Posts In The “Technical” Category
We started living aboard early this year at Bell Harbor Marina as an experiment. We hadn’t planned to live on our current boat–our initial plan was that we’d eventually live aboard on the new boat. We’d been on the waiting list for Bell Harbor for ages, and weren’t expecting a slip to come available for…
When near land, 802.11 is the cheapest and fastest form of communications there is. Around the Pacific North West, BroadBandXpress offers a fast, reliable service. BBXpress has a point of presence in 104 marinas in the area from Portland, Oregon to Sitka, Alaska (coverage map). We spend most of our time at Bell Harbor Marina…
We often get asked, why do you boat or what do you do out there? Our answers revolve around experiencing nature and exploring new areas. We enjoy talking about what we have found in our book, Cruising the Secret Coast, and in the blog we maintain. Recently John Marshall, who owns Nordhavn 55 Serendipity, posted one of…
The house and hull for new Dirona came out of the mold a few weeks back and have now been joined together. In the top left picture below, our three engines await installation. From right to left: main engine, John Deer 6068AFM75; wing engine, Lugger 40HP Lugger L844D; and generator, 12 kW Northern Lights. …
Our next boat came out of the mold a few weeks back at the South Coast Marine shipyard in Xiamen, China. The yard is efficient in moving the big molds and hulls around. The time between the first picture and the last in the first set below is less than an hour. …
Last Friday I visited the engine for our new boat (next boat). It’s a John Deere 6068AFM75 M2. The standard engine in the Nordhavn 47 and 52 series is a Lugger L1066T.2 with a ZF220A gearbox. Both are great, long lasting components. We chose to move to the John Deere 6068 to get a bit…
For many years, we’ve been planning to buy a world-capable trawler as our next boat. Dirona is ideal for extended cruising in the Pacific Northwest while we are working, and we expected to purchase the next boat when we retired and had time for longer-range cruising, perhaps in a decade or so. The plan was…
Early this morning the commercial ship Amazon River arrived in Seattle from China. Part of the Amazon River‘s cargo was a cross-section of the current Nordhavn line: a 43, a 52, and a 68. The 52 was the first Nordhavn 52 in what I fully expect will be a very successful new line of Nordhavns….
The Seattle Boat Show seminar schedule is now posted. We’ll be presenting some of our favorite destinations between Victoria and Bella Bella, along with and tips and techniques for improved boating safety and comfort, at 1pm on Saturday January 24th. And we’ll be signing copies of Cruising the Secret Coast, our Waggoner sister publication, at…
Our boat carries 77 gallons of freshwater and we have no water maker. Over the years, we’ve developed a number of techniques to conserve water that allow us to cruise three or four weeks without replenishing. On our summer cruise this year, we added another to the list: an alcohol-based waterless hand sanitizer. While…
Elliott Bay Marina is a wonderful place to keep a boat, but docking can be difficult—the fairways are narrow, as are the slips. And the slips are oriented east-west while the winds are typically from the north or the south, so if any wind is blowing, it’s against the side of the boat as we…
The Lake Union Boats Afloat Show seminar schedule has just been posted. We’ll be presenting some of our favorite destinations between Victoria and Bella Bella, along with and tips and techniques for improved boating safety and comfort, at 11am on Saturday September 13th. One area we’ll highlight is the Dodwell Group, our name for the…
We use vacuum sealing on board for a variety of purposes: extending foodstuff life, protecting valuable mechanical parts from moisture damage, reducing package size and isolating smelly or messy garbage. In the past, we’ve always used 8-inch and 11-inch continuous roll bags. These work well for most applications, but not so well for breads. It’s…
Hi James, As I recall, your website shows pictures of you using your laptop on the bridge of Dirona. Can you tell me what laptop you use that is viewable in the bright sunshine? Is your laptop dedicated to Nobeltec or other software or does is get all-around use?…….Excel, Word, Photoshop…..that sort of thing….
Earlier this month, Michael Short of the radio show Let’s Go Outdoors interviewed us on Cruising the Secret Coast. Michael asked a variety of questions, including how we got started in boating, why we wrote the book, and some of the experiences that have stood out over the years. The show aired this past weekend…
A recent question on Bayliner 4087 fuel consumption: We are currently in negotiations to purchase a Bayliner 4087, 2001 model with 330 Cummins Engines. Can you set my expectations for fuel burn? Second question, we have just sold our Grand Banks 32 for a faster boat. However, much of the time I do anticipate cruising…
Some time back I came across a query on whether synthetic oil could be safely used in marine diesels. My response: Most manufacturers permit the use of synthetics, but don’t allow longer oil change intervals when employing them. The question I’ve always had is whether the gain is worth the cost. Some of the…
Hi. I just bought your book and love it. I’m a little confused about the anchor buoy/trip line system you describe in Chapter 4. We run a Bruce 33 lb. anchor off a 32-foot wooden Grand Banks. If the anchor is fouled, it sounds like you approach the buoy while continuing to pick up…