After finishing the jig in part one, I decided to carry on and make the first actual wind vane part (the jig I made is just to help in the construction). I decided to start with parts 4A and 4B,… Continue reading
Today I started construction on my Hebridean Wind Vane I maybe feel I bit off a bit more than I can chew as it appears really pretty complicated, but I will slowly work away at it and hopefully end up… Continue reading
After a couple of… hairy solo excursions in stronger wind, I bumped an autopilot up to the top of my list. Now, being a 36′ foot with a wheel, there were two main types of options. An above-floor ‘wheel pilot’ like http://www.raymarine.com/view/?id=380… Continue reading
As of around ten minutes ago, I finished the final porthole. I am so relieved to finally finish this project, especially since it was really cold last night and have a porthole sized hole in the boat (as I had… Continue reading
*Ok, week before thanksgiving. American thanksgiving that is, as the Canadian one already happened 6 weeks ago. Whatever. So my friend Elyess was hosting a thanksgiving dinner (see above) at her house on Orcas Island and that sounded like a… Continue reading
With plans to go to Orcas Island on the Sunday, the Saturday was spent doing little bits and pieces that I’ve been putting off for a while. First up, getting new oars. My old ones were sadly lost at sea so… Continue reading
One of the things on my list was to upgrade my traveler. It was still the original one which was a pretty anemic 2:1, made worse by the fact a bunch of plastic on the blocks had all broken. This… Continue reading
So went for a quick spin with my friends Billy, Emma and David. Wind was 15 knots, gusting to 25, so we sailed around for a couple of hours with a reefed main and foresail. David had never been sailing… Continue reading