The day before departure (Magothy River)
The weather looks good for a departure tomorrow, the intended starting day of our cruise from the Chesapeake Bay down the ICW to St. Augustine, Florida. The boat is well-prepared and packed tight, although we both still have that nagging feeling of having forgotten something. We are going to try and leave early in the […]
The Great Fruit Fly War
Tuesday, October 4, 2016 at 9:00AM. It all began, as surprisingly many unfortunate things do, with a banana. Tom loves a morning smoothie, made with blueberries, spinach, strawberries, almond milk, and bananas. All these ingredients do well under refrigeration except bananas. So, just before we set off for our ICW trip, I bought a bunch […]
Storing Small Propane Bottles
Some time ago, I read an article in “Good Old Boat” magazine about a nifty way to store the small propane bottles that are used to fuel marine/camping barbecue grills. It turns out that the standard size small propane bottle fits nice and snugly inside a piece of 4” schedule 40 PVC pipe. All you […]
Installing a Solar Panel System
I read a lot of articles from solar component manufacturers and other boaters on how to plan and design a solar energy system for our sail boat. Our goal was to see how close we could get to being self-sufficient at anchor with just solar power without sacrificing all the comforts we enjoy at the […]
Kingbird Family
A pair of Eastern Kingbirds nested on the pulpit of a friend’s sailboat, which was not in much use this spring/summer. At first glance I thought the nest appeared awfully exposed-but closer inspection revealed that the pulpit seat shielded the nest from sun, rain, and sky-based predators, and the railing around the boat’s bow provided […]
Worton Creek
After many hot, muggy, humid airless days, relieved only by the occasional thunderstorm, the weather finally moderated, and we took advantage of the cooler temps and breeze and took off for Worton Creek. As the wind was NE and right on our nose, we motored there. Being a weekday, we saw relatively few other pleasure […]
Magazine Rack
We wanted a low profile magazine rack that wouldn’t protrude too much from the wall it was mounted on and also blend in nicely with the teak interior of the IP420.
Spice Rack
There is a perfect place for a spice rack in the IP420 galley under the companion way and against the wall separating the galley from the aft cabin. This custom rack can hold 16 large spice jars and displays three nice nautical themes on the side which faces into the main part of the cabin.
Sea Chest
You know that place at home where you put your wallet and keys and loose change and other small but important stuff? This beautiful sea chest is perfect for that and also makes for a very interesting conversation piece.
Trash Bins
The space around the toilets in each of the heads in our boat does not lend itself to a typical home sized bathroom trash bin. What we needed was a “skinny” enough bin to fit in the small space between the toilet and the wall, but tall enough to overcome the lack of volume from […]