Adventures on Blue Redd

  Playing with propane again.   My manifold was all bolted down so it cannot move.  Last year when we closed out the season it was all fine.   When we got aboard a few days ago, Karen said she smelled propane. Leaping into action, I chased the smell to the propane locker.   After much fiddling, I discovered it was both the manifold and the regulator.   The manifold fittings were all loose and if I held the flashlight at just the right angle, I could see the density waves of propane flowing out of the regulator vent.   How can this happen?    Regardless, it is now all fixed and my locker is clean (soapy water at close to 50/50 mix is a pretty good, if not goopy cleaner).   All tightened, fittings are taped with yellow teflon tape + blue PFTE compound, tightened hand-tight + 1 turn with a wrench.   So far, we haven't smelled more propane nor have we blown up. My next project is to replace this domest...

  Duende Libre live at Dimitrious Jazz Alley.  An unexpected delight as I was unaware of them.  They were on the billboard for Jazz Alley, we were in town, so we went.  Wonderful Jazz. In case you were unaware, I'm kind of nutty about a few things.   Boats, Wine, Food, People, Music, & Music Reproduction, in no particular order.  So, a quick jaunt to AXPONA in Chicago to meet with some audio equipment manufacturers, e.g. Pure Audio Project's founder, Ze'ev and a few others.  I really like his speakers!   Dollar for quality, they were tops at the show (there were reported to be over 1,100 vendors in 900 listening rooms. I thought this acoustic diffuser was cool looking. We heard a demo in this room with RD Acoustics anti-vibration footers.  They took a Streamer/DAC and had it resting on the floor.  Then they would pick it up and put it on their little footers.   They then played the exact same Phil Collins song (an...

Work, work, work...   We are at the PMC dock just getting Blue Redd prepared for another season of slow boating.   With the prices of diesel expected to hit $7.50/gal we will definitely be going more slowly.   Similar to a car, going a few knots slower yields much better fuel economy. We typically cruise around 7.5kts and get 1.6mpg.   By slowing down 1 knot to 6.5kts, we should go to about 3mpg.   That's almost double the fuel economy. To make things a bit confusing, we adjusted the prop pitch from 27.5" to 29" at the recommendation of Gary at the Mukilteo Prop Shop.   I haven't been out to run a new speed/efficiency table yet, but I'll get to that soon enough. We installed a new fridge in the galley.   So much nicer and 50% larger than our old one.   Great work by Brent Richards and Tristan DeYoung - Thank you both! Today we had easter brunch with Paul & Cheryl, our former neighbors (we left the neighb...

The Artemis II launch from just south of Vero Beach, FL.   The video is better, but after cropping and framing, it doesn't look like much. This is where we watched the launch from. Tomorrow, Friday 4/3/2026, we hop on a plane and head back to Seattle and Anacortes to get Blue Redd prepped for the West Coast Selene Rendezvous and another season in Alaska! Woooo Hoooo!   The adventure begins anew.