DIY Fender Bags

With our trip to the Bahamas in the near future, nearer than I can believe, I am thinking about all of the items we are going to have to store in such a small little space. With this comes careful organization. I do kind of get obsessed with this and it could eat me alive. But to be able to make it through 2 months in a 27' space I am planning ahead. Where does everyone put their fenders? There are four of them and they get wet and messy. During the summer on the lake once we left the dock they either went into the seats in the cockpit or in the cabin on the quarter berth. We are going to be using those seats for other storage and the quarter berth will now be my bed. That means no wet and dirty fenders allowed. I have searched on the internet for pictures and post of what other cruisers are doing with this issue. I have seen single and double fender bags and heard pros and cons. The pros won out and I devised a plan for ours.

I went shopping for cargo netting and white webbing at JoAnns fabrics and Wal Mart and then used the Captain Navy color sunbrella for the backing. I had no pattern to go from, just the picture in my head. I did use the actual fenders, laying them on the fabric and guess work. I got it all finished. I can't wait to try it out.

DIY Genoa Bag

I had started this entry back in July and I thought that I had completed and posted it already. I found it in the drafts. Oh how time does get away from me. I will continue it now but I just thought that I would metion that this project was completed in July and added to the boat then. It has been tested, tried and true. We love it!!

We have problem with storage in the boat. There is no room. This is not a new story. So storage of a big bulky sail on the foredeck is a fantastic idea. We found a jib bag kit on Sailrite that will be perfect for us to use. We purchased the kit and it came in the mail shortly thereafter. It has all of the sunbrella material in color Captain Navy with the pattern drawn on the fabric. It also includes the thread, zipper webbing and an instructional video that you can watch along the way of your sewing process. It was pretty easy to put together. Though I have only had one home-ec sewing class in like the 7th grade when I lived in New Orleans, LA and I can't say that I was at the top of the class. I have only really done crafting projects since and never any clothing from a pattern. So this was a brave project and Mark had no doubt that I could do it. Maybe he just thinks this is a girl thing and we are all born with the ability and know how to run a Singer. Ha! I did have Mark help me out also by having him cut the fabric out with the hot knife.

It all worked out well and here is the finished project.

No more bonking the noggin.

 

Right over the coach roof we have an arch that has about 5 cam cleats that hold the halyards. Oh it is so ugly and right in the way.  Mark is 6'4" and maneuvering around the boat is a challenge. So we brain stormed on how we could get rid of that. We ended up purchasing off of EBay a 3 line clutch and an organizer.  I removed the arch, see ya, and we installed the clutch and the organizer along side the coach roof. That sure did clean it up nicely and it is much easier to go below. What a great improvement.

Anchors away!

When we bought the boat it had a great anchor but it was located in the back of the boat in a bucket in one of the cockpit benches. It obviously had never been used. Mark had a hard time lifting it in and out, over the rail, and twisting and turning his body to make it work. He ended up wrenching his back. There has got to be a better way. So he looked around and found a hanger to go at the bow pulpit. Scary as it was, he cut a hole in the boat and installed a deck pipe for the chain to go into a locker in the v-berth below. Oh boy that works great. What a wonderful improvement. It sure makes it nicer when we decide to anchor for a swim and lunch.

Mast down with use of crane.

Thursday we went down to meet Phil and Buck to have them pull our boat out of Flathead Lake using the lift. They used to have a cool old red fire truck that moved the lift but they sold that and now they have a big yellow monstrosity. I believe it is a tractor. But it is definitelty bigger in comparison to our little blue tractor. Ha!
Anyway, it all went well. We got her into the straps. No holding tank to empty since we have a porta potty. They lift her up and haul her out.
Now to move her from the lift to the trailer. It really is amazing how fast it all works out moving a 7000 lb. boat. The lift straddles the trailer and then lowers her down. It is the first time that we have had her on the trailer. Hope she fits. There is talk that she is too big. Buy after tinkering with assorted 2x4's here and there. She is settled in.  They park her next to the crane for the mast lowering.
Sunday we arrive to lower the mast. The ground is wet and muddy. Everytime we climb up the ladder onto the deck it gets so filthy dirty. All that hard work keeping her clean during the summer is all blown to hell. Lol. We have loosened all the turn buckles in preparation. Phil and Mark maneuver the mast from above once the crane has gotten a line below the speader bars on the mast. Buck pulls on the line while Phil and Mark lift the mast and gently lay it down evenly between the bow and the stern. We secure it down for the journey home. The drive home goes smoothly and I say a continuous prayer up our steep, muddy and long driveway. No problems I am thrilled to report. She is now waiting for a covered area to be built where we can work on her for the winter. . 

Fall is officially here!

If anyone here knows me, they know that I am not happy about this at all. Leaving the summer season is hard on so many levels. I am surely going to miss the heat. I have been in Montana since I was 3 years old and I am not sure where I have gotten my love for the summer season but I do not have the same love of the other 3. As a little girl I would find a patch of sun on the rug and lay there listening to music with those big round headphones on my head. I would follow the patch of sun as it moved. Nothing has changed except that this little girl has grown up and now dons a bikini and the headphones, with the help of technology, have gotten smaller.
We have come down to a time frame now of having to get the sailboat out of the water. We try to get in as many last sails as we possibly can. We will also try to be one of the very last on the schedule to pull her out. But life keeps on happening and we end up with different weekend activities to do.
This last Monday Mark and I were able to sneak on down to the marina and get in a fantastic sail. I picked up some steaks and sprouts on our way and Mark grabbed a bottle of wine.

One of the finer accessories that we have on the boat is our marine grill. We absolutely love this thing. We can cook without dirtying a pan. Also any fresh catch can go straight to the grill. The quality taste of the food is also so much better. We found ours on Craigslist because we just can't see paying top dollar for anything, with so many used items available out there. We paid half price for our grill and it had never been used.

The sunset was incredible and the winds were light. We got into a little channel where we were doing about 1.5 knots and fired up the grill and ate under sail. Life is good. Once out of the channel we cleaned up the meal and picked up again to about 4 knots. We pulled into the slip just after dark. We said farewell to New Girl and headed home wondering when our next sail will be.

New crew for the weekend

This weekend Mark's parents have come to visit from Wausau, WI.  We are out on Flathead lake taking them for a sail. Gary was pretty nervous and held Molly's hand out onto the finger dock to get on the boat. He was a little unsure but made it okay. Sandy just helped out pulling the sheet on the winch so that we could tack. She did a wonderful job. We are having an amazing day. Winds are about 8 mph and we are getting about 5 knotts. Hell of a day at sea sir.

How beautiful is our own backyard?

We are extremely fortunate to live where we do. Flathead lake is biggest body of freshwater west of the Mississippi. It is 197 square miles and has 160 miles of shoreline. It also has many islands for us to explore. We have had a lot of fun learning and racing our new boat. Sunsets are beautiful.

"high" pic!

Here is a picture from the top of the mast!!!  neat perspective.

Swab the decks...er... paint!

Baby blue on a boat screams 1960-70. And even though our boat is 1972, it doesn't mean that we want her to look like that. Also the blue in the sunlight is a scorcher on barefeet. She needs a facelift. So, facelift we did. We went shopping for some deck paint. Mark had done some reading in "Practical Sailor" and found an article that graded the different types of non-skid deck paint. The one that was rated amongst the highest was Interdek paint. We ordered our 2 cans of grey online at westmarine.com. Once received I looked at the paint and decided it looked to be too dark. Of course Mark was not thrilled with this as it meant, more shopping and a return. I couldn't imagine putting 2 cans of grey on top of blue and getting something semi light. We decide on keeping one grey and getting a can of white to mix with it. The results were wonderful. We pressure washed the decks and then motored the boat over to Skeeko Bay on Flathead Lake. We taped off all of the areas that needed to be painted (previously baby blue) and then turned in for the night.

The nest morning we awoke, had our coffee and breakfast and got to work. I started by painting with about a 1 1/2" brush. The paint went on pretty easily but dried very quickly. It was almost gummy. The temperature that day was going to be 90 degrees so we had better work quickly. We started at 10:30am and finished at about 2:30. We spent the rest of the day swimming and admiring all of the other boats docked in the bay. Funny thing is, you look and want (oh they have such a better swim ladder, oh look at that solar panel, you get the idea).

We stayed the night in the bay again to let the paint dry before walking on it.

We awoke the following morning, to pick up co-worker and friend Krista, and set sail for a fun filled day. The paint was dry but would have been better left alone for another day. We had a lot of swimming.We made New Girl...on the dock to be           Pretty Girl...on the dock!



Left is blue ... right is grey.



End of Summer.

Well, we're coming up on the end of summer here.  We've sailed the daylights out of New Girl all summer.   We have learned a ton . . .  but still feel like there is a lot more to do.   

We have also made lots of little (and big) changes to the boat.   In a later post, we'll add some pictures showing you all the upgrades and improvements.

~mark

June 17, 2012 Windy sail

Well, this was an awesome weekend on the water. Finally, we had some “wind” for New Girl and we got to see just what she could do.

On Friday night, Rachel and Jeanna joined us for an afternoon sail. We finally got her heeled over a bit and enjoyed a fast run around the backside of Cromwell Island. Pretty cool. As the wind died for the evening, we motored back and joined a big... Welcome Potluck that they had at the marina. Very fun, and tons of good food.

This morning, after a hearty sailors breakfast of Italian sausage and scrambled eggs (gotta keep the crew Molly, Andrew and Shawnae happy so they don’t mutiny, ya know), we set off again. This time, we were really really flying. Around the back side of Wildhorse Island, the whitecaps were huge and the wind was howling through the rigging and mast. On a downwind run, we registered 6.97 knots.

As we rounded the island, we had to do a planned “gybe” – kind of like a downwind tack. It worked well, but was another white-knuckle moment as the boom comes whipping across. We then had to beat back into the wind, tacking back and forth, to get back to the marina. By now, it was really really blowing.

Most of the time, we were heeled at about 10 degrees according to the gauge, but when the gusts would hit, it would lay us over to 20 and maybe more. It was kind of hard to read the gauge for sure because we were busy hanging on!! Lol.

Eventually we managed to get back. All of the water was still on the outside of the hull and the pointy stick was still facing straight up! so that's good.

As we were tying up, one of the other sailors said his wind gauge was reading steady at 27 mph. Yep – no kidding. And on the way home, we heard there was a small craft advisory on Flathead lake – we concur!!!

We did learn several very important things. One: we made a very good decision in picking this particular boat design for us - - it is (obviously) very safe and stable and forgiving, even for rookies. Two: we need to learn how and when to reef the mainsail. It think that would have made for much less scary sailing back in.

Mark

DIY Cushions for the cockpit

We have sailed her now a few times and we are loving our adventures. We are also spending quite a bit of time doing repairs and fixing her up to make our stay on board as comfortable as possible. This week I decided that we should have some cockpit cushions. So I went shopping and came up with a brainstorm of what I can make at home. I purchased 2 camping ground pads. They are made out of the swimming noodle styrofoam. Even if they get wet they will not absorb water. I also purchased a vinyl material to cover it with. It will be water, stain and dirt resistant. I can just wipe them off with a cloth. The down side is that they are navy blue. If I had my choice of colors in the store I probably would have gone with a light grey. The navy will get hot in the sun so I am guessing that we will have our towels on them. But in the heat it will be nice to be able to drench the towels in the lake and sit on them on the pads. No worries of the cushions getting wet. I will send a picture later as well once we get them on the boat.

Shawnae

Found the dishes

I know this seems like a silly post, and Mark laughed at me saying I was cute, but having the amentities that you want to make you feel comfortable while on board is valuable. I finally found the dishes that work so well. In my last postI mentioned the first dishes that I had gotten. Mistake. Here is the link to what we got.
http://www.target.com/p/blue-swirl-12-pc-dinnerware-set/-/A-12062639#reviews-and-ratings.
I love them. They are a hard, thick melamine and look like stoneware. We also got some nice hard clear plastic glasses to go with them.

I hope this helps.

Shawnae

Supplies for your boat are trial and error

We have stayed on the boat now a couple of times and have come to find out quickly what we like and don't like about a few things, though I am sure there are more to follow. I am a camper. I feel that I can eat off of pretty much anything. I can eat off of paper plates and Mark has been known to eat dinner with his family and old girlfriend off of flat rocks found on Wild Horse Island when they realized that they had forgotten the dinnerware. But when it comes to clean up, what you chose so cheaply may become apparent.
I bought some plastic style patio plates at Wal Mart that were so super cheap. Everyone kept screaming "no glass" so I thought this is perfect.. We wash them and the plates have grease clinging to them. It is so gross. And then you hope to wipe it all off when drying them. That's it! They are gone!

Also, I am not going to drink anymore wine from a plastic cup. I visited a friends boat recently and was served some wine. I loved her glasses. Practical but still felt nice drinking wine out of them. They were an acrylic stemless wine glass. Google that and you will have choices. Put the word "sets" after it and you will get more bang for your buck.

We need to stock up on a few more items. A few knives, storage bins, plastic egg crate, and a plastic butter dish that can go into the cooler. I don't like broken eggs and soggy butter. I found a lot of these items at Bed, Bath and Beyond but I am a shopper and will see if I can find them cheaper somewhere. I will keep you posted on what I find.

Until then, happy sailing!!

Shawnae

Painting the stripes and Renaming

Well we got a little ambitious and did some things to the boat that we thought may help her out visibly. The top stripe was a light blue like the bottom paint of the boat. We painted it a royal blue and added another boot stripe above the water line. We used acetone and a razor blade to scrape off the old name. That was time consuming. We had our friend Dan Rinquist make the decals for the name and the home location of our boat. Two coats is what it needed for the stripse. We had to do it in a couple of different days because we have had so much rain. We later had Dan come out and put the names on the boat. This calls for a ceremony. It is unlucky to rename a boat without a ceremony. My friend and co-worker Krista also joined us for the renaming. We read off the things that were required so we didn't make the Poseidon Gods angry. Then you pass around a bottle of champagne to drink and break an unopened bottle over the bow of the boat to christen her. It took 5 times to swing it before the dang bottle would break. It was one thick bottle and was under pressure. Scary thinking the boat could take all of that abuse.

Father's Day Sail

Well, this was an awesome weekend on the water.   Finally, we had some “wind” for New Girl and we got to see just what she could do.  

On Friday night, Rachel Bratz and Jeanna Gamma joined us for an afternoon sail.  We finally got her heeled over a bit and enjoyed a fast run around the backside of Cromwell Island.   Pretty cool.  As the wind died for the evening, we motored back and joined a big Welcome Potluck that they had at the marina.   Very fun, and tons of good food.

 This morning, after a hearty sailors breakfast of Italian sausage and scrambled eggs (gotta keep the crew (Molly Bratz, Andrew Bratz, and Shawnae Ellsworth) happy so they don’t mutiny, ya know), we set off again.  This time, we were really really flying.  Around the back side of Wildhorse Island, the whitecaps were huge and the wind was howling through the rigging and mast.   On a downwind run, we registered 6.97 knots.

 As we rounded the island, we had to do a planned “gybe” – kind of like a downwind tack.  It worked well, but was another white-knuckle moment as the boom comes whipping across.    We then had to beat back into the wind, tacking back and forth, to get back to the marina.  By now, it was really really blowing.  

 Most of the time, we were heeled at about 10 degrees according to the gauge, but when the gusts would hit, it would lay us over to 20 and maybe more.   It was kind of hard to read the gauge for sure because we were busy hanging on!!   Lol.

 Eventually we managed to get back.  All of the water was still on the outside of the hull and the pointy stick was still facing straight up!

 As we were tying up, one of the other sailors said his wind gauge was reading steady at 27 mph.  Yep – no kidding.   And on the way home, we heard there was a small craft advisory on Flathead lake – we concur!!!

 We did learn several very important things.  One: we made a very good decision in picking this particular boat design for us - - it is (obviously) very safe and stable and forgiving, even for rookies.  Two:  we need to learn how and when to reef the mainsail.  It think that would have made for much less scary sailing back in.  

Financial success assured???

Thanks, babe, for the vote of confidence on the results of my varous financial endeavors. You're being very gracious! ha ha

In any case, it will be an adventure - - -- and a good excuse for road trip.

This old boat also has a Roller Furler for the headsail, so we're also hoping we can grab that and move it over to our "real" boat too. So, if it all works out right, we'll have that improvement as a BONUS!

Stay tuned.mark

In search of a trailer

We bought New Girl recently and she is dry docked at the marina. We would love to be able to bring her home and start working on her daily in our driveway but that just isn't possible. We bought her without a trailer. So, naturally, we are in search of a trailer for her. We have been looking everywhere for one. Mark has even entertained the idea of building one. We have looked at the idea, as well, to purchase another crappy boat and just keep the trailer. The thought had never crossed my mind though in this whole search that we would now be the proud owners of not one but now two sailboats! What? Yes, her name is Slo Goin. We are driving from as north as you can get in Montana down to Fresno, CA to pick up our new boat. Now you would think that we must have found it with a cool trailer. Well that is not the fact. The trailer that it is on shouldn't even be used to haul this boat. Weight capacity that is allowed is less than what is actually there between the boat and trailer.. But, it was a good looking boat and it was one hell of a great price. So, we are fixing her up to sell her. We are looking to make money off of the deal so that when we do buy/build our new trailer, it will be practically free.

Mark definitely thinks differently than most people and is usually very successful in these endeavors so I am going along for the ride, both figuratively and litterally. Hee hee! We will be going the weekend of April 20th. Now mind you this boat is sight unseen, besides the pictures that we received, so we could be in for a big surprise. We are hoping for the best!

I will keep you posted to what we find when we get there and haul her back to Montana!

Bahamian Conch Salad

Bahamian Conch Salad

Ingredients

8 oz conch

10 tbsp fresh lime juice

5 tbsp fresh orange juice

1 ripe tomato, diced

1/4 cup diced onion1 cucumber peeled, seeded and diced

1/2 cup bell peppers (any color), diced

3 hot peppers (or jalapeno peppers), minced

Salt and pepper to taste

DirectionsWash conch with a mixture of lemon, salt and water. Clean the conch, remove slime, and cut into small cubes.Place in mixing bowl with remaining ingredients.Cover and let the conch and vegetables marinate in refrigerator for 15 minutes. Mix and serve.

Number of Servings: 1

Note: If this is like ceviche, I would suggest marinating the conch in the lime for about 4 hours so that it has time to "cook" the conch, then add the remaining ingredients.

She's all ours!

Yep, she's a beauty alright! After a couple of years searching we finally found the girl that was right for us. She is a 1972 Catalina 27'. She has a fixed full keel and a large enough cabin to sleep 6. We found her here in our own backyard, Dayton docks. She doesn't come with a trailer so the search is still on for that, but I feel that is okay. It gives Mark something to do in the interim. Like buying a new car, you just want to go out and test drive her. She is dry docked right now at Dayton, until spring, when Flathead lake is given a drink of water.

The dream!

The dream is to have a sailboat of our own. We would like to trailer it to Florida from our hometown of Kalispell, MT and put her in the water. From there we will set sail to the Bahamas going at our own pace. The idea is to take 1 1/2 months (which has now changed to 2 months) and just cruise, explore, fish, tan, meet the Bahamian people, and eat some of their fantastic seafood. Mark is already certified for scuba diving. I will still need to do that before we leave!