S.V. CAMBRIA: Tips for Living Aboard

How to Repair Screw Holes with Wood Plugs

Monday, March 27, 2017TheCambrians

Best New Things Living Aboard a Boat Tips for Living Aboard

Melitta Brewing Cones | The Best New Thing in the Boat

Friday, March 10, 2017TheCambrians

We have a Sirius satellite radio aboard Cambria and I like to listen to MSNBC. Every single day. It drives David nuts (the whole point of cruising is to disconnect), but I’m addicted. And one of the programs I like a lot is “The Rachel Maddow Show”. Every now and then she does a segment called “The Best New Thing in the World” where she introduces something new that caught her attention. It can be a product, an idea or something somebody has done. And that inspired me to start a series of posts called “The Best NewThing in the Boat”. My first post was about our portable freezer and while I have to admit this item isn’t as sexy or life-changing, it truly is “The Best New Thing in the Boat” – a Melitta Pour-Over Thermal Coffee Maker.

The story starts a couple of years ago. We were getting ready for the upcoming season, and I decided I wanted to give up drinking Coke. I knew caffeine withdrawal was going to be difficult for me, so I needed to find a go-to drink with a little bite as an alternative (I mainly drink water). Being married to a Brit means we always have a large supply of black tea lying around, but I don’t really like it. So, I decided coffee would be my new monkey.

I pulled out our French Press and got to work substituting one bad habit with another, but it was short-lived. When he was cleaning the press, David lost the bottom disc overboard. So, we either had to buy a replacement part, a new French Press, or look for another option.

French Press

To be honest, we’ve never been big fans of the French Press despite some obvious benefits:

They don’t require a filter, which keeps trash to a minimum and makes provisioning easier.
The strength of the coffee can be adjusted by the steeping time.
Multiple cups can be brewed at the same time.
They can make espressos.
They make a good cup of coffee.
They don’t require pouring skills.
It’s possible to find French Presses that are unbreakable, thanks to stainless and plastic beakers.

But the coffee grounds can (and often do) slip through the filtering disc and end up in your mug. And they’re not as easy to clean as some other options. This was a big one for us and the primary reason we didn’t make coffee on a regular basis, despite the fact that we both enjoy drinking it (yes, laziness won out in the end). Clearly, it was time to try something new.

AeroPress

A lot of cruisers love the AeroPress, a new type of coffee press that brews under pressure, so I started my search there. Again, they offer several benefits:

They’re plastic and won’t break.
They’re much easier to clean than a traditional French Press.
They use a filter so coffee grounds don’t seep into the brew.
They make really good coffee (by all accounts).
The brew time is only two minutes, thanks to the air-pressure element involved.
They’re versatile (you can use them to make lattes and espressos).
The units are small and portable.

But, and this is a big ‘but’, they take practice to get the coffee just right and only make eight ounces at a time (you have to top them up with hot water to fill a traditional mug). Another downside is they use special filters that can’t be found in most neighbourhood grocery stores. And they’re also fairly expensive, selling for $30 per unit.

Pour-Over Coffee Makers

Still, the AeroPress sounded like a good alternative and I was just about to hit the order button when I noticed another option: The Melitta Ready, Set, Joe Brewing Cone. A little further research showed this was one of the easiest ways to make a freshly-brewed cup of coffee and the benefits were obvious:

For $2.49, I was able to find a Melitta cone at our local Albertsons, so they’re relatively inexpensive to use.
The coffee drips directly into a mug that sits underneath the cone, requiring little cleanup.
They use a standard size filter (#2) that keeps coffee grounds and oils out of the brew.
They’re easy to clean – just throw away the filters and rinse the cone with water.
They’re easy to use producing a consistently good cup of coffee.

Like the French Press and AeroPress, there are some negatives: They only brew one cup of coffee at a time. It takes about four minutes per cup. You lose the versatility of presses (pour-over units don’t make espressos). While the initial cost is low, there is the continuing expense of buying filters. And the filters lead to more waste and another item to provision.

I was going to be the only one drinking coffee, so we started with one single-cup cone. I tended to have my cup around 2 or 3 o’clock in the afternoon when I needed the caffeine boost the most. It smelled so good that David started to join in. Soon the ritual included homemade chocolate chip cookies or some other tasty treat and started to become a time of day we both looked forward to.

We picked up another cone so we could make two cups at the same time, but David would often mention how he wished he had a little more to drink. Santa must have heard his entreaties because that changed recently when we were gifted a Melitta Thermal Pour-Over Coffee Brewer for Christmas . . . and it’s the best new thing in the boat.

Okay, so it’s no portable freezer, something that literally changed the way we cruised and, at $32, it’s a more expensive option than a French Press or an AeroPress. But the stainless carafe holds 64 ounces (about 3.5 of our mugs), is double-walled for insulation and small enough to conveniently store aboard a boat (8” x 6” x 10”). So, now we can make several cups of freshly-brewed coffee any time of the day and keep it hot for hours, making life on the water a little easier and a lot nicer.

What things have made your life easier and better on the water? We’d love to hear about them. Share your tips below in the comments section or join the conversation on our Facebook page.

Photos from the Bodum, AeroPress and Melitta websites.

Boat Maintenance Boatyard Hacks

Boatyard Hacks | Making Life on the Hard a Little Easier

Monday, November 28, 2016TheCambrians

If you look the word ‘hack’ up in the dictionary, there are dozens of meanings, from cutting something roughly to someone who gives a lackluster performance. But that’s not the kind of hack this blog post is about. I’m talking about the kind of hack that makes life a little easier – a trick or a shortcut. And not just anywhere, but where (for boaters) life is the hardest – in the boatyard.

Over the course of 15 years, we’ve hauled-out about a dozen times, including twice for emergencies (a leaking stern gland and a failed through-hull fitting). I wouldn’t say we’ve learned a lot (because there’s a heck of a lot to learn), but we have come up with a ‘hack’ or two along the way to help save money, to be kinder on the environment and to make life on the hard a little bit easier.

DIY Yards

In all the years that we’ve owned Cambria, we’ve only out-sourced work a few times – once to have a new dodger and bimini made, once to install the heating system (so it would be covered by the warranty) and once to have the injectors serviced. Not only does this save us money, but it gives us piece of mind – when we do the work, we know the job has been done right. Therefore, choosing a boatyard that allows us to do the work ourselves is a top priority. But because of increasing environmental regulations, they’re getting more and more difficult to find.

Planning Ahead

For our regular haul-outs, we have the luxury of planning ahead and shopping around for all of the things we need. A gallon of anti-foul paint costs around $180 at the local chandlery but can be found online for close to half the price. It doesn’t just save us money, it saves us time. The better prepared we are, the less time we have to spend running around looking for parts . . . or waiting on them to arrive. During our last haul-out, David decided to change the engine mounts out but, because we didn’t have a local mailing address, they had to be ordered by the boatyard. It took 18 days for them to arrive. And when they did, the threads on two of the mounting bolts were bad and wouldn’t mate together so we had to spend a day running around town sourcing the parts to make our own (in the end, it turned out to be a savings for us because the manufactured ones cost close to CA$500 and David was able to make them for CA$30).

For the Bottom of the Boat

3-M Paint and Body Scuff Pads: Back in the day, wet-sanding the bottom was the best way to ready the hull for a fresh coat of fresh anti-foul paint but most yards frown on that now, opting for dry-sanding with a power sander hooked up to a shop-vac. I do all of the bottom work myself and I’m not a big fan of the process – it’s messy and difficult to keep the sandpaper clean enough to do its job. I found using a 3-M Paint and Body Scuff Pad was a good compromise. It allows me to “wet sand” without using a hose by rinsing the pad in a bucket and dumping the waste water in the yard’s filtered drain system. I don’t end the day covered in anti-foul, there’s no residual dust from dry paint and the work space around the boat stays clean (at least by boatyard standards).
Petit Super Premium Prop Coat Barrier Spray: To protect the prop from marine growth, we used to apply a coat of Propspeed. When we were in New Zealand, we could get it done in exchange for a case of beer. But it costs around US$200 in the States. And while we have no complaints about its performance, that’s really expensive. The Petit Barrier Spray (known as Barnacle Barrier in the US) works just as well and only costs US$24 (we paid about $12 when we were in Canada).
PB Blaster: This hack isn’t limited to the bottom, but I couldn’t decide where else to put it. It’s a great product for lubricating, conditioning rubber seals and releasing any nuts and bolts that may have seized up due to salt water. It’s inexpensive (less than US$5 a can) and, as an added bonus, made in the U.S.A. The only downside is that it’s a naphtha spray and smells like moth balls.

For the Hull

Nu Finish Car Polish: A friend turned us on to Nu Finish a few years ago and we were so happy with the results that we’ve stuck with it. Although it’s labeled a polish, it’s not. Polishes have an abrasive component to them which can ultimately break down the gel coat. And Nu Finish doesn’t. It’s not a wax either. It’s a synthetic paint sealer with UV protection. It’s also inexpensive (approximately US$5 per application) and easy to use. We simply apply it to the hull with a damp sponge (no buffing required), allow it to dry and wipe it off with cheese cloth (another important boatyard hack). The process can be repeated after 30 days to remove any oxidation that has returned to the surface and the results last up to one year.
Cheese Cloth: As far as we’re concerned, there’s only one way to remove polish, wax or Nu Finish from the hull – cheese cloth. Unlike with microfibre towels, the gauze-like fabric cuts through the paste and clears it off in one swipe. It also shakes clean so there’s no globbing of paste in the material, lasts a long time and is inexpensive to buy.
Lemon Juice: I’ve already written a blog post about this, so I won’t go into too much detail other than to say lemon juice works well as a natural stain cleaner to get rid of those ugly brown moustaches that form around the waterline.
Oxalic Acid: Another great (and inexpensive) stain remover, but it does bring the copper in the anti-foul to the surface and can streak the anti-fouling paint.
Windex: Maybe we’ve watched the movie “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” one too many times, but using Windex works really well to clean the hull. Because you spray it on and wipe it off, there’s no need for a hose and the work space around the boat stays much cleaner.

Do you know any boatyard hacks? We’d love to hear them. Join the conversation in the comments section or on our Facebook page.

Boat Maintenance Tips for Living Aboard

When Life Hands You Lemons, Clean Your Boat

Monday, November 21, 2016TheCambrians

If you’re a regular follower of our blog, then you know that we just spent four weeks on the hard after having to unexpectedly haul out. It hadn’t been that long since our last time out of the water, but we wanted to make the most of it while we waited (and waited) for parts to arrive. First up on the list of jobs was to tackle the ugly brown “moustache” around the waterline.

Last year, a fellow cruiser recommended using lemon juice for the job. According to him, the process required very little scrubbing, so we were game. To make things easier, we transferred the juice to a spray bottle and got to work. We sprayed a two-foot wide strip and spread the juice with a sponge. After allowing it to sit for ten minutes or so, we came back and wiped the area clean. In places where the stains were more stubborn, we repeated the process, finding the juice was most effective in direct sunlight (something that’s a little hard to come by in October).

We have to admit, we were a little surprised with the results but shouldn’t have been.

It comes down to science. The main components of lemon juice are citric acid, limonene, ascorbic acid and lemon oil. Basically, it’s a natural bleaching agent, thanks to its acidity. And it’s an inexpensive way to clean (just watch out for bees). There were a few areas of the hull that were beyond the reach of the lemon juice, but were easily taken care of with oxalic acid.

But how does it compare?

Our first choice for cleaning stains on the hull is oxalic acid. We buy crystals in bulk from a chemical company south of Seattle and mix it ourselves, which makes it quite economical (2.5 kilograms for US$43.44). On a scale from 1 to 10 as a cleaner, we rate it as a ten. After applying the acid on the stains and letting it sit for a while, all that’s required is washing down the hull with water. The downside is this: oxalic acid brings the copper in the anti-foul to the surface and streaks the paint unless you can keep the whole thing wet (or off the anti-foul).

With the lemon juice, it took less than one 15-ounce bottle to do the job. At a cost of around US$2, that’s a bargain. It did require more elbow grease than the oxalic acid, which a downside. But doesn’t damage or streak the anti-foul and didn’t require any extra clean-up or vigilance on our part – both big bonuses. On a scale of 1 to 10, we rate it a 7.5 to an 8 and will definitely use it again.

So, when life hands you lemons, use them to clean your boat.

Boat Maintenance Boat Project Living Aboard a Boat

Painting It Up With MDR Inflatable Boat Top Coating

Monday, August 08, 2016TheCambrians

This is my buddy, Lance. We’ve been together for 14 years, through good times and bad. Life’s hasn’t always been easy for Lance: He’s been battered and bruised to the point of being sent off to the panel beater (a car body shop). He’s been left out in the sun. Dragged across oyster beds and barnacle covered rocks. Swamped by waves. And scratched to pieces by one of the cutest boat-dogs around. But through it all, Lance has remained steadfast and strong . . . a true friend.

The years were starting to show and Lance was looking a little worse for the wear, so it was time to say a proper thank you for everything he’s done with a special spa package for dinghies – an exfoliating treatment and body wrap. Okay, so maybe “spa package” is a bit of an exaggeration and a wet-sand and a pontoon paint job is more accurate. But you get the point: Lance was in store for a major makeover.

But wait a minute . . . paint an inflatable dinghy? Absolutely. Not with ordinary paint, though. With flexible, rubberized paint specifically designed for use on inflatables – Hypalon, vinyl or PVC. The product we currently use, MDR Inflatable Boat Top Coating*, comes in three colours – white, gray and light gray – and can be used to freshen up a dinghy or to change the existing colour. It’s waterbased, which makes it easy to use and clean up. And it requires no primer.

The package directions call for a thorough cleaning and MDR recommends using one of their products such as MDR’s Inflatable Cleaner/UV Kit, Amazon’s Inflatable Cleaner or MDR’s Krazy Clean. But, because this is our third time painting, we wanted to wet-sand the pontoons to remove any build-up, to clean them and to roughen the surface so the new paint would have something to adhere to.

It’s a big job, and we’d hoped to get it done before leaving Kingston in May but between a very wet winter and so many other things to take care of before we untied our lines for the season, it didn’t happen. So, with a month’s worth of moorage paid for in Ocean Falls, I got to work.

I wish I could say I made fast work of the job, but it took a total of five days to finish the sanding (one or two where I had to stop early because of rain). They weren’t full days because my arm muscles couldn’t keep up with the overall demand, but the total number of man hours put into it was somewhere around 15. Had I just cleaned the dinghy, it would have been prepped and ready to go the next day.

MDR Inflatable Top Coating doesn’t require a primer so, once the sanding was finished, I could start painting. Two coats are recommended and the second can be applied after four hours. I started with the bottom side of the dinghy in the morning, rolling on a thin layer of paint and fanning it out with a brush to make it as smooth as possible, and then waited. In the afternoon, I repeated the process (it was easier to apply in the morning when it was cooler). The next day, we flipped the dinghy and I started all over again.

We couldn’t be happier with the end result. Not only does Lance look great, areas that had been thinned down by years of wear and tear are now protected and the pontoons hold air better than before. Based on past results, our dinghy should be good to go for another three years (depending on how much we use it and how hard) – not a bad deal for a few days work. MDR lists the coverage as at least 100 square feet per container, which was more than enough for Lance, who measures 3 metres long (10 feet), and sells it online for $39.64 per quart. Always in search of a bargain ourselves, we buy it from Jamestown Distributors for $30.40. Defender also sells the paint for $31.99 (all prices listed in US dollars).

*We have no connection to the company MDR and have not received anything from them in return for this review. This blog post merely represents our personal experience with and preference for MDR Inflatable Boat Top Coating as a flexible paint for our Hypalon dinghy.

Camping Tips for Living Aboard

Los Algodones | Visiting the Dentist (Part One)

Saturday, May 28, 2016TheCambrians

I've been putting off visiting the dentist for years, too many years in fact, using excuses like it takes months to get an appointment and I'm never in one place long enough. That's true; but when you get right down to it, I was just being a big fat chicken: I knew there was a problem with one of my teeth and I was afraid it was going to mean a root canal, something I really, really wanted to avoid . . . so I did.

I didn't initiate the visit. It was David. There were several issues he needed to address for himself and the estimate he received in the

was way over budget. So, we decided to look south of the border for more affordable options. I started with a simple Google search and read through some RVing blogs. One place kept popping up in my research – Los Algodones,

Mexico

. Meanwhile, David discovered a company called Dental Departures (more on that in the next blog).

Los Algodones is a small, 5-block town that sits on the border of

Mexico

and California, approximately 10 miles west of Yuma, Arizona. Until the 1980s, it was a popular tourist destination for shopping and dining but as the need for inexpensive prescription drugs and medical care in the US grew, so did the number of pharmacies, eye doctors and dental offices in Los Algodones. The town shifted its focus from tourism to medicine and today most of the shops and restaurants have been replaced by more than 300 dentists who deal in every specialty from basic cleanings to dental implants.

We actually made our first trip in early December after visiting family in Las Vegas. But it wasn't until March that I mustered the courage to make an appointment for myself (okay, so David made it for me before I could wimp out again). And, after an amazing week camping in Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, we moved on to Yuma, Arizona and a hotel for a few days to start the next leg of our journey: getting me to the dentist.

Why Los Algodones?

The answer's simple: logistics. If we were going to seek dental care outside the

, we wanted to be able to access it easily by car and Los Algodones fit that bill to a 'T'. The border is conveniently located off I-8 and day-parking is available on the

side in a large lot professionally run by a local Indian tribe ($6 fee). Walking across is straight-forward and easy (though some people drive) with only a 20 to 30 minute wait on return during the busy season (there was no waiting when we went in December).

Los Algodones also promised to be less expensive. I'm not sure if it's true or not, but most clinics claim a savings of up to 70% over US prices. In my situation, it was closer to 80%. When it comes to the work David had done, it's difficult to know. He chose an entirely different option than the one he was quoted for in Washington but the savings were in the range of 73%, possibly more.

Safety played a role in our decision as well. In 2007, we spent nine months in

Mexico

and experienced a couple of incidents that left a bad taste in our mouths, primarily an encounter with the local police which resulted in paying a bribe. But everything we read online claimed Los Algodones was a safe option, free from the corruption we'd encountered previously and our experience confirmed that. There's a relaxed attitude on the streets and people are friendly and eager to help. The only nuisance we encountered were the dozens of men hawking for dentists but, honestly, they were more amusing than annoying and all part of the local colour.

This blog post is starting to get a little long, so I'll stop there and pick up the rest of our story next week (we're off to an area without internet or cell coverage for a few days – yay, us!). In the next post, I'll write about why we chose the clinic we did and our personal experience. But before I go, I'll leave you with this little interesting geographical tidbit: no matter which of the four cardinal directions you travel from Los Algodones (due north, due south, due east, due west), you end up in the

United States

. Pretty cool, huh?

Boat Maintenance Throwback Thursday Tips for Living Aboard

How to Polish Diesel Fuel

Thursday, May 19, 2016TheCambrians

This blog post was first published on Three Sheets Northwest, on online boating magazine local to the Pacific Northwest, in February of 2015. The original article can be read here.

We were motoring up Fitz Hugh Sound along the Central Coast making our way to Ocean Falls on June when the engine started hunting, fluctuating 150 RPM from where it was set. It’s always a concern when there’s something going on with the motor, but the symptoms were consistent with a dirty fuel filter – something David was planning to change out once we got there – so he eased the throttle back a bit, which seemed to help. The next day he replaced the old fuel filter; and when we left Ocean Falls, the engine was running smoothly again.

Fast-forward to October and issues with our diesel-powered hydronic heating system: We had started getting flame-outs about 12 months beforehand, which coincided perfectly with a dying house battery bank. Ever the optimist in search of the easiest solution, I thought the problem resulted from low voltage and would resolve itself once we replaced the batteries. David (the mechanical engineer and practical one) wasn’t convinced, so he changed out the fuel pump along with the filters and we were back in business . . . for a while. But there we were, months later, plagued with flame-outs; it was starting to look like we’d picked up some bad fuel along the way.

To check, David disconnected the fuel lines (supply and return) to the heater’s boiler and installed temporary lines that he ran from a jerry can that contained fresh, clean diesel. The system tested well: The hydronic loop heated up quickly and the cabin fans went online in less than 10 minutes (a big improvement over recent start-up times). Similarly, the domestic water Aquastat was quickly satisfied – all with no flame-outs.

Our questions had finally been answered: We had “The Bug”.

Getting Rid of the Gunk

Our fuel system is set up so that diesel can be drawn from all three tanks (starboard side, port side and forward) simultaneously. The fuel is then run through the engine’s filtering system before it flows to the engine and the excess is fed back to the port side tank. Because the fuel in this tank had already been technically “polished”, we were confident it was clean . . . or at least the cleanest. The forward tank sits higher than the other two and feeds directly into the starboard side. This tank was already empty, so we knew the only fuel we had to remove was on the starboard side.

First, David built a pump system to empty the remaining fuel from the starboard tank. From Cambria’s log:

The fuel transfer rig consisted of a piece of 3/8-inch OD Type copper tubing about 6-feet long to be able to reach all the way to the tank bottom; two pieces of matching-sized clear hose, one connected to the pump intake, and the other as discharge into the buckets; and a 12-volt Facet Cube fuel pump (a spare for our Hurricane Heater).

When I set up the fuel transfer/polishing "rig" I was in two minds about installing a bank of filters (10-5-2 micron) ahead of the pump, and finally decided that would have cost more than the value of the fuel I was trying to clean. Instead I elected to pump the fuel directly out into buckets in order to really see what was living in the tank. Then, depending on its condition, either return it to the tank via Baja filter, attempt to "polish" it chemically and return it filtered to the tank, or discard it entirely.

With the transfer rig in place, we started to remove the diesel from the starboard tank and placed it in clean white buckets. Initially, the fuel coming through the lines was clean with no obvious signs of contamination – approximately eight gallons or so. Once we started to see particles in the fuel, we stopped pumping. David then treated the “clean” fuel with a shock dose of Bio-Kleen biocide and transferred it to the port side tank, filtering it through the Baja filter as he did.

We continued to remove the rest of the fuel from the tank:

The remaining seven gallons of diesel were obviously contaminated – black particles, held in suspension ranging in density and size from negligible to significant, trace “smudges” to small pieces, yet still large enough to clog the fuel pump periodically during the transfer operation. The amount of contaminant drawn from the tank also varied as the suction tube was moved around within the tank. As the fuel passed through the pump, the algae/growth particles were broken down and blended into the fuel.

Very surprisingly, I chemically treated the "molasses" fuel and allowed it to stand overnight. By mid-next day, there was a heavy black sediment in the bottom of the buckets and the fuel was perfectly clear and ready to be filtered back into the tank. From a total of 12 -15 gallons drawn from the contaminated tank, the quantity of fuel unable to be re-used amounted to less than a half gallon.

With as much of the sludge removed from the tank as we could manage, we then filled all three tanks to 100% with fresh diesel and treated them with the following products from Power Services:

Bio-Kleen Diesel Treatment (kills microbes in diesel fuel): a shock dosage for all three tanks.

Clear Diesel Treatment (removes water and contaminates from diesel fuel): a maintenance dosage for the port and starboard tanks.

Diesel Kleen With Cetane Boost (injector cleaner): a shock dosage to all three tanks.

How Much Did We Save?

Out of curiosity, David contacted an all-service fuel company in Everett to see how much they would charge to polish our tanks. For a two-man team to come out to the boat, the hourly rate is $215 plus travel time. Assuming the job took two hours, the cost to us would have been in the neighborhood of $700.

Here’s what we actually spent:

Copper Pipe: $10

Clear Hoses and Fittings: $10

Diesel Treatment: $70

Fuel Pump: $0 (we used a spare; a new one costs $40)

Total: $90 (and an afternoon’s work)

It’s been over a year since we polished the fuel and, so far, the heater has been performing very well. We did start to experience occasional flame-outs again after a couple of weeks but the problem was resolved by cleaning the deposits from the burner nozzle on the boiler. The engine is also running well, but there’s likely some debris sitting at the bottom of the tanks that we weren’t able to reach. The biocide, however, would have killed the algae and kept it from growing further.

How to Repair Screw Holes with Wood Plugs

Melitta Brewing Cones | The Best New Thing in the Boat

Boatyard Hacks | Making Life on the Hard a Little Easier

When Life Hands You Lemons, Clean Your Boat

Painting It Up With MDR Inflatable Boat Top Coating

Los Algodones | Visiting the Dentist (Part One)

How to Polish Diesel Fuel

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