Richard here…
After spending a lot of time 'lurking" here and on many other website forums, we've found that SailNet has become our "virtual home". WONDERUFL people here! Very different than CF which we thought would serve us well. We have found many caring, informative, accepting and supportive members here.
Our "short" intro story (LOL! As I sit here with my morning coffee, I'm afraid this will be anything but short, although I'll try.) Tresa and I are 61 years old although our spirits are those of teenagers. We both have histories of "adventure traveling" experienced years before we met: (She: built and paddled a touring canoe and paddled it from Montana to the east coast (3,500miles/4 months…. I rode a mountain bicycle for 7 months circumnavigating the North American Continent). We met on Match.com 10 years ago, got married on a beach in Maui 5 years ago and have truly found our best friend of all time in each other.
She knew I was a sailor before we met via Match.com (My grandfather was harbor master of Havana before Castro, spent my childhood in the Florida Keys and was sailing years before I got my driver's license with lots of blue water experience since.) I had no idea about Tresa's sailing experience until AFTER we met! (She: Long term crew on charter boats!) (Oh lucky day! She's a "real" sailor!!!) =D
After spending 7+ years turning out city lot into an Urban self-sustainable farm, producing over 70% of our own food and teaching others how to do it (www.jarelsustainableliving.com), we looked at each other a couple of months ago (after surpassing all our goals), and realized we weren't happy. We had purchased "Dayenu" ( a #5,000 C-26 swing keel sloop), several years prior with the intent to tow our bot to our intended cruising grounds (ICW, San Juan Islands, Sea of Cortez, etc), but hadn't touched her in over two years.
Last week we sold our quail raising system, Friday we sold all our rabbits and cages and this past weekend, we unwrapped Dayenu, washed her down, moved her further back in our driveway and began building a pipe/tarp tent to facilitate working on her over the winter.
Being the son of a cabinet maker, I grew up with woodwork in my veins. Professionally, I create motion picture special effects and provide prototype development for many large companies. (- Jarel Design -) I have a pretty complete shop and studio (Plastics, Wood, Metal, Composites (including Carbon Fiber)… I can (and have), built just about anything.
We're going to start out small and "simple' (relative word here…LOL!) with our modifications: Bringing all lines aft, Lazy Jacks, (Possible roller for jib), Dodger, Bimini, rear tower with 300watts of solar, Composting head, Freezer/refrigerator, bow roller… We don't expect to get what we put into her if we decide to move up to a larger boat… maybe removing the head and solar panels… (Starting to feel like "bubba" from Forest Gump describing shrimp recipes! LOL!
Part of what I do for a living is creating photo-documented instructions and part of what we want to do is start a video channel on YouTube as well as create a website, sharing our journey and including detailed DIY/How To instructions for all we create.
We're gearing up for a second shakedown cruise out of Marina Del Ray summer of 2017 (My old home turf), testing our rig while sailing to Catalina and living aboard. (Guest docs there will take us for 7 days and after that I still have sailing friends there that have offered to get us into yacht club guest slips or friend's slips that are temporarily empty… Hoping for 3-4 weeks of getting to know Dayenu better, pushing our boat and exploring what she's capable of, before heading home and revising our modification plans and deciding what else we need or what we don't need, before driving to Florida the following year.
Tresa and I share everything and she will be adding her perspective to our journey in this thread as well, so please welcome her when she shows up to share her side of our story here.
Our experience here on SailNet has been so inviting with requests for info and photos, I figured this "Introduce Yourself" forum was the best place to share back to this community…
Thanks to all who have contributed to our great experiences here on this site. (I/we have been "lurking" here for over a month before finally registering.)
Best,
Richard
After spending a lot of time 'lurking" here and on many other website forums, we've found that SailNet has become our "virtual home". WONDERUFL people here! Very different than CF which we thought would serve us well. We have found many caring, informative, accepting and supportive members here.
Our "short" intro story (LOL! As I sit here with my morning coffee, I'm afraid this will be anything but short, although I'll try.) Tresa and I are 61 years old although our spirits are those of teenagers. We both have histories of "adventure traveling" experienced years before we met: (She: built and paddled a touring canoe and paddled it from Montana to the east coast (3,500miles/4 months…. I rode a mountain bicycle for 7 months circumnavigating the North American Continent). We met on Match.com 10 years ago, got married on a beach in Maui 5 years ago and have truly found our best friend of all time in each other.
She knew I was a sailor before we met via Match.com (My grandfather was harbor master of Havana before Castro, spent my childhood in the Florida Keys and was sailing years before I got my driver's license with lots of blue water experience since.) I had no idea about Tresa's sailing experience until AFTER we met! (She: Long term crew on charter boats!) (Oh lucky day! She's a "real" sailor!!!) =D
After spending 7+ years turning out city lot into an Urban self-sustainable farm, producing over 70% of our own food and teaching others how to do it (www.jarelsustainableliving.com), we looked at each other a couple of months ago (after surpassing all our goals), and realized we weren't happy. We had purchased "Dayenu" ( a #5,000 C-26 swing keel sloop), several years prior with the intent to tow our bot to our intended cruising grounds (ICW, San Juan Islands, Sea of Cortez, etc), but hadn't touched her in over two years.
Last week we sold our quail raising system, Friday we sold all our rabbits and cages and this past weekend, we unwrapped Dayenu, washed her down, moved her further back in our driveway and began building a pipe/tarp tent to facilitate working on her over the winter.
Being the son of a cabinet maker, I grew up with woodwork in my veins. Professionally, I create motion picture special effects and provide prototype development for many large companies. (- Jarel Design -) I have a pretty complete shop and studio (Plastics, Wood, Metal, Composites (including Carbon Fiber)… I can (and have), built just about anything.
We're going to start out small and "simple' (relative word here…LOL!) with our modifications: Bringing all lines aft, Lazy Jacks, (Possible roller for jib), Dodger, Bimini, rear tower with 300watts of solar, Composting head, Freezer/refrigerator, bow roller… We don't expect to get what we put into her if we decide to move up to a larger boat… maybe removing the head and solar panels… (Starting to feel like "bubba" from Forest Gump describing shrimp recipes! LOL!
Part of what I do for a living is creating photo-documented instructions and part of what we want to do is start a video channel on YouTube as well as create a website, sharing our journey and including detailed DIY/How To instructions for all we create.
We're gearing up for a second shakedown cruise out of Marina Del Ray summer of 2017 (My old home turf), testing our rig while sailing to Catalina and living aboard. (Guest docs there will take us for 7 days and after that I still have sailing friends there that have offered to get us into yacht club guest slips or friend's slips that are temporarily empty… Hoping for 3-4 weeks of getting to know Dayenu better, pushing our boat and exploring what she's capable of, before heading home and revising our modification plans and deciding what else we need or what we don't need, before driving to Florida the following year.
Tresa and I share everything and she will be adding her perspective to our journey in this thread as well, so please welcome her when she shows up to share her side of our story here.
Our experience here on SailNet has been so inviting with requests for info and photos, I figured this "Introduce Yourself" forum was the best place to share back to this community…
Thanks to all who have contributed to our great experiences here on this site. (I/we have been "lurking" here for over a month before finally registering.)
Best,
Richard