5 Lessons Traveling and Living In Panama Taught Us
Traveling and staying for awhile is what really exposes you to a place and its culture.
Time To Say “Farewell and Following Seas” To Tulum-5
We were able to finally finish the engine re-install after nearly 5 months of work. Here’s the story of some careful logistics, patient and giving folks around us and the difficult time when you have to say goodbye to the home that has cuddled your children in challenging times and romped with baby whales on […]
Dents And Dings: Getting Expert Help With Tulum’s Cosmetics
After three years of cruising, part of Tulum’s upkeep and maintenance was to get her dents, dings and missing paint spots fixed by experts. Shelter Bay Marina was able to help with that and did a nice job.
Brightwork: Making The Boat Worth Seeing
In the beginning, our toe rails and windows were flaking, the brightwork worn away by three years under the sun and marinated in salt and surf. It took good quality strippin, a bit of sanding and 12 layers of vanish to bring it all back to life. Wanna learn how…check out this post-
Anchor Chain Maintenance: Cold Galvanizing Tulum’s Anchor Chain
Some boaters just ignore anchor chain or worry about it when that chain is completely ruined. We just can’t do it that way, as we depend on our chain daily with all the anchoring we like to do.
Eventually if you drop an anchor and use chain rode enough times, anchor chain will need some maintenance or you will be forced to buy new chain. Finding Hot Galvanizing for anchor chain in larger industrialized countries isn’t hard, but what to do in smaller countries or if you just happen to be far away from somewhere that can hot galvanize large amounts of chain? When Tulum was hauled in July, we had to do some research and make decisions on our own chain maintenance.
12 Months To Failure: Why We’re Changing Tulum’s Exhaust System, AGAIN
Changing out a sailboat exhaust system is not usually easy or cheap and not done on a whim. Why would Tulum have (3) three different exhaust systems in less than 12 months? Read on to find out how we arrived at our final solution.
Shelter Bay Marina And The History Of Fort Sherman By The HelmsMistress
Part of the reason we travel is to explore different landscapes from home and to experience history up close. For us, this place has it all within a short walking distance of the marina! If your travels find you at Shelter Bay Marina, take the time to learn a bit about the historic grounds you walk upon.
Great Dane And Kitty On A Sailboat: Quincy Takes On The Jungle
Great Dane in the Panama Jungle….with a few cat pics too.
The Panama Canal – What NOT To Expect, By The HelmsMistress
From the time I envisioned taking our floating home through the Panama Canal, I began to hear warnings and horror stories of dramatic transits from other boats that were damaged enroute, experienced significant delays in transit or had to deal with something else entirely unexpected. What I found was that there was a lot of […]
Extended Maintenance and Major Repairs: The Continuing Price For An Experienced Sailboat
I’m of the opinion that delaying or ignoring major repairs could lead to cascade failure that we may not be able to handle, especially with my limited mechanical knowledge. So, we try very hard to do major repairs before they go from urgent to emergent and often welcome professional + experienced opinions to add to our own experience….but we always put it on ourselves to make final repair decisions.