Posted in Boat Maintenance, Lessons Learned, Uncategorized, tagged boat maintenance, Defender Marine, Hans Christian 33t, Practical Sailor, sailboat, Webasto heater on January 29, 2016| Leave a Comment »
Practical Sailor (PS) is a great publication that “takes the guesswork out of boat & gear buying with its bold, independent, product-test reports just for serious sailors.” Clay contacted PS to tell them about our experience getting our Webasto heater registered for warranty. They ran our story in December. It’s a tale of woe and how great customer service turned that around. Enjoy!
Posted in Adventures, Boat Maintenance, How to Live Afloat, Lessons Learned, Uncategorized, tagged adventure, biking, Hans Christian 33t, hiking, Orcas Island, sailboat, sailing, storms, travel on December 6, 2015| 2 Comments »
Sailors for all history have taken advantage of the ebb and flow of the tide. Here in the Pacific Northwest, and in particular the San Juan Islands, the currents created by the tide have a profound effect on your movement by water. Depending on the time of day and location within the islands, there can be plus or minus two or more knots for or against you. In light winds, that means the currents could cause you to sail backwards! (more…)
Posted in Boat Maintenance, How to Live Afloat, Lessons Learned, Where in the World is Sundown, tagged adventure, Alison Krauss, boat maintenance, Bob Perry, cruising, Friday Harbor, sailing, Sandra Bullock, Sucia Island on October 30, 2015| 4 Comments »
So, it has been awhile since I wrote a blog post. To say the least, Kim and I have been busy…still.
While Kim went to Colorado to take care of business and go to Molly and Matt’s wedding (which I am so sorry I missed, Molly and Matt!)
I kept making forward progress on Sundown. The paint job on the mast and booms was finished and all the hardware needed to be put back on. We replaced all the wiring, lights and halyards. We also inspected and replaced all the standing rigging. New radar, anometer and antennae were installed.
The morning Kim came home from Colorado, the boatyard guys and I stepped the mast. It was a pretty emotional morning for me. I was so anxious! Not only was this the second time I was Sundown’s helm, but Kim wasn’t to help or witness this moment. The whole thing went smooth as silk, however. Seaview North Boatyard and its crew don’t step masts like Mark Grindle and I did in the mid 80s, but their process worked.
It was great to have Kim back after being gone for so long! She and I put the sails on and hoisted them one at a time to work out the bugs in attachment and sheeting. We then did a pre-sail check, pulled the dock lines and left.
It’s hard to describe how you feel after four years of working on a project like Sundown in a prairie dog field in Randy and Andrea’s storage yard in Fort Collins (A Unique Storage…it certainly was while Sundown was there), to motoring out of port with no schedule or exact place to be. We knew where we were going, however, because we had been there before–Sucia Island. Setting off to Sucia gave us confidence and we felt a little more secure because we had sailed there twice before. It was familiar and an easy first stop. We picked up a mooring and enjoyed our amazing boat. Rather than getting the outboard out and attached to Lightfoot (our dinghy), we chose to row it to go and pay our state park fee on the island.
There were two boats in the harbor near us, both from Utah! One of them was a Tayana 37, a very nice blue water boat like ours with very common roots (thanks Bob Perry!).
So the journey has begun. We are roughing it every day. Heater, propane stove, teak furniture, marble counter tops and beautiful ports of call.
The other night as we were anchored in Friday Harbor and snuggled up in bed watching a DVD–The Blind Side with Sandra Bullock–we determined that the wind and the way it was blowing Sundown required us to move our anchorage. Hmmm, never had to do this with the land house, but you gotta do what you gotta do. At 11pm we hoisted anchor and moved a tad farther from shore in the rain and wind. The task taught us some lessons and we are already using the information at our current anchorage in Deer Harbor where we’re still roughing it.
Kim is making chile rellanos and Spanish rice for dinner. We’re listening to Alison Krauss (thanks for the introduction to her, Daryl and Karen Lawyer). Tomorrow we go sailing!
Posted in Boat Maintenance, How to Live Afloat, Lessons Learned, tagged Alternator, Bellingham, boat maintenance, ElectroMaxx, Yanmar on October 2, 2015| Leave a Comment »
All the systems on a boat need to be working properly for a vessel to be ship shape and safe. If you have a sailboat, of course the first means of propulsion ideally are your sails, powered by the wind. Having a fuel-powered auxiliary motor also is necessary for a boat the size of Sundown. (more…)
Posted in Boat Maintenance, How to Live Afloat, tagged bimini, boat building, dodger, Hans Christian 33t, Honda, live aboard, sailing on September 27, 2015| Leave a Comment »
It has been a busy week! It started with water system leaks, a motor that was not completely bolted down, no tender, no outboard, no lifelines and no dodger.
Today we have a 99 percent complete water system. (more…)
Posted in Boat Maintenance, How to Live Afloat, tagged adventure, Bellingham, boat maintenance, Hans Christian, Hans Christian 33t, sailboat on September 18, 2015| 2 Comments »
…you feel a bit disoriented when you don’t have any to attend. Thus, I feel like I’m operating on hospital time. If you’ve ever hung out in a hospital for days with a loved one, you probably know what I mean. One hour runs into the next and then the next and before you know it, a whole day has gone by. That’s how the past few days have felt. We get up, start working, work all day and then we notice the boatyard’s gone quiet, which means it’s closed. Another day is done.
I’m also starting to feel a little land sick whenever I run errands ashore, which means my body’s getting acclimated to being on a moving surface. I’m feeling a little woozy when on terra firma.
Beyond that, I’m feeling a little homesick. I miss my boys, my dog, my mom, my coworkers and my friends. I know you’re all 
out there and that we didn’t see each other every day or even every week, but just knowing I can’t see you when I want makes a difference.
Alright, enough about feelings. Let’s update the list of things we’ve accomplished lately. We:
So we’re making progress every day, even if all the days feel like they’re running together.
Posted in Adventures, Boat Maintenance, Boat Renovation, tagged adventure, boat building, Fort Collins Colorado, Hans Christian, Hans Christian 33t, sailboat, sailing, yacht on January 21, 2015| 1 Comment »
About a month or so ago, Kim and I were dining at our favorite restaurant, Los Tarascos. Kim has been ramping up her already well-established business, KBC Communications, and is settling into the groove. She felt so “in the groove” that she stated, “we need to set a date.” I agreed that we should and with that she said, “How about September 1?” (more…)
