Sea sickness patch: what not to do

Of course, that’s not me in the picture but that’s how I looked the other day after a misadventure with a Scopolamine patch.  I thought I’d pass along my lesson learned. 

As I’ve written about before, I’m very prone to sea sickness. Earlier this year I tried the Transderm Scop patch. It’s a prescription drug, Scopolamine, that’s delivered through a small patch that you wear on your neck, behind your ear. You apply it the night before you need it and it lasts 3 days. The patch seems to work well for me and doesn’t make me pass out cold like meclizine (Bonine) and dimenhydrinate (Dramamine).

Unfortunately, the morning before our departure from Stuart on Tuesday, I messed up! I woke up, realized I’d put the patch on too far forward (too visible) so I moved it farther back on my neck. Then I put in my contacts and went about my morning routine.  About an hour later I noticed that I was having trouble seeing and that I couldn’t read my phone or see close up. I got a little freaked out and then I looked in the mirror, wow! My eyes looked like the photo above, ridiculously dilated.  I thought it had to be from the patch so I took it off.

Then I spoke with our friend who was docked next door and he told me that he’d done the same thing and that I must gotten the drug directly in my eye. Yup. I’d rinsed my hands but not washed them and then put my contacts in right after relocating the patch. There’s oil on the patch so a rinse is ineffective, you need a good soapy wash. Yikes! So I took out my contacts and waited about 8 hours for my eyes to return to normal. Oh, and I got seriously sea sick on our trip down to North Palm Beach :/

So yes, if you read the info packet that comes with the drug you’ll see that you really shouldn’t get it into your eyes because it causes huge pupils and blurry vision. Lesson learned: read the inserts and wash your hands thoroughly before sticking your fingeres in your eyes.

Back on Blossom

And I’m back!  It’s been over three weeks since the show ended. We're back on Blossom and on the move again, so I thought I should get back to blogging. 

My trip back to California was great.  I had an amazing time with my friends who came to visit from back east and tried to see as many people from home as I could. We fit a lot in, visiting San Francisco, Monterey Bay, Heart Castle and wine tasting in Paso Robles.  We all felt so lucky to have our week together. There’s something special about hanging out with friends you’ve known for 38+ years!

Exploring Pas Robles with Jeanne & Amy

It was also wonderful, however, to return to Martin and Blossom :). I arrived back on a Thursday and we spent the weekend provisioning and getting ready to head out. I also made good use of having a car to do some Christmas shopping.  After 3 months of training, guests and obligations, we’re so excited to take off, just the two of us, and experience the boat with no real agenda. We plan to head south towards North Palm Beach where we’ll anchor for a week or so.  We’ll have Thanksgiving on the boat at anchor.  We need to be in Key West by mid-December so we have a month to lazy our way down there.  Our friends Sean & Louise have finished up their work in Deltaville and are heading south at this very moment. We’ll watch their progress and are looking forward to meeting up with them again soon!

Boat Business:

While I was visiting and reconnecting with friends, Martin was hard at work on Blossom. I can’t believe how much got done!  There were three general categories of projects: warranty, maintenance and home improvement.

Warranty: Among the warranty items that were fixed were...

Prop. The big item and one we were most concerned about was the prop. We’ve very happy to say that the new prop is on and … no noise!  Martin was able to reach 100% load at 2200 rpm which is as it should it be.  The prop (diagnosing the problem) was a major factor in dragging out our commissioning process the last couple of months and we’re happy to have it resolved.

Hydraulics. Just after getting in to the dock at the commissioning office after the show, our hydraulics failed with a wailing “overheat” alarm. Luckily it happened just after the boat was secured to the dock and not while docking. The Stuart commissioning dock isn’t the easiest place to dock and without thrusters it would be very difficult indeed. The hydraulic raw water pump was the culprit and it was replaced.

Steering Pump. The leaking steering pump that had been isolated when we left Stuart in August was removed and replaced.

Headliners.  Some of our headliners (ceiling panels) were starting to sag all ready so they were removed and re-covered with the same color majilite.

Forward Hatch. After several attempts to caulk one of the three hatches in the guest state room it was decided that it was easier to just replace it. The new one, happily is water tight!

Coolant pump. We had a small coolant leak on the main engine. The pump on the engine was replaced.

IsoBoost transformer circuit board.  This boosts the voltage from the shore power when shore power is inadequate (<240 volts). It had been over-boosting, causing headaches with power management.

Maintenance: Wheelhouse checklist

Martin updated the information on our wheelhouse account (#hours on the engines and generators) and generated our report. There were approximately 60 items on our list and Martin got through the vast majority of them.  Routine maintenance items included changing the oil in main engine, changing air filters, checking steering system, raw water strainers, zincs, etc.

Home Improvement: While a couple of these were items that didn’t get addressed before we left in August, the majority were things that we decided we’d like to add after having lived on the boat for a couple of months.

Drip Rail. We have one of the first extended boat decks on an N60. Our deck doesn’t have a drain along the edge at the aft end. As a result, rain drips down around the settee in the cockpit rather than off to the side. We also have a lot of dripping above the pilot house doors. And lastly, if there’s heavy dew and we’re listing to port, there’s a slow drip from the fly bridge hard top that hits the side deck right above Martin’s head while he’s in bed. So…Martin bought drip rail and applied it to the aft boat deck, above the pilot house doors, and on the hard top.  It’s rained several times since he put it up and we’re happy to say that it works! In the cockpit it now drips off to the side. We may try adding one more strip to get to drain farther off but this is an improvement.

Drip Rail

Carpets in staterooms. After putting carpet up in the pilot house, we decided to put it down in both staterooms.  Originally I didn’t want to cover our beautiful floors. After two months of dropping things on those beautiful floors (especially the pilot house) we decided to cover them up. It’s also warm and comfortable on your feet.  They brighten up the staterooms quite a bit. 

State room carpets

Shave MSR doors.  One of the changes we made to the boat was to make the doors flush with the floor rather than have an elevated sill on the bottom. The original design is reminiscent of hard core, water proof doors but is only stylistic. My toes are happier with no raised edge to bash into.  Unfortunately, we didn’t think to specify the clearance from the floor and there was only about a ¼ inch, not enough to clear a rug or carpet. We had them shaved back another ¾ inch to clear the carpet and pad.

Blinds in Pilot House.  We added blinds to two windows, above the settee on the port side and directly across from the settee on the starboard side. We found that the afternoon sun can make pilot house really hot, especially on the port side which is the best place to sit.

Port Side Blinds

Port side rails. We didn’t have time to get them installed in August so we finished this up. The rails are for me to hang on to when putting on the outside mesh covers on the salon windows.

Hatch covers.  We asked Harvey to make up covers for the three hatches on the bow, above the guest stateroom. This will help cool the room and prevent sun damage to the hatches.

Guest stateroom tv. Since we don’t have a tv in the salon and would rather not put one there, we added a tv to the guest state room so visitors can relax and watch television when they feel like it.

Guest room tv

Anchor locker wall extension. We have two chambers in our anchor locker. Sometimes the chain falls into the adjacent space and can be loud. Martin built an extension out of starboard to prevent this from happening.

Anchor locker extension

Pilot House electronics inverter.  We lose our monitors when switching from shore to engine/inverter power. The inverter assures that we won’t lose our electronics when leaving the dock – a very good thing to fix.

Black tank sensor. We now know exactly how full of sh*! we are!  Seriously though, the sensors that came with the boat we way off and it’s tough not knowing when you need to pump out since all flushing stops if you fill up.  We learned that our black tank holds 160 gallons, much more than the 120 that we were told.

Fresh water tank. Martin calibrated the fresh water tank which is supposed to be 600 gallons and found it be more like 900. No military showers aboard Blossom!

Delta T. Martin worked with Delta T and turned both of our engine fans to intake fans. We think this will make a big difference in our engine rooms temps. We’ll test this out next week. They are also working up an air diverter for the port side fan to better direct air into the engine room.  UPDATE: Running down from Stuart to North Palm Beach we saw engine room temperatures approximately 30 degrees above ambient temperature. This is a big improvement from the original 45 degree difference in August.  We hope we’ll drop another 5 degrees or so once the diverter is in place.

Snubber. Martin put a new snubber on our bow. This is a work in progress, trying to get it just right. The snubber acts as a kind of shock absorber between the anchor chain and the boat and reduces the amount of scope we need because it’s attached to the tow eye low on the bow.

Black & Gray Tanks.  Martin converted the charcoal filters on the air vents to be refillable rather than having to replace them every 6 months.  These are filled with active charcoal to eliminate odor.

Day Shape Pole. Martin had to futz our day shape pole because it was too big to fit in the post holder on the bowsprit. He bought the correct size and reworked it and now it fits perfectly. (The day shape is to be put on the bowsprit to indicate to nearby/passing boats that the boat is at anchor and is not going to get out of their way!)

Day Shape

Follow-Ups:

Sonic barnacle buster. Martin installed 8 transducers throughout the hull while we were in Yorktown. This is a new technology and its true effectiveness isn’t really known. The boat was short hauled (a quick haul out where the boat is kept in the slings, not set down and blocked) to replace the prop so Martin got a good look at B’s bottom.  She was completely free of growth with just some minor barnacles in a few through hulls. This is to be expected as we recently had the bottom painted, but it gives us a good base for comparison over time.

9k Generator: Is working great, the new wavenet panel has resolved all of the issues we were having with the 9k.

2,500 nm

One of the things Nordhavn do that sets them apart from the rest is to celebrate the distance their boats cover. They do this by awarding the boat a mileage pennant at certain - pardon the pun - milestones.

The first mileage pennant is awarded at 2,500 nm, something we achieved on our way back from Ft Lauderdale.

2500 nm!

Ft. Lauderdale Boat Show Success!

Wow – the show has come and gone in one big flash!  The show was a mix of exciting, entertaining, informative, stressful and exhausting.

Unfortunately, I didn’t take very many pictures, I regret that now!  I wish I had taken before and after pictures. We watched the docks getting put in place, water and electricity laid out, and temporary showrooms being built.

People wandering about the boats on the lightest day, Thursday

By far, the best part of the show was getting to see so many friends and meet so many great people. We were able to see everyone from “Team Blossom” – Scott Cole was there (two of his boats were in the show, us and the former “Eliana”), Steve D’Antonio and Jeff Merrill. Our training/delivery captain, Jim, was there as well as he’s also working with a new 68 that’s just being commissioned now. It’s a working show for everyone so we were grateful to get to see them as much as we did. We met with several other Nordhavn owners whom we’ve met over the past several months of commissioning, traveling and from the owners yahoo group. Nordhavn put on an owners party Friday night that was great!  There were so many people I didn’t even get to meet everyone. And then there were our friends who were attending the show that we got to catch up with. We were so busy but really enjoyed our time with everyone.

The people who come through the Ft. Lauderdale boat show are from all over and in all stages of boat life. Some are exploring boating as a lifestyle they might enjoy, others are deciding which boat would suite them best. Some are waiting for the right time to move forward, or have just pulled the trigger and are waiting for their boats, There are those of us just beginning our travels and then there are the seasoned cruisers.  We met several people who are doing east coast cruising and whom we hope to meet up with around Florida or in the Bahamas this winter.

Martin and I spent most of every day sat out on the aft deck. We were a bit nervous about having so many people walking through our boat and just felt better being there. This proved to be the right move for sure as that’s how we met up with so many people and we were able to answer questions. I joked that Blossom got a bit of an ego from all the accolades. She really is a pretty boat (I’m very Mama proud). We got a lot of positive feedback on some of the changes we made. We weren’t sure if people would love or hate some of them (removing the captain’s cabin, for one). But for those people with similar needs as ours, many thought it was a good idea. Of course, there’s no “right” layout, it’s just what suits your own needs/tastes the best. 

Don’t Sit, Don’t Open, sheesh J 

We were very lucky to run into another owner who generously chatted with us for quite a while about black and gray tank management. We learned a great deal and got some great suggestions for maintaining them, odor-free. His N55 is for sale and we got a tour and were amazed at how “fresh” it is! His broker, who is also a known Nordhavn expert was also a great help discussing best practices for the tanks.  We’re going to implement some additional changes and start using some new products to address the gray tank issues we’ve been struggling with.

This was the first show we’ve been to that we didn’t really explore much. Martin spent a couple hours visiting booths and spoke with a couple of the people about some purchases we want to make (there are always “boat show” specials” to be had). The Yachtsign folks came by to take some pictures of our Blossom signs. Everyone raved about Cecilia’s design on our transom, thank you Cecilia!! We had the Release Marine rep, Matt, come out and take a look at our cockpit table that was installed upside down. He said that they can redo the one section with the design we wanted and plug the holes that show on the top.  We’ll see if it’s something we want to address or not next fall. We learned that the talented young man who made our table was recently killed by a drunk driver. It makes me think that we may keep what we have in respect for his outstanding work. Even the “bottom” of the table is, in fact, quite beautiful.

The Nordhavn booth, we were right in the middle of the action

We’re very grateful for all the PAE folks who showed our boat. They worked hard the entire show and “crowd control” was very good!  At times it was a madhouse but Jenny and Robin kept control and everything went very smoothly.  We met many of the Nordhavn team too. All three principals were there, salesmen from all over the states, England and Turkey, as well as representatives from the Ta Shing and South Coast yards. We hadn’t had the opportunity to meet Jeff Leishman, the chief designer, before. We were happy to meet him and thank him in person for our lovely boat!

Hauling out the little boats on land

Monday night at five o’clock all the boats in the marina sounded their horns (yes, it was Loud!) to celebrate the end of the show. Some pretty rockin’ parties were taking place on the megayacht docks that night for the yachties. The wind was really blowing the last few days of the show and by Tuesday, it was too rough for leaving on the outside (the ocean). So hundreds of boats began the conga line trip up (and down) the ICW. I felt a bit guilty leaving Martin & Jim to the task but I’m sure my anxious energy wasn’t missed too badly :/  Martin & Jim departed the marina about noon and were able to make it up to the West Palm area to anchor out in the evening, and to Stuart by mid day Wednesday. I headed back to California on Tuesday morning. 

Blossom passing CJ & Margie’s home on Tuesday

It feels good to be “home” though I now consider Blossom “home” as well. So I guess I should say that it feels good to be “west coast home”. I do love the Bay Area, the people, culture, crisp air and clear skies. I’ve had some minor adjustments to make, returning to the land house. I keep trying to step on the garbage drawer (that’s how you open the trash compactor/garbage on Blossom) and this morning I found myself staring at the toaster oven waiting to turn it on until the Keurig was finished so I wouldn’t pop a breaker. And of course, being in the house, I still expect George to come walking into the bedroom and jump up on the bed with me. L 

I’ll take a break from blogging for the next couple of weeks and as my girlfriends and I explore Paso Roblas and taste wine…not very Blossom related until I bring back a case to Florida. I’m trying to get Martin to fill in for me as he’s staying aboard with a two page list of boat tasks to tackle in addition to the warranty work we're having done!