Category: Supplies

April 2021, New Zealand, Supplies

Get Our Clean On

Most of us in the world are lucky enough to have, used, cleaned or even seen a shower of some fashion.  From the simple garden hose variety to the elaborate style that looks like a car wash for your body.  There are many styles and configurations including some with what may seem like an endless supply of water.  Just turn the valve and bingo.  Water to use in conjunction with soap, shampoo and other personal hygiene devices.  There’s the kind with pop up plastic curtains to encircle you or those fancy open marble walled beauties that just kind of take up a whole corner of the bathroom.  Whatever style you have seen, we use showers to get our clean on.

EbaumsWorld

Most modern day first world homes have indoor plumbing complete with possibly a shower, shower tub combo, his and hers or even a whole wall of special jets and sprays to make sure you get every nook, cranny and crevice sparkling clean.  You turn the shower knob and cold and hot water is at your disposal.

Of course you may live in an area that has water rationing.  Or perhaps you have a well on your property.  Then there are those areas that collect rain water in a cistern.  Of course there is 

The Happy Time water tank truck that delivers water to your water tank that sits on your roof.  The point is your fresh water used to shower comes from one source or another.

Hang On, I’ll Get to My Point Shortly

As you may know, we on Dazzler posses a 150 gallon freshwater tank onboard.  We can use a hose to fill it.  But, most of the time we use our reverse osmosis system and make really good water from seawater.  So as long as we are floating on sea water we can make our fresh water supply by using solar and wind to generate battery power to run the water maker.   

The Luxurious Hot Water

Yes we have a water heater on Dazzler.  It creates hot water in one of two ways.  Either by 110 volt AC power supply or by a tube that coils inside the water tank and it carries hot water to and from the running engine through the tank to heat the water.  Really!  I know most of you yachties know all about this heat exchanger system.  

This is the solar shower bag we use on Dazzler. Click here to find one for your boat.

Because of or in spite of our land dwelling roots, we have become accustomed to using hot water to shower, do the dishes or even wash our hands.  I will go out on a limb and say that most homes in the US have on average a 40-50 gallon water heater.  Ours onboard Dazzler is six gallons thus making hot water very precious.   Especially since we only have hot water after the engine has been running for a while or if we are fortunate enough to have a 110 volt power umbilical supply attached to our electrical plug.

Dazzler like many cruising vessels has at least one form of a shower stall.  It’s complete with a cold and/or hot water valve to clean ourselves.  The hot water is only available from the above mentioned supply sources.  Some vessels have hot and cold water supplies at their transoms so they can shower there.  Some have them in their cockpits and a myriad of other locations.  During the summer months in Mexico we used our freshwater hose and showered on deck while wearing a swim suit.  We also supplemented our hot water shower supplies by using solar shower bags.

Speaking of Shower Stalls

I won’t speak for any of the other cruisers, but a shower stall left empty could be a huge waste of a valuable storage locker. On Dazzler we don’t waste a square inch of potential storage space.  Those bulky items that don’t seem to fit anywhere else go in our shower.  Maybe we just have too much damn stuff.  Things like dive tanks, boat cleaning bucket and supplies, a plastic bin filled with other cleaning supplies, hair drier, hair straightener (if you’ve seen my balding head you will know those are not used by me), wetsuit, a hanging cosmetic bag, two shower bags and a teak shower seat to sit on when everything else has been removed.  Yes our shower stall is fully functional after you remove all the equipment and other torture devices.  It sounds like a lot but it is emptied out within a half an hour or so.  LOL  No, it’s not that bad.

New Zealand has presented us with a unique dilemma with regards to showering.  While staying at a marina, we use the supplied marina showers.  That is a hazard all in itself as you will recall Jilly fell last year and fractured a few vertebrae in a marina shower.  Most of them operate on a dollar for six minutes or so.  Sometimes it requires two dollars to get more benefit from their hot water source.  While cruising the island wonders here I have been brave enough to use a shower bag on Dazzler’s deck when it wasn’t so cold.  

Okay, Okay…I’ll Get To The Point

I told you all of that to tell you this.  The other day after our near death experience, LOL, from the storm on the hook, I listened to the beautiful and talented soon to be Mrs. Morrison fill our nearly 120 square feet of living space with a post storm rant.  There I said it.  Post storm rant.  Feels good to get that out.  You know not keeping it all bottled up inside and festering like it does.  

“I can’t take this kind of thing anymore.  I don’t think I slept at all with all the boat noises.  Several times I thought the bow was going to be ripped off and we were going to sink.  I couldn’t sleep if I wanted to because I kept flying up off the mattress.”  And on and on and on.  Blah blah blah.  One of the last statements that really caught my attention was, “ I really need a hot shower and to wash my hair.”  

Dazzler’s Garage/Shower

I thought I know how to fix this and MAYBE bring a small beam of sunshine into her morning.  I opened the head door and was going to start removing the items in our storage/shower stall to prepare the chamber for the little woman.  Some of you are already getting a head of me.  Hold on a few more minutes.  

From the other side of the 120 square foot living space, it actually more like six feet away, I hear these words, “Don’t take that stuff out of there.  I’m not taking a shower now.  I don’t want to be stepping all over that stuff to get clean.”  And on and on and on.  Well, when the little woman’s southern pride, I am woman hear me roar, speaks loudly I heed the warning.  It was at this moment that I decided I needed to be in the vastly more open area of the cockpit for some fresh air.  

Fast forward to the next afternoon.  I hear these words, “I should have taken that shower yesterday.”  I responded in true Dan form, “That’s good, you can move the stuff out of the way before and move it back after you use the shower stall.”  I now refer to the former shower stall as The Garage!  And my new berth is in the cockpit. 

The point of this article is to provide just a little taste of what living in a small space truly is like.  If someone tells you that they don’t have these moments, don’t buy anything from them.  Let’s just say we are close to each other.  When I say close I mean literally next to each other twenty four hours a day every day.  Disagreements will happen and usually can’t be avoided. But it always works out in the end.  Especially a day later when you realize you really should have considered all things clean and holy and taken a shower when it was offered the first time.  

One of the things we always try to remember is you can be in love with each other and hug and kiss and be great friends.  But, when it comes to the safe operation of Dazzler, we put aside our sleeve bearing feelings and wear work hats that are all business.  There isn’t time for hurt feelings when someone has to go up the mast or a serious situation occurs and sometimes needs loud communication.  When it’s all over.  It’s over.  Anything said is left behind and forgotten and regarded as not personal.  Well at least that works for us.  Now excuse me while I watch the unloading of The Garage and shower transformation activities.

Until the next adventure in 120 square feet occurs, this is Captain Dan from Dazzler’s cockpit.  Good night and Cheers!

Captain Dan

Maintenance, New Zealand, Supplies

Sparkle’s Makeover
Sparkle BEFORE!

Sparkle has been Dazzler’s trusted Apex tender since 2005 when she was purchased new. Relatively speaking that’s a long life for a rigid inflatable boat (RIB) tender. In 2009 I made chaps for Sparkle and they lasted through the harsh climate of the northern Sea of Cortez during the summer months and all the sun exposure during the rest of the year.

When we departed Pacific Mexico for the South Pacific islands and other countries, her chaps were in good condition or so we thought. LOL. While in the Marquesas some local kids were jumping off all the tenders tied at the wharf, including Sparkle, and her chaps became ripped beyond repair. I know that things around the sea water and in the sun don’t last forever and I had been preparing myself for the inevitable thought of having to replace Sparkle and her chaps somewhere in the South Pacific. The chaps part was easy as we stored extra fabric to make new ones. The new tender was a different issue. While searching through the Apex website, I saw that there was an Apex dealer in Papeete. Great! We’ll try to get one there.

Well, the Apex website was inaccurate. Yes, the local boatyard/chandlery did sell Apex tenders at one time but not anymore.

So why didn’t we just get a different tender. Well, I’ll tell you Shouty! Sparkle’s outboard is a 20 HP Yamaha that we weren’t planning to replace, so a new tender had to accommodate the size, weight and trust of the 20 HP outboard. Second, and more importantly, we only have so much deck space to store Sparkle on the foredeck while we are making passages so we had to find one that would fit.

Those of you that know me know I don’t rush into large purchases. So we spent over two years looking for available tenders, their price points, Dazzler specifications (space and outboard) requirements, how many more years of cruising we are planning to do and of course it had to look pretty. LOL. All the while we held our breath hoping that Sparkle’s glue joints would keep holding air.

Fast forward…We arrived in New Zealand last November and it was looking like we would be spending close to $6000 NZD (@$4000 USD) for a new tender here. And just like that, the clouds parted and a light shone down from above and it delivered unto me the answer. “Dan a small NZ company called Seafarer Inflatables can replace the existing inflatable tubes of your RIB at a fraction of the cost of a new tender.” This was something I hadn’t even considered with my new age western mentality of replace rather than repair. Wow! It was an incredible possibility. What do I have to lose with an inquiry? Nothing, right! So, during one of our trips to the Auckland area visiting our friends, Jilly and I stopped by the modest facility of Seafarer Inflatables and met with the owner Neil Curtling. Neil was gracious with his time and spoke with us about the cost of having Sparkle’s tubes replaced with a new fabric called TPU. Neil quoted us a price of $2400 NZD that would be about $1500 USD with current exchange rate. Say it all together with me now…“WOW!” That’s a savings of over half the cost of a new tender.

I have to say Neil’s newly constructed tenders are nothing but gorgeous as well. But, for us we were a bit more focused on budget and quality tube replacement.

I know what you’re thinking. “What about the 15 year old fiberglass hull?” I’m with you. If you go to Neil’s website www.seafarerinflatables.co.nz you will see that as a part of re-tubing the tender, his specially trained technicians will also make any repairs needed to the hull while it’s all apart. In Sparkle’s case this turned out to be an added benefit.

What’s not to like about this home grown Kiwi business? Neil told us that his average turn around time would be about 10 days depending on any repairs needed. We arranged to drop off Sparkle at Neil’s makeover salon before we left for the states in January so she would be ready to pick up after our return.

A bit about the Valmax TPU fabric choice we made. We could have chosen between PVC, Hypalon or TPU. Neil highly recommended the TPU fabric for all tenders spending time in the tropics. Neil’s website states, “We only use the finest quality German Valmax PVC & TPU fabrics, welding these fabrics is our specialty with our unique duel lap seam welding system. Our thermobond welding machine has been customized to suit our manufacturing systems to enable the most reliable high quality welds & allow us to 100% thermobond weld the tubes.”

Additionally, at the EREZ website you can read more about the fabric specifications.

A side note that has some level of importance here. We were faced with the dilemma of transporting Sparkle to Neil’s facility and then getting her back up to Whangarei. We were going to rent a truck but when our good friend and Scottish Kiwi Allan Gray found out our transportation issue, he gladly volunteered to use his van. Not only did he use his van, but he actually took off from work and drove Sparkle and I to and from Neil’s. Wow! Not many people today do things like this. Thank you Allan and Wynn Fraser Paints!

Thank you Allan!

After returning to NZ we retrieved Sparkle from Neil’s tube make over salon and dropped her off on the ground next to the mothership at Harbourside Boatworks in Whangarei. What an amazing job Neil did! Neil did have to make some fiberglass repair on Sparkle’s sides. Apparently, her joints between the hull and the interior floor had become separated. Neil prepared, epoxied and clamped the separated joints for an additional cost of $250 NZD.

All we had to do now was give Sparkle a new paint job to complete the transformation. Off to Wynn Fraser Paints to get supplies. A good quality linear polyurethane primer, and a top coat paint and all the consumables. For the non skid areas I used my favorite paint product of all times, Kiwi Grip.

I had a plan of completing the interior first and then the bottom and aft edge of the transom. All in it took about 10 days from start to finish with only two days delay due to rain. And the results…Amazing! Sparkle looks like a brand new tender. Even Nick and a few other workers at Harbourside thought it was a new tender. I guess I got lucky. They say even a blind squirrel finds an acorn once in a while. LOL

That’s it! All in, the upgrade make over was about $2000 USD for what looks like a new tender that can handle the 20 HP outboard motor and is ready for new adventures to wherever the winds blow us. The only thing left to do is make a new set of tube chaps. That’s a story for a different post.

Until then, keep the water on the outside and your beer cold! Cheers!

Captain Dan, SV Dazzler