Archive | ShipShape – boat work & boat life

  Once you decide to live on a boat, tons of thought goes into What BOAT? We’ve had three sailboats and so we’ve made this difficult decision three times. It probably shouldn’t be so difficult. In the end, it is how you live and not what you live on that makes for a happy/unhappy voyage. […]

“Did you do any thru-hull work,” the travel lift operator called, sitting patiently at the controls of the travel lift. “Uh, yeah. A lot,” was Randall’s answer as we scrambled below. “I’ll give you a few minutes,” he said to our backs. Thank goodness. I hate to ask Randall to commandeer the travel lift. Lift […]

>Czech N Mate sets sail tomorrow for Isla Mujeres, Mexico. She’s come a long way since the picture below. A couple of years ago, Randall and I were walking the dock to our boat and passed a boat with a hailing port of Drumright, OK. Her owners, Jerry and Debby Brichacek, were trying to get […]

> “Don’t you worry about pirates when you go sailing?” Well, it’s not like we are unarmed. Flaming arrows are terrifying on the high seas. We make Jake practice at night so the locals won’t get alarmed. Hopefully, Randall will have the catapult finished before we leave. Ok, just kidding. Jake would not share pics […]

> Randall’s been sawing on the boat again with a little miter saw. It’s never fun to cut wood you know you’ll have to replace with $40/foot teak but he didn’t like the way the caprail was pulling up at the bow. To get to the wood, we had to remove the bow pulpit and […]

>The new MP3 players are here. Not only does Lily now have her own, but it is permanently attached to her ear. Last night, I heard her mumble in her sleep, “plug it in, plug it in” because a dead battery is her worst nightmare. People frequently ask her what she’s listening too. Well, she’s […]

> Randall made bread in the pressure cooker. When the lid came off, we weren’t sure about it at all. Then, it had to be pried out of the pan. It came out looking like a cheese cake. It was, despite out doubts, incredibly delicious. Pressure cooking is an art on boats. It saves fuel […]

>We limped in to Naples last night without a forestay. On route to Key West, we had heavy seas and winds gusting a little over 40 miles per hour. We had spent the morning trying to trim sails to our beat into the wind. We had finally settled in and were making some progress into […]

>We have a new phrase which seems appropriate for our shore excursions. “We’re off like a herd of turtles.” It seems to perfectly describe that 20-minute scramble for sunscreen, hats, sunglasses, maps, camera and correct trolley change which occurs before we set off. In the cockpit, we debate “Take Chewy or Tie Chewy.” If we […]

> Well, I have a number of transgressions to report. 1. Jacob got his ear pierced. Who told him that real sailors sport an earring? Michelle? Vicki? 2. Many of you will forgive the earring as “youthful spontaneity.” However, I must also report that I checked his journal and NOT A WORD. You may want […]