Karma
| Vessel Name: | Karma1 |
| Vessel Make/Model: | Columbia 45 |
| Hailing Port: | Halifax, Nova Scotia |
| Crew: | James and Dody |
| About: | James has been sailing for most of his life, starting with dinghy sailing around 8 years old. Dody is a loving 1st mate who hopes that James knows what he is doing. |
| Extra: | "Ships are the nearest things to dreams that hands have ever made" - Robert N.Rose |
21 October 2014 | Alberta, Canada
Salty dreams...
I've got a case of salty dreams and wanderlust. I can hardly wait til we cut the dock lines and chase adventure on the sea! @ back to Karma soon !:)
10 October 2014 | Alberta, Canada
Autumn Update
It is Indian Summer, and we are in the process of closing up our home in the beautiful mountainous and plan for our annual migratory trek to be on S/V Karma. It's been an adventurous Summer vagabonding around, tending to the Orchard, visiting family and friends out East and enjoying the east coast. You can catch a ray of our journey as we prepare to travel down the Cali Seaboard to be back in Guatemala! let the journey begin! ~~
11 February 2014 | Rio dulce, Guatemala
Strange tropical fruit make me happy!
There is no end to exotic fruit in tropical Guatemala. From one day to the next the selection changes. The nice thing about Guatemala is that Each time I go to town I'm surprised by something new! The other nice thing is that it's so cheap! Although they have fruit you'll recognize such as mango, pineapple, [...]
The projects proceed...
- Haul out (clean, primer, antifoul, thru-hulls, zincs, and depth sensor
- Watermaker
- Refrigeration
- Solar panels
Tomorrow is haul out day. I've decided to go with RAM marina; they seemed to be competent, and ready to go. We'll trundle over there tomorrow morning, and see how things go. I am hopeful that there isn't any nasty surprises under the hull, but as Karma has been sitting in the river for quite some time, it may not be so easy. We can only wait and deal with what comes.
I need to grab some proper sized zincs for corrosion protection for the hull and propeller shaft.
None of the thru-hull valves are sticky, so that is good news.
I'm still waiting for the solar panel man to get back to Rio Dulce. He has been up in GC for the last week or so. I guess he has business set up there as well. Solar seems to be a popular option here, probably because the local power rates and reliability are pushing the market that way.
The watermaker was a bit of luck. I found one through the local yachty want ads, and it was cheaper than I could have scrabbled together a home built...and it's pretty and works. So, installation is pretty much good to go, I've found a nice compartment for it, and I figure about 2 hours of splicing hose into existing thru-hulls and water tank fittings, and another 2 hours of wiring and testing. So, given standard project estimating, it will likely take 4 days of work (take the next highest unit of time, and double it)
Refrigeration is still a design challenge. There are some existing cold plates sitting on the boat, but they don't work. I don't think I will bother trying to repair them.
One option for refrigeration that I am leaning heavily towards is to use a freezer powered by an inverter and the solar panels. I can get a small domestic freezer for about $300, and could drop it right into the existing cold storage space (with some cutting and manhandling). The kicker is how much power it will need to draw to keep things chilly. More on that later....
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