We're on our way!

Just a quick note to let you all know that we left our slip this morning at 1035 AM.

We've been busy over the last couple of days getting all the last minute preparations done, shopping stowed and getting everything ready.

We arrived in Half Moon Bay just after 4 PM this evening after - what was supposed to be a pleasant downwind sail with winds from the North West - turned out to be a slog to windward with southerly winds (from the direction we were headed).

Sometimes I think I need to replace the wind indicator on the mast as it seems to mostly point to the bow ;-}

Tomorrow, off to Monterey!

Regards to all
Bill and Mary

We're on board and testing our Radio Email

Hi Everyone!

Mary and I are busily preparing to leave next Thursday the 30th.

Gosh, there's so much to do and so many things to store and still some last minute testing and debugging.

This email post is being sent via ham radio email from a volunteer service "winlink" - see http://www.winlink.org for more information. This and "Sailmail" (http://www.sailmail.com) will be our usual means of email when at sea and away from cities with wireless hotspots.

This is also how we send the position reports that you can see on the map on our website.

These emails go out from our onboard computer, to a special "radio modem" - which then modulates the signal on our High Frequency Single Side Band Marine Radio and communicates via radio with a number of fixed radio stations (usually in volunteer's homes) who have a similar setup that includes an Internet connection. When we're far away from land, we have a feature built in to our email program that helps us chose the right radio frequency based on the time of day, our location (from our GPS) and the location of the land station we're trying to reach. This helps us get everything right so we can bounce our radio signal off the Ionosphere to reach the other station.

If you're used to a normal Internet connection, this is "PAINFULLY" slow.... it only runs a net speed of around 2400 bits per second. Just enough for text only email with no attachments.

Fortunately, the servers that we use strip off attachments, so no 25 Meg PowerPoint presentations like I used to email around Cisco ;-}

If you want to contact us, go to our website contact us link: http://www.raptordance.us/Contact_Us.html we've encoded our email address so we don't get spammed!

We'll continue to send out updates as we begin our trip... The next should be around the time we leave on Thursday or Friday.

Regards to all!
Bill and Mary

Update on our progress

Feel free to share our Blog and Website with any other friends and family members who haven't signed up yet. The Blog address http://raptordance.blogspot.com/ and our Website is at http://raptordance.com

We just wanted to update you all on our progress.

We're still planning to depart SF Bay on the 29th or 30th of September.

Our current plans our to take our time cruising down the coast visiting spots like Morro Bay and the Channel Islands.

We'll arrive in Marina del Rey sometime the week of October 10th to visit with family and friends in the area and continue to San Diego to spend some time the week of October 17th prior to the start of the Baja-Haha on October 25th.

We went on a short cruise this past holiday weekend with 4 other Valiant sailboats down to Half Moon Bay (about 5 hours down the coast).

All went well with the usual minor things to attend to that any true cruiser must attend to.

Someone once said that cruising is "working on your boat" in exotic locations.

We did have a wonderful time visiting with other sailing buddies and just relaxing.

The biggest problems were 1) no wind - so we had to motor both ways and 2) annoying kelp flies - so we got to try out our hatch screens.

I hope you are all well and had a great labor day weekend!

Regards,
Bill

DIY Refrigeration Fan - The Finkelstein Fan

Here's an equipment tip from Bill - A slightly different version of this write up also appeared in the April 1, 2004 issue of Practical Sailor as a letter to the editor.

We used to have a problem with stuff in our boat fridge freezing and goodies in our freezer defrosting. Also, the bottom of the two boxes was around 10 F colder than the top.

Our unit is a holding plate model that relies on convection to move the air around in the box.

After a long diagnostic process, I determined that the easiest way to fix this problem was to add fans to the fridge and freezer to mix up the air

Commercial units are available ranging from $40 to over $100, but we built our own for under $10.

Granted, a high-quality unit manufactured and sold by a small business is generally more expensive than a DIY project, but fabricating an equivalent unit from a few parts is so trivial that even the most thumb-laden boat owner should be able to do it.

What used to be a 10-degree difference between the top and bottom of our refrigerator and freezer box is now uniform. The important test is that the lettuce doesn’t freeze in the fridge and the steaks don’t defrost in the freezer.

Details:

The fan is the most expensive part it's from Jameco http://www.jameco.com, a great source for “geeky” electronic parts. . It’s Jameco part number 207052CP. Specifications: 12V, 0.06A (Only 1.44 Amp-Hours! Day!), 5.5 CFM (enough to stir things up, which is all you need), with ball bearings (important for longevity and continuous operation). Price: $6.95. Its dimensions are 1.6” square by .25” inch thick.

The 63-cent fan guard is Jameco part 123502CP. The pipe is 1.5” PVC (available at any hardware store) with your choice of 45- or 90-degree elbow. Plus some miscellaneous parts—wire, connectors, fuse, fuse holder, some screws, tie-wraps and/or double stick tape. Total cost: a few bucks.

Construction method:

1. Measure your box, and cut the PVC a bit shorter—allowing for any slope in the side of the box. Cut the bottom of the pipe at an angle (e.g. 45 degrees) or use another elbow so that you can rest the bottom of the pipe on the bottom of your box without blocking airflow.

2. Attach your pipe to elbow. Put a short stub of PVC in the other end of the elbow so you can use four little (#4) screws to attach the fan and fan guard to the PVC (see picture). Note: We didn’t glue anything—the snug fit was sufficient.

3. Wire up the fan to your boat’s 12V electrical system—be sure to follow proper wiring procedures. We ran the wires through the same opening in the side of the box that our refrigerant tubes pass through, and sealed things up with modeling clay. We connected two fans (one for the fridge, one for the freezer) through a fuse holder and 0.25-amp fuse to a circuit that’s always on when we’re running the fridge.

4. Attach the assembly to the inside of the box. We found it convenient to use tie-wraps, but double stick tape would also work fine.

Building the fan tube took less than 15 minutes. Mounting the two tubes and running the wires took a little over an hour.