Act I, Scene I. Somewhere in the Sea of Cortez. Morning on The Fox at anchor. Belowdecks, in the salon. "Darling, there appears to be a spot of water in the Dry Bilge." "Taste it, My Sweet – is it fresh, or salty?" "It tastes of salt, Love. Whence comes it, thinks you?" "I shall…
Marianne has been after me to write a post – its been a long time – so – here goes a little about the maintenance and upgrades we have been doing. This summer was suppose to have been about inland travel, seeing Mexico’s great sights, and enjoying Mazatlan. Instead it has been an unending series…
So, we successfully maneuvered our way from Texas and Arizona back to Mazatlan in late July, loaded down with a whole bunch of boat gear and related goodies. GB went straight to work installing our new Sailomat self-steering wind vane on the stern; and our new ICOM 802 SSB radio everywhere else throughout the boat. …
– or, tips for bringing equipment and parts from the US to your boat in Mexico. Tip #1: Individual results may vary. Tip #2: Plan well in advance. In our case, when we entered Mexico in October, 2007, and paid the modest fee for a bilingual employee of Hotel Coral Marina in Ensenada to help us with…
So. There we were in 57 feet of water in Bahia Agua Verde, with a busted anchor windlass. GB believed after some serious testing* that the problem lay in the electric windlass motor. Which, fortunately, was heavy but portable when next we were at a port with some repair opportunities. GB manfully raised the 66-lb.…
OH HAI I IS ON UR MAST CHANGIN UR ANCHOR LITE kthxbye
As I was saying previously…The Fox is so new and well-built that very little has yet gone kerflooey. The 6-item list below comprises stuff that is not especially essential to sailing but makes life aboard more comfy — if all works according to spec. However, here’s the preliminary disclaimer, again, to forestall any unpleasantness because…
Some time ago I posted a stream-of-consciousness list of some of the things that have worked well for us on the Fox after a full year of cruising. Now’s time to discuss what has not worked. Fortunately, there has not been much that has broken or not worked according to expectations. I feel that’s partly…
The cruising life is challenging. So many things demand one’s time: procuring fuel takes longer than simply sidling up to a fuel dock; doing laundry is more complicated*; getting groceries and seeing a doctor require negotiating buses and taxis and speaking in a foreign language in addition to just buying the groceries or walking into…
The main reason we returned to Seattle when we did, was that a subcontractor had issued a manufacturer’s recall for the aluminum frame of our boat’s windscreen. We and four other boats had the refitting work done in Lake Union, Seattle beginning May 5, and it went very well. Even the broker joined in the…