Back to the future again

Leave a reply

Just like that, we are in the future again. The dateline is all that separates the past from the future, all this time I thought we needed the Delorean time machine to get to the future. Or just wait around till the future came along.

A good day, lots of wind, a front line, some big waves, couple of sail changes and some napping.

All the boats that are out here going the same direction are all so far away we can’t visually see them, or even on the AIS screen. As soon as they are about 15 miles away they might as well be 100.

Now it’s pitch black, the moon doesn’t rise till almost day break and its 100% cloud cover so nothing to see as we arrive the Eastern Lau group of Fiji. Dodging the small islands and reefs will be the video game of the night watch. Staying 2 Nm offshore of any of these hard things just in case the charts are off is plan. Luckily we have been in these parts before and have some tracks and remember that the charts we have and satellite images are pretty close. .. adding the 2 mile buffer adds to the chances of missing these if something was to go wrong.

Lots of reefs line the path this eve

About 120 Nm left to go, if the winds stay up and the forecast is they should, we can hopefully arrive in daylight. If not, our backup plan is to anchor nearby and clear-in in the morning. of course we have to finish any fresh produce and bacon before arrival. Can’t let bacon go to waste.

Farewell to the Kingdom

Leave a reply

Fickle as we are, we have pressing matters to attend to. Just like that crazy rabbit from Alice in wonderland.

Well not really, we had a great time in Tonga but we really didn’t do it justice. Lots of whales, some great anchorages, mediocre weather and great weather but Fiji and a chance to pick up a replacement rudder won the coin toss.

Another unexpected fun in Tonga, was we got to cross paths with new and old friends from anchorages past. Some we hadn’t seen since the Caribbean, others from French Polynesia and beyond.

We cleared out on Friday with a Saturday plan. Can’t leave on a Friday, it’s bad luck, and that would have meant missing a Friday happy hour. Saturday morning came all too soon.

A cruise ship was arriving so no need to stick around. Under way and raised full sails. Soon enough, wind picked up and overpowered the one rudder. Oh my, this is going to be a long 400 miles. Reefed and tweaked, and tweaked, and finally came to an agreement with autopilot.

We agreed, not to give him too much sail to deal with and he would meander down the course, like he was the one that stayed too late at happy hour. One reef in the main and various furls on the headsail and we have some decent balance. With the exception of the quartering seas that induces lots of rudder use, we have successfully knocked out 150 of those 400 miles.

With the exception of the rough waves and winds at the start, why did we chose to leave in a squall?, it’s going well out here.

Cheers.

Lots of company leaving Tonga this morning

New Canvas: Inside and Out

Leave a reply
New canvas!  We replaced all of our interior and exterior cushions when we purchased Sugar Shack in 2010.  Do you remember the horrid teal pleather that was on the boat when we bought it?  The shop in Turkey did a really great job replacing the cushions and covering them.  We replaced the interior cushions with a beautiful, light tan micro suede called Alcantera and the exterior cushions had a sturdy, stainproof, water resistant beige sunbrella.  Fast forward to today…if you were to look at our cushions from afar you might wonder why we were replacing the fabric…Even I think they look pretty darn good from this shot. But, when you look closely, the fabric has started pulling away at the seams especially around the bolsters.  Unfortunately, this is not fixable.  I know, I tried and it doesn’t hold as the fabric is too thin and worn to hold the thread and glue. And some of the cushions have actually worn through the fabric on the sides.

Exterior Cushions

The exterior cockpit cushions are holding up a little better but they are stained and looking a little tired.  They are also retaining water (when it rains the cockpit gets wet) which takes ages to dry out.

Shopping for a Dressmaker

One of the first things that we did when we arrived in New Zealand (Nov.2022) was to look for canvas makers.  We knew this would be a huge job and so we wanted to get on the books early on.  We met with several companies and decided on Masterpieces in Canvas.  The owner, Kim, is very professional, has amazing creative ideas, great suggestions, and a reputation for stellar work. The Pending Canvas Projects:
  • Replace fabric on interior Cushions (7 backs, 8 bottoms, 1 nav seat, 2 bench seats, 1 round seat)
  • Recover exterior cushions (3 long cockpit cushions, 2 helm seats)
  • New back bolster covers at helm seats
  • Dinghy Chaps / cover
  • Cockpit enclosure
  • Sail Bag Cover (North Sails will provide this)
We selected a new, hardier interior fabric that is a macro-suede in Ash (left photo).  For the exterior, we selected two types of a new (to us) fabric called Sauleda.  The main cushions and helm seats will be in light silver gray called Tandem Piedra.  The new dinghy chaps, sail bag, helm bolsters and cockpit enclosure will be in a darker gray called Tandem Grafito. The macro-suede is water and stain resistant and can be scrubbed and cleaned.  The Sauleda is waterproof, stain proof and much stronger than Sunbrella.  It has more threads making it a sturdier fabric.

The Big Reveal:

The new cushions came in and boy oh boy are we excited.  They turned out so beautifully that we did not want to sit on them!  The color is perfect, the material is soft and luxurious, and the design is perfect. Kim has great attention to detail which can be found in all the seams, curves, and design.  Yours truly (Christine) made the beautiful, buttery soft blanket in the bottom photo. The bottom side even turned out really nice.  She used a beautiful black phifertex, with sturdy zippers and wood on the bottom (so your bottom doesn’t sink into the holes below) The seat at our navigation table even came out super cool.  We bought a new chair and had Kim recover it to match the cushions.  This new chair is on a swivel so it turns around and will lift up so we can still access the storage underneath it.

Outside Canvas work

The vendor in Turkey did a great job providing us with large, cushy cushions.  All we needed to do was add a little more water proofing and new canvas.  They came out beautiful as well.

Cockpit Enclosure

Matt and I had made our rain and sun shades and they were very tired and did not completely enclose the cockpit so when it rained everything got wet.  Kim and Matt designed our new enclosure that has windows and is completely enclosed.  We will most likely only use the large back panel and the two side panels (not the corners) on a daily basis. From the inside…excuse the mess but we are still under construction…

A New Dinghy and Chaps

Our amazing Avon 3.4 lasted over 22 years!  She was a spectacular dinghy and lasted way beyond expectations.  She had a deep “V” bottom, a false floor so we had a flat surface to stand on inside dinghy, tall transom, locker with hawes pipe and 3 pontoons.  But she had several slow leaks and we just could not keep up with them.  We thought about just replacing the pontoons because we loved this dinghy so much, but the cost was equivalent to a new dinghy. Avon no longer makes small dinghies (they just make gigantic dinghies) so we could not even replace her with another one just like her.  In fact, we had a lot of problems finding a dinghy we liked.  We wanted a 3.6M dinghy, with a deep “V”, false bottom, tall transom (for our long shaft outboard), and hypalon pontoons.  But, New Zealand does not sell dinghies with hypalon pontoons because they are too expensive and they don’t sell.  So, we had to go with a pvc version which just are not as strong or sturdy.  What can you do? Just means the life span of this dinghy will be maybe 5-7 years tops. We sell our beloved Sweetie along with our old 8hp Mercury outboard.

The gorgeous new outfit for Sweetie 2.0

And we get new chaps made for the new dinghy to protect the pontoons.  Sweetie 2.0.  The far left photo has shadows from the trees – the bow is actually perfect.  Kim added two beautiful pockets and the craftsmanship around each cut out is simply amazing (lower left photo). Here is a photo of Kim and Roger (our sailmaker) Events from this blog occurred between April-May 2023.  Our blog posts run 8-10 weeks behind actual events. We replace all of our ceiling panels, ceiling lights and update the master bath in our last blog.