Month: May 2018

Technology Summary

20-May-2018 – Technology runs a sailboat and always has. In our age, technology has become synonymous with electronics. On a sailboat, electronics is just one of many.

Let’s start with Caro Babbo’s most troubling technology, cooking:

Taylor’s Stove

Taylors model 030 kersosene stove and oven (parafin cooker)

2016, on the advice of most pump jockeys, we used Jet A as a fuel. Jet A burns significantly hotter than kerosene. The hotter fuel caused the fuel in the bottom of the burner and the fuel line to turn into hardened carbon: coke. Continue reading “Technology Summary”

Part 3: Threads reweave, one ends

At the fuel transfer station office, Wendy sat at her desk speaking to a deep-voiced man who I could not see. When I asked her where he was, he stepped out of a door. He was tall, craggy faced, muscular and handsome.

When he learned I wanted some kerosene, he told me I must be a sailor, which I confessed I was. He introduced himself as Lyle, and told me about the sailing courses he had taken, and how he would quit his job right now to join us. Wendy told him, oh no he wouldn’t. I countered he could join us for a short while if he would like, and he told me he was very interested. Continue reading “Part 3: Threads reweave, one ends”

Part 2: Threads reweave, one ends

The prawn boat docking did not go quite as smooth as one might hope. The crew seemed new.

The crewman on the starboard forward deck, dock line in hand, watched the dock as it got closer and as he prepared to loop a line around a cleat, the aft most deckhand called forward, “get a bumper.” The forward crewman replied out loud, “oh yeah,” and dangled a faded orange ball of a fender between the dock and the boat.

The front of the boat pressed against the dock as its stern rotated to starboard pressing against another orange faded ball-shaped fender. I went back to work. When I looked down again the crew had finished docking and were preparing to leave the boat.

On the stern was written Nordic Star. Continue reading “Part 2: Threads reweave, one ends”

Threads reweave, one ends

Port Hardy, BC Canada, 6-MAY-2018 – I spent a good part of Friday at the top of our mast reinstalling our antenna and the cable that leads from it through the mast through the engine compartment through the bilge and into the basement where the cable connects to a signal splitter.

I spent enough time at the top of the mast that another boat owner spoke with Jennifer and offered to pay me to go to the top of his mast. I was flattered, but not tempted.

In Friday Harbor, we had bought and installed an 8 foot whip antenna as a temporary solution for our failed masthead antenna. We started showing up again on AIS. The harbor master in Port Hardy, where I sat atop the mast like a Christmas Angel, spoke to us through our VHF. Continue reading “Threads reweave, one ends”

We left three weeks ago while CaroBabbo.com was down

Billy Goat Bay, Johnstone Strait, British Columbia, April 30, 2018 – thanks to John Vins, CaroBabbo is back on line.

I don’t have a good explanation about why I wasn’t writing posts to put online all at once when CaroBabbo.com was back online. I didn’t, and here is a fast catch-up.

We’ve been on the trip twenty days so far. Alone, just Jennifer and me. It has been a lovely trip with unexpectedly good weather. We been taking our time and are just entering Johnstone Strait today. Continue reading “We left three weeks ago while CaroBabbo.com was down”