Mills River, NC

 We've started some preliminary provisioning!  It's a bit early but this stuff is all shelf stable so doesn't really matter when we get it.

 

I found porta bella mushrooms on sale for $1.29 per container....I couldn't pass up the opportunity to mix up some veggies to freeze for later use.  I love having the combo of green peppers/onions/mushrooms already chopped for sauces and stews.  Vacuum packed, frozen and ready for easy use.

 

Some semi-irritating news is that we have to do a unexpected haul-out at the end of next week.  Duane was doing all the oil changes for the winter season the other day and found a large amount of milky oil in  one of the sail drives.  So we have to haul the boat out of the water for him to be able to drain all the bad oil and replace the saildrive seals.

In the meantime - we're going to spend the next few days up in the mountains visiting the relatives!  

Pretty views on the drive up.  Leaves are changing - not peak yet but still pretty.  Beautiful fall day.

 

Pittsboro, NC

 We've got lots of chores and appointments....Duane researched a new Verizon plan and we went into Raleigh to activate a new mobile hotspot.....

And we arranged to meet Robert for a nice long lunch!!!  Fun to catch up, he's happy and busy.

And then in the late afternoon I had an appointment with my doctor to remove a small knot on my lower leg.  He'd removed it about 10 years ago but it grew back.  It's benign but very irritating if touched.

Two stitches - not much pain for him to take out a massive "plug" of my flesh.....oh what fun!!  Nice that the gauze matches my shoes and shirt, haha.

Next up, new dental appointment to see about a sharp pain when I bite on my back molar....I expect a root canal will be needed - don't want to be in the Bahamas with a tooth flare-up so will get this fixed before the winter.

Oriental, NC

 Kris and Dean have a new dinghy and need to make dinghy chaps - much easier when the dinghy is on land instead of floating!

Dean and Duane went over to the neighbors lot to discuss/ask permission to use their boat ramp.

 

A little while later, boat trailer hooked up and dinghy onboard.

 

Now the dinghy is in a great location for Kris to do her magic sewing!

 

Unfortunately, we've got a couple of weeks of chores/appointments at home so we mowed the grass one more time and headed to Pittsboro for a while!  The Charm and What If crews will hold down the fort at Fork Point Road while we're away.....

Oriental, NC

 Yay!!  The sailbag is complete!

Really pleased with how the sail falls into the bag so easily.

 

 Since I believe the old cover was 20 years old - this should last a while!

 

Oriental, NC

 The sailbag is nearing completion....just a few final measurements to be able to sew the final seams at the aft end.

The first fitting - I'm really pleased with it so far.  This is not the final look - it's not really attached to the boom yet so looser than the final fit will be.

 

Had to stop a few minutes to welcome Charm back to the neighborhood!!

They've been in New Bern for the past week helping Breathe install a new lithium battery bank.  Now they're waiting on their Starlink package to arrive! 

 

And we all went to Silo's for 2-Fer Tuesday pizza night!!  Good fun - crews from What If, Bluejacket, Charm and Sojourn!

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!