DIY Insect Repellant

I've been making my own laundry soap, cleaners, and antibacterial hand sanitizers ever since we moved aboard Dos Libras. Some of the recipes use common ingredients found in the home, while others are ways of "stretching" cleaners to reduce cost.  I love having control of, or simply being more aware of what chemicals are around us, and I've found another way that I can save some money and remove a harsh chemical, DEET, from our immediate environment.

I began poking around on the Internet after reading a short article on The Boat Galley's website. I've picked up tons of invaluable tips from Carolyn, of which this is just the latest.  She cleared up an ongoing mystery for us...  What is making the Tervis tumblers and the instrument screens on the boat turn cloudy?  It's the DEET!!!  With the expensive instruments we have aboard, who wants to risk using DEET, which can ruin the screens? Not me!

I began collecting information from multiple websites and have compiled a list of common denominators to make my own concoction to repel mosquitos and other insects.  We will soon be traveling along the ICW through remote areas where WE are the only game in town for untold numbers of biting bugs.  The last thing I want is to become lunch for some pesky mosquito.  I'm sharing my recipe now, in case I don't survive the blood letting should the blend fail me...

8 oz. Spray bottle (I got mine from Sally's Beauty Supply)
4 oz. Witch Hazel (Walmart offers a more economical price than the specialty stores)
4 oz. Water
1/2 tsp. Glycerin
15 drops each of the following essential oils:  Tea Tree, Citronella, Pure Madagascar Vanilla, Lemongrass, Eucalyptus, Peppermint, geranium, and Lavender.
Note:  I've added Geranium to the mix for no-see-ums!

The oils stay suspended for quite a while, but you should always shake well to make sure they are distributed evenly before applying.  Use normal care in application as you would any insect spray.  Spray a small amount on your skin and test for 24 hours to make sure you are not adversely sensitive to any of the ingredients.  Then spray on and spread by hand.  Be sure not to get it in your eyes.

Disclaimer:  I am not an expert and can't give you advice, nor am I advocating that this is safe for you.  It is what I have chosen and will update this post as to the efficacy of the brew as soon as the opportunity presents itself.

Cinderella Syndrome

Origin of pic

If you follow our Blog, you may have noticed that there hasn't been much going on lately.  Well, that is not the case at all!  A LOT has been going on, it just hasn't been all that glamorous!  Yes, there have been recent posts about some of the projects we've been doing such as fixing the bimini and renovating our dinghy.  There have other posts about taking time off and having some fun around Port Aransas.  Right now, those fun times seem like just a distant memory as we buckle down and make a mad dash towards being ready to go when October 1st rolls around.

Yes, a mere 15 days separates us from real CRUISING!  We are feeling the crunch and working feverishly to have as many of our projects finished as we can.  Yes, we know that we can still fulfill the Cruiser mantra of "repairing your boat in foreign places"... but it would be so much easier to do it here, where we have a slip and a car.  One way or another, we will be out of the slip come October 1.

Our "plan" is currently to go anchor out somewhere nearby for a few days to kind of regroup, then maybe head over to Rockport, TX. and take a slip for a week.  We will do some last minute things there, or maybe just ride around on our bikes to get a feel for Cruiser life.

Somewhere near the 10th of October, we plan to meet up with some new friends from the Houston area in Espiritu Santos Bay.  From there, it will be "for real".  We will be Cruising up the Gulf Coast and making our way towards Florida, where we hope to spend the Holidays before jumping over to the Bahamas.  Ahhhh, just typing it here takes my mind to a better place...

(insert sound of scratching record)

So just to prove that we haven't been slacking... here are some of the things we've been doing.

We serviced our steering:  Ever since the day the chain parted when we first brought the boat home, Bruce has been very vigilant about making sure that the cable and chain are regularly inspected and greased.  This is not a difficult job, just one that takes a little time.

We installed a valve to allow us to switch from fresh water to salt water from the foot pump in our galley.  There was already a foot pump with fresh tank water, but we wanted the option of pumping salt water from outside the boat so that we could conserve fresh water once we are under way.  Of course, we won't be using that until we are in cleaner waters.

Update on that:  We spent half a day trying to figure out why we had air in our water hoses making the pump go nuts.  Turns out that this valve was intended as a diverter of flow going out, not of flow going out, so it leaked.  We removed it...

We spent several weeks preparing for the radio license tests.  Our friends at BYC hosted the study sessions weekly and provided the testing venue.  I got the Technician and General licenses and Bruce stopped at Technician.  We are so glad to have that particular chore in our past...

I've done several sewing projects.  One of the major ones has been to create a sunshade for our aft deck.  It took many days to come up with a plan, sew the fabric, put together the frame, and then do the final tweaking and make tie downs.  It turned out very well.

I also made some modifications to a dinghy cover we purchased from Taylor Made.  We wanted to be able to use the cover while the dinghy was hanging on the davits.  I cut some slits in the top so that the lines can pass through.  Now all of our hard work in resurfacing our old dinghy will last a bit longer.

We've spent a bit of time getting legal.  The hailing port on our boat has been missing for MONTHS!  I finally got around to putting on the new one.  This job was huge in my mind but turned out to be not so difficult as I thought.

We also went through the rest of the regulations and recommendations and did some things.  Our flag can now be flown in the appropriate manner, we have ample fire extinguishers, our engine room is now ventilated... the list goes on and on...

We had some issues with an electrical cord.  We have done some trouble shooting and have replaced both the cord and the fitting.  We also learned a few things about keeping the system healthy.  One word:  dielectric grease  (OK two words)

Another Biggie has been preparing and listing our cars for sale.  We spent days shampooing, vacuuming, wiping, washing and waxing three vehicles:  The BMW, the Miata and the Van.  We have sold the Miata but, as I write this, we still have the BMW and the Van.

It will be inconvenient if we don't sell one or the other of these.  We aren't too driven to sell the BMW, as it is really a great car for us and we can keep it either in Corpus or take it to Florida.

Bruce has been keeping a close eye on the zincs and making sure that everything is "ship shape" down under.  Our slip has electrolysis pretty bad and the zincs disappear within 6 months.  We have spares in hand and will be SO glad to get out of this slip and into some cleaner waters.

Even Jezabelle has had enough!

I have spent long hours on the computer researching financial institutions and working to get our online banking set up.  It won't be all ready by the time we leave, but it's getting close and all that remains can be done over the Internet.

I've become intimate with the mail man as he has made multiple trips to our door.  We've ordered spares and parts of every description.  Please let me not have missed something...

We have spent long hours troubleshooting a problem with a waste tank monitor we installed months ago.  We FINALLY got the issue resolved and the monitor is working nicely.  We have one more monitor yet to install... hopefully that gets done before departure.

We put together a new spinnaker pole starting from just the end pieces.  We sourced and collected all the parts to make a very nice pole for a fraction of the cost it would have been to purchase it pre-made  We did have a bit of trouble, but resolving it just took more time...

We've shocked the water tanks after getting another kind of little shock!  Look at that nasty stuff we found in our strainer!  By the time we sourced a new strainer (because that one leaked when we re-installed it) and got the tanks bleached and rinsed, the project took the better part of two days...

The list goes on and on and on.  These are the things that have filled our days.  We still have a couple of projects we would really like to finish before departure like mounting our life raft, installing the forward tank monitor and installing (creating) the mosquito netting for our hatches...

Origin of pic

We still have windows/hatches that need gaskets replaced, we still have provisioning to do...  and everything takes at least three times what we thought it would to complete... It's no wonder we're feeling like Cinderella.  The summer has come and gone and we've worked and sweated our way through it.  But please don't think that these are complaints... as it is very much the contrary.  We couldn't be more happy with all of the progress we've made.  I have enjoyed each and every sweaty, grimy, smelly day working alongside my husband in our efforts to get our dream off the dock.  We are SO CLOSE we can feel it.  Imagine it... in 15 short days... we will be off to the BALL!

Dinghy Renovation 101

We used a halyard to lift the dinghy from the water to the dock.

The dinghy that came with Dos Libras was much better than the one we had before.  It has a rigid bottom and we LOVE it!  It has, however, seen better days as her many patches will show... For a Cruiser, the dinghy is the equivalent of a CAR.  Cruisers often need to travel miles in their dinghy so it is necessary to have one that will stand up to daily use.

We found a few more leaks to patch before we could apply the Topcoat.

We have patched our dinghy many times and it seems that there are still those little niggling air leaks and some pretty heft rub marks, that had me thinking it might be time to consider a new dinghy.  Before we went to that extreme... (dinghies are pretty pricey) I did some research online and found out that you can resurface a Hypalon dinghy using a kind of rubber paint.  I was up for spending a few bucks now in an effort to prolonging her life for (hopefully) a couple more years.

I spent half a morning making sure the surface was clean.

I turned to Practical Sailor for advice and found their review just as I was about to make a huge mistake.  We bought West Marines's brand of Hypalon paint back in April, and before we got around to using it, I read the reviews!  Thankfully, West Marine took the product back so we weren't out the money we spent.  We ordered the product touted as a Practical Sailor's "Best Bet", MDR Amazon's Inflatable Boat Top Coating.  The article in PS said that the product is non-toxic and odor free.  It is also water based so application and cleanup is a breeze.  We also bought the product recommended as a preparatory cleaner from MDR, the Inflatable Boat Cleaner.  We know that adequate prep can mean the difference between success and failure, so we wanted to give this product every chance for success.

I taped the top of the rub rail leaving the rest for freehand

Let me say here that I'm a total skeptic when it comes to believing the claims advertised about products in general, and this case was no different.  The Cleaner was supposed to be "spray on and wipe off" easy and the Topcoat was supposed to cover an entire boat for two coats (about 100 sq. ft.).  I wasn't really believing either claim... but I was wrong!  The cleaner was truly a miracle!  It got years of oxidation and grime to just fall right off in the rinse.  We did have to scrub a few spots with a cloth, but they were pretty bad and we didn't scrub long.  I couldn't  recommend this product any more highly than I do.

We lifted the dinghy onto the dock on Day 1.  We went to work washing the surfaces and found that there were some new air leaks that needed attention before we could do the resurfacing.  We patched the holes and waited the appropriate drying time, which took us to Day 2.

We got an early start with another quick wipedown to remove anything that might have accumulated on the surface of the tubes overnight.  We taped the top of the rub rail and the little dolphin on the front, figuring I could go around all of the other non-painted surfaces freehand.

I painted,
       and painted,
                 and painted...
Sweat poured off my body as I bent and contorted while the hot sun bead down.  The wind was barely a whisper and it wasn't reaching me...

I got the entire topsides done and front and one bottomside done before taking a break.  I could barely go on and realized that we had forgotten breakfast!  No wonder I was about to pass out!  We left the dink resting on the unpainted bottom tube and spent the hottest part of the day huddled down below in the AC.

When evening came, we were back out there at it again, but for a much shorter duration.  We shifted the dink onto the painted bottom tube, exposing the other side for painting.  I applied the first coat to the  last unpainted portion of the boat wearing my evening attire...

I painted into the setting sun... in a dress.  When I was done, we stood back and admired the new look.  It looks GREAT!  I had been so worried that it would turn out looking terrible, that the paint would be goppy or that there wouldn't be enough to cover the whole dinghy...  But there was plenty of paint left for a second coat.  It had gone on so easily and drips wiped up with a damp cloth.  I will admit that my freehand painting has left some paint encroaching onto the lower rub rail, but that's the price you pay for doing a job yourself... you accept a certain level of imperfection.

Look Ma!  Your seats await!

We were invited onto the veranda by our feline babies, where we happily retired to have a beverage and shop for a new dinghy cover online.

Fashion goes out the window when its HOT!

Day 3 - We have a second coat to apply.  I was out all the more early, having learned my lesson the previous day... I wanted to take every advantage of whatever cool temps the morning could provide.  There was even less wind today, total calm...  I began to drip right away.

The second coat went on much more quickly than the first.  I had spent some time in the night worrying about how the blue tape would stick to the rubber paint, but I worried needlessly.  The paint was stuck to the boat, not the tape!

I made my way around the dinghy quickly, opting to do the topsides first, then go back around to do the areas just below the rub rail, in case we ran out of paint.  Again, no worries... we had plenty.

After I was finished, we once again stood back and admired the work.  It looked even better than the first coat! It smoothed out better, you could see fewer brush strokes...  We are THRILLED!

Suddenly, there was a hint of cool breeze...

I looked up to see THIS!  The sun was disappearing behind a huge cloud with it's bottom falling out!

Sure we need the rain... but why NOW?

OH NOOOOO!  Bruce found a tarp that covered the length of the dinghy and we quickly covered it up.  The surface was dry enough to allow this... but I stood watch over her as I felt the first drops fall...

Luckily, the summer shower passed over quickly, leaving only a smattering of droplets for us to contend with...  All of my backbreaking labor was safe.

We are extremely pleased with the products we have used.  I would recommend them to others but not before we see how the test of time affects the project.  I'll come back and update after six months or so... but until then, if you want to try this yourself, the only thing I would do differently if I had it to do over...

would be, to do it in OCTOBER!