NautaBytes

I know, I know.... it has been a LONG time since my last post.... I won't go into all the details, but things have been very busy for me, and, I guess I got a bit lazy....  But, Lest you think that all I do is work on Dulcinea, I figured a couple of posts are in order that show me actually sailing her!  When I bought her, I mentally made a goal that I wanted to cruise the San Juan Islands, Particularly Sucia, the "Crown Jewel" of the San Juans.  At that time, it seemed pretty far fetched, and a long way to go on a single handed trip, but none the less, it stayed in the back of my mind.  This summer (2014), I decided to make it a reality! Now, the first thing you should know about this summer's sailing season is that I was not on Dulcinea a great deal, due to major Upgrades to 2 critical systems at work, and my being cast in "young Frankenstein", the summer production at Tacoma Musical Playhouse. I don't normally do summer shows, but I couldn't re...

Dollar conscious IKEA Bling! I have always had this annoying problem in the Galley... I had spatulas, serving spoon, Pasta Rake and so on, but they were just too big to fit in the Drawer.  So I stowed them under the stove, but that wasn't working out too well either.  they were hard to get to under there, and they seemed to always slide out onto the sole (floor) on a good starboard heel. I was also bothered by all the wasted space behind the stove... at least 8 to 10 inches of usable space... Enter IKEA.  When he found out I had never been to this superstore before, My Brother in law took it upon himself to hijack me on the way back from Bellevue to take a look-see..... Wow, they had a LOT of cool stuff there.  I saw a closet organizer I really wanted, but it was too big and too much ($1500) to consider purchasing that day... but they did have something for Dulcinea that might ease my Galley Woes.... OK... I know what you are thinking.... what the .....?...

 There were a few things I didn't like about the Navigation Station..    First, the angled desktop kept everything on it sliding down, and sometimes to the floor.    there was also no place to mount the VHF radio except to the aft side, vertically. the VHF radio mounted on the aft side of the station... this pic is taken looking down Also, I want to eventually move all of the electrical panels to the Navigation Station, a more logical and safer location in my opinion, than the current location on the aft bulk head, where the backs of the panels are exposed to the Lazerette, albeit under the line locker, but I think it is possible that things could shift in there and come in contact with the panels, possibly shorting things out, or worse.  currently there is no place to put the panels at the nav station.  Not a great place for electrical panels... the back side is open to the Lazerette, and is near the sinks....