We have been in Corpus Christi Texas for a couple of months now since our granddaughter was born. With my work travel schedule, it requires me to fly almost every week. Doing this out of Corpus has been a bit of a challenge due to the size of the airport and the connections.
To that end, we decided it was time to head back to the Kemah area. This is within 30 minutes of a large airport in Houston (Hobby) and allows travel to be much more easily accommodated. We started to plan our cruise from Corpus to Kemah via the ICW (InterCoastal Waterway). and some of our friends wanted to join us for the trip and thought it would be fun. A Plan was created.
We would give ourselves 4 days (5 with a buffer) and sail out on a Saturday assuming we would arrive in Kemah on Tuesday. We spent most of Friday just finishing up last minute things on the boat.
We picked up our friends late friday night, and everyone hit the sack for our early morning departure. Sunrise was scheduled to be 7:30am, so we planned on leaving by 6:30 in hopes to get a head start on the day 1 trip given we were hoping to make 74 miles before sundown.
As we were getting ready we noticed that there was dense fog but decided that we could go out slowly and stay out of the main shipping channel and it should burn off before we got to the narrow portion going to Aransas Pass. I was surprised at how hard it was to hold a course when you can't see something to "aim" toward. We made slow progress and it put us a bit behind schedule but really enjoyed the benefit of having AIS at the helm for this trip. We were able to see ships and tugs and their heading.
Barges pushed against the shore waiting for better weather
The fog cleared mid morning and we finally started to make decent progress as we headed north east on the ICW. There was a portion of the trip in Aransas Bay and San Antonio Bay where we were able to sail on a beam reach for a good portion of the trip. We were able to sail at over 7 knots for a good portion of the trip which helped us make up some time for our slow foggy start. There was quite a bit of barge traffic on the ICW and they were sitting along the bank going in and out of the bays waiting for the wind to die down. When they go through with a strong cross wind they tend to come through at an angle. Typically barges are pushed but the odd shaped ones tend to get towed.
Here we are passing a pretty large dredge barge.
Things were starting to go too good so Murphy decided to pay us a visit. As we were coming out of San Antonio Bay where the Guadalupe Bay cut intersects to it, we hailed a oncoming tug and asked if he was good passing on the "2 whistle" (this means that we will pass him so our Starboard side is closest to him). This is kind of like driving on the wrong side of the road, but since we were sailing it is safer to stay on the downwind side of him to avoid potentially being blown into him. as he approached, I gave him a wide berth so he had room to pass between an anchored tug on his left and us approaching him on his right. That is when I heard the wake next to the boat start to break and we jerked a bit. Yep, we ran aground.
From the charts we had a tough time telling where the actual channel was given the intersection area we were in. We checked the depth all the way around the boat and determined which way we needed to go. We tried to back off with no luck, we tried to spin on the keel in forward without success. We were about to take the anchor in the dinghy to kedge off of it when a fishing boat passed by. We flagged him down and asked him to give us a little tug backwards which he did and helped to get us backed off of it.
So they say that there are only 2 types of sailboaters, those that have grounded their boat and those that lie about having never grounded their boat. We are not 2 time grounders.
In the end, we actually got free in about 30 minutes and were on our way. But the delay meant we needed to stop somewhere closer for the night. We were not going to make it to our planned destination before dark.
Deb to the rescue, she started searching "active captain" points of interest and found a very promising place for the night. We will save the details of that for the next blog.
For those that don't know about Active Captain, check it out here. One of the best free services around!!! http://activecaptain.com
Servicing the boats winches should be an annual maintenance exercise, but we procrastinate, we let it go to long and now the job must be done and more damage may have occurred because of the delay.
Heck we all know as sailors that the winches need to be serviced, so why not just take the hour or two and get it done? I would suggest that for many people, it is because they are not sure exactly how to go about doing it, so it gets put on the "back burner". Routine maintenance and servicing will keep the winches running free and easy and allow for a much less stressful sailing experience.
In this post and associated how to video, I will show the challenges that I faced because I procrastinated, as well as, show step by step how to remove the winch from the boat, service it, reassemble and reinstall on the boat. Feel free to bookmark this page or the "Last Affair Boat Projects" page on our blog. You can refer to it any time you have a need for some guidance on a project you are taking on or when you intend to service your winches.
We bought our boat about 2 and a half years ago and at the time I noticed that the base of the primary winches seemed like it was "melted". In our case we have two Barient 28 Primaries and 3 Barient 21 winches.
Part of the metal was eaten away and I was mentally dreading doing this job and knew that as we finalized the refit on the inside it was time to work on the items outside, including the winches. In addition to the visual side of it, when we made a passage from Houston to Corpus for a couple of days, it became evident that the winch was so much tighter and harder to use this time. We had to fix it, and since I knew it would be a doozy, I figured I would film each part to show how we would overcome what lied ahead, in hopes that it helps you too.
Removing the winch from the Boat
We learned that it is a good idea to come up with a method to keep any parts that you remove and happen to drop, from going to the bottom of Davey Jones Locker. On our last boat, we would lay down towels around the work surface to remove the tendency for a dropped item to bounce too high. We would then build sort of a towel damn at the lower areas of where we were working so that
something rolling or falling would hit that and hopefully stop it from going over. This time we used a slightly different method that I had heard others and it also worked pretty well.
I had heard that if you take a bucket and cut a hole in the bottom of it the same size as the base of your winch, you can essentially work and remove any screws and nothing can fall out of the bucket. Doing this also made it harder to work down in the bucket. I ended up using an old flower pot base that only had about a 4 -6 inch lip on it and cut a hole in that. It allowed for easy access to the screws, and still provided some protection for anything that happened to fall. I would suggest that you use one of these methods when you do the work and just use whatever one fits your location best. You will notice in the picture that the bimini supports were in the way even for the solution that I used.
To remove the top keyed locking nut (the portion with the 2 holes in it) you are supposed to be able to
use a standard deck key, however none of mine were large enough and the specialty wrench I have for the Groco strainers was too large. However, if you put the winch handle into the top of the winch, and an old hex wrench or bolt about the size of the hole, you can turn the handle counter clockwise against the hex wrench or bolt and it will rotate and loosen that nut that holds the drum on. Once the nut is removed, you can lift up the drum. BE CAREFUL that the bearings don't stick in the drum and fall out when you lift it off the shaft. In the picture to the side, you can see that after lifting the drum off, the bearing were still on the shaft.
Disassembly
Once the drum is off and stored in a bucket or bag for cleaning later, it is time to remove the bronze winch assembly from the base. There are 4 hex bolts in the base of the bronze winch. In the picture In this picture you can see 2 of the 4 bolt holes on this unit. In order to remove these bolts I sprayed
penetrating oil on these for about 24 hours ahead of when I was working on it and reapplied every few hours (WD-40, Berrymans, etc) In our case, that "melted" metal on the base, was the aluminum and the bronze fusing together. Metals of different qualities react to one another when in contact in a conductive environment. Salt water is a conductive environment so we as boaters, have to deal with this corrosion in many areas and on many levels. Without going into a lot of detail on this, we are all familiar with the need for Zincs since they are a 'lesser' metal they corrode before vital parts of our engine do for example. This same phenomenon is what impacted this winch. The Bronze from the winch was in contact with the Aluminum base and without a protective coating on it, these 2 surfaces were touching for many years in a salt water environment. This resulted in the aluminum corroding away and almost welding or fusing itself to the bronze.
After removing the bolts that held this winch in place it still would not come out. I attempted prying up on the winch, however that felt like it was going to bend the base before anything came loose. I attempted to try a rubber mallet. I also used a heavier hammer, and tapped on the shaft (while it was protected and wrapped in line so as not to damage the smooth texture of the shaft). These didn't work. I also used a small putty knife and attempted to chisel a small groove in the fused together metals where the joint should have been. This seemed to make progress but was not enough to break it loose (I even enlisted my grand daughter since she loves to help). What ended up solving the problem was to tie a line to a cleat, wrap it around the shaft of the winch and over to another winch and apply pressure. I did that and heard a pop sound with just a bit of light pressure and it was enough to pop that winch from the base. I do think in the end it was the combination of the putty knife removing a good portion of the corrosion that was visible and then the winch pressure in the end to finish the job.
Cleaning and replacing worn parts
After removing the winch assembly it is time to remove all of the parts and prepare them for cleaning. A good trick is to take the drum that you removed and stand it on a flat surface. You can then put the base upside down in the drum opening to hold it steady. There are 3 screws on the
Screws are identified by red circles (Click to enlarge)
bottom of the winch assembly that need to be removed (again these are hex bolts) and I needed to spray them with penetrating oil to remove them. Once the 3 are removed, you can remove the bottom plate and start to remove the gears. Before you remove too many, you are also going to have to remove the screw and washer/spacer that is on the bottom of the shaft, without removing it, you won't be able to completely disassemble the parts. Everyone has their own process of removing something so they know how it goes back together. These winches are pretty forgiving and if you have the diagram you can use that as a guide. Some people prefer to take pictures as they remove each part so they have a visual reminder when assembling. Others like to place them in a line as they remove them so they know the order in which components were removed. What ever works best for you is fine. I personally like the method of being able to follow the parts diagram since there are going to be times when you have to refer to them for this project or others. This link contains documentation and a parts diagram for the Barient 28 winch. There are also links to many other winches and manuals at the the "Barient Winch Manual link"
I like to inspect each part as I remove them and put them in a small bucket (2 gallons) that has diesel
or kerosene in it. This is what I soak the parts in and use later to clean them. In my case, I used Kerosene, because I had it more readily available than anything else. You can also use Paint Thinner, but I found that the first 2 tend to work better. Now it is time to scrub all of the parts. If your winches had a lot of grease packed in them, you may find that there is hardened grease in the valleys of each gear. I used a small screwdriver to scrape that out. I don't think that would be a problem if these had been serviced
regularly. If you don't want the fuel on your hands, you can wear gloves, but be sure to get the blue nitril gloves and not latex as the latex will melt when in contact with some of the cleaning solutions. I used a tooth brush to then scrub each part thoroughly. If you have a stiff bristled straight brush that would be better. I found some at harbor freight that worked well and were cheap enough. The stiff straight bristles can reduce the splashing that will happen using a toothbrush due to the angle of the bristles.
Be sure to be careful with both of the "double gears" so that you don't pop out the springs or pawls. In the photo below, which I have left large to make it easier to see, you will notice that the inner gear has too "flaps" on it.
These are called Pawls. These pawls can lift out of the gear and there is a spring behind each one that forces it into its extended position. It is important that you do remove these for cleaning and you will likely need to replace the springs. They are inexpensive so it is worth doing it while you have it apart. I think it was about $20 for a package of 10 at West Marine. In the photo below you can see what these pawls and springs do. They act as a ratchet allowing the gear to rotate in one direction but not in the other. When it turns into the opposite direction, the ends of these pawls make contact with the outer gear 'steps' and prevents rotation. The video below as well as on the "Boat Projects" page demonstrates how to remove the pawl without losing the springs as well as how to put the springs and pawls back in. This winch has 2 gears like this so a total of 4 pawls and 4 springs on the Barient 28 2 speed self tailing winch. I suspect that is the same for most 2 speed winches
Assembly
When all parts have been thoroughly cleaned, I like to lay them all out on a flat surface and inspect them all one more time before starting the re-assembly. I also would make sure you have the supplies you will need on hand. I used winch grease that I was able to pick up at West Marine. You will
notice I am using Harken grease, they also sold Lewmar grease but it was a bit more expensive and I couldn't tell any difference in the two so went for price. I also have a small bottle of Lewmar oil to put on the springs and pawls. We don't want to get grease on these since it is too sticky, just oil those parts without grease getting in them and you will have smooth operation. I also have the package of springs. NOTE: Be sure to get the correct springs, you will notice this is a Lewmar bag, but they are specifically for Barient winches. Not all winches have the same shape springs. Surprising this is the easier part of the job now and the work gets easier from here. I like to dry fit all of the parts first before I put grease and oil on them. Go ahead and assemble the unit a few times without putting the final backing plate on, to get familiar with the steps and order that things need to go back in. There is a specific order and it becomes pretty obvious as you start to assemble that you need to put the items that are lower in first (when holding the winch upside down).
When greasing the bearings, don't overdue it. Just a small amount will do. I tend to hold the bearing in one hand and while squeezing some out of the tube, I rotate the needle bearing so that I make a small bead all the way around the bearing. I use about half as much grease as you might put on your toothbrush when brushing your teeth. I do this for each bearing and also apply grease around the teeth of each gear being careful not to get grease on the surface where the pawls are. Everything should fit together smoothly and nothing will have to be forced with maybe the exception of the final bottom plate. That I tend to tap on with a rubber mallet and then use the screws to draw it in tight.
A few things to point out when assembling.
There is a point where you are putting the last 2 speed gear on, and the outer gear can go on right side up or right side down. It is important that when they are assembled, the outer gear and inner gear and pawls are all the exact same height. If they are not, you likely have the outer gear on upside down, remove it and turn it over. I have included a photo of this but the video will show it a bit more clear. If you finish your assembly and you can't rotate the gears by hand by twisting the top of the shaft, you may have this piece upside down and the plate is putting pressure on it making it hard to turn. Finish the assembly by putting the last 3 screws in and validating that you can still rotate by hand.
Installation
Now it is time to install the bronze winch back into the aluminum base. This is pretty simple and just a reversal of what was done to remove it with one VERY large exception. We don't want to repeat this "removal of corroded metal" again so we will take some preventative steps to prevent it from happening again. This time before putting the winch into the base, apply a thin coat of "Lanacote" that can be purchased at West Marine fairly inexpensively and really should be something you keep on board your boat anyway. This is designed to create a protective coating between dissimilar metal to prevent this corrosion from happening. In addition to putting the Lanacote on the contact points between the base and winch, I also dipped each screw in it that was going to make contact with both the bronze and aluminum.
After the winch is mounted to the base, it is time to apply grease to the last 2 large drum bearings and put them onto the shaft. When complete, apply a small amount of grease to the underside edge of the drum where the teeth are, and slide it down onto the shaft and bearings. The last step is to add the self tailer line catch and then put that keyed nut in the top. Like removal, the easiest way to do this is to tighten as much as you can by hand, and then put an old screw/bolt or hex wrench into the holes and use the winch handle in a clockwise direction to turn that inner locking ring until tight.
Now you have the pleasure of turning the winch by hand and hopefully you will notice a big difference if it has been a few years since these were serviced on your boat. I know I was amazed at the difference and they were working like new for just about $50 in parts (springs, grease, oil and Lanacote) and some of my labor. I believe that moving forward, this job should take between 1-2 hours per winch and I will be doing this every year for all of them. This first time sure did take a lot longer than that, but that was due to years of neglect and I suspect it had been many years before I bought the boat that they had been serviced as well.
Below is a full length video (20 minutes or so) that shows all of the steps we have taken as well as the tools and products used to complete this work. I hope you find this useful and can pass it on to your friends or local sailing clubs, etc.
I would encourage you to subscribe to this blog for automatic updates when new posts are added. There are 3 ways you can subscribe to this blog and the information we share. The first is on the top right corner of this page and it is to subscribe to our Youtube Channel where we post the how to videos. This is a good first step, but I would encourage you to also subscribe to posts on this blog as well as an email subscription to let you know new posts have been added and you can then browse to the blog to see all of the details. The email subscriptions will email the actual blog post, however videos and some other embedded content does not always come through email so you may miss some of the good stuff only going that one route.
Visit our Youtube Channel at "S/V Last Affair Video Channel"
View other cruisers blogs at "Cruising Outpost Blog Page"
I would love to have you tweet or Facebook this post if you think some of your contacts could benefit from the information it contains.
The other day while down below working, I heard what sounded like a plane. I kind of ignored it the first time but when it flew by it sounded more like a jet but very low. I ran up into the cockpit and could see it banking over the bay just past the marina VERY LOW. I really thought it was a small private jet going down. He continued to bank and essentially made complete circle again heading over the marina. The view from the boat really looked like he was going to be skimming the mast tops. I am sure he was in the air a bit higher, but I would not say more than 1500 feet.
Here he is a bit closer to us (just over the pier in front of us)
This time I readied the camera and took a couple of pictures.
Hmmm, it was a Coast Guard Jet. I have never seen one of them here, typically we see the CG Helicopters but this was the first time seeing the jet.
The next day there was a CG Patrol boat tied up just down from us so I asked the gentleman if there was a search of some kind being conducted. They didn't know what it was for, but it was certainly interesting.
We have been all setup for Christmas on the boat now for a few weeks. The harbor we are in has a nice Christmas Boat Parade however it was scheduled for the day we returned from Vacation so we didn't participate. It was in the 30's the day of the parade and there were only 5 boats that actually showed up. We did however hang lights the outside of the boat by running colored lights around the entire boat from stem to stern along the pulpits and lifelines. We also ran white lights inside the cockpit and in the evenings we would play Christmas music through the outside speakers. We get some foot traffic down where we are from those walking down the street to the local restaurants. We enjoyed the reactions and also it helped to keep us in the Christmas spirit.
Additionally, we have a very small 2 foot Christmas tree that we decorated and put on a small table in the front of the Salon.
Christmas Garland on Arch in Salon
We hung the stockings from the Port Catches in the Salon and it really made it feel'Christmassy' down below. Deb also made a garland string that she hung on the arch between the Salon and NavStation & Galley. It looks great.
To finish off our Holiday Post, I wanted to show a bit of the Holiday on-board in the video below.
I have heard several different versions of "Twas the Night Before Christmas" but I figured this would be a nice variation to it.
Enjoy the Boating version of the story aboard Last Affair at our Youtube Channel and if you are viewing this on our blog, the video is embedded below. (Twas the boating night before Christmas on Last Affair)
Merry Christmas to All and to All a good night
Update - 12/25 (I tend to write these posts a few days prior to the post date, and in this case, I had to update the blog post with some cool news. My Daughter and her Husband were expecting their daughter to be born on Jan 2 with a planned delivery date due to the baby's position. Well, it seems that she wanted this year to be her first Christmas. Mckinlee came into our world on Christmas at 6:47pm at 9 lbs. 11 oz. So cute and such a great Christmas surprise.
We have been talking about going back to Jamaica for many years now. Deb and I really enjoyed the area in Jamaica where our son went to school. It is on the South Coast of Jamaica in a small fishing and farming area called Treasure Beach. It is not anywhere close to the "all inclusive" type place where you stay with 500 other American and Europeans and never leave the hotel property. No, this is vacation in a way that lets you completely relax and make new friends.
Several years ago, we went on a small vacation with one of our close friends and really had a great time vacationing together. We were 'vacation compatible' which was a funny term we all talked about after that trip. We have all been around another couple or friends where they fight or nit pick at each other, or they just don't enjoy the same things you do making it very awkward to spend a few days with each other. That is just NOT the case with Dan & Jodi and we always have a great time when we do stuff together. When vacationing, either couple is fine with the other doing their own thing, or doing something together. It is not uncommon that some days, we will just "veg out" and not really do anything either playing cards or reading a book or just sitting in the sun having a few sundowners (and sun-uppers and sunsmiddayers - lol).
It is always hard to find the "best day" or "best time" on a great trip, but one of my favorite days was when we took a day trip out to a place called the "Pelican Bar". Now you may be reading this and thinking, "so a day at a bar. no biggie" however this Bar is built on driftwood and old logs on a reef a couple of miles from shore. You hire a boat captain to pick you up where you happen to be staying and you ride in the same boats that the local fisherman use to go fishing in 60 miles off shore. These are open "rowboat" style boats that have 4 or 5 bench seats across them and a 40hp or so engine on the back. In our case, our boat captain "Captain Ted" picked us up right at the beach in back of the house we rented and off we went just outside of the reef along the shore for about 30 or 40 minutes. Captain Ted always travels with his dog Flora in the boat and she is a regular at the Pelican Bar. 8-11 years ago, when we were going to Jamaica more regularly, we saw Ted and Flora every time while there.
On the way, we say dolphins playing and when as you pull up to Pelican Bar, you are greeted by the sounds of Reggae coming from a small portable boom box inside. The boat pulls up to a wooden plank and the owner "Floyd" comes over and reached a hand down to help you up the small steps. In our case, Flora was the first out of the boat and up laying down in the shade in the bar. At this time, you are in one of the coolest oasis' I have every been to. Step up to the bar and have a "winter cold" Red Stripe or as we did, started with a few delicious rum punches.
While we were there this time, there must have been 5 or 6 other boats of passengers that came out so the place was kind of hopping. The next 4 people that arrived after us, ordered drinks and lobster and fresh fish. When you do so, one of the guys that works behind the bar will hop into the water and go spear fish something to cook up.
We ordered a few beers or drinks and then just stepped down the walkway to the boats and jumped into the waste deep water out on this small sand covered reef. Other people were doing the same and it was a great time.
The boat captains and Floyd are typically sitting on small wooden stumps inside and playing either dominos or checkers. It is always great fun to watch them because folks in Jamaica really get into playing Dominos with them all being "slapped" down onto the table and some very fast and loud talking in Patois to each other.
We took some video while we were there and I put together a little compilation of the fun time we had. Needless to say, we needed a captain of the boat when we left, because we all had imbibed quite a bit :)
This definitely was a "Great Day" on vacation.
For anyone that may be interested, the place we stayed was called Bucaneer Villa. This is the kind of place where you rent the house and purchase the food you want to be prepared. The staff at the house will prepare meals for you. It was great to become friends with those that prepared the meals. If you want help quite a bit (like cleaning up the rooms every day) or if you want to have privacy they will honor your request. Suzie, Nicki, Judine, and Delaroy were all great and I am actually glad to be connecting to them on Facebook as well.
More info can be found at www.treasurebeach.com.
People often ask me if I am retired, or how I can
live on a boat while working. The reality is that if you have the type of
job that doesn't require you to be in 1 spot, this is a very workable solution.
In my case, I travel often to customer sites and to see employees and
prospects. If you do any kind of traveling for work, you have likely
already adapted to being able to work remotely. For example, I have found
I can be fairly productive while at an airport, a hotel, or even while realaxing
and enjoying a meal out.
When I am home (on our boat) that also means that I
can work and be productive there as well. The boat has a Navigation
Station like most sailboats (Think Mini office without the doors). In my
case, this consists of a monitor that is mounted in the center of the Nav Station
that both doubles as an extra monitor for my laptop when I am working, or the
heart of navigation and computing for the boat itself.
In the picture in the sidebar, you can see that my
desk is as messy as most desks you see in someone’s office. Sadly in my
case, it is also filled with a pair of sailing gloves, some line, a bunch of
wires for the electronics like the router and my headset.
To make hearing and speaking to people, I have a
pair of pretty good headphones to use on my cell phone or my laptop whether I
am taking a call on my cell phone, or Voice over IP software such as Skype.
They are noise canceling which comes in handy when the wind is howling
through the rigging above. (See video clip a little later to see why this
can come in so handy)
When Deb is not on board and I am working, I will use
the large LED TV in the Salon as my monitor and sit on the salon settee. It is a bit more comfortable and I like the
extra real estate for the screen. This was the case last week as
I was sitting in the salon working. It was a great day because it was
still warm but overcast so no bright sunlight for a change, I had the hatches
all opened up and had a nice gentle breeze running through the boat. Half
way through the call the wind started to pick up, then it started to pick up a
lot, and I could hear the howling in the distance as the wind blew through the
rigging of the row of sailboats just upwind of me. While on the call, I
muted my microphone and closed the large forward hatch. As I finished
that the sky opened up with a torrential rain pour. I was quickly closing
the 4 hatches in the roof that I had open and another 7 opening ports on the side
of the boat. All of this was going on while I was still on this
conference call and un-muting the microphone to respond to a question or
comment then muting as quickly as I could again.
By the time the call ended, the wind was blowing a
steady 20 knots and gusting to about 30. The rain subsided for the most
part and when I went back up top, the temperature felt like it dropped 15
degrees in that hour.
I continued to work the rest of the day on meetings
and phone calls remotely, however the wind really had the boat hobby horsing
and rocking pretty good. When the wind starts to blow that hard, there
are a few interesting sounds that happen on the boat, that we are just used to,
but others wonder what they are. I attached a small video below that
shows me sitting on the salon settee working. You can get a sense for how much motion there
was on the boat this day, and we were tied up to a dock. If you listen closely you can hear a few
things in the background. The first is the wind that you can still hear
howling if you listen carefully. This is with all of the hatches battened
down and closed up tight. You will also
hear a bit of a ringing sound or long dull clank. This sound is actually
made from two different things that run up the inside of the mast. There are
wires that run from the base of the mast to the top of the mast for lighting on
top of the mast, antenna, etc. This is combined
with the lines that run up the mast for raising the sails. When the boat
rocks a certain way they hit on the inside of the mast making this sound.
The other is a loud thump , this is actually something that you
should not hear, but I still had an antenna for the TV run up on the flag halyard
and when the wind would blow it hit the stays (the metal wires that run from
the sides of the boat to the top of the mast to stabilize it). It is a lot like a giant piano or guitar
string being plucked.
So there you have it, a little insight into working from the boat.
98% of the time, it isn't much different than working from your office,
but on some days the office is bouncing around a bit.
As fairly "new to the lifestyle" live-a-boards, we constantly struggle with space and storage. One of the things we both enjoy is a little snack when hungry and have recently got on a kick with granola. I almost always had a bag of granola that I would keep in a "lock & lock" container to keep it fresh. When it get a bit hungry in the evening, I grab a small handful of granola and munch on it and it does the trick to satisfy the snacking bug.
I have found I like to eat Granola as cereal in the morning with some milk over it. I enjoy it on top of yogurt or even on top of some fresh cut fruit. It is also really good on ice cream but that is something we don't have on board very often at all.
So today we decided to make out own granola. I was shocked at how simple it was and allows you to make all kinds of variations for whatever it is you prefer. For example, because we snack on it by itself, we made some that had dried fruit and coconut in it. Yummy. We made some that was individual crunchy bits the size of the oats so it can be spread on top of fruit or yogurt and even made some that is in chunks for snacking (think of a broken granola bar).
There are a ton of recipe's online but what we found in our few tries is that it is not really a science and it is pretty hard to mess it up unless you burn it.
We made ours with the following ingredients
3 cups of rolled oats (not the instant, but the plain old quaker style work)
1 cup of chopped mixed nuts (we used peanuts and cashews and just chopped them to about the size of the oats)
3/4 cup of sweetened coconut flakes (found in the baking aisle of the store)
3/4 cup of Brown Sugar (Actually we used just a bit more than 3/4 of a cup)
about a teaspoon of salt
1/2 tsp of cinnamon (I don't think this is needed, I just saw it on the shelf and figured what the heck)
We mixed all of that together in a bowl. On a boat, everything needs multiple uses, so the bowl is also the lock & lock that we typically keep salad in when storing it in the fridge.
In a separate bowl (one of our cereal bowls) we mixed the following
Pan cooking in the oven on the boat
1/4 cup of oil (we used Olive, but anything will do)
1/4 of a cup of Honey (could also have used Maple Syrup)
We both like Peanut butter, so I also dropped a couple of tablespoons of Peanut butter into this mix.
Mix this all together really well and pour over the oat mix. Mix well until all are coated really well.
Then spread evenly on a cookie sheet or small pan for the over. Be sure to oil or PAM the pan first to keep it from sticking.
Here is a small video showing the product after about an hour in the oven
You bake it in the over on a temperature between 250 and 325 and just keep checking on it every 15 minutes and mixing it up a bit (it tends to toast more near the edges of the pan so we just moved the mixture around a bit). It should cook between 45 minutes and an hour and 15 minutes. I think it tastes a bit better when cooked at about 250 for and hour and 15 minutes.
If you like it in chunks for snacking, just press it down in the pan the last 15 minutes you will bake it and then when you take it out of the over, don't mix it up until after it cools. We just broke it up into little bit sized pieces.
At this point, you can add in anything you really want, dried fruit like Pinapple, apricot, raisins, cranberries, papaya, really anything. We even put small dates and broken banana chips in it.
Good stuff….
Just pop it in an airtight container and it will be good for at least a month (we tend to eat it in less than a month)
This is about a third of a batch of what the recipe above makes. We bake it in 3 batches due to the size of the pan we can get in the oven.
