Provisioning Plans

I’ve been studying the science of provisioning lately.  I’d like to come up with a systematic process for handling the chore that can be accomplished regardless of the crew onboard.  So far I’ve been lucky to have a primary person that has taken charge of the provisioning for each trip (Thanks Kay and Vi!).  It helps to have access to the boat before the trip in order to take inventory, create a list and do the procuring, but that won't always be possible if crew are coming from other places.  Being the engineer that I am, I over-think the whole process so that it can be easily described to anyone gracious enough to take the job on.  I'd like to spare us from having to reinvent the wheel every time the job changes hands, which might be yearly or weekly.

This is what I have in mind: reading recipe books, highlighting recipes that meet specific criteria, then highlighting the ingredients that will need recipe specific provisioning.  Everything in a recipe that is not highlighted can be counted on to be in boat stores.

For example, artichoke dip looks yummy, is easy to make and easy to provision, so I’ll highlight it in my cruisers recipe book.  There are only three ingredients in the dip: canned artichokes, mayonnaise, and parmesan cheese.  Canned artichokes aren’t normally in the larder, so I’ll highlight that ingredient.  Mayonnaise is commonly used by a lot of recipes, so I’ll add that to the list of ship’s stores so it won’t be necessary to provision mayonnaise for this specific recipe.  Parmesan cheese could go either way. I decide to add it to ship’s stores and leave it unhighlighted.

This makes a good rainy day activity, studying recipes, building the stores list, doing highlighting and then on to the next recipe.  The plan is to have one or two books with highlighted recipes, and additional ad hoc recipes in a spreadsheet from various other sources.

When it’s time to provision, it will be a matter of choosing among the highlighted recipes, provisioning the highlighted ingredients, and making sure the ship’s stores are up to date.  Bravo!

Ongoing Work

Progress is afoot on Quijote. The mast has been removed and inspected. Replacement parts for anything showing signs of wear have been ordered and a full re-rig is underway to ensure there are no hidden issues resulting from stress, corrosion, and cracking. Replacing the rig every ten or twelve years is advisable for boats that intend to go offshore. Quijote was born in 2007, so the time has come.

Removing the mast means disconnecting the wiring from terminals under the mast. While doing that I found some corroded wires that explain the intermittent behavior of the radar lately. I took the radar antenna down recently and had it bench tested. The test confirmed that there is nothing wrong with the radar itself so it was reassuring to find the problem with the wiring. After cleaning up the connections, I expect the radar to be fully operational when I put the mast back up. Hoooray!

I purchased a wind vane for Quijote recently and have started the installation. The vane will serve two purposes: as a tireless helmsman that requires no lunch or even electrical power (the auto-helm does require electrical power), and it serves as a backup rudder, should one be needed.

Finished Work

Quijote has a new SSB radio!  SSB (Single Sideband) allows radio communication around the globe. The isolated back-stay serves as the antenna and the system includes a controller, transceiver, tuner, and ground plane.  I successfully transmitted and received digital test messages to/from a coastal station at Pt. Reyes, near San Fransisco.  A Pactor modem that allows me to send and receive emails and weather has also been installed and tested. 

I disassembled the desalinator and replaced some seals to fix a leak, then did it a second time to replace another part when the seals didn’t fix it.  The watermaker is now making water, albeit lake water to fresh water.  The real test will come when we poke our nose out into Puget Sound and make fresh water out of sea water.  The pressures are higher for that.

I replaced the house battery bank, increasing the storage capacity from 400 to 600 amp-hours.  The batteries are larger than the ones they replaced, so it was necessary to cut the bottom out of the compartment that houses them to make more room.  And doing that required that I re-route a heating duct.

Quijote has a new genoa.  That gives her a suite of five new sails in all: genoa, main, drifter, storm jib, and storm trisail in addition to her original spinnaker. 

2018 Blog Introduction

Welcome to the 2018 blog reporting on Quijote activity. This is the third in a series of annual blogs that describe preparation for and participation in the trips we do. 

The first trip took us up the Inside Passage to Glacier bay: http://svquijote.blogspot.com

The second year we circumnavigated Vancouver Island: http://svquijote2017.blogspot.com 

This year has harbored a weird convergence of random travel opportunities that I didn't want to pass up on, even though they interfere with more serious sailing ambitions planned for the year.  If not for such interference we'd be be leaving for the South Pacific in August.  As it stands, we'll do a five week trip to the Broughton Archipelago in August and head south next year instead.  I'm OK with that; it'll give me more time to work through my lengthy to-do list.

When the South Pacific trip does go, it will leave Seattle in Aug 2019, go out the Strait of Juan de Fuca and take a left turn down the coast to San Diego.  From there we go around Baja to the Sea of Cortez.  I’ll leave the boat in La Paz during the holidays, followed by a couple of months of Cruising in Mexico, then head off across the South Pacific, going as far as New Zealand before heading back though Tahiti, Hawaii, Alaska, and then home.  It’ll be a two year Pacific (if not pacific) semi-circumnavigation  with a few flights home to reconnect with family from time to time.