My Sea Dog

Kokini is a Portuguese Water Dog. She was born July 9th 2010. That makes her just over 13 months old.












Here she is clipped short. She looks much better with longer hair, but I think I'll give her another trim soon as she is suffering in the heat.

Here she is in medium coat at about 11 months of age. She is quite a good retriever and will bring the ball back and jump up to put it in my hand. I have to work on her swimming and water retrieving still.

What is a blog without photo's?

Here is ECHO. She is an Ericon 46. I have been working on her on and off for years. It it time to finish this project--part of the reason I'm moving aboard. It will get done quicker.

You can see the two cockpit hatches in the front of the cockpit. This is how my dog will get in and out.

Sailing with a Water Dog

One of me concerns is sailing with my dog. While I feel fine with her on the boat it does raise a few issues. First, how will she get around the boat? I'm thinking she can get up and out the cockpit hatches once I rebuild the two aft staterooms. Climbing the ladder will be difficult for her. I'll have to study that more as we spend more time on the boat. Perhaps a temporary ladder for the cockpit hatch and a bed for her down below will be best for now. That will have to be a priority for the short term.

My other issue is peeps and poops. She can hold her water 10-12 hours--I'm amazed actually, so peeps are not a problem. Poops will be when we are underway. So I need to train her to so somewhere. The best option is the cockpit sole. I have a shower setup that I just bought to help clean up. I am thinking about buying some fake grass and putting grass clipping on it to train her that it is ok to go there, and later I can remove the grass clippings and then the mat.

Anchoring

My boat is a racing boat--or was. It has no windlass. I bought a new one,but it will be difficult to fit it. My plan is a pair of anchors on the bow with some chain and the two handed "Arm" windlass for now. I'm strong enough to handle these anchors by myself. I've hauled up all chain anchors by myself in the past. So I need two mounts, two rodes, and some chain. I will get a big Delta and a bigger Rocna or equivalent. I plan to supersize the Rocna by two over the recommended, and buy a Delta, probably one size larger than recommended, and use the Delta most of the time. I have a massive Danforth, that I will find a way to mount on the stern. The Danforth would be the best for soft mud but it is so hard to stow that I hate it actually. I'm debating cutting a well in the deck near the gunwhale and fabricating a place to store this anchor, with a drain--right there, like the J-44's have. It reduces weight on the bow and gets it out of the way, and aft. That will take some time and is not a priority, unless I can find a pre-made Danforth locker I can purchase and glass in easily. Is this enough anchors? Three is minimum. I would not mind four. ECHO is rather heavy, and the penalty is not that great for carrying extra weight. I can always move the anchors below and aft when sailing on the ocean.

Auto-Pilot ideas

I am leaning towards a Simrad auto-pilot at the moment. I prefer hydraulic, but electric (linear drives) are cheaper. My rudder is not well balanced. I think hydraulic will work and last--two requirements. It would be nice to have an auto pilot when I head south. Getting down the Jersey coast to the Delaware Bay and up and through the C&D canal would be difficult to do by myself, even with an auto pilot, unless I heave-to offshore somewhere and time it well with the weather.

The best auto-pilot is a balanced boat sailing upwind.

Moving aboard full time...

I will be moving aboard full time soon. Now the the weather is a bit cooler. In part because I want to refinish the floor in my bedroom and in part because I will get more work done on it if I am living in that space. My goal is to sail south this winter to find cheaper labor for some things like welding. I have about 2.5 months to get going.

Bottom Cleaning Done

After some arm twisting I got the fellow who cleans my boat bottom to show up and clean it. He has been really late and unreliable, even though I begged him to keep it clean for me. In any case it is done, and will last for a while, although I plan to haul the boat out and sand and repaint the bottom soon. My zincs are in good condition, so it seems my isolation transformer, coupled with my current location have reduced stray currents and minimized the needs for zincs. This is a big change from my last location where I burned though zincs somewhat rapidly.