Shower Time

06/18/02

    My log entries are starting to string together now, as it is hard to tell one day from the next.  I generally write in this book in the morning, and describe things that happened the previous day, up to the current time.  Yesterday was a quite warm and sunny day, and the wind continued to be quite fickle.  We were forced to motor a couple of times, but at least the seas were not rolling any more and we could leave the mainsail up. 

    In the morning, Eric was reading an article from Ocean Navigator (or was it Blue Water Sailing?) and commenting on how anal one of the cruisers were.  They mentioned that they always carried a sea anchor ready to deploy on deck, but had only used it once, when a low came through and the wind was blowing 45 knots.  Eric was appalled that anyone would consider deploying a sea anchor in conditions such as that, which he considers not  very serious, and could easily be handled by simply heaving-to.  His opinion is that the risks involved in deploying such equipment as a sea anchor or drogue, which involves releasing heavy gear and lots of line, generally outweighs the benefits.  He went on to discuss some of the other philosophies of safety, such as crew being required to wear harnesses in the cockpit, as being far too cautionary.  He believes the best thing is to make sure you don’t fall overboard in the first place.  He feels that harnesses provide a false sense of security, and he generally does not use them unless conditions are quite severe.  Eric is considering writing a rebuttal column for the magazine, to be titled “A curmudgeonly approach to cruising”. 

    After lunch yesterday we had our first shower of the trip.  This, like everything else we’ve done on the boat, was an involved process.  First, we dug out the anchor washing hose from beneath the dining table, having to pull out the electrical cords first.  Then, we replaced the high pressure nozzle which is used to clean the anchor and chain with a garden hose attachment.  Eric then took this hose to the foredeck and connected it to the hose fitting under the dinghy.  He then passed the other end of the hose under the dinghy,  into the forward hatch, where I was waiting to pull it down.  We keep the forward hatch propped open to provide ventilation for the head.  The dinghy, which is stored upside down on top of the hatch, protects it from spray under most conditions.  Once we have the anchor hose, which sprays salt water, then we fill the 2 gallon fresh water shower tank and pump it up manually  (the shower tank is actually a modified insecticide sprayer).  The idea is to use the salt water hose for most of the shower, lathering and rinsing, then use the fresh water as a final quick rinse, just to get the salt water off.  The fresh water shower is a hand-pumped arrangement, which Eric and Red Harting had just installed over the past winter, so this was our first real test.  The previous arrangement was electric and only had a one-gallon tank.  Eric was first to go, and right away noticed that the water level in the head bilge was excessively high.  He ran the bilge pump manually to clear it, then he loaded the shower tank with four kettles full of water,  heating the last kettle on the stove a bit so the water would be warm. 

    When he emerged from the head after his shower, he announced that some “engineering changes” would be required before our turns, then proceeded to take the shower head apart and pull out his cordless drill to put some bigger holes in the shower head so the water would run more freely.  Next, he decided to tackle the problem of the defective bilge pump switch.  He got out his wiring diagram of the forward head and showed us his scheme for the float switch arrangement.  Because of the deep vee shape of the bilge, it was not practical to use a single float switch to control the pump, as the range of motion was not sufficient to keep the pump from draining constantly.  He set up a configuration with two switches, a low switch and a high switch, and wired them so that the pump would start when the high switch tripped, and keep pumping until the low switch went off.  He took the switch arrangement apart, and had David pull one of the batteries so he could get to the connectors.  He tested all the components with his digital multimeter and determined that the low-water float switch was not operating.  He rummaged around and found a spare, tested it to make sure it worked, then put everything back together.  At last David and I were ready to take our showers! 
   
    Taking a shower was a cumbersome process.  Thankfully the seas were relatively calm, but still it was easier for me to sit on the floor while I showered than to attempt to stand up.  All in all, it was quite refreshing, especially since this was a very hot day.

    During happy hour, Eric provided some quiz questions on the celestial navigation lesson, proving to me that I still have some work to do to understand this stuff. 

    This morning, as I woke up, it was raining outside, and I volunteered to help Eric set the jib.  After this, at 0900 Eric connected to the  HAM Net and spoke briefly with Trudi, a HAM operator who can be sometimes relied upon to provide medical advice. 

    Eric was concerned with a noise that came on the speaker on that particular frequency (only on the speaker, not the headphones), and he attempted to remedy the situation by taking the radio apart and soldering a capacitor across the speaker leads.  As he was doing this, he was telling me a bit about how in 1947 (when he was 15) he was able to get war surplus electrical parts very cheaply, and was able to build quite a few items, including an oscillator which he was able to use to calibrate camera shutters, and he hired out this service.