GOOD IDEA!

There are no shortage of ideas in the cruising community when it comes to ways to do things. The old adage "there is more than one way to skin a cat" is taken to the extreme when it comes to boaters. Here are a few ideas:
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Nav Station Storage Pocket

Not all boats come with a nice sit-down nav station with plenty of storage. Ours on our Irwin 37 is located over the port side referigerator and there is no storage under the counter. We needed some where to store our log, a few manuals and related items. We came up with a quick and easy storage pocket. We just used a flat piece of fabric and put a grommet in each corner then mounted it to the overhead with screws. We put a little safety tie at the open end so the contents wouldn't slip out on a severe port tack.
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Information at Your Fingertips

These Davis Quick Reference waterproof cards are an endless source of enjoyment and education for us. Davis publishes them on a wide variety of subjects. Because they're waterproof we can keep them in the cockpit underway for when we have one of those what-kind-of-whale-is-that moments. For those long ocean passages we enjoy the weather forecasting card.

Keeping Your Boat Secure

It's easy to tell when a boat is unattended, especially at night so we always worried a little while we did our overnight inland traveling. We found this 8-event 12 volt timer made by Flexcharge on the internet. We attach a couple of lights and program them to turn on and off throught the night. In addition, I suppose you could also attach a stero or radio as well.

Keeping Those Head Hoses Clear

"Honey, I just pooped and the head won't flush!" These words cause skippers to double over and cry or even to go as far as to feign death. The usual cause is a crystal-like build-up in the hoses sort of like your arteries after a pork rib dinner. No choice now you have to pull the hoses, beat them on the dock to dislodge the build up and stick 'em back in (unless your lucky enough to be some where where you can buy new hoses). Some boaters peridocially put vinegar down the toilet in hopes of keeping the build up at bay. Don't waste your time (or vinegar). At 3% acidity vinegar is way too mild. You need a strong acid like muratic acid. Not the diluted home-use stuff that you can buy everywhere in Latin America but the industrial-strength acid used for concrete and motar work (the stuff that smokes when you remove the cap). We flush a cup of acid once a month and have done so for seven years. Our method is to put a gallon of fresh water in the toilet, flush the bowl dry, add a cup of acid and flush the bowl dry. You will hear all sorts of bubbling action as the acid does its' work. After ten minutes put about a half-gallon of fresh water and again pump the bowl dry. This will push the acid/water mixture farther up the hose to continue disolving the salts.

How Long Has That Been Running?

For peridoic maintenance nothing beats an hour meter. You have one on the engine why not put one on the water maker and referigerator. Now you don't have to log everytime you run the watermaker to figure out when to change the pump oil or you'll know how many hours the last drive belt lasted. I peridoically log the refrigerator hours daily to gage how well the system is operating. If, for example, if the system normally runs 3 hours a day and now it is running 8 hours (or one hour) then you know to take a look and see what's going on. If you know the average hourly amperage draw of your system you will also know how many amps per day you are using for the system. Hour meters are pretty pricey, about $50, but are worth it for the serious cruiser. By the way, we also installed an led light in the refrigerator power circuit so we know when it turns on and off.

When Is The Last Time I Did That?

So you get underway after three months in La Paz and damn ... the wind vane is frozen. When did you last lubricate the poor thing? Some things need to be looked at least one a month. We have a list of things that we take care of once a month and we do it the first of each month. That way we don't overlook important but easily forgotten maintenance. Our list looks something like this:

1. Run engine (or engines like the Honda generator)

2. Lubricate outdoor zippers.

3. Check zincs.

4. Acid treat head.

5. Check battery water.

6. Run all electronics.

7. Check water strainers.

What Do You Mean You Don't Have My Filter?

When ever I buy oil filters and the parts guy gives me a local cross-referenced filter I keep the box top with the part number on it. Then when I go to another parts store in another country I can show a selection of filters that I can use.