane sometimes and if you let some water down there it didn't all come out.
  I thought I'd just put some screws and twine in to lift the hose. Not so easy. For one thing, I can't fit both of my arms into this space - the access points are too small. Even worse, I can't fit one arm in and my head to see what I'm actually doing.
  So below is my temporary fix, some rope tied (with one hand, blind) in two places, holding the hose up. My plan is to check on it real quick after sails to make sure it holds and to replace it soon with a better situation...maybe a plastic zip-tie?  The design leaves a little to be desired since the drain from the locker is about 1/8" higher than the drain out of the boat, making it very challenging to get the thing right...to be continued...

   ~Paul    ETC

It's about time we talk about poo. We took a little weekend trip to the Edmonds Marina in Edmonds, Washington. Normally, back at our home marina, we pay to have a company come by weekly to pump out our holding tank.  For anyone new to boat living, here's how it goes with our system (there are others out there) - we stick to number 1s in our onboard Jabsco toilet. When you flush (manually) you pump a little sea water in from outside, it fills the bowl, then goes from the head back to the holding tank. On the outside back of our boat is a little cap, access to the same tank, you unscrew it, and pump away! 

P.S. Our holding tank is about 24 gallons, it lasts a week at the marina with the both of us using it (but we are at work all day 5 of the days). Pumping out at the marina docks is free (here anyway).
  -Paul, Amber, Ann, Jon  ETC