Hot, humid, sunny marine weather – and everything else that continuous living aboard entails – can quickly wear out a boat's interior furnishings. In our case, the V-berth mattress had completely collapsed months ago, and the stern cabin's mattress was showing signs of significant wear. We spent the end of May and all of June…
By the end of May 2011 The Fox had traveled some 18,000 miles in its 10 years of life with us. It had kept us safe and comfortable but eight years of 24/7 life aboard had completely worn out the cabins' mattresses, the binding on our New Zealand wool carpets, and the upholstery on our…
Much has been accomplished in the 7+ weeks we've been at Sunset Bay Marina in Stuart. We're getting set to push off for points north tomorrow – Friday, July 8 – but here's what's been done so far, if you separate out the usual frantic buying of boat parts & cruising guides: Topsides: rig's been…
Bahía Piña is one of the last anchorages in Panama before you cross the border into Colombia. It is pretty and protected from northerly winds (though not from southerly wind and seas). It has a couple of anchoring options, though like many places a mooring field has crowded out the best spots in the best area. It's…
GB has now successfully replaced all the boat parts that the April 28 lightning strike' had damaged. We did a short spin around the bay outside of Marina Papagayo to re-swing the compass and get the autopilot talking to the wind instruments and whatnot. All went well and it looks like there will only be…
Quite a while ago I mentioned some problems we'd been having in the Sea of Cortez, with boobies landing on our boat and…causing problems. Well. Boobies have continued to cause us distress. Allow me to elaborate. We were doing a long-ish crossing of the southern portion of the Sea of Cortez late last December 2009.…
April 28, 2010. Marina Papagayo, Costa Rica. About noon. A small thunderstorm began grumbling to the NE and made its way over the E side of Bahia Culebra. Marina Papagayo is located on the W side of Bahia Culebra so nothing much was happening over our way but in an abundance of caution we unplugged…
…and I mean that literally. GB and I have often discussed that we are sailing long distances on what is now an 8 year old boat, and we have lived aboard continuously for over 7 years. Meaning, all The Fox's systems have been put to continuous long term use in a marine environment, so it…
As terrific as Mazatlan is for engine work, boat canvas and stainless steel, there is a dearth of sail makers. If your main sail has experienced some…ermm…user error lately; saaay, in the form of an excessively taut outhaul that stresses the grommets along the luff and tears the sail fabric? If you're in Pacific Mexico,…
Way back in 2008, we purchased a Sailomat self-steering wind vane. Our Autohelm autopilot, aka "Otto," has always worked very well, but like all autopilots it uses a lot of battery power so was not the best choice for all conditions, especially for long passages. We also wanted some kind of a backup device in…