Ghunkholling Tips and Tidbits

[rgranger]

For all of us who have to put our boats away for the winter... I thought it might be nice to share some useful tidbits on making the weekend ghunkhole a little bit more comfortable.... Please chime in with your favorite little "trick".

Here are some of mine.

1) Freeze your bottled water and use that to chill your ice chest. That keeps melted ice from sloshing around in the cooler, saves space and you can drink the ice once it has melted.

2) Folgers Coffee Singles! Way easier than brewing a full pot.

3) Use mosquito netting as a blanket and wear a ball cap to keep it off of your face,. I have tried to enclose the entire cabin before but you always get one or two of those little buggers.. just throw the net over your entire body and go to sleep.

 

[WayneH]

One I learned from an experienced sailor. Carry a fishing rod with a NON-weighted cork. Below the cork, you place a lead weight. The distance between the cork and the weight is your comfort level of shallow water. As you approach an unknown location, cast the cork out ahead of you. If it floats upright, creep forward. If the cork floats on its side, BACK OFF!!!! My old depthsounder on my boat would like to go on break as we entered a new anchorage. This fishing rod allowed us to continue into the anchorage.

Precook and freeze most of your meals. Water for your coffee can be used to heat up your meal and any leftover hot water gets used to wash your plate.

 

[rgranger]

I like the fishing rod depth finder idea.....

another idea I got off of this forum
..and I use and love is idea is to use kite spools for fishing ..I keep two of these prerigged in my boat in a small PVC bucket.

I let them off the back of the boat and troll while sailing. They take up very little room.... a bit of a PITA to reel in but great if storage space is limited.

 

[shemandr]

Thankfully if we anchor offshore 100 yards or more we don't really have a mosquito problem - especially if there is a breeze. But my question is - if the mosquito netting is on or near your skin can't the little buggers still bite you? I've never seen mosquito netting so maybe I just don't get how it works.

 

[shemandr]

Here's a positive one: We rigged our dingy so that it would lie athwartship on the transom. This made it easy to step into. And we could start the dingy motor without immediately having to cast off (No Neutral). We did this with a bridle between the bow and stern cleats. We had a bumper fixed to the dingy that flipped over the side when in use and into the dingy when not, to fend off the mothership transom. So in leaving on the tender we could unclip and go, and when returning clip back in. For night time we could unclip the stern and let the dingy float back away from the transom. A cooler in it with some weight would dampen the noise from waves.

 

[justsomeguy]

if the mosquito netting is on or near your skin can't the little buggers still bite you?

Thank you.

 

[rgranger]

I have not had any trouble with biting through the netting but maybe that is because of the baseball cap. I do keep the netting off of my face with the bill of the cap. I never thought about biting through, I just wore the cap because I didn't like the feeling of the net on my face. I guess you could run a string over your bunk and drape the netting directly over your bunk...?? but I find it works okay with a simple ball cap.

 

[rgranger]

Thank you.

why "thank you"?

 

[justsomeguy]

why "thank you"?

He expressed my very thoughts on the subject. Damned mosquitoes.. they'll bite right through netting.

 

[Ron20324]

[QUOTE="...He expressed my very thoughts on the subject. Damned mosquitoes.. they'll bite right through netting.[/QUOTE]

That usually gets a " +1 " posting, meaning that you agree with the other post.

 

[rgranger]

I guess I got lucky with the ball cap idea but it was not for that reason. I just didn't like the feeling of the netting on my face.

 

[justsomeguy]

That usually gets a " +1 " posting, meaning that you agree with the other post.

Oops, my bad.

 

[Chris & Lenore]

Sailing the North Channel (Lake Huron) demands an effective mosquito solution. We would purchase a mosquito screen designed for a picnic table or double cot (hardware store - $10). Actually two - drape one over the poptop and the other over the Bimini. With a bit of creativity and a few clothes pins you could connect the two and have a mosquito free cabin and cockpit. Just don't lean up against it anywhere! Several of the boats in our group did this - works well.

We also froze stuff to keep the cooler cool and then ate or drank it when it thawed.
Favorites are chili (we freeze it in a square container so it fits like a bag of ice.
We would also buy the boxed wine (white) remove the box and freeze the bag of wine. Didn't seem to affect the taste.

Chris

 

[rgranger]

I like the frozen wine idea. Too bad scotch doesn't freeze!

 

[Parsons]

On my beachable daysailors, I would keep a smaller Danforth anchor and nylon rode available for beaching activities. I'd rig the line to a stern cleat and drop the anchor prior to the surf line. That allowed me to motor into the beach bow first and keep the rudder rigged. This all assumes that beach angle, surf level, etc. were conducive, but I'm not trying to go to the beach on the north shore of Hawaii! Anyhow, leaving the beach is cake because you don't have to worry about pushing out by foot until you drown, or backing off with your outboard in the sand. You just have to pull the rode, admittedly against the surf. Before this trick, I would invariably end up beam-to the waves and out of control because I did not want to smash my rudder.

 

[sdstef]

We get anchored before the mosquitos get really active. I will cover the forward hatch and companion way hatch with my big home made nets. I cut fine fiberglass screen and put galvanized chain in the hem on the perimeter. I will light two Thermocell units too. Works great. Timing is everything though. How in hell can a guy sleep in screen and a ball cap?

 

[Kermit]

How in hell can a guy sleep in screen and a ball cap?

Im not sure he sleeps. In one of his replies he said he gets lucky. Who knew!

 

[MitchM]

a box of starbuck 'VIA' instant coffee packets, (13$ for 26 packets at costco. (amazingly good instant coffee; it was outdoor magazine 'GEAR OF THE YEAR ' for back packing. )

 

[jwilcoxon78]

a box of starbuck 'VIA' instant coffee packets, (13$ for 26 packets at costco. (amazingly good instant coffee; it was outdoor magazine 'GEAR OF THE YEAR ' for back packing. )

And a jetboil for making the coffee. I've been struggling to not buy a second. One to keep in my pack and the other in the boat.

 

[rgranger]

I like Folgers coffee singles. They are actual coffee in a teabag.