Captain’s log
Dateline: 15.07.2022

Flanges

My E-Tech motors came with beefy rigid couplings. They’re not stainless but very well made.

I’m having a very bad feeling attaching 50kg motors to my 30mm prop shafts using those. Long story short is I feel that using something like Combiflex by Vetus instead would allow me to reduce noise and vibration, plus prevent subtle movements of my motors from possibly bending the shaft, damaging shaft bearings, or wearing out its own internals. The motors are going to be mounted on antivibration engine mountings that will let them swing a little bit. It only makes sense to use flexible couplings here, my cat is a sailboat after all.

The prop shaft is 30mm in diameter, the motor’s shaft is 35mm with 8mm key. I’ll have to design and custom-manufacture flanges that go along with those Combiflex couplings, but once that’s done the connection will be as close to perfect as it can be.

Captain’s log
Dateline: 16.07.2022

Balls

Measured tracks on my boat. Three out of five of them are currently out of commission. All seem to be by Lewmar. The car for the mainsail looks like a custom-made one from their Ocean series — the line that’s phased out, but still possible to find spare parts for, so big ❤️ for that, Lewmar!

For some unknown reason found Harken kit for reballing their cars (HBB197). Tracks in the cockpit could be by Harken, but I think somebody just plainly fucked up. Torlon® balls are a bit exy, about $1.5/piece, and Lewmar seems to be selling them in packs of 100. Luckily, found 58 of them aboard, and about the same amount of Harken’s 10mm balls from that kit. Harken are a bit bigger, 9.56mm (3/8") while Lewmar’s appear to be 9.5mm exact (Size 3). Have nothing against Harken, just don’t want to have anything but Lewmar on my boat, and don’t think it’s a good idea to attempt stuffing 9.56mm balls into Lewmar car meant to run on 9.5mm, no need to cut corners, literally.

Can’t find cars for tracks in the cockpit, will likely have to buy those. I like Lewmar’s new cars, they’re black.

Bulbs

I have lots and lots of wires hanging off my boat’s ceilings. The ugly old lining that used to hold them in place is gone, so now they’re... well, hanging in there. I’ll eventually replace all that fire hazard with flat 12V wires and OLED lights, but until then it is what it is.

Some of them are missing bulbs, and since LED lights seem to be neither expensive nor hard to find, it’s worth improving the current situation so that I could work in certain areas of the boat when it’s dark outside. It should also help prevent getting burns by accidentally touching one of those wonders of modern technology. Besides I have no idea what kind of fumes the casing may be emitting when the lamp heats up — rather keep all those mysteries to a minimum.

LEDs usually have a lot of UV and blue light emitted besides what us humans have evolved to be comfortable with, so it’s not entirely an upgrade, but should work well for the time being.

Let’s dive in.

The current lamps I have installed are 32mm long and have pins 4mm apart, that’s likely the famous G4 socket. The diameter is about 7mm accompanied by the base getting as wide as 8mm. I keep seeing warm white lights for sale, and don’t necessarily need them to be dimmable, so so far so good, just need to find something bright and small enough to fit into those round housings and not touch the reflectors. I’ll need 7 bulbs for each hull and 9 for the cabin, that’s... 23 in total.

Found this beauty. Seems to fit into my lamps, 4000K is neither too yellow nor too blue, and they’re slightly above $1 a piece. Will get 30 just in case they don’t do well in the marine environment or are made you know where. These claim to be 320 lumens, that ought to be enough for anybody. I could splurge and go with these 350 lumen babes, but would be a bit dumb paying almost six times more for extra 30 lumens for something I want to replace ASAP with OLED lights anyway.

Captain’s log
Dateline: 20.07.2022

Not the same deal

When I moved my boat here almost four months ago, I had privacy and could enjoy peace and quiet most of the time, relax and work on my boat. I also rented the dock, not part of the dock. For almost two weeks now I’ve been having a neighbor who lives on his 30’ fishing boat docked in front of mine, which is pretty much feels like having a roommate. I’m still paying the same $44/day ($1/foot/day) as back when the whole dock was mine. You could even say I rented the whole lot including this dock, because there is still nothing on it besides a couple of cameras.

The first mistake I’ve made, is that it’s not a marina, and I offered price per foot to the original owner. This must’ve given the wrong impression that I rented only part of the dock, not the whole dock, and that it’s okay to stuff in as many boats as it fits here to just run a tiny marina and make boaters pay the mortgage. Smooth move, but at this point I honestly feel like I’m being taken advantage of, and it’s not fair at all, since here’s what’s new:

  1. Lack of privacy
  2. A ton of stuff (chairs, lamps, buckets with trash, grills, etc) located on the dock
  3. Constantly-running pump from that boat’s A/C
  4. Automatic bright light that shines in your face and blinds you when you enter the dock
  5. Smell of weed, sometimes vape
  6. Loud music, mostly Eminem but sometimes some kind of autotune hip-hop
  7. Gasoline engine that gets run weekly in front of my boat
  8. Smell of grilled food
  9. A ton of cockroaches that constantly get into my boat, likely get attracted by food and trash located on that fishing boat
  10. The guy likes to fish, which is fine, but dead bait floating in the water and him hitting my boat with his fishing rod is a really big WTF
  11. Having a car parked in the way is also a bit selfish, it really doesn’t need to be in other people’s way

The bottom line is, it is my fault that I’ve overstayed in St. James City. I have my motors now, so nothing quite as large and heavy is going to be shipped to me. I’m still waiting for my nke electronics and autopilot, but that can be delivered anywhere for approximately the same price, and transported to my catamaran on a tender. I’m not mad at the new guy either, he’s just living his life, and I’m happy for him. There’s too much to even try to comment, and he’s not being deliberately disrespectful.

I bought my boat to not be affected by other people’s lifestyles. It also hurts to see people who you were kind to just assume you have low standards and try to put you in the corner while charging the same amount without asking if they could add more boats to the dock. It’s my fault, again, since I gave them the idea to be able to rent this dock out for boats, I just, once again, didn’t expect to still be here by now.

I need to make my solar setup work ASAP, fix nav lights, and get a dinghy. $308/week for this dock is over $1200/month, and for under $2000 I can get electric outboard motor, for $1300 I should be able to get a cheap RIB, about $150 to tow me to the nearest spot where I could anchor (unless I’m able to move properly on one prop myself). No more cockroaches, loud music, or paying somebody for parking. Later this year when I get myself a proper unsinkable dinghy, this one I should be able to sell for about $2000 with the motor, $800 without. I really need something almost throwaway, just to stop paying rent for the dock that was once great.

I could say something like "it’s me or this guy", "not the same deal as before, we need to re-negotiate the deal", or even fall to that cheeky level and play into the greediness proposing something like "since it’s by the foot and not the whole dock, I’m gonna move my boat to only occupy less than half of its length, pay you for how many feet that is, and that’ll let you put 3rd boat here". The truth is, the music is gonna be here, the cockroaches, weed, constantly running water from the pump — it’s all not going to go away. But I think I should just vote with my money, by simply getting the dinghy and departing ASAP. Every crisis is an opportunity, and I really shouldn’t be paying anybody for being anywhere — that was the whole idea behind my salt life. It’s time to go, and I’m thankful for the unpleasant situation I’m currently in for it’s a good kick in the butt to get back on the path of chasing my dreams.

Hard lessons learned: - when renting dock from the owner, don’t ever rent it based on the length of your boat, rent the whole thing and clearly state your intention to do so - keep your yap shut about marinas being full, how expensive they are, and how there’s a demand for private docks