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…
August 2, 2016
Disassembly of a Harken 46 was pretty straight forward. The pictures were a big help in making sure everything fell back into place when reassembling the winch. Supplies used: Bucket for clean and dirty parts Small cleaning brush (nylon) 1” Paint brush Harken Winch Grease Harken Pawl oil Large and small flat head screwdrivers Allen wrenches Clean rags Mineral spirits…
August 1, 2016
It was an exhausting, at times overwhelming, grind, but from July 7th until August 1st I buckled down and cranked out a lot of work. The days were long often starting before 6:00am and not knocking off until after 8:00pm. I skipped a bunch of meals and made daily trips to the marine store, Home Depot, and Target (some times…
July 26, 2016
Two engines means two chances to get it right. Or to screw it up… Clip the zip tie holding the coolant hose Remove the alternator belt guard Remove the lower bolt from the back side of the alternator Loosen both the front and back bolt holding the alternator Remove the alternator belt Remove the alternator cables Zip tie the alternator…
April 28, 2016
With only getting time aboard about once per month, upon arrival there is a routine I have to “exerciser” the systems. The pumps (fresh water and HVAC), the thru-hulls, the engine fluids, and the critical head test and purge. Guess what failed… The starboard head bowl filled nicely with seawater. The evacuation, not so much. Great, one more project to…