November 6, 2025
First, I am not a fan of Cabo. Too loud. Too many jetskis. Too rolly. But it is a great place rest up, provision, get fuel, and wait for a weather window to enter the Sea of Cortez. We checked all of those boxes, starting with lunch followed by getting fuel. Fuel transferred into the main tanks, Jack and I…
October 29, 2025
One last latte, the purchase of a 5-gallon jug of water (emergency supply), and the return of the marina key – and we were off! About 8:00am we untied the dock lines and made out way out past the huge Carnival cruise ship. Fairly quickly the clouds filled in, the winds were light so we motored around the south point…
October 27, 2025
Our time in Ensenada was hectic to say the least! Following a somewhat lazy morning, we jumped in an Uber around 10am for Home Depot. First stop was to buy a Starlink Mini. That acquired, it was on to lunch while Vicki hit the Walmart next door for a fleece top and flip flip – I failed to mention it…
October 25, 2025
Whew, it was a whirlwind final week in the yard with the departure date getting pushed back a couple times. We went from two guys working on the boat to three or four per day, with the vast majority of the work polishing the boat. It was a slow arduous process, with many requests by me to go over an…
October 20, 2025
Another busy week and more unexpected projects checked off the list. On the plus side, my friend Jack arrived Friday and has made a huge improvement to the quantity of work and reducing mistakes (two brains are better than one). Hopefully just one more week to finish and get to Mexico!
October 11, 2025
It was another push week, the best feeling was getting all of the hyper critical items checked off the list (and a number of non-critical ones too). Geloat repairs and fore beam corrosion treatment/painting continued in the background by the guys at Miguel Hernandez Yacht Refinishing. Highlight Photos
October 3, 2025
I’m off the boat work for a few days and in Utah to watch my daughter compete for the US Biathlon trails. It is a much needed rest after a hard push on the boat work front. Backing up…before getting to work, it was a fun time cruising with Alison and Allan from Oxnard to Mission Bay, San Diego (with…
September 11, 2025
Strikhedonia is a 2008 Seawind 1160, I cannot comment on later models but from outside appearances, it looks like Seawind has not changed the design since the early models. The troublesome table (the lifting and spinning mechanism) has been a major headache for many owners to deal with. SV Sky Pond would only spin the table clockwise for fear of…
August 13, 2025
Talk about a cheap chartplotter; Samsung Galaxy 11 inch tablet for $160, OpenCPN for $9.95. charts from The Chart Locker for $25. All in for under two hundred bucks, resulting in charts of the area I cruise along with satellite images (left off ArcGIS since it matched Bing). What a bargain! OpenCPN for Android can be downloaded from the GooglePlay…
August 9, 2025
1. Wash boat with Adam’s Polishes Strip Car Wash Soap – Use Foam Sprayer (120 ml of strip wash to 13 liters of water (16 ounce bottle = about four buckets of wash)) to coat a section of the boat. Use the two bucket method (see below) to clean the section. Repeat for the entire boat. Instructions: Link 2. Remove…
August 3, 2025
All Seawind 1160 sailboats end up having issues with the black pain that surrounds the windows cracking and becoming dull over the years. My friends Carl and Roxy (SV Sky Pond) had 3M Deep Matte Black Wrap Film Series 2080 applied when they hauled their boat at Boat Works in Brisbane and were extremely impressed with the appearance. Allan and…
October 20, 2024
I picked up McMurdo Smartfind S20 units before leaving for Mexico in 2016. The batteries in these units have a seven year life span which meant they expired in 2023, but I decided to disassembled one and checked the voltage. The battery pack had s lithium manganese dioxide (li-mno2) battery which is good for applications with long-life requirements. Reviewing datasheets…