Repairing a Self-Tailing Winch
We live about 60 miles east of the SF Bay Area. One day Rich went to a marine consignment shop in Alameda to consign some old boat stuff he had in his shop. While he was there he found a Barient self-tailing winch. While that shouldn’t seem surprising, it was. We rarely see self-tailing winches […]
Tank Tender, Dorade Guards and Mast Pulpits
Tank Tender One of the previous owners installed a Tank Tender for checking the level of the diesel tank and the single water tank that was original to this boat. The Tank Tender uses air pressure through a little tube that goes into the tank. The excess air pressure bleeds off until the air pressure […]
Fall Projects
I know, I know…we haven’t posted in a loooong time. When I sat down to write this post I wasn’t sure what I was going to write about because I didn’t think we had worked on many projects around the boat. I recently bought an Aeropress coffee maker and was going to write about that. […]
Anchor management
When we bought her, Ramble On came equipped with a Simpson Lawrence 555 Sea Tiger manual windlass for cranking in anchor and chain. Our refit budget includes a line item to change it out for an electric windlass, but after weighing the pros and cons of manual vs. electric, we figured why shell out the $5000+ […]
Holy cowl
Like Dad always said, “If it’s stuck, use a bigger hammer. If it breaks, it probably needed fixin’ anyway.”
I’m ap-pawl-ed
There are a lot of weird words out there in the world. Some industries, sports, and hobbies have their fair share of weird words. Sailing is no exception. In fact, sailing may have more than an average amount of weird words (jibe, poop deck, and scuttlebutt come to mind).
More fun with rope
Ever notice how it rains right after you wash your car? We’ve had quite a few good storms roll through Northern California over the past week or so, and I even had the chance to go sailing through one or two last weekend (my buddies boat, not Ramble On).
You Don’t Have to Play Tennis to Get Tennis Elbow
Swinging a hammer is not good therapy for tendonitis and tearing up the foredeck last weekend really did a number on my right elbow. It’s been bugging me for a couple of months now and I have no idea what I did or have been doing to injure it. By late Saturday afternoon my forearm […]
It’s the Little Things
Ever notice that it’s usually the little things that make a huge difference? Maybe you get your car washed and afterwards you realize how dirty it was and how much better it is now that it’s clean. Or you paint a room in your house and afterwards you realize how much nicer it is to […]
Finishing up deck hardware
A couple weeks ago I tore up my knee pretty bad and I’ve been limping around trying to get stuff done before winter sets in. I wish I could say I was doing something manly when I hurt it, such as playing ice hockey or rugby, but unfortunately not. Climbing ladders is pretty manly, right?