ZippySails
| Vessel Name: | Zipporah |
05 April 2021 | Canyonlands National Park, Utah
05 April 2021 | Canyonlands National Park, Utah
05 April 2021 | Canyonlands National Park, Utah
04 April 2021 | Canyonlands National Park, Utah
03 April 2021 | Canyonlands National Park, Utah
03 April 2021 | Canyonlands National Park, Utah
03 April 2021 | Canyonlands National Park, Utah
03 April 2021 | Canyon Lands National Park, Utah
30 March 2021 | Canyon lands National Park, Utah
30 March 2021 | Canyonlands National Park, Utah
30 March 2021 | Canyonlands National Forest, Utah
30 March 2021 | Moab, Utah
30 March 2021 | Moab, Utah
29 March 2021 | Moab, Utah
29 March 2021 | White Rim Trail, Utah
29 March 2021 | White Rim Trail, Utah
29 March 2021 | White Rim Trail, Utah
29 March 2021 | White Rim Trail
29 March 2021 | White Rim Trail, Utah
29 March 2021 | White Rim Trail, Utah
Recent Blog Posts
05 April 2021 | Canyonlands National Park, Utah
What Survives!
The Twisted Trees are lone survivors out here. Do they ever rot, someday maybe. They are fascinating the way they get twisted up from the wind.
05 April 2021 | Canyonlands National Park, Utah
Off To Climb
Those sheer walls in the distance are their destination!
05 April 2021 | Canyonlands National Park, Utah
The Seclusion
We found some!!! Seclusion that is. So far my experience in the Canyonlands has been different than I expected. The vastness, the beauty, that's all been inline with what I thought but I was expecting to be off more in the wilderness, away from the people. Even though the park is pretty unknown in the [...]
04 April 2021 | Canyonlands National Park, Utah
The Confluence
The Historic Point of destination today led us to the Confluence where the Green river from and the Colorado river from Colorado meet in the center of the Canyonlands and join to be the Colorado river which runs through the Grand Canyon in Arizona. This ten mile round trip hike was said to be over flat [...]
03 April 2021 | Canyonlands National Park, Utah
The Hoodoos
The majority of the Needles area of the park is covered in rock formations called the Hoodoos, An overview here shows these mushroom looking structures. The needles are condensed in one dense section but the Hoodoos sprawl out to cover the rest of the Needles section of the park.
End to End Anastomoses
19 April 2018
Doug
Sailing with my sister from Bequia to Mayreau in the Grenadines. Halfway along the refrigeration quits. Hmmmm... same thing happened to Mary and I halfway across the Atlantic a month ago. At that time however... after tearing the frig electrical apart for half a day... it magically started working again without ever finding a problem.. and worked so till now. Hmmm... intermittent problem... hard to find especially when it starts working again.
This time however, after another hour all the radios stop working. And after another hour all the instruments stop working... YIKES... all we got left are lights and our iDevices for navigation... at least until they need recharging! For the moment we're surrounded by tricky reefs with no depth readings and an anchorage to make! Trust the charts with clear water and good visibility... got into bay... anchor down... whew!!
It's early afternoon... monitor systems while diagnosing for an hour or so to see if they magically start working again. Nope!! Good news... no longer an intermittent problem... could be easier to find the problem when it's not intermittently hiding! Bad news.., we have a problem a 100 miles from any services!!!
Diagnose rest of day isolating one circuit at a time... trying to find which is pulling whole boats voltage down. With every circuit disconnected problem persists.. turn any one circuit on and lights go out.. nothing at all. Midnight... tired... got to sleep. Frig has been off for hours... probably gonna loose all food. No worries have cans. Won't starve.
I stir in the middle of the night to hear the frig running... magically working again. Good news... food ok. Bad news... problem hiding again. But now with worse consequences and Murphy apparently on board. Laying awake pondering... "God I need some help with this one please". Thought comes in night... directly connect refrigerator to batteries with a separate wire to save food. Ok.
Morning comes... refrig still magically working. Hmmm... turn on radios... everything dies. Good news... non-intermittent problem easier to find. Bad news... need to find it now!
Locate enough extra wire on board to make direct connection from battery to frig as inspired so in the night. It works fine... runs a long time. Hmmm. Move this extra new supply wire to main boat circuit box and reconnect frig circuit. Still runs fine long time. Hmmm... reconnect radios. They work fine too. Reconnect each circuit in turn and everything seems to continue to work normally. Hmmm...either problem magically went away again or original boat main supply line has a problem. Got to check that out.
Main supply wire leaves battery compartment on opposite side of boat to breaker box... runs under floor boards.. under port saloon seat.. behind navigation table en route. Yuck. Easiest to lift floor boards... do that first.
AND... immediately... VOILA!!!! The main supply wire is almost corroded completely through in one little spot. When the keel structure was repaired years ago there was a sharp prick of hardened epoxy underneath the wire jacket that has poked its way through... allowing water rattling around in bilge access to the wires inside... and slowly over the last 5 years corroding the wire stands inside.
This main supply wire is about a 1/4" in diameter but with about 100 smaller braided strands. I kid you not... there could only have been about 5 strands left connected... see pic... AMAZING ANYTHING WAS WORKING!!!! And when it was all magically working current for refrigeration, radios, instruments and autopilot all going through these few strands!!! Maybe as 'the end' approached remaining strands got hot and failed more rapidly. But anyways... intermittent explained!
I show my sister with a big smile of relief... here's THE problem!! And being a nurse she replies.. well all we need now is an end-to-end-anastomoses!! What the heck is that you ask? Me too. It's when your intestine has a "dead part" and they cut it out and rejoin the live parts. Well... that's exactly what we need!!!
Procedure complete... everything working 'robustly'. Before the lights would slightly flicker when the refrig kicked on... because no doubt of voltage dropping thru the corroding main supply line. My bad for not cluing into that as an impending problem a year or so ago. But no more flickering now... all good.
It's now mid afternoon. Relief. Off to shore for a celebratory hike on the beach. Wow... I can't believe those few strands got us across the ocean. And so thankful for the help sorting it all out. Thank you God for the inspiration!
This time however, after another hour all the radios stop working. And after another hour all the instruments stop working... YIKES... all we got left are lights and our iDevices for navigation... at least until they need recharging! For the moment we're surrounded by tricky reefs with no depth readings and an anchorage to make! Trust the charts with clear water and good visibility... got into bay... anchor down... whew!!
It's early afternoon... monitor systems while diagnosing for an hour or so to see if they magically start working again. Nope!! Good news... no longer an intermittent problem... could be easier to find the problem when it's not intermittently hiding! Bad news.., we have a problem a 100 miles from any services!!!
Diagnose rest of day isolating one circuit at a time... trying to find which is pulling whole boats voltage down. With every circuit disconnected problem persists.. turn any one circuit on and lights go out.. nothing at all. Midnight... tired... got to sleep. Frig has been off for hours... probably gonna loose all food. No worries have cans. Won't starve.
I stir in the middle of the night to hear the frig running... magically working again. Good news... food ok. Bad news... problem hiding again. But now with worse consequences and Murphy apparently on board. Laying awake pondering... "God I need some help with this one please". Thought comes in night... directly connect refrigerator to batteries with a separate wire to save food. Ok.
Morning comes... refrig still magically working. Hmmm... turn on radios... everything dies. Good news... non-intermittent problem easier to find. Bad news... need to find it now!
Locate enough extra wire on board to make direct connection from battery to frig as inspired so in the night. It works fine... runs a long time. Hmmm. Move this extra new supply wire to main boat circuit box and reconnect frig circuit. Still runs fine long time. Hmmm... reconnect radios. They work fine too. Reconnect each circuit in turn and everything seems to continue to work normally. Hmmm...either problem magically went away again or original boat main supply line has a problem. Got to check that out.
Main supply wire leaves battery compartment on opposite side of boat to breaker box... runs under floor boards.. under port saloon seat.. behind navigation table en route. Yuck. Easiest to lift floor boards... do that first.
AND... immediately... VOILA!!!! The main supply wire is almost corroded completely through in one little spot. When the keel structure was repaired years ago there was a sharp prick of hardened epoxy underneath the wire jacket that has poked its way through... allowing water rattling around in bilge access to the wires inside... and slowly over the last 5 years corroding the wire stands inside.
This main supply wire is about a 1/4" in diameter but with about 100 smaller braided strands. I kid you not... there could only have been about 5 strands left connected... see pic... AMAZING ANYTHING WAS WORKING!!!! And when it was all magically working current for refrigeration, radios, instruments and autopilot all going through these few strands!!! Maybe as 'the end' approached remaining strands got hot and failed more rapidly. But anyways... intermittent explained!
I show my sister with a big smile of relief... here's THE problem!! And being a nurse she replies.. well all we need now is an end-to-end-anastomoses!! What the heck is that you ask? Me too. It's when your intestine has a "dead part" and they cut it out and rejoin the live parts. Well... that's exactly what we need!!!
Procedure complete... everything working 'robustly'. Before the lights would slightly flicker when the refrig kicked on... because no doubt of voltage dropping thru the corroding main supply line. My bad for not cluing into that as an impending problem a year or so ago. But no more flickering now... all good.
It's now mid afternoon. Relief. Off to shore for a celebratory hike on the beach. Wow... I can't believe those few strands got us across the ocean. And so thankful for the help sorting it all out. Thank you God for the inspiration!
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