Note: This is not the end of sailing for me… and heck if Elizabeth doesn’t sell due to the piss poor economy or misalignment of stars and planets, I plan to sail her far.

It is with sadness and a tinge of uncertainty that I offer Elizabeth up for sale at this time. I have spent many years dreaming of owning a Bristol Channel Cutter. Sometimes, I pinch myself to make sure it’s for real. As you can tell by reading the pages of this blog,  alot of time and care (and money!) was invested to make Elizabeth what she is today. She has not let me down. I’ve sailed her well over 6,000 nautical miles, and she’s been my home for almost 3 years. As I sit here in the cockpit looking forward over the cabin top at the tall bulwarks, the wide side decks, the stout bowsprit, and I know I’ll never find a boat like this one. But life changes, and so do the dreams. I never thought this day would come actually.

The thing about Elizabeth is that she is ready to go right now. She’s just finished a circumnavigation of Newfoundland, and is ready to carry on south this fall to the Bahamas, the Caribbean, and beyond. You will not have to worry about old systems, old rigging, a tired engine, or unkempt varnish. My goal was to make her bullet proof, and she is. Furthermore, before I bought her, she sat unused for 10 years and during that time had her bottom barrier coated, her electrical system and electronics redone, a new mast installed, a new bowsprit installed, new ground tackle, and many, many other upgrades. I continued where the previous owner left off, and fitted her out with new rigging, 2 solar panels, a wind generator, coat after coat after coat of varnish and Awl-grip, 4 new batteries, LED bulbs everywhere, etc etc etc! I took my time to get things done right, and did things that made sense for longevity. For instance, I didn’t like the exposed plywood core at the hawsepipe. So I routed out about a 1/4″ of the plywood, and filled it will thickened epoxy. Now neither the wet chain, rain, or  waves crashing over the bow have access to that deck core, and rot should never be an issue.

If you are looking to sail far or stay close to home, this is the premier small boat to do it on. I single-handed her for a year. She is easy to handle alone. With both a tiller pilot, and the Monitor windvane, self steering is covered. I’ve double handed her alot this summer, and we’ve even had three aboard plus a cat for most of Newfoundland and Nova Scotia. I initially thought three aboard would be tight, but it wasn’t at all.

I could go on and on about the virtues of this boat, why I love sailing this Bristol Channel Cutter, talk about the work done on her, the intricacies, the upgrades, gear choices, etc. But I think I’ll just direct you to her listing, some photos, some more photos, some videos and my email. Elizabeth and I are currently in Maine cruising, and will be heading south in October. You can come see her whenever you like.

I’ll be underway for Newfoundland in less than 5 days. I’ve got about 8 days worth of projects to complete. I’ll begin the trip with a project (and sleep) deficit. It’s common.

I think I had a break through on the waxing – and that is: apply two coats of wax. I’ve spent hours in the past compounding, polishing, then waxing only to see the shine fade a month later. I’ll be keeping an eye on it throughout the summer. Also, learned that I should wax at least once mid-summer to maintain best protection.

There’s a problem with painting black on black when it comes to bottom painting. That is, I used more paint. It’s hard to tell how thick the application is, or if a spot has been painted already. So naturally I err on the “I didn’t paint that section yet” side – and some of the imaginary boxes I use to map out the hull get painted twice, sometimes three times. I got through 75% of the hull on one gallon this time. I recall last year painting out the entire hull with just 1 gallon. Next year, I’ll use a different color – green? I bet I’ll be back down to one gallon.

A good friend, Paul Bowden made a beautiful spice rack for Elizabeth. She is getting some nice details this year, and the spice rack is by far the prettiest !

I’ve spent a fair amount of my life waiting for the next train at the “procrastination station”  …but my train came in, and I’m full steam ahead. With less than a month to go before we let loose the mooring pennant and point our bow North by East, Elizabeth has been getting alot of attention.

There’s always a bit of varnish to do. I do love it though. It’s one of those things that if you just keep up with, like investing in your 401k, it will serve you well in the future. I’ve done my fair share of “investment coats”, most recently on the cockpit coamings. After some serious sanding to flatten out the sags from my hasty build-up coats, I applied two fresh coats of Bristol Finish.

There’s also some fabricating to do. A new adaptor plate for the radar scanner mast mount. I ordered a simple 12×12″ plate of 1/4″ 5052 H3 aluminum from onlinemetals.com for this project. A few holes to drill, some cutting, and cleaning up the edges and she’ll be ready.

Another project I’ve been meaning to do for months is to move the upper backstay insulator away from the mast. When I initially made the backstay I put the insulator at the very upper end of the stay. I later learned that the RF radiation can damage instruments and lights atop to the mast, and that placing the upper insulator about 3′ from the end of the backstay is safer. So, up the mast I scrambled, unhooked the backstay and brought it down on deck to make a few new Sta-lok fittings. I used the topping lift and main sheet to make a temporary backstay. I love Sta-loks, so easy. Also while making this new upper end of the backstay, I added in 2″ of overall length. This allowed me some room to ease the backstay a bit and take up on the headstay, thereby removing the slight aft bend I had in my mast. This theoretically should help reduce weather helm, but I doubt I’ll notice any difference.

One Simple Question movie updates:

Teresa and I did an interview on WUSB, talking about the challenges of sailing solo and combining onto one boat.

We are teaming up with the  educational outfit SEEDS to provide an outreach program for their students this summer while we are filming for the documentary One Simple Question and searching for an iceberg!

We are coming down the final days of our Kickstarter Campaign, and I want to urge everyone who was waiting until the end to jump in and be part of the action, to do so now! The window of opportunity is closing. The support we have received thus far has been absolutely amazing. Nearly 150 backers, and we reached our bare minimum goal, but let’s not stop there. The money raised is going exclusively towards the production equipment needed to help make this the best film possible.

We launched the One Simple Question Kickstarter Campaign today. Our goal is to raise $8,000—a tall order for a sailing duo setting out to make their first film!

It’s Thoreau meets Shackleton!

This film, at its core, is a sailing documentary. The film chronicles our voyage north to the cold and foggy  waters of Newfoundland & Labrador in search of an iceberg. Unlike glorified reality TV, with its hotels and hot showers between commercials, One Simple Question intends to accurately portray life at sea aboard  a small sailboat. We won’t edit out the dark, cold sail changes at 0300, or the sleepless off-watch hours spent lying wet in our bunks, clad in full foul weather gear.

Why an iceberg? Their beauty and magnificence can only be experienced in person, yet how many people in their lifetime will actually see one? These still and seemingly lifeless objects may not be around forever. As polar ice caps melt, and glaciers retreat, the iceberg population declines.

To see an iceberg is truly a simple quest. Yet that inherent simplicity is what makes it so endearing.  Like Thoreau’s journey to live deliberately, gain understanding, and discover happiness through simplicity, One Simple Question uses the iceberg as its cabin in the woods to explore the virtues of simple living.

These messages are timely. Currently there is much discussion about the “New American Dream”, and the Climate Change controversy  still rages. We think  the discussion of these two engaging issues, wrapped in an exciting sailing adventure will make a great film!

If you agree, please make a pledge to help support this documentary. Of the $8,000 needed, 100% goes towards the purchase of camera and other production equipment needed to get started. We have a filmmaker sailing with us for the majority of the voyage, so good footage is guaranteed, if we have the equipment! BCC Elizabeth thanks you!

I long for the day when my spring prep meant dragging my 12′ aluminum boat down the 3 crooked timber and dirt steps to the beach, a drag of less than 50′, and all downhill. That was followed shortly after by a tug or two on the chord of the outboard… and off I went to explore another early spring day on The Harbor. I recall one early spring exploration where I came across a mooring right in the middle of the harbor… this never was here before, I thought. It must have been taken for a ride by the winter iceflows, and now qualified as free for the taking. I hauled it aboard, with nary a care about scratching my dear old Grumman with its chain and barnacles. I had myself a nice ‘new’ mooring with a 75lb mushroom anchor attached. What a score!

Now, spring prep seems so daunting. Not that the list itself is daunting…I can accomplish everything on the list, and each item is relatively simple to do… but what’s daunting is finding the time to do it all. I’ve spoken about lists before, and I sure do love my lists — but I hate them too. For instance, as I sit here writing, on this gray, soggy day, the sky is beginning to brighten and I might even see a patch of blue sky big enough to patch a sailors pants. All of a sudden my slow paced day, turns into a potentially frantic day of wondering what projects I can get done, with the fear that everyday henceforth might be rainy and/or windy — piss poor conditions for varnish, paint or other outside projects.

Yesterday was decent enough to get a coat of paint on the bulwarks and size up the dodger frame, get it mounted and eyeball the shape a bit. Mind you this was my second attempt at the dodger frame. I had mis-measured my frames and made them 30″ too wide… slight mis-calculations! I opted for the DIY dodger kit from Sailrite. Perhaps a bad idea… seeing as time is often against me.

I’m very particular about dodgers. I like them to do their job, but nothing more. I don’t like them to be in my way, I like them to be in the spray’s way. So I mounted, and fiddled, unmounted and cut, remounted and fiddled, unmounted and cut, remounted and fiddled and found it to be to my liking. It’s low and narrow, not in the way of going forward or of the stays’l winch, and not in the way of going below.

Next step: Patterning.

Can we find an iceberg? Probably… if we go far enough North. Last year was a very very light year for iceberg flow. In fact Newfoundland tourists were a little miffed at the poor showing. The high season for icebergs off Newfoundland is April and May. We don’t depart until June 7th (mark your calendars!). That is extraordinarily late for iceberg hunting. Looking at the charts below of iceberg frequency, it is highly likely that icebergs will only be present off the South East coast of Labrador by the time we arrive. We are prepared to go as far North as needed to find one. I look forward to the challenge and the necessity to push  Bristol Channel Cutter Elizabeth hard and fast.

Iceberg frequency June and July

If you have not checked out our plan to make a film about our quest to find an iceberg  via sail, and the environmental impacts of  polar icecap meltdown, please pop on over to SimpleQuestionMovie.com to learn more. Join the mailing list and “like” it on facebook.

Disclaimer: this is a casual, off the cuff, stream of consciousness update… oh and before I forget, you probably noticed the new header design…I like it, what about you?

RAW
I’ve been eating a raw diet lately. It’s rather trendy now, but when I first got into it around 2006 it was less known, and harder to find info about…but it was on it’s way to becoming bigger, I could tell. Now there’s tons of sites, books, blogs and gourmet recipes floating around — making it a lot easier to stick with it. I’m  about a month into it, with a few days of cooked food here and there, but that doesn’t bother me. I’ve lost  8  or 9lbs, feel great, desire raw foods over cooked foods, and don’t think I’ll ever go back to eating a diet of mostly cooked foods. Once in a while I get a hankering for a burger, but those cravings are waning. The thing I figure is that when I’m out with friends, I’ll eat cooked food, and enjoy it. And for now, I’m keeping that kind of socializing to once a week… so that puts me at a 20:1 ratio raw to cooked meals per week.

Raw Marinara Over Zuchinni

ONE SIMPLE QUESTION
I’ve been working on getting this movie idea up and running. So far so good. We launched the site, have a few advisors helping us plan, and will be launching a Kickstarter fundraising campaign within the next few weeks. Please check out the site One Simple Question and sign up for email list. There is also a Facebook page, please become a fan there too. It’s going to be alot of work, but we are real excited about the concept and working on a film of this magnitude. If you are in the film industry or know anyone in the independent film industry, we are looking for more folks to team up with.

Dory's a HAM too

HAM RADIO
I have always wanted to know more about the SSB and HAM radio. The primary reasons are so that I can tune into weather reports, get weather files, send and receive email, and check in on the Nets while offshore. So, at the suggestion of Ed Zacko, I went down to the local Amateur Radio club here on Long Island, and got myself a study book, and set my exam date for late February. I hope to find a new HAM radio for the boat before we leave in June, so if you know of any good used ones for sale, drop a line – ideally an ICOM706.

VARNISH
What post on BCCElizabeth.com would be complete without a tid-bit about varnish? I’ve started the Spring varnish work. First task, the interior, and of that, the removables are getting done first: drawers, doors, and ladders. Yes, my favorite recipe for interior varnish is Epifanes Rapid Clear. I like the semi-gloss and I can recoat in 3-4 hours, which really speeds up the job.

Varnish Bits

SAILING SIMPLICITY
We just launched a new design on sailingsimplicity.com. Check it out, let me know what you think. Besides doing the new design, I’m going to start writing over there as well. But don’t worry BCCELIZABETH.COM, you’ll always be my #1 blog. Teresa has some exciting news: an upcoming article in Liveboard Magazine entitled “Why Two Boats”… a story about why we sail two different boats. She also did a live skype interview on the local ABC station in Traverse City, MI. And there’s one more cool opportunity she’s been invited to, but I don’t think I’m allowed to talk about it yet.

So… exhale…  check out the new sites and sign up, join, like, follow — all of the things we do nowadays when we think something is cool.

This is my 3rd winter living aboard a boat. Two winters were aboard Chamois, my Nor’sea 27, and this winter is my first aboard Elizabeth. In the past I’ve relied on a kerosene heater used in conjunction with an electric oil filled radiant heater on a timer. When I arrived home, I’d fire up the kerosene heater to kick up the temperature. Often I could get the cabin up to 85º… a bit overkill. This time around, I’m not using the kerosene heater. Not because I don’t want to, but because I have yet to locate the burner rebuild kit…which is somewhere aboard Elizabeth. Speaking of which—I designed this handy-dandy diagram to aid in keeping track of where things are stored in my various lockers and storage cubbies—but never got around to taking inventory and actually writing down what is where. C’est dommage.

So this winter, as I was saying, I’m not using the kerosene heater. What I’m finding is that that condensation problem I experienced in previous winters has been nearly non-existent. I attribute that to (1) electric heat being a dry heat, (2) the boat isn’t getting to 85º anymore, and (3) I’m not cooking aboard (creating steam), except for the occasional tea. I’d say the warmest I’ve gotten the boat is about 70º. I typically see interior temperatures of 62-67º when I’m aboard.

Elizabeth has a larger interior space to heat than Chamois. I do keep the head door closed, in an effort to reduce my heating requirement. I’ve put down that closed cell foam home gym interlocking flooring you can buy at sports stores. That really helps keep my feet from freezing. Bubble wrap also works very well on the portlights and behind books on shelves. I have put reflectrix in the skylight and around the mast—which at this point is just a huge aluminum heat sink running right through my living room! I’ve covered the locker vents with tape to keep the drafts to a minimum, and I’ve draped blankets and towels over the engine room door to help insulate that large surface area.

I do experience some condensation next to my bed, which is right up against the hull. When I snuggle into my sleeping bag, I do find some ice where the sleeping bag was touching the adjacent wall all day. Fortunately, Sam L Morse boats have  3/8″ insulation between the hull and the interior walls. I believe that really helps this boat stay a bit warmer and drier in winter.

Ideally I’d have a wood burning stove to compliment the electric heater. If I do this winter up north thing again, I will definitely install one…or perhaps for an early summer trip to Newfoundland?! But for now, this is working out just fine, and I love living aboard, even in winter…

I’m knee deep in two awesome sailing books, and thought I’d share.

Adlard Coles’ Heavy Weather Sailing, Fourth Edition

This is a collection of real storm situations, first hand accounts, with commentary, explanation and discussion about each individual circumstance. It’s not a “how-to” book per se, but rather is designed to give you knowledge based on other’s harrowing experiences. The stories themselves are good reads. Each one provides the reader with many lessons, and reason to ponder the situation. In addition to discussion about vessel handling in storm conditions, there is ample discussion of weather, crew fatigue, rescue operations, and decision making.  With a few review questions at the end of each chapter, this could easily turn into a classic high school style textbook. I’ve had this book forever, just never read it. I was often looking for the Step-By-Step guide to heavyweather sailing, and this isn’t that. This is learning by listening to stories.

N by E by Rockwell Kent
Now this is another classic. Written in the 1920s, this book takes you back to a simpler time when celestial navigation and dead reckoning were state of the art. It’s a time of a more rugged man. No blogs, no sat phones, no radar etc… Just pure sailing. And not easy sailing either. The subject of this book is a trip to Greenland. Three men on a 32′ gaff-cutter. Rockwell has a charming style, that is short and sweet. There’s no lengthy descriptions of emotions, just beautifully written accounts of sailing, scenery, discoveries and interactions with locals. Rockwell adorns the book with gorgeous wood cuts, that he himself cut. If you want a pure adventure/sailing story, without all the modern pretensions, this is a great choice.

A cool little storm blew through the east coast this week. I was spending the holidays with my brother in Mass. this year. But with the forecast of 55kts and 18-24″ of snow, I thought it best to return home to my lonely, cold Bristol Channel Cutter, Elizabeth. I’m glad I did, it got rough in the harbor with the NNW wind gusting to 50kts. There’s about a 3/4 mile fetch when the wind is from the North. A few boats parted their lines, bumping other boats next to them. A few boats lost their covers, which flailed around all night causing a horrible racket, adding to the intensity of the night, and an old dock broke in two.

I doubled some of my lines and doubled some of the derelicts lines next to me… I didn’t want him to come knocking on my hull in the middle of the storm. I had removed my cover for some repairs, and decided it’d be best left off for the blow, reducing windage and the potential for a blow out. I figured some snow on my deck was a better option. Here’s some pics and a short vid, which is from the early part of the storm, before it got really crazy. Elizabeth and I survived just fine, stayed warm and we even got a decent nights sleep!