Progress
Exciting new book
Look at this book for inspiring dreams 😊
Latest
Appliances
The Electric plan: cooking
As the entire gas system (used only for cooking) was condemned by the surveyor we are taking the opportunity to try eliminating another fossil fuel. So we are going electric for cooking. Hobs Fortunately, there have been huge advances in electric cooking in recent years. So we are having two
Dinghy
Dinghy cradle
So Highfield provide a pdf download plan for a cradle to store your dinghy so that it is under least stress. I've just knocked up one using the wood from the pallet that our solar stuff arrived on. It isn't going to win any prizes but
Dinghy
The Electric plan: Outboard
A key element of our goals for Sustainable Sailing (as we have hinted at many times) is going to be replacing fossil fuels with electricity with the assumption that the electricity comes from renewable resources. So this is where we are at so far: Outboard Engine Vida didn't
Environmental
Aft head update
So here is a video of where we got up to last weekend with the aft heads. The Natures Head composting loo needs a bit more space than the original Lavac pump out loo, in particular it is quite a bit taller. However, the seacock under the floor is no
Uncategorized
Shop is open
Very pleased that we now have a shop with t-shirts, hoodies and bags with our wonderful design from Jules on it. Very pleased with the environmental and ethical standards that TeeMill use. I've got the first examples arriving next week but meantime the (not yet very pretty but
Progress
Weekend roundup
So we had a "long" weekend doing jobs on Vida at the end of last week. A "long" weekend for us has been very rare for the last 14 years, being somewhat incompatible with my work as a Methodist Minister (I guess it is obvious that
Environmental
Stunning new T-Shirt Design
The always amazing Jules has come up with a radically better T-Shirt design. It will also be available to go on a black or other dark background. Then we can get t-shirts more suitable for sustainable working on boats so you can go sustainable sailing one day ;-) What do
Progress
Friday progress #3
So just finished our 3rd Friday on Vida. We arrived at about 12:30pm (just into Friday) and everything was dry, apart from the ground, obviously been a lot of rain in Beaumaris recently. The first task of the day was to prepare both masts for being taken down. I&
Environmental
Refurbish or replace: Seacocks?
There are a couple of boat items that our Rival 38 has in abundance. Windows and Seacocks. Both are really important as means of blocking holes in the boat and so very helpful in staying on top of the water and not under it. Most of us are pretty familiar
Cooking
A close escape!
In my post "Vida: A 1977 Rival 38 Centre Cockpit Yacht" I mentioned that the gas installation had been condemned. We removed everything about that from the boat on our first weekend. However, we have always been concerned about the hot air heating system. We were told it
Environmental
Shampoo, soap, washing up liquid etc
The problems with modern shampoos, soaps, washing up liquid etc are more obvious when thinking about use on a boat where they will be directly discharged into the sea. Stuff that doesn't biodegrade, has plastics in it (as well as packaging) as well as many obnoxious chemicals is