December 22, 2017
I shake my head at the vast number of cleaning products we have on board. And I’m speaking of just for the outside of the boat. It seems really fucking ridiculous but it is what it is, and it takes what it takes. Schedule: Washing/Cleaning/Metal polish – When out cruising it is often 3 – 4 weeks since we are…
December 1, 2017
The main reason we stuck around Mazatlán was to get the boat washed, polished, and waxed. After Louis and his guys on dock 4 at Marina Mazatlán finished, the fiberglass on Strikhedonia was shining better than any other time we have owned her, and all for a very reasonable price. Our boat wasn’t the only thing that needed work done.…
November 24, 2017
I had reached out to Club Cruceros via email about buying tickets for Thanksgiving dinner but they needed cold hard cash. Our friends on MoonDrifter were going but they were getting in close to Thanksgiving as well. So with an early start from Caleta Partida, we made it close enough to La Paz to join the morning net and get…
November 22, 2017
I’ll admit it, I fell for the marketing. Backing up, I knew we would use Predict Wind along with an Iridium Go! Reading around on Predict Wind I found their recommendation of an Iridium dealer in Florida. Armed with a credit card I placed an online order and shortly had a shiny new toy. I opted for the external antenna…
November 6, 2017
The hop from San Francisquito to Santa Rosalia is about 80 miles, using our typical speed of 6 knots would make for a 13 hour passage. Up at 2:00am on on our way with some moonlight to guide us out of the bay at a crisp 6.8 knots. Moon light departure from San Francisquito There is an interesting phenomenon just…
October 28, 2017
Boats. Sometimes I just sit and shake my head at the amount of work it takes to keep a boat going. I owned an airplane earlier in life and let me tell you, airplanes are a cake walk. Boats just never stop asking for more. And then throw in a dumb-ass owner who loves new toys and it is a…
June 5, 2017
Whew, shutting down the boat was a significant block of work. Guaymas is a working port, no doubt about that, and between the seafood processing and industry there are a lot of smells and particulates in the air. I won’t say it was miserable but it was uncomfortable. But let me back up… Pulling into Guaymas harbor We pulled into…
March 8, 2017
Coming up shockingly fast is hurricane season. Along with the possibility of storms, comes planning for where to go and what work to complete before leaving Strikhedonia for the summer. This will be the first time we have left our boat unattended for many months and with higher hours on the engines from the cruise down the Pacific we wanted…
December 14, 2016
I’m in the middle of upgrading the center steering bracket. The Seawind design had a single Ronstan Traveler Car to support the Steering Bracket. My understanding is the newer 1160 catamarans have relocated the Steering Bracket from a vertical mount to a horizontal mount to reduce stress on the ball bearings. This would be a significant change so instead I…
October 23, 2016
So what happened? Well I suppose the best term would be burn out. After working the month of July averaging 85 hours weeks, when I headed back to Minnesota, I was ready for a break from boat work. I did return for a few days in early September where I knocked off a couple of things and continued a frustrating…
August 30, 2016
The sail down to the Sea of Cortez is quickly approaching. Thankfully the list of projects is shrinking and looks like there should be a green light for making the downwind cruise to La Paz in October. Looking at my original list there were two categories of items, 1. Critical to the safety of the boat and 2. Things that…
August 15, 2016
Well I suppose it should be expected that the one hatch that leaked would be over my bed. At least in Mexico and San Diego there isn’t a lot of rain so it wasn’t major issue. Mostly just a just a pain in the ass when washing the boat, since I had to remember to put a bin under the…