Counting Down

We have five days left at work!  Well at least work that we are paid for.  Then it is concentrate on getting Sari Timur back into cruising condition.  We have started some of the prepping already as we have to move the boat the day after we finish over to the Yacht Club.  We are part of the starting line for the laser regatta on Sunday!  Good thing Mark dove the prop and boat two weeks ago as he literally slashed both wrists at work and needed stitches.  They come out this Wednesday so all is well if he needs to make one more jump before we move.

Prep work is going to be busy if we are to be ready by end of March.  Especially the new heater which is only scheduled to arrive in March.  We are also trying to plan a short recharge break in Yap in February as we had to miss this when we sailed past.

Keep tuned as we should begin posting regularly from now on.

Sewing Project #2

Pauline is so excited that she finally finished the covers for our fenders.  She is now psyched to do more sewing.

All Quiet

It was almost 2 months ago since we wrote on our blog.  Our life is really, really boring with nothing to report.  Just the same old, same old.  Work for both of us.

Late November Alii Nui went on the hard.  So Mark is now busy working on the boat instead of driving.

Pauline, well, she is still at her job.

It is almost Christmas and we are still trying to get our Christmas letter out.  What is there to tell since nothing exciting happened!  Well, since we can't send out a blank letter, we'll come up with something.  So we ask for your patience while we churn up something before Christmas.

Pauline is Coming Home!

This is great news.  However it does cause a bit of drama as I have been doing several projects while she is away.  Not any noticeable projects but they require getting things like different epoxies out, loads of tools, varnish etc.  Get the picture?!  The boat looked like one of those many storms just passing us by whipped through the inside.  Needless to say I have spent the last couple of days trying to stash all the mess and now I just need to vacuum, finish dusting, and do laundry all tomorrow night after work before I pick her up at 6 AM.  I am sure we will cope.  I hope she notices the cleanliness!

Well It Missed Us

For those of you who have been keeping your fingers crossed for us.  Typhoon Francisco has missed us.  It came close enough that they closed schools and most businesses but it gave us a wide berth and missed us by more than 100 miles.  It seems like the whole last two months we have been under threat but this was the closest.  At one point the forecasters had it stopping and intensifying right on top of us.  But it dipped south under us and track a little further west before turning back north again.  There was another one slotted to hit us but it looks like Francisco helped us here and the forecasts now show it heading north and dissipating. So maybe the bad weather is behind us for a while.  Poor Japan is getting hammered this year.  So hopefully next year when we are there they will get a reprieve.

What I Do!

Some of you have been asking for pictures of me working.  Today I brought my camera and handed it to one of the crew.  We had a baby dolphin today as well, but he was too shy for the photo.  However some other members of the pod hammed it up.  He took one of me driving with the rest of the crew in the background.  Unfortunately he didn’t show my feet.  To drive this boat you have to stand on the pedestal and do everything with your feet.  It takes some getting used to, and after an eight hour day you are pretty tired but as jobs go this one doesn’t suck!

Pauline's Screen

Hey Pauline is away so I can post what I want.  This is her first project with her new toy.  She did it in a few hours.  All of my ones took about a week of my time to hand stitch and they didn't look half as good.  The first pic is from the inside looking out, the second is from the outside looking in.  The slight droop in the top was because I didn't push the hatch all of the way open.  The droop looks worse in the photo.  But the nice thing is with the fish weights sewn in the sides it sits nice no matter how much the hatch is open or closed.

Pauline's Away for October

I am not sure if this fits under cruising or not, but it is certainly one of every cruiser's biggest worries.  What happens when our family back home needs us?  For those of you who don't know.  Pauline's mum and dad were visiting her brother in Hong Kong, when her mum fell and broke her hip.  The good news is the doctors in Hong Kong were able to fix the hip and now comes the road to recovery.  So Pauline has flown to HK and once her mom is out of hospital will fly with her to Singapore.  While there she will organise the physical therapy treatments she needs, get a live in maid/care giver and basically make life easy for her.  She is going to be gone the whole month of October.  Meanwhile Mark and Sari Timur are staying in Guam watching the weather which has been pretty exciting for all of September.

My New Toy

I have a new toy!  I am Pauline and my parents are both tailors and I grew up sewing.  After we left on our cruise, Mark and I always talked about buying a sewing machine but we never did.  We were at the Chicago Boat Show one year and saw the SailRite sewing machine and coveted one.  Years later, we finally bought one.  I am really excited and am looking forward to doing sewing projects on the boat.  Here's a picture of the machine.  For those who don't know the SailRite machine, it can sew sails and canvas and leather.  Not quite a commercial machine but more than a home machine.

New Lights

We have been waiting for technology to give us nice LED lights for Sari Timur.  We have been looking but never really found something that compared with the halogen or fluorescent lights we have below.  We have just found some by Marine Beam and are so pleased with the initial order we received we have just ordered some more and some nav lights as well.