Oriental, NC

 I know it seems like there is little progress....but this project really does take most of the day each day.  I'm measuring, then planning, then measuring again.  

This is one side of the bag, assembled with half of the zipper panel.  The batten pocket has a velcro flap to keep the batten in place.

 

 

And Duane is still busy installing Starlink....look at that beautiful Carolina sky!

 

Mid-day our buddies Ed and Cathy tossed off the docklines to head up to Bridgeton Boatworks for their biennial haul-out and bottom paint.

 

Weird to be on the dock alone after so much company lately!!  But they'll be back in a week or so.  (And we won't be lonely long as Charm will visit again tomorrow for a while!!)

 

The two panels laid out to mark the final placement of the hold-down straps on the bottom of the bag.

 

And I fabricated a zippered piece that will wrap around the front of the mast - a re-design that will look like a lot of the other Mantas.  (It's lined with stiff dacron sailcloth to prevent chafe.

 

And a long-awaited event - Duane got the Starlink roughly installed and operational!  It is very fast and we'll have internet even when we're sailing overnight passages in the open ocean!

 

Oriental, NC

 More sewing.....slow but steady progress.  I constructed the long zipper panel.  I made it in two pieces, different from the normal zipper-placard.  In this case, I want extra material hanging over the zipper to protect it from the harsh sun.

 

Then we zipped it together to mark it for the final cuts.  It will be much wider at the mast, tapering down at the stern since the sail is much less volume at the back.  Progress seems slow but I'm measuring multiple times and interrupting Duane often for advice and 2nd opinions!

And speaking of Duane - he's busy with the Starlink install!!  He's getting the mount ready for our Dishy!

Oriental, NC

 Getting started with a major project....the main sail bag is very old.  Not really sure how old, but over 10 years.  That's a long time for fabric to be in the sun/weather 24/7.  Needless to say, it needs replacing as we've patched it, being careful with it over the past couple of year as rips appeared frequently.  Anyhooo, time to bit the bullet and get it re-done.

We'll be doing some re-design of a couple of areas.  Has been nice having What If and Breathe on the dock lately so that I can contrast/compare other setups.  

I may have mentioned earlier that I scored 14 yards of very inexpensive Sunbrella marine grade fabric on Ebay (less than $10 a yard!!!).

After much measuring and discussing with Duane, we rolled out the material on the dock and got busy with marking and cutting the fabric.  (It's almost 18' long....)

 

First cuts - we did two of these, obviously.  I finally bought my own hot knife - I've been borrowing Cathy's but I think it's time that I have one on board...Cathy lent me the green knee pad.  A lifesaver kneeling out on that concrete!

After hemming the bottom, we sewed webbing in place at intervals to attach the jack-lines.  (Small lines that hold up the sailbag).

 

At this point I had to pause and drive the 1/2 hour into New Bern because I had not ordered enough material for the batten pocket....luckily, late on a Friday afternoon, Omar Sailmakers was willing to stop their work and sell me 18' of sailtape.  Cool place....

 

Back at the boat, fitting the sailtape in place to make the pocket for the new battens.

And if you're wondering what the boat looks like right now.....it's a disaster!!!

Oriental, NC

 We packed up and departed for the coast after I had my yearly physical yesterday.  Flu shot with no aftereffects.  They didn't have Covid shots yet - but Cathy reminded me that there is a waiting period after you've actually had Covid to get a booster.  So that may have to wait for a while.

Anyway, we were pleased to get to stop by Morgan's Tavern in New Bern to meet up with a bunch of Manta crews!  Breathe, What If and Charm plus a couple who are sailing friends with Jason and Monica.  Fun place but as usual when there's a large crown, you only get to chat with those adjacent to you.  Maybe next time we'll do "musical chairs" halfway thru so we can catch up with everyone.....

(Thanks Cathy for the photo)

 

 Lots of boat work coming up....

 

Pittsboro, NC

The armrests really needed some re-working!  We had no idea that the wood framework was delaminating under the vinyl cover.

 But Duane re-created the structure and glued it all together.  (X2 of course)

 

New underlying structure primed and ready for assembly (tomorrow)

 

 

Pittsboro, NC

 Sorry for the lack of posts lately....I had some airport stuff to attend to over the past few days.  Back to boating stuff now!

Our wonderful Springfield double helm seat was showing it's age last year.  The vinyl covering was cracking and tearing.  Time for a new cover - luckily Springfield makes a kit so I didn't have to sew the replacement cover.  Good thing, because the cover is pretty complicated!!!  (I actually ordered the kit and the replacement foam last year but it stayed on the "to do" list until now...)

This is an old photo of the seat - trust me, it's on it's last leg.

 

The kit came with replacements for all the vinyl pieces.

 

Removed the old vinyl covering - the seat upright foam was still in good shape so we'll re-use it.  The seat bottom, however, was in pretty yucky shape so we are replacing it with new. 

 

We were surprised how complicated the seat cushion foam was.  Multiple pieces and contoured shape.

We had ordered some firm 4" foam and it worked great.  

 

Measured and started cutting.

 

 Using a kitchen electric carving knife - not always pretty but got the job done.

More sculpting.  We had to glue thin pieces on the ends to get the shape correct.

 

The upright re-assembled.

 

And the seat cushion re-assembled.  It's a bit wrinkly from being stored in a bag for the past year, but I expect that will flatten once we get it out in the sun.

We sanded and painted the arm rest hardware - Duane has a bit of work to do still to re-create the arm rests as the underlying wood was a bit rotten.  More later!

 

 

 

Oriental, NC

It's moving day! What If is back from their Chesapeake summer and we needed to play "musical boats" to put them at the dock since Breathe will be leaving in a few days.

 

Got them all tied up....nice to have Ed and Cathy back at the dock!

 

Then Monica and Jason tied up at the end of the dock - Monica practicing her cowgirl skills!

 

Fun to see all the Mantas....wish Charm was here and somehow at the dock as well!  (They're a day or two from here).

 

Jason and Monica treated us to pizza night at the Silo.  Good fun and conversation.

 

View from our cockpit!  That's a whole lota Manta!

 

Oriental, NC

Duane continues to work on plumbing....he relocated this water pump from it's original location behind the washer/dryer. 

 I've been continuing with my sewing chores but nothing photogenic.  Looking forward to seeing the crews from What If and Charm this afternoon as they return from their Chesapeake summers!

Oriental, NC

The aft corners of the boat are not protected by sunshades....so often there is pesky hot sunshine creeping into the cockpit at anchor.I've been meaning to do something about it for years and I've finally gotten around to it.  Lowe's has a very similar awning fabric.  Not an exact match but close.

 I measured and fabricated two panels that will hang from the existing shades using carabiners.

 

This is a first take at it just pinned in place.  Not a perfect solution but will give us some relief in certain sun angles.  Will tweak it in a couple of days after I get the caribiners that I ordered.

 

And we were treated to a pretty sunrise this morning.

 

Oriental, NC

All was well after the storm. Just a lot of debris floated up into the parking area.  Mostly just pine needles and leaves, a few boards.  Our stone/rip-rap seawall did sustain a little wave action damage but that will be fairly easy to put back in place.

Jason and Monica pitched in and helped us clean up all the loose debris and deadfall limbs.  So nice to have double the manpower!

 

Still a little overcast but so nice that the winds have calmed!

 

Oriental, NC

We had to do a little prep work to get ready for Tropical Storm Ophelia....high water (4-5') was forecast.  That would flood the vehicles on the lot.  So we loaded everything up and drove them over to the other lot near Oriental that doesn't flood....Thanks to Jason and Monica for helping with that!  Nice to have extra drivers around!

 

Starting to see the first of the rain from the tropcial storm.

 

Then the water started to rise over the concrete dock.

 Looks like all is well - we haven't been off the boat yet.  Winds are forecast to stay pretty high all morning (gusting to 45+).