Accessories – Riveted

Dealing with Steamy Windows

Laura Domela — Sat, 04 Mar 2017 00:05:51 +0000

If you travel by boat or RV during cooler temperatures and you aren’t a robot, then you know. Condensation is an issue. We’ve tried many things to keep the windows clear. After all, so much of travel is about the view, right? On Airship, for a while I used just a squeegee, but then where does the water go? I added to that method a chamois to absorb the moisture first, then followed up with the squeegee, but it’s still a bit messy. And if you have living breathing human beings inside with the heat on, no amount of staying on top of it will take care of it for good.

We recently picked up one of these babies on Amazon, based on a recommendation from a friend (Hi Wanda!). It’s the Karcher WV50 window vacuum cleaner.

It was thirty bucks, it’s rechargeable, and we have room for it on the boat. All that, and it’s fun to use! You vacuum/squeegee your windows when they get fogged up, and they end up clean and clear and dry. Sure, they’ll fog right back up when you boil water for tea or pasta (or have ten people over for a cocktail party), but hey, remember — it’s fun to use! It has a good-sized reservoir that you empty when it gets full, and it gets full surprisingly fast!

All in all, it was a great purchase and it’ll stay on the boat. On cold and rainy days like today, we’re anchored off of Orcas Island near Double Island, and the windows pretty much look like this, all the time:

Until I use the “vacu-squeege.” (That’s rain on the outside…I won’t bother with that.) Yeah, the condensation eventuallys come back, but at least I know I’m getting a lot of the moisture out of the air each time.

Anyway. There you go. Recommended product!

IMPORTANT NOTE: The photos above are taken in the salon, while at anchor…not underway. We have fans to keep the pilothouse windows defogged while underway. Whew!

Yeti Love

Laura Domela — Sat, 08 Oct 2016 23:13:32 +0000

When we were traveling in the Airstream we had a nice stainless steel Coleman cooler that did a great job for us keeping things cold and looking shiny.

But the marine environment doesn’t care about shiny. The hardware started to rust a little, and we decided we needed something tougher that could stand up to salt spray and being tossed around a bit. Enter the Yeti Tundra 50.

The refrigerator on Airship is quite small (understatement, though it’s not as bad as the fridge in our 2005 22′ Airstream was). When you’re cruising long distances and need to stock up on produce (stuff that often takes up a lot of fridge space) every chance you get, it’s so nice to have the extra cooling capability of the Yeti out in the cockpit.

People are really not kidding when they talk about these things being built like tanks and grizzly-proof. This thing is the real deal, and it keeps things cold for days (or longer!). We picked up two of these 4 lb. Yeti Ice blocks, and we keep one in the Yeti and one in the deck-top freezer, and we rotate them (every day or two) while we’re cruising. This works great!

Lastly, when our friends Sissy and Bob stayed with us and cruised the San Juan Islands last year, they gave us a very sweet gift: two Yeti Rambler lowballs.

They’re double-walled and keep hot things hot, and cold things cold SO WELL. We liked them so much we got two more, plus lids, so now we have a set of four.

The lids are perfect for when it’s a little bumpy and you don’t want to spill your ~~cocktail~~ coffee all over the helm. I picked up my cup full of fizzy water one time. It had been sitting in direct sun at the helm and the outside of the Yeti was hot to the touch, but my fizzy water inside was ice cold. No joke. They make 10-ounce and 30-ounce versions. They don’t really stack (well, kinda, but not nested) but we got rid of some other glasses to make room for these. It was a good choice!

Boaty Waxed Canvas Roll-Top Bag

Laura Domela — Tue, 15 Mar 2016 13:13:28 +0000

Remember our friend Laura at Vacilando Quilting Co.? She made our beautiful "Boat Quilt" as well as two navy blue "Subway Totes" for the boat. Well, she recently started making waxed canvas, roll-top versions of her Subway Totes and so I chose this navy blue ticking material and asked her make us two more totes. (You can never have enough things to carry other things in on a boat.) They're super great, and more water resistant than the original totes (the canvas is waxed with beeswax). We used them the other day to pack a quick overnight back for our anniversary getaway, and they were just PERFECT.

Laura makes all of these awesome things from her Airstream. So if you need the most perfect tote ever (or a gorgeous custom quilt or pillows…) I can't say enough about how much we love Laura's work.

The Lékué Silicone Bread Maker

Laura Domela — Tue, 23 Feb 2016 16:43:01 +0000

I am not a baker. At all. I very rarely make cookies, and I seldom even buy bread. But a friend of ours recently told us about this Lékué silicone bread maker (it's really just a floppy bowl with a slot and a tab) and I thought it might be cool for the boat and/or the Airstream when we did want some bread.

(I got mine here for $35)

I first tried the easiest recipe in the book that comes with the Lékué: Quick No-Knead Bread. It's basically flour, yeast, salt, water…mix together right in the bowl, let proof for an hour at room temperature (or 10 hours in the fridge overnight) and then microwave for 3 minutes (totally not baking). It was good, but definitely could have used some oven heat for making the crust nicer.

Last night I went for the second easiest recipe: Easy-to-Make No-Knead Bread. Flour, water, salt, yeast, olive oil. Mix all ingredients together in the bowl, cover the bowl with a towel and let proof overnight. I stuck it in the warming drawer (off) to rise overnight and it was nice and bubbly this morning. I sprinkled some chia seeds on top and then closed up the bowl around the dough.

Into the oven it went! The instructions said to bake for 40 minutes at 392 degrees F then turn the dough over and put back in the oven for 10 more minutes. And then…we had bread! I'm a baker! (Not really.) But look!

It turned out great…fluffy inside with a light and crunchy crust on the outside.

This Lékué silicone bread maker is going to be super handy. Mixing the dough right in the same vessel you cook the bread in saves a lot of work and cleanup. This no-knead recipe is easy, and can be modified for a whole wheat version as well. The Lékué is even dishwasher safe!

Calamity Comes to Willow

Laura Domela — Sat, 19 Dec 2015 19:04:35 +0000

The dinnerware we have on Airship is the blue Willow pattern. There was something that really appealed to me about this traditional, blue and white pattern when we were outfitting the boat.

At some point a couple years ago, I became aware of artist Don Moyer. Don was just starting to design a series of plates based on the Willow design. He called his dinnerware Calamityware. It was dark and funny, and we loved it. He began with a Kickstarter project, plate by plate. His first four plates were 1/Flying Monkeys, 2/Giant Robot, 3/Voracious Sea Monster, and 4/UFO Invasion. Word spread and Don and his crazy plates gained popularity, and so another set of four was born. The next set was called 5/Pirates in the Neighborhood, 6/Rambunctious Volcano, 7/Tentacles! and 8/the Vortex of Doom.

So now, we have integrated Calmityware along with our Willow, and it's a fabulous union. Plate on the left: Vortex of Doom. Plate on the right: Willow:

Pirates in the Neighborhood (with detail):

UFO invasion:

Sea monster (detail):

Recently, Don created some Calamity mugs called "Things Could Get Worse" and they've got it all…a giant frog, pterodactyls, robots, a zombie poodle, Bigfoot, UFOs, sea monsters, pirates, and more! We added a set of four of these to the collection:

The Calamityware is a bit bluer and a bit lighter than the Willow, but it all goes quite nicely together.

(Additional images courtesy of the Calamityware website.)

Cocktail Shaker for the Boat Bar

Laura Domela — Thu, 08 Oct 2015 14:09:36 +0000

I found the perfect cocktail shaker for the boat!

Greg Just over at Just Turned hand turns these beautiful wooden cocktail shakers in his Blaine, Minnesota studio. He uses walnut, cherry, maple, birch, and will do custom orders if you don't find what you want in his shop. The shaker we purchased is walnut with maple stripes. Here's Greg's nicely lit photo from his website (where you can see it has a stainless steel liner and a snug-fitting lid):

I love the one we got, but I was also tempted by this cherry one with walnut and maple stripes:

The cocktail shakers are $59.95, but if cocktails aren't your thing, Greg makes some very nice wooden travel mugs for your coffee-to-go ($40).

Looking forward to that next Airship manhattan!

New Boat Quilt!

Laura Domela — Thu, 01 Oct 2015 16:56:07 +0000

We recently commissioned a quilt for the boat from our very talented friend Laura Preston. Her company is Vacilando Quilting Co., and you should follow her because her work is fantastic.

Our quilt arrived the other day and we're super excited to take it to the boat, but for now, here are a couple of photos (courtesy of Vacilando Quilting Co.) that Laura sent before shipping it to us:

You can't really get a good look at the reverse side detail in the overall shot above (it's fabulous, and I love that little white rectangle), but we went with a soft patterned gray fabric that looks like this:

Also, the out-of-the-box experience was really sweet, complete with a hand-written note on the back of a Glacier Bay National Park, Alaska postcard. Awwwwww.

Laura also makes a super versatile tote called the Subway Tote. We ordered two of them for the boat with the idea that they would make great multi-purpose bags for shlepping stuff to and from the boat, going grocery shopping, etc. When they arrived, we had just returned from the market and so we decided to see how much the Subway Tote would hold in the way of groceries. Not only did it hold our entire bag of groceries, but we tried a wine bottle in one of the small outside pockets (there are four of these pockets), and it fit perfectly! Glad we got two of these!

The Subway Totes come in nutmeg, natural, and navy ($45/ea). Ours are both navy, and there are better photos of the bags on her site, of course.

Laura was so much fun to collaborate and work with on this project! I think we might need a new quilt for home!

We “Fixed” Another Thing

Laura Domela — Mon, 27 Jul 2015 12:40:00 +0000

Behold, Airship’s new grill:

It’s the small Sea-B-Que made by Dickinson Marine, and so far, we rate it very highly. It’s brushed stainless instead of polished shiny stainless (which looks crappy in about 5 minutes), and it’s got ceramic, separatable grill sections (easy removal for cleaning), and even (gasp!) medium and low settings (that work!!)

We contemplated the large one, but for 99 percent of our use the small one is just fine (and more portable and efficient). The only thing the large one has that the small one doesn’t (besides more space) is an automatic igniter, but we can order one of those to fit our grill once we are home.

We’ve cooked on it twice now, and it’s fantastic, and WORLDS better than our old Magma that came with the boat (and bonus, it stays lit for more than two minutes)!

First we made burgers (messy, messy burgers, with chorizo and blue cheese) and the clean up was super easy. Last night we grilled the Coho fillets and same thing…just wipe the cool ceramic grates clean and you’re good to go.

We gave our old grill to some fishermen on the dock in Juneau before we left the marina. Hope it does what they want.

The New Faucet Uses 50% Less Water

Laura Domela — Fri, 24 Apr 2015 14:08:47 +0000

Behold, the new faucet:

It's an American Standard Fairbury in shiny chrome. It's got a pull out sprayer with spray, stream, and pause, and a single lever on/off, and it's not too big for our fairly small sink.

The faucet that came on the boat (below) was a fixed faucet with separate hot and cold controls…and the spout didn't pivot or move at all. It blasted out the stream of water which is cool when you have unlimited water, but made it more difficult to do dishes efficiently when conserving.

We did a test before we removed the old faucet to see how long it took to fill our large pot with water. It took about 30 seconds. The new faucet takes just over a minute to fill the same pot (with spray OR stream). The pressure feels normal now, and I'm sure we'll use way less water while washing/rinsing dishes. Love it!

A Few Things for Airship

Laura Domela — Tue, 07 Apr 2015 21:33:00 +0000

I've been wanting a butter bell for the boat, and found this cool one made by Red Wing Stoneware in Minnesota:

Red Wing Stoneware Co. butter bell ($35) from Duluth Pack. Butter goes in the part on the right, water goes in the part on the left, and when put together the water creates an airtight seal on the butter so it stays fresh and soft (and I don't have to keep it in the fridge on the boat, which is nice, since the fridge is small).

I picked up some of these cloth napkins for the boat (from Clear Sky Home on Etsy) … planning to use less paper products while cruising (especially cruising in more remote areas, since it's tougher to get rid of trash as often).

They don't match our plates at all, but who cares? How cute are these?

(I got these yellow ones too, which really don't match our plates. I'm thinking they might clash enough to totally work together.)

Kevin and I each got ourselves a pair of Xtratufs (also called Alaskan sneakers, Alaskan slippers, Sitka slippers, etc.). These will come in super handy in the wet Southeast AK weather and when getting in and out of the dinghy and exploring (also when fishing and oystering here at home in the Pacific Northwest). They're completely waterproof and highly recommended by Alaskans everywhere:

And last but not least, we ordered a new tandem kayak for Airship. We looked at several, and our original plan after seeing them at the Seattle Boat show was to go with the Airis Tandem by Walker Bay, but after a bunch of research, we ended up going with the Sea Eagle 385 Fast Track. It packs down remarkably small for a tandem kayak (good for carrying on the boat), is very quick to set up (also important), and has great reviews. We'll let you know after we've used it a bit.

Our "Get Ready/To Do List for Alaska" is pretty standard at this point (we've done a ton already, including boat maintenance and some extra safety provisioning). From now until when we leave in May, it's all about stuff like procuring a couple more spare parts we want to have with us, getting extra Nespresso pods and Sodastream fizzers, oil and filters for a couple oil changes, miscellaneous extra tools, a Costco run, updating the Garmin charts to the latest greatest, getting some fishing gear and maybe another crab trap, more Merino wool socks, etc.

It was exciting planning our Alaska meet up with Tiffani and Deke with them while we were visiting in North Carolina this past week. Their plan is to meet us in Juneau mid/late June and then travel with us down to Petersburg, with proposed stops at Taku Harbor, Tracy Arm and Sawyer Glacier, Petersburg, LeConte Glacier, Thomas Bay, Pybus Bay, several spots on Baranof Island (including the warm springs), and then heading around to Sitka where we plan to spend the 4th of July. They'll fly home from Sitka, and we'll continue on south.

We leave in just over a month–it's so close (and yet so far…650+ nautical miles from Anacortes to Ketchikan, and then most people do another 1000+ nm in SE Alaska. Sam and Mark said most people go at least 2300 nm on a trip like this, and that it’s easy to go 3500 nm). We're SO excited!