January 2018 - Boat Life Larks

The Crossing, Day 1: “You’ll fly her apart Captain!"

4:00 AM: The alarm goes off.

5:00 AM: Teach class.

5:30 AM: Done with work. Four sailboats have already beaten us out of the very busy Lake Worth anchorage! Drat! We’ll catch up!

An amazing looking forecast for a Crossing. Go, Go, Go!

5:45 AM: Main engine start!

5:47 AM: Abort! Discover that the nav lights don't work.

5:48 AM: Shut down engines.

5:50-6:50 AM: Curse at nav lights. Splice wires, re-do connectors, solder in the dark wind, curse the boat, curse the weather, our chances of crossing today are receding. All hope is lost. Resigned to living in Lake Worth.

7:00 AM: Realize it's dawn, we don’t need no stinkin’ lights and we can leave anyway!

7:05 AM: Out the inlet with 10 other boats!

Busy morning in the inlet!

7:06 AM: It's going to get better, right? This is just the inlet that shaking my dentures out?

7:30 AM: It's still horrible. I hate the ocean!

9:00 AM: Praying for death.

9:15 AM: Hit head on a paddleboard we have owned for 3 years. Pray for death.

11:00 AM: Making excellent speed. 7.5 knots on a close reach into a rough, short 3-5 foot chop. Very uncomfortable and extremely wet. The boat may never dry out from this trip.

11:15 AM: Overtaken by a smug trimaran doing at least 12 knots.

Smug trimaran passed us like we were standing still. We were doing 8.5 knots at the time!

12:00 PM: Pray for death. Why is it so oceany? It was supposed to be 5-10 knots out of the south!

1:00 PM: Wind speed indicator working again, inexplicably. The anemometer has been on the fritz since last summer and no amount of tinkering or new parts has revived it. But bashing violently into Gulfstream? Just what the doctor ordered.

1:30 PM: Catch up with a familiar boat we met in Deltaville, VA last year. We have a pleasant exchange on the radio.

2:00 PM: Cell signal from West End. Salvation is nigh! Our new BTC SIM card registers, and we are online from the Bahamas!

2:30 PM: On the Little Bahama Bank; the water is dead calm, the seas are 10 ft deep. Life is amazing! Let's never leave the Abacos. Why on earth do people bother with the Pacific when heaven is right here, only 7 hours from the US?

Beautiful evening on the Little Bahama Bank.

05:00 PM: No wind. Sails down.

6:00 PM: Getting dark. Install colored glow sticks as an emergency backup for the night.

6:30 PM: All nav lights working again, inexplicably.

8:00 PM: While it is pitch black and we are motoring through interstellar space, there’s lots of company. Two boats overtake us. They switch to another radio channel to talk about us. Of course, we listen in. While listening in, we discover that they listened in to our earlier conversation.

12:30 AM: Anchor in the dark off Little Sale Cay. I wonder what it looks like?

12:31 AM: Yes, we are in the Bahamas! You can tell from the wrap around swell and the noise the waves make on the jagged limestone rock.

Crossing the Banks, Day 2: Onward to Green Turtle

5:00 AM: On the road again! Gotta get to Green Turtle before Customs closes at 5 and the forecast windstorm starts. Fog envelopes us. It won’t last long though.

Foggy morning.

8:00 AM: Carefully tracking a random boat that keeps appearing and disappearing at close intervals on the radar. Opposite direction, closing fast! It disappears. Now it’s dead astern, headed right for us! Everyone look out! Get the horn! Might be pirates.

8:01 AM: A bird overflies us. He looks surprised and slightly put out that we are in his way.

8:30 AM: Startled a cormorant out of the water and into flight right in front of the boat. Watch him fly away on the radar for a half mile.

There's something out there (cue creepy music...)

9:00 AM: Maneuvers to escape a fishing boat running at 20 knots in 50 ft visibility.

9:15 AM: The fog is clearing! Yay!

9:30 AM: The fog is back, thicker than ever! Yay!

9:45 AM: Overhear other cruisers discussing the thick fog on the radio. We hadn’t noticed!

10:00 AM: Emergency maneuvers to escape a go-fast boat running at 30 knots in 25 ft visibility who is unfamiliar with right-of-way rules and radar usage.

10:30 AM: The fog clears! We can see land!

Fog lifting.

11:00 AM: There’s wind! Sails up!

12:00 PM: Donny has fanagled a mooring for us! We don't have to survive 30-knot winds outside of Green Turtle, praying for death.

2:45 PM: Secured in Black Sound, Green Turtle Cay.

Landfall in Green Turtle Cay!

3:00 PM: Fast trimaran anchors in the mooring field next to us.

3:05 PM: Find out that the Customs Office is open until 5 every day, but the Customs Officer has to get on the 3 pm ferry to get home every day.

Day 3: Can We Stay?

9:00 AM: Off to the Customs Office! There’s quite a long line!

9:15 AM: 20 more boaters show up at Customs! The Officer looks frazzled.

9:30 AM: Random mulling about while queued up with other cruisers. Owner of the fast trimaran suggests we all chip in for a special order of the bakery’s whole wheat bread because they only have coconut bread on hand. He has to get an order of 10 before they’ll make him the whole wheat bread. Why, we ask, would we not want the coconut bread? Blank staring ensues. Someone points out that coconut bread makes excellent French toast. Mmm, French toast!

10:00 AM: The Customs printer/copier is jammed!

10:10 AM: Helpful cruisers who just want to be checked in have cleared the jammed paper.

10:20 AM: The Customs printer is low on toner.

11:00 AM: Customs has run out of Immigration forms! They'll be on the next ferry!

11:15 AM: The Customs printer is out of toner.

11:30 AM: Helpful cruisers try to jury-rig the standby printer/copier while the Custom’s Officer shakes the toner cartridge in the primary printer/copier.

11:45 AM: Most other cruisers disappear in despair, likely to be found at the bar (that’s an educated guess, some claimed to have gone back to the States to make copies and bring them back).

11:50 AM: Kind Post Office worker provides copies to get us cleared in.

12:00 PM: Leave Customs with stamped passports and appropriately copied forms.

12:15 PM: Rioting at BTC as they run out of SIM cards. Good job Matt ordered us a SIM card online.

12:30 PM: Stop at the bakery for delicious coconut bread. Welcome to the Bahamas!

3:00 PM: Walk to Gillium Bay, one of our favorite spots!

Road to Gillium Bay.

6:00 PM: Crazy windstorm starts. Blowing 25 knots, gusting over 35. This is forecast for at least three days. We watch the trimaran crew fiddle nervously with their anchor while we eating amazing coconut bread.

Would you prefer whole wheat or coconut while visiting the islands? And, did you know birds show up on radar?!?

Matt's Mouthwatering Morsels on Monday (returns!!) with...
STOVETOP FROM-SCRATCH MONKEY BREAD

On a cold, cold January day, with my feet numb and my teeth aching, I longed to fill the boat with a) heat! and b) the aroma of freshly made bread. Upon further self-reflection, I realized that it was specifically my SWEET TOOTH that ached so. I’d been pondering a monkey bread recipe for some time, so perhaps today is the day to master it!

Zoey is interested.

I specifically made this batch to fit my Omni stovetop oven. If you aren’t familiar with the Omnia, check out their website <LINK> and this article I wrote about it last year <LINK>. If you don’t have an Omnia, or you are unlucky enough to not live on a boat and not need one, you can, of course, bake this in a regular Bundt pan or loaf pan at 350 degrees. Since this is a small recipe, it may work very well in a toaster oven.

My other requirement for this recipe was that it must not include ready-made biscuit dough. If you search the Google-net you will learn that Monkey Bread was made popular by Nancy Reagan, cooking for her favorite guests Mark Twain and Abraham Lincoln, using Pillsbury Grands dough from your local market. I wanted a recipe I could make in the Bahamas...so that won't do. Sorry Mark and Abe.

I made this when it was cold, so I used my largest pot with a lid on the stove to heat the following and to mix the dough. This allowed me to turn the heat on and off occasionally to maintain a nice warm yeast nursery where they could belch and reproduce in warm privacy.

If I lost you in that last paragraph, I suggest you join me for a trip down memory lane to that time when Alton Brown made pretzels:

But enough of this, back to the monkey bread! For the dough:

3/4 cup water

1/4 cup powdered milk (Nido) (alternatively, 1/2 cup water and 1/4 cup milk)

2 tablespoons sugar

Warmed to 110 degrees in a large pot. Add 1 package yeast and let proof 10 minutes.

1/6 cup melted butter (I melt mine in the Omni, which also lubes it!)

1 egg

pinch salt

1 1/2 cups flour

Stir or use a mixer with a dough hook for about 3 minutes, adding more flour bit by bit to make a firm dough. You need to continue kneading for the needed 5 minutes, but you don’t need to over knead. Try bending your knees while kneading (haha). Cover and let rise 1-2 hours in a warm place or put in fridge overnight.

Grease Omnia oven, if needed. Once you are ready to assemble, make the coating by melting 1/4 stick butter on the stove. In a tray or plate, mix together about 1/2 cup sugar and 1-2 teaspoons cinnamon (measurements not necessary, just eyeball it!). Break dough into small balls, roll in melted butter and then roll in sugar/cinnamon mixture. Let balls rise a little while longer once in the Omnia, if desired, for a lighter, puffier result.

Looking good inside the Omnia.

Melt another 1/4 stick of butter on the stove, and mix in about 1/2 cup of chopped pecans. Once they start to sizzle and fry, add in 1/3 cup packed brown sugar and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract. Stir quickly, remove from heat, then spread on top of the dough.

Now bake in the Omni on the lowest setting, checking it often. When the topping is getting GBD (golden, brown and delicious) you are likely close. You can do a toothpick test or a springiness test to check to make sure the bread is cooked through. Or you can check the internal temperature, which should be about 190 degrees F.

Crunchy pecans are always the way to go.

This was a first-time experiment, so I feel pretty bold to put it out there as a recipe already! But it came out so good! I think next time I will make smaller balls of dough with more sugar and gooiness between them.

Last note: most recipes top this with a simple sugar glaze. Too much for me, but you're welcome to try it!

What do you like to bake on a cold day?

Note: Please do not read this if you are a Cylon.

Connectivity has been a recent hot topic aboard Independence as both of us have started picking up some online work and our goal of becoming "digital nomads". This is the fifth and final post in a series about our preparations to stay connected for work.

In previous posts, I've talked about three separate pieces of tech that we’ve gotten to improve our onboard internet setup:

Goals for this project:

Boost LTE and xG cell phone signal-big antenna plus an amplifier. Must be both GSM and CDMA compatible.
Boost Wifi signals from marinas, restaurants, and other open connections.
Share this connection, via a ship-board wifi system, to multiple devices including iOS (iPads and iPhones) and our Macbook computers with minimum a performance loss
Minimum setup required…ideally, something that can be mounted on the davits and left there (no daily moving antennas about, running cables, etc.)
Minimum power draw…no 110V AC routers, etc.

Now, how do you make it all work together? You could arrange the pieces any way you like. At the moment, we just have the Bullet wifi booster with its antenna plugged into the router, all of which is sitting temporarily on the helm area under the hardtop and dodger. It’s running off of the 12-volt outlet at the helm and everything is working fine. The cellular system is temporarily routed under the hardtop, with the antenna taped to the top of my boat hook (hey, this is a classy operation!)

Like the cylons, we have a plan:

Step 1: Permanently mount the Bullet and Wifi antenna and the cellular antenna to a pole on the davits and run 12-volt power to it. This is basically going to be an extension on the mount for the satellite antenna that came with our Iridium Go!. One complication in this is the cellular booster: it is not weather/water-proof and cannot be more than 3-4 feet from the cellular antenna. I’m formulating a plan to make it a housing out of simple PVC pipes and fittings from Home Depot. Since it has 12-volt power running in, I will likely stick the power supply for the Bullet in there too.

Step 2: Run the cables to the Nav station, which includes a long ethernet cable from the Bullet and the antenna cable from the cellular booster. The inside cell phone cradle gets plugged into that, and it is mounted near where my computer lives.

Step 3: Mount the travel router inside. I’m planning to tuck it behind out TV/monitor. All it needs is a USB cable for power and the ethernet cable from the Bullet.

I was originally going to mount the router in an enclosure and combine all of these elements into one place, but the more I thought about it the more I wanted to keep them separate. The router is so handy I just might want to grab it to take on road trips. I also didn’t want the cellular amplifier to pick up interference from the router or Bullet. The cell phone booster itself gets used without the router most of the time, so by having it mounted inside next to the router the phone in the cradle can be switched between direct USB to the computer or USB into the router. We often use the cell phone directly to the computer because it provides the absolute fastest connect for web conferences.

If you did want to build an all-inclusive device to be mounted in an enclosure, I think it would work best without our cell phone booster. I would shop for a USB modem card that is compatible with the router of your choice AND that has a plug for an external antenna. Then you could get an enclosure to house the router (with LTE modem plugged in, the Bullet power supply and the cell phone booster. Mount the LTE and wifi antennas to the case and run 12-volt power in. This was my original plan, but we decided to go with the actual cellular amplifier/booster.

So with all this said, how much did we spend on the whole setup? Note: I've included Amazon link to products available there, but I purchased a few items from data-alliance.net, which has some very good deals on components —

weBoost LTE cellular amplifier … $199

xG/LTE antenna, antenna cable and -SMB antenna adapters …$35

Bullet …$84

8 dbi wifi antenna …$30

Bullet power supply …$4

Various ethernet cables …$15

Travel router …$27

Total Cost … $394

Cost for Wifi Only … $160

Back to Page 3: Cellular Booster

Why are we doing all this again? So we can stay connected in our favorite anchorages, like Bennet's Creek, Cat Island, Bahamas. So say we all! JUMP!

Connectivity has been a recent hot topic aboard Independence as both of us have started picking up some online work and our goal of becoming "digital nomads". This is the third post in a series we will do about our preparations to stay connected for work.

Wifi booster

While we are dreaming up the perfect solution, it would be nice to connect to Wifi networks farther way. The big time this is helpful is in mooring fields…you are paying for access to the wifi and have the password, but it is just too slow because you're too far away. This would’ve been helpful more times than I can count. Sometimes (not often, but sometimes!) you are anchored near enough to a bar, restaurant or coffee shop that you could get on their network if you could buy the password from them. Usually, this costs just as much as a cup of coffee and you get a free cup of coffee. I’m always up for free coffee.

The number one way to accomplish this is with the Ubiquiti Bullet. This unit is used on nearly all of the commercial marine wifi solutions. I ordered all of the following components from Data Alliance, but many of the parts are available on Amazon.

The Bullet is a simple radio device. One end screws into your choice of antenna, the other end has an ethernet port that brings in power to the Bullet and connects to your computer. The Bullet is far more powerful than your computer’s wifi card and you can mount a pretty big antenna.

There are actually four different models of Bullet for sale, which makes the choice harder than it needs to be and it was difficult to figure out what was what. The M2 is for 2.4ghz networks (nearly all the networks you will ever find) while the M5 also connects to 5ghz networks, which are becoming more common. The “HP” models are white plastic while the “Titanium” ones are aluminum. All are “weather-proof”, but I think the aluminum “Titanium” models may be better if you are going to hang it outside permanently without an enclosure. The Titanium models also come with a 24-volt power supply, while the HP models do not. For reference, we choose the BulletM2-HP.

Ubiquiti BULLET-M2-HP Outdoor 802.11 B/G/N M2HP

These devices are Power over Ethernet POE devices and can accept any voltage from 8 - 24 volts. Since we’re on a boat, it would be great if we could use 12 volts. This is one of the main reasons I didn’t go for the Titanium model; I wanted 12 volts. I picked up a POE injector which accepts any voltage, and a power plug to wire into the ship’s 12-volt system.

Alfa APOE02-WM1, Passive PoE Adapter

For the antenna, I choose an inexpensive 2.4ghz, 8dbi omnidirectional wifi antenna. It’s nothing fancy and not very expensive. The antenna has an N-male plug which mates to the Bullet’s N-female plug.

Altelix 2.4 GHz 8dBi WiFi Omni Antenna N Male Connector (Outdoor Omnidirectional)

When I first got the Bullet, I plugged it in and had a lot of trouble setting it up. The Bullet itself is so widely used for so many applications that it is difficult to get all the settings just right. I finally found this tutorial on the Ubiquiti website that shows exactly how to do it for our use:

https://help.ubnt.com/hc/en-us/articles/205197710-airMAX-Configure-a-Long-range-WiFi-Client

Once I had the Bullet working on my computer and connected to the best wifi network (in my case, the marina’s), I plugged to Bullet into the Travel Router to share the boosted internet signal to everyone on board. I thought this was going to be a nightmare. To my surprise, it just worked. Now we can leave the Bullet connected to the marina (or whatever wifi is strongest), and we can make all changes and settings to the Bullet through the travel router. Amazing!

<-- Page 2: Travel Router | Page 4: Cellular Booster -->

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