sv Bella Rose

Ahoy!

On Sunday we had some true Liveaboard excitement. While I was away from Bella Rose, I get a phone call from Cheri. She informs me that Zoe, one of our cats, is stuck somewhere in the boat. The cabinet under the sink in the head is open and Cheri can hear Zoe meowing but doesn’t know where she is located. I ask Cheri to open the access to the engine room and see if she can get Zoe to exit that way, because there is access to the bathtub next to the engine. She informs me she already has that panel open.

I return to the boat, not in the best of moods (sorry) and try to figure out where our FAT cat (ZOE) is located. I remove everything from under the bathroom sink and try to look behind the wall between the sink and the tub, nothing. I remove a small piece of wood in the cabinet that sits against the hull and the floor of the head. I can see Zoe at the other end sitting under the bathtub. She is about 3 feet away from me and there is no way she will fit through this small space. I go to the engine room and try to coax her out this way, because the tub sits just to the side of the engine with a large access under the tub. She won’t come out….

I try to "encourage" Zoe to move by poking at her with a broom handle. All she will do is dance around the end of the handle. No matter how much I poke at her, she won't move.

By now I am really getting upset. I can’t leave here sitting there. She isn’t hurt or truly “stuck” she is just sitting there, but she is meowing. The other cat Maddie, and our dog Tiki are going nuts, and Cheri and Jonathan aren’t too happy with the constant m-e-o-w-ing. I am now thinking I will have to cut a hole in the bathtub in order to get her out. Steam is coming out of my ears and bad words are coming out of my mouth!

Cheri is digging around under the galley sink. I ask herwhat she is doing? What are you looking for? She tells me she is looking for an empty spray bottle… Thank you Cheri! The light bulb goes on. I have an idea. I go out on deck and get the water hose. I turn on the water and bring the hose down in to the boat. I get in that small access under the sink looking toward the tub under the head floor where I can see Zoe. Cheri goes over to the engine room and shines our trouble-light at the tub. I spray Zoe with the water. She comes flying out from under the tub and next to the engine. Yippy it worked.

I had to pry her out from there, but we got her out, slightly dirty and very wet, but unharmed.

On a different note, you might find a couple of videos interesting. They are kind of a statement of everyday life aboard a sailboat. NO! I thought about it, but I didn’t shoot a video of rescuing the cat from under the tub. I would have too many “beeps” in it! LOL

 

Spring is just around a very long corner. I can smell it!

Rob

Wow!!

Yesterday, March 1st, was definitely a lion of a day. About 9:00pm, the wind really picked up. It had been raining quite a while already. Man was the the wind blowing. The water was crashing over the dock, mostly on our bow. It washed our dockbox full of stuff in to the water. We then heeled over as the wind clocked around to our beam. We were so heeled over stuff inside was falling off the shelves and out of the cabinets. I was truly worried we might loose our enclosure. The wind blew from all diferent directions, HARD, like we were in some kind of a vortex. Finally the wind died down. It was still blowing better than 25mph most of the night. I walked the dock in the cold rain around 10:00pm. Other boats are missing biminis and things. The patio table is long gone. Lids ripped off of other dock boxes.

This morning, around 7:00am, I started shooting a video. It took a while to create, process and upload (it takes about 2 hours to upload to YouTube).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZWjVyqAjhg

I would have liked to film last night, but I was kinda busy and my inexpensive (cheap) camera doesn't do well in low light.

Rob

Ahoy!

Happy Valentine's Day.

Yesterday morning I shot a little video of the frosty dock. Our normal low temerature for this time of year here on the gulf coast is 45 degrees and our normal high is 64 degrees.

That is 45 low and 64 high...

On Friday our high temp was 38! Geesh, it has been a cold winter. I know this sounds whiney to all you people in the colder climates. But we have been below normal by 20 degrees or so for weeks on end. We often get a day or two here and there below normal, but not 10-14 days 20 degrees below normal.

Anyway, Saturday morning it was 28 degrees at 8:00 am.  So I grabbed my video camera and walked down the dock filming the thick frost covering.

Also, when I got up Saturday morning and was making a pot of coffee, I noticed the fan on the refrigerator was running loud. After you live on a boat for a while you become very familiar with all the various sounds and readily notice when something sounds different. I added one of those computer fans available at Radio Shack to the compressor compartment to add additional airflow over the compressor. I attached the fan to the inside of the slotted door with a switch, but I keep it running all the time, so it moves the air through the area.

So I noticed the fan was much louder than it should be. My first thought was the bearing must be going, or something like hair was caught in the fan. I took a quick look at the fan and didn't notice anything out of the ordinary, it seemed to be running in "high-gear." Hmmmmm

Next, I went to the Link monitor and pressed "Battery Bank 2" to check the batteries. We are currently dockside (obviously with the attached video), and connected to shore power. Well, when I woke up the Link, the display indicated 14.45 volts. Aha!! No wonder the fan sounded so loud. Normally the Xantrex charger maintains the voltage at 13.30 or so depending on the temperature. With the higher voltage the fan was running much faster. Question answered! Thankfully no problem to fix. Yippy!!

Rob

After the recent cold spell and general neglect of "chores" during the winter season I decided to straighten up the bow of Bella Rose.

On the 11th I posted a story about the water in the anchor locker. The locker has been empty with all the rode sitting on the deck. Our plant, "Katrina" didn't fair well with the extreme cold, even though I covered her. I moved her in to the cockpit a little too late. We had to remove all of the leaves.

We had a nice day, sunny and warm with little wind. I decided to clean and straighten the front of Bella Rose.

So I removed all the stuff from the front of the boat. Two fenders, several pieces of rope, and some other junk. Cleaned up the deck with the water hose and deck brush. I then put the rode back in the anchor locker, coiled the dock lines, and put Katrina back on the bow. Cheri purchased cool looking solar lights that are placed in the pot.

I still need to do something with the water hose. It is still coiled on the front of the boat. But it looks much better, now. 

I am familiar with the term, smoke on the water. It's a good song too. LOL

This cold spell is certainly going to be one for the record books. Many places in the deep south have been near all-time record lows. Record cold temps day after day. Waterfalls frozen, lakes frozen in places that rarely see below freezing temperatures.

Here are two photos of ICE formed on the water in the marina.

This is SALT water not fresh water. OK, it probably isn't as salty as open ocean water, we have the Gulf of Mexico on the south side and fresh water rivers and streams on the north side. It is more salty than fresh for certain. We have Dolphins and other saltwater critters living here.

It looks like today is the last of the way-below-normal cold. Over the next couple of days we are creeping up to normal lows and highs. Weird, weird, weird....

Rob

Geesh,

The joys and pleasures of life on a boat...

Jonathan, our recently turned 13 year old, has been complaining of his clothes getting wet in the v-berth. Of course I immediately commented it is because it is soooo cold outside and it is condensation. I tell him to keep his clothes away from the outside hull surface and to take better care of his stuff if he doesn't want it to get ruined. You know, the -- I’m the grownup you are the kid -- logic.

Well, after looking around in the v-berth today, I realize it is wayyyy too wet for only condensation to be the cause. The anchor locker is in the tip, bow of the boat, with the v-berth under and behind it. So, I go up on deck and open the anchor locker door. Guess what??? The anchor locker is completely full of water! Right up to the top. Geesh. No wonder the v-berth is so wet. A little more rain and/or a big rock&roll from the wake of a passing boat and the water runs in to the v-berth due to the opening under the hull-deck joint. The anchor locker is well-sealed from the v-berth, except in the two corners up under the hull to deck joint.

Fortunately today is nicer than it has been for many many days. It is still well below normal, but the wind has stopped blowing. Anyway, I pulled all the rode, chain and 3-strand, out of the locker and found a small stick that I could poke through the two drain holes and unplug them.

Helpful hint to our fellow liveaboards…  

It might be a good idea to open up any lockers and lazzorettes you have and see if they have turned into a bathtub.

Rob

It is too cold to do something outside, so what can I do for fun inside the sailboat? Hey, I know, clean out the fridge! For those of you not familiar with boat refrigerators they operate more like the “old-fashioned” fridges of years past. The big critical difference from today’s fridges is they ice up! Big heavy, thick ice.

Secondly, boat refrigerators are usually of the chest type. Meaning unused stuff tends to drift to the bottom. Thank goodness for labels or many unrecognizable items would remain a mystery. Is blue cheese salad dressing dated – use by Aug 11, 2007 – still good? Hmmmmm.

Hey, why do we have 5 containers of mustard? Anyway… It has been a while since we have completely emptied the fridge and cleaned it. So, here I go. Do I hear the Star Wars theme playing in the background? Harharhar

Here is a photo of the ice buildup after removing everything.

Note the bottle of wine stuck in the ice. After many hours of melting the ice. I did speed up the process with pots of hot water. Here is the after photo.

What a nicely done project. Doesn't the fridge look much better now? I think it is time for a glass of that wine....

CaptRobLee

The New Year is here. January 3rd, 2010 [twenty-ten].

It has certainly decided to be winter here too. December 31st, 2009 was 72 degrees and beautiful. Yesterday, today, and apparently most of the week, it is supposed to be well below normal. A day here or a day there below normal happens often. I guess you could say, it is normal. LOL However, 3,4,5 days or more below normal is VERY unusual. Rare.

The "normal" low and high for this time of year is 40 and 59, give or take a degree... We are having temps, for at least a week, more than 10 degrees lower. Like 26-27 for lows and highs right around 49-50. Brrrrr.

So needless to say, we are no longer running the airconditioner, we are running the heater! Speaking of heat, we added a wood-stove to the boat after Thanksgiving weekend. Here is a photo of our new wood-stove.

Pretty darn HOT huh?? Well we think so! Hahaha

You can operate it on flame only, flame and low heat, or flame and high heat. Oh yeah, did I mention it is electric? Hey, it is a sailboat and as much as I LOVE a wood-stove (we heated the house for 18 years with wood) I didn't want to install a "real" stove in the boat.

To be honest, this little stove is pretty neat. We really, really, like it.

Well, I pray the winter is treating you well. Stay warm and have some fun while living life.

Rob

Ahoy,

There are two different definitions of a Blue Moon. The modern, most common understanding of a Blue Moon is a full moon occurring twice in a month. This happens approximately every 2.7 years (I believe). Here is a photo of the December 31, 2009 full moon. Taken at 8:00pm central time.

Have a wonderful New Year.

Rob

Hello,

Wow, Christmas has come and passed us all. The end of 2009 and beginning of 2010 is just days away. Seems every year goes by faster and faster.

We had a significant storm late on Dec 24th. All day we had a strong south wind. This produced a warmer than normal temperature, the high was 70 degrees. Also, because of the south wind, the water level was much higher than normal. After dark, a large thunderstorm developed about 3 miles offshore and was moving directly north in front of the east bound cold front. The winds were probably well above 40 mph, briefly.

One boat in the marina had it's gangplank drop in to the water. The fingerpier is on the south side of the boat. With the high water and south wind, the gankplank dropped off the dock. Here is a photo:

You can see our dog, Tiki, in the  lower right corner. Also, just in case you are wondering, as it is Christmas day, and not many people are at the marina, I DID remove the gangplank from the boat and pulled it up onto the dock.

In contrast, after the front passed, Christmas day was much colder and with a clear sky. The wind switched around to the NW and the water dropped quickly. The high on the 25th was only 60 degrees.

Here are two sunset photos taken on Dec 25th.

We pray you have a wonderful new year in 2010. May all

your dreams come true!

Rob, Cheri & Jonathan.