April 8 – Cruiser Tips & Tricks & things that make your cruising experience better.

The April cruising social focused on tips and tricks and things that make your cruising life more enjoyable and perhaps you can’t live without. We have hosted this event in the past and every time there are new ideas that surface. Below is a summary of the suggestions that were shared by the group this year.

Plexus plastic cleaner and protectant/polish is a spray that Peggy uses on all their windows and vinyl surfaces on the boat. It was developed by the aviation industry and works on all vinyl window, hatch covers and most all plastic surfaces. Use with microfiber cloth for best results .

Check out Waggoneers Guide for lots of information about traveling from Seattle to Alaska. This guide has more information than just on anchorages. It has valuable information about transiting, vhf radio, tides and more.

Chris loves his fender hangers for quick adjustment of his fenders when coming into a new dock.

Many of us know about Luci lanterns but a new product by Luci lights was suggested by Mara – it is a string of lights that is solar powered .  And they come in colors too. These offer a new dimension to soft lighting. For more on the good things that Luci does https://mpowerd.com/pages/impact

Bill loves his stainless steel French coffee press which led to a discussion of small coffee grinders for the boat.  He also likes Gear Ties – industrial strength twist ties. Twist it, tie it and reuse it. They are handy for tying just about anything. They come in all sizes and bright colors and are available at your local hardware store and Fisheries.

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Another good low tech suggestion came from Keith (who happens to be cruising in Mexico right now – the beauty of the Zoom calls). He loves his soft shackles which he uses for connecting metal blocks to metal toe rails or any other metal to metal to eliminate the wear and tear on the metal. He uses line made with Dyneema for super strength and minimum fraying. They are easy to make (see YouTube) or you can purchase them.

One favorite for Paul and Suzette are the motion sensor lights in cabinets or even in the refrigerator. These lights make seeing into those dark holes much easier. They are readily available online. Paul also likes TriFlow lubricant for lubing the sail track – makes for an easy job of raising and lowering your sails.

Hans recently removed a big trip hazard on his deck by installing stantion mounted fair leads for his roller furling lines.

Moving on to more sophisticated high tech equipment – David likes his Vesper Marine AIS transmitter and receiver providing additional safety factors on his boat. And most importantly he likes the Anchor watch app that comes with this equipment which promotes sound sleep at anchor. He knows that in the rare event his anchor drags, this app will set off an alarm. He knows it works because the alarm has gone off when he went to raise his anchor in the morning. 

A must have on Derek’s boat is a LED flashlight with magnet and red light function.

On a rainy day, Bret can’t live without his plastic squeegee for clearing the water off his dodger windows. It is much more efficient that using a rag which will just smear the water around. Thanks Bret.

A couple of other items worth mentioning – we discussed filtering drinking water (many boats do this) and it was suggested that you test your manual bilge pump on a fairly regular basis (when was the last time you tested yours?) so if you ever do need it, you know it works.

Hope to see you at the next cruising Social.

Submitted by Peggy Watt.