Winthrop Harbor: from the Great Cabin of the sloop GANNET
Winthrop Harbor: from the Great Cabin of the sloop GANNET
Great Cabins are found in the sterns of ships, not the middle; but the idea of a ‘Great Cabin’ 7’ wide, 39” high, and 47” long, this last the distance from the partial bulkhead at the companionway to the main bulkhead beneath the mast, pleases me, so Great Cabin it is.
I’m in the most comfortable interior position, sitting on a Sportaseat on the two boards that constitute the cabin floor, facing aft, although as I’ve just discovered there is not quite enough room for my elbows while typing.
It is 7:30 a.m. and the sky is low solid overcast. I just heard distant thunder and may soon have to get up to close the hatches. An extension cord is running from the dock outlet through the forward hatch, charging the Torqeedo battery, which has taken about ten hours to come back from 36% to 98%.
Monday and yesterday were lovely days, welcome respites from too frequent thunderstorms and heat, so today is my third in a row on GANNET. I trained back to Evanston Monday because of a routine dental exam, but returned yesterday and spent the night. I got some work done, but mostly it is just wonderful to be on the water, even murky water only 8’ deep and surrounded by more than a thousand other boats, including one next to me with a mast-rattling halyard, which I endured through the night, but just climbed aboard and silenced.
On the counter top to my left is a plastic glass of coffee made on the Jetboil--I ground the beans at the condo. From the counter top to my right comes the sound of Christopher Parkening playing classical guitar over the iTouch/Fox XL sound system.
I feel as though these terms should be put in quotes. “Counter top” for a surface 12” x 14”. A “Sound System” that fits in a pocket. But to do so would be tedious. And the sound really is pleasing, as well as moveable. I had the Fox sitting on the main traveler streaming via Bluetooth from the iTouch down below while I drank wine last evening on deck.
Stopped to bring the extension cord aboard and close the forward hatch. Sprinkling rain. The darkest clouds are north of us, and I hope this passes this morning, so I don’t get soaked walking to the train this afternoon. My foul weather gear is hanging in a closet in Evanston, where it will do a lot of good. I haven’t brought it up because it hasn’t been remotely needed on our brief sails and the cabin is still being organized.
I believe that a sailor should be able to find whatever he needs in seconds and complete darkness, which means everything has its place. On all my previous boats, it did and I could. But on GANNET (Lightning and thunder. Sudden heavy rain. Closed the companionway.) things are only gradually coming to have their places.
Perhaps because her interior is open and without a liner, or perhaps because the deck is only inches from my head, rain on GANNET’s deck has a different sound than on other boats. As I stop and listen, trying to define the difference, the rain eases.
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That was as much as I wrote yesterday. I am now back in Evanston.
The rain eased only momentarily before bucketing down for three hours during which the recorded rainfall at nearby Waukegan Airport was 3.55”.
The photo above is deceptive. As I noted earlier, most of my time aboard was perfect, and GANNET’s interior was not that dark.
That I appear to be underwater is not deceptive.
Compare that photo with one taken from a similar angle and under similar conditions aboard THE HAWKE OF TUONELA.
I was pleased that during the downpour, GANNET still had no leaks. However, I did confirm that a lot of water comes into the cabin when I open the companionway in such rain. It certainly will when waves are sweeping the deck. That is the reason I had the cushions covered with vinyl. At least she will be drier than CHIDIOCK TICHBORNE.
I used the Jetboil to heat water for my freeze dried Cheese Enchilada Ranchero Monday evening--not terrible, but probably not a keeper--as well as coffee Tuesday morning.
I am very pleased with the Jetboil, with one reservation.
Mine is the Flash Cooking System, which has stripes on the side that change color to indicate when the water is hot. It also has a plastic lid with two holes in it. One in the center is small for the shaft of the French Press accessory. The other near the side is bigger so you can drink directly from the cooking cup. I think there is a possibility that water could splash out of the bigger hole in a seaway. Maybe I’ll have to tape over it. And I think my Paul Revere tea kettle may still find a place on the boat.
I also tested attaching a paper towel rack to the overhead using industrial strength Velcro and 3Ms 4200. On Monday I applied one piece of 4200ed Velcro to the overhead and the other to the back of the paper towel rack. On Tuesday, after letting the 4200 cure the stated 24 hours, I put the rack in place. It held, but as expected wobbled when I pulled off a paper towel. So I took it down, applied 4200 to the Velcro and stuck it back up. Just before I left a few hours later, it seemed rock solid. I’ll check when I return, probably on Saturday.
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At 11:00 p.m last night, just as I was about to go to bed, another line of thunderstorms hit.
I turned off the lights and watched a spectral show. Constant lightning. Flailing trees. The one just outside our window at times bent almost in two, like a dancer at the waist. All seen through a sheet of rain flowing sometimes down, sometimes wind driven back up, the window pane.
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I had just about decided that GANNET will be painted black when a link at Sailing Anarchy led me to this boat, which might be changing my mind. Click on Photos and Vidéos, particularly numbers 3 and 4.
Wednesday, July 27, 2011