SailingKnitter

Because a sailboat heels over (gets tippy) when sailing, we have to secure our "stuff". My library of knitting books, and a few fishing, sailing, and cookbooks sit above our bed (aft berth) on a large shelf. So, I came up with this netting solution to keep them from falling off during our cruising travel.

It's 2 shock cords (bungee) with hooks that clip onto brass handles on either side of the shelf (that Jones kindly installed) with netting inbetween. I got the idea from the trunk nets for grocery bags that came with my Honda Civic. The shock cords were fairly straight forward to make. I bought a whole spool of this stuff on eBay for about 1/4 of what they want for it at the marine store. The cord is from the upholstery store - I think it is for drapery cords. Anyway, learning to "net" was a new adventure.

It's kinda like learning to knit - first, I have to load the "shuttle", then "cast on" to the shock cord, then work each row. And like when one learns to knit, it is very brain-taxing!! There are very few resources on netting - a few on the internet, and a couple of pages in some of the broader needlecraft books. Now that I've got the basics, I'm already planning several little net projects for the galley cabinets! Whoo yooo - more projects! I've also been playing with some knots and made a couple of lanyards for our pelican shackles. The lanyards give you something to grab onto to pull the shackle open (plus they look really nautical). I've handed out some of my first efforts to acquaintances in the marina to use either as shackle lanyards or key chain fobs.

Jones started reading our new "Chapman Piloting & Seamanship" book, chapter by chapter. At first he read sections out loud to me and I thought, "cool", I don't have to read it - just give me the important tidbits.


Hmmm, that probably won't work. When he was reading about the definition of nautical terms he "read" that a "wench" was the female on board that does anything the captain asks. What? What? Naw, I don't think so. Not on this boat.

Well, we had a couple of near-disasters yesterday. First, someone fell off the boat into the water between the dock and the boat!!! It was one of Jones' marina friends...two guys (both named Dave) drove their dinghy over to visit after having a few "refreshments"on their boats. As they climbed the steps to the boat, one of the Daves caught the front of his sandal sole on the toe rail, lost his balance, and fell. Thank goodness he landed in the water and not on the cement dock!The other Dave and Jones had to haul him out of the water. The only injury was to his toe - a little blood - and of course, to his man-pride. He's all right - walking around fine today.

Then, our water pressure pump kept coming on even though we weren't using any faucets. Were we low on water? OK, let's fill the tanks. That done, we turned the water pressure pump back on and, crud, it was still cycling on and off for no good reason. Jones checked the bilge - nice and dry. Next, he checked all the water sources - galley, heads, icemaker, wetbar - no drips. Puzzle. Bummer, do we need to replace the pump too now??? Another trip to the marine supply store and the slamming down of the credit card on the counter??

Finally, hours later, Jones discovered that there was water dripping down the front of the cabinet door to the washing & dryer. In the big hurry to get Dave a towel after his drenching, Jones had grabbed a towel from the cabinet and accidently nudged the water faucet handle to the "on" position. Because we use that cabinet as our towel storage area, it had dripped for hours unnoticed as the towels soaked up the water. OH!!! There's WATER & a FAUCET in there! Duh!!! We haven't used the washing machine yet so it never ocurred to us to check for water leakage in there!!!

Now, I need to devise a cover for the knobs so that won't happen again. Space is precious, we need to be able to store towels there.

And, finally, a picture of the completed child's gansey.

Knit on...