By Rich
On Sunday, October 23 I had a wild beam reach from Solomons Island to Tangier Island. I set a full main and jib shortly after sunrise and briefly worried that there may not be enough wind to make it to Tangier before dusk under sail alone. Boy was I wrong. Continue reading Drivin’ South: Solomons To Tangier Island Single Handed
By Rich
With a gale forecast to fill in during the evening, I was in a bit of a rush to make Solomons Island well before dusk. I caught a wonderful sunrise after leaving Lake Ogelton and TURNING RIGHT (south) instead of left (to haul out) for the first time since we’ve owned the boat. SO EXCITED.
Continue reading Drivin’ South: Annapolis To Solomons Island Single Handed
By Rich
It’s that time of year – when a train of sailboats packs up and head south for the winter. For the first time after two years of dreaming about it, WE’RE GOING WITH THEM! More exciting still, I’m doing most of the trip south SINGLE HANDED!
In fact, the trip is already under way. I’m home for a quick break while Le Saberage catches a brief rest in Charleston, South Carolina. I fly back tomorrow to resume the trip. Today, however, I am have some time between loads of laundry to work the keyboard and get some blog posts out! The articles will be significantly time delayed since I haven’t had any time at all during the voyage to blog.
I’m going to headline the series of articles Drivin’ South and will endeavor to make each as media heavy and commentary light as possible. I’ll also focus as much of my content as possible on “lessons learned” about the passages and destinations to benefit others who plan to head south.
Enjoy!
By Rich
Credit to Brian for this awesome video footage of Lisa and I sailing from Annapolis to Rock Hall Saturday, directly into a northerly that ranged from the low to upper teens in strength.
Days like these are why we sail!
By Rich
After nine months of dedicating literally every available evening and weekend to fixing up the Sabre, we finally launched her three weeks ago on August 16th. Our laundry list of projects ended with flair, in the form of the most stressful and technically difficult mechanical project I can ever remember taking on: replacement of the centerboard conduit couplers.
By Rich
Few things can make a boat look older than patched holes on the deck where unwanted hardware used to be. Anyone who has raced on a 1980s era raceboat can attest to this commonly-encountered visual blight.
Our Sabre came with the “option” of pulpits around the dorade vents.
By Rich
While trying to defend his lousy workmanship on our cabin sole, our former contractor declared the floor and write off and said he “didn’t mean to insult us” but that he “couldn’t polish a turd.” The floor was so old and trashed, he said, that it wasn’t worth putting much effort into. Here’s how the floor looked after his half-assed attempt at varnishing it, complete with huge brush marks (yes, the varnish is dry here).
Here’s how the “turd” came out after we fired him and did it ourselves. I’ll let our esteemed readers be the judge of how the ‘turd’ came out.
By Rich
Between age and the wear and tear we inflicted upon it after two winters of intense restoration work in the interior, our cabin sole was in need of a new coat of varnish this spring. We tried hiring a contractor to the work, but as we detailed in this post, that turned out to be a disaster. So we took the project on ourselves. Here is what we learned about the process. Continue reading Adventures In Varnishing: The Cabin Sole
By Rich
“Let’s get something straight right now, Rich: I don’t care if I ever do any more work for you. Do you understand? You are not a priority for me.”
Welcome, dear readers, to the third circle of Hell. It’s June 30, 2016, the Thursday before the July 4th weekend and our Sabre 42 still sits on land. I’m on the phone with our diesel guy. Between a lengthy, enduring project list and huge delays in getting Annapolis area yacht services companies to so much as reply to quote requests (let alone complete work) our late July launch date is in danger of slipping now, too. But with this call my week’s work trying to get help with the boat is about to sink to a new low. Continue reading How To Destroy The Boat Ownership Experience
By Rich
While trapped in limbo by a crazy diesel mechanic who seems to be taking some unknown personal issues out on us and the rest of the marine services community, we’ve taken to filling the void with any vanity projects we can think of. Here’s a sampling: Continue reading Stranded On Land. So….Vanity Projects
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