Family, Friends and Projects

Last week was spent visiting family and friends in Beaufort, SC.  A little vacation from blogging and cruising, a lot of great seafood and a cute little town.  We even drove in a car to Savannah, GA for the day- very exciting and a beautiful place!

While there we heard about and are going to join the OCC. Our friends in Beaufort, SC are Port Officers for The Ocean Cruising Club, a group originated in the UK, with members from around the world.  We had not heard about it before but it sounds like a great way to meet other cruisers and Port Officers in 46 different countries will “host” other members by giving them knowledge of their area.  In order to join you need at least 1000 miles offshore non-stop in a boat under 70 feet.  Fortunately, last year we helped some friends sail their boat from the Bahamas to Newport, RI non-stop, so now (if we are accepted) we can be a part of this group!

While there, we also completed two Albin Vega projects we had been looking forward to.

The first: installing a new composting head.  We had not been happy with our previous composting head. It had many problems including leaking (TMI?).  Anyway, we have gone with a Nature’s Head that just fits barely in our head (bathroom) area.  After about a week we are very happy and thrilled with it.  No smell, easier to use and no leaks.  We got it from Bacon Sails in Annapolis, who is now a dealer.

The second: installing a soft water tank forward.  We have the original Albin Vega water tank that is 30 gallons plastic in the forward v-berth section. Before we left, we installed a 20 gallon plastic square tank under the cockpit hatch on the starboard side forward.  With the amount of weight we have in the aft, the cockpit drains fill into the cockpit rather easily.  On one off-shore passage we had water leak down into the main cabin along the lower trim tabs and pool, swashing around and unable to make it to the drainage area near the batteries.  We had resealed the cockpit floor hatch.  Now, to lessen weight aft and move it forward, we have taken a 40 gallon (not filled all the way) Plastimo soft water tank and installed it also under the v-berth just behind the other tank, and emptied our original secondary tank.  The weight is a little bit better but not by a lot.  We now have more water storage though with three tanks!  (still unsure where to store what was previously in that storage area)