The Big Sailboat Project DVD

[freshnel]

Well, in all this wintery (well winter is rain here really!) frolic with house renovations and "de-stuffing" the boat, I have managed to find some time to start on the BSBP DVD!

It's a long and slow process, but is beginning to move along despite my under powered 1.2 gig tablet PC and dusty surroundings on the 3rd floor. We have decided to arrange it into sections that would make up a half hour show if, God forbid, it ever made it on to TV. There will be, of course, more than 1 DVD, but not sure how many.
Just the raw, edited & chopped footage came to over 2 hours. I imagine that with everything added it'll total at least 4 hours. After all, it was a huge project, and I just couldn't leave out the intricacies that make the whole thing so interesting.

The DVDs will be first released at film baby if all goes well.

An update on the boat:

When we hauled out, Gena got carried away with the pressure washer and tore of some paint just above the water line, so that'll need fixing. The bottom edge of the water line must be smoothed and I want to bring up the anti-fouling paint 1/2" over it. This should smooth the great anchor point for all the sea grass I had to keep mowing every week.

The extra solar panel mounts were made but they still need to be attached. Even one of these made quite a difference in the charge/discharge cycle. That is, more towards the charged end!

For some reason, one of the anchor rollers has siezed, so something needs to be done there. Maybe some grease, or maybe the bolt bent, not sure yet.

The A.I.S. radio needs to be moved away from the dash PC, or the PC shielded. It causes a lot of interference, and unfortunately limits the range of A.I.S. down to 2 miles or so. The PC also interferes with the VHF somewhat. It's probably the cheapo USB hub, and everything coming off of it that is causing the interference. The tablets PCs themselves never caused any problems before.

All of the other things to do are pretty minor, but should be done really soon.

So there you go, must go as Gena is going to need my help with this giant kitchen cupboard we've been working on. It weighs a ton!

Fair winds all,
Sandy

[freshnel]

An Update on the last...

Well we're finally getting back to boatwork, the rain is slowing down and we're seeing more sunny days, and less frost.
It was exciting to stay on the boat for a couple of days, and we're looking forward to being aboard once again.

Our neighbors (live-aboards in a 30 odd footer) noticed our bilge pump kicking on and off for weeks on end. After investigating, we found tons of water in the forward bilge! The bottle for draining the mast was full too! I guess that should be checked every week. In any case, a stop valve should be installed because the pump would kick in and the water would go down enough to throw the float switch off, but then the water in the large hose would come back down and trip it again. This cycle explains why we had -600 amp hours off our batteries too.
It's amazing how muck water gets in the mast from the halyard holes and condensation. It was worse before I sealed up the head. It's a good thing we left the bilge pumps on though, who knows how much water would be in there if we hadn't.

The moisture from all that seems to have made some of the cupboard doors expand so now they need to be cut down. It's amazing how much. Some doors, only 20" across, have grown 1/4" from the original size.
The doors at the head have grown 3 times since Alberta. I have cut 3/4" of those total, and now they're jammed again.
Is this what one must expect in the tropics? Good thing we'll be taking the little dremel router attachment. Looks like we'll be needing it!
Gena hooked all of the water pipes back up, but we're going to wait 'til she's back in the water before putting in the watermaker.

As many have told us, when it comes to sailing, the work is never done. We know now this is overwelmingly true. You just can't try too hard to finish, or disappointment will unsue lol!

There's also quite a bit of other stuff that needs to be done before we hop on board again.
-Replace camcorder battery (this one died) or replace camcorder
-get Gena's medical insurance ( I refuse to pay ever again!)
-Disconnect everything at shack, and car insurance
-Advance pay at least 2 years of taxes, insurance, mailbox, BC healthcare, and whatever else I'm forgetting now (Notice the cynical overtone?)
-change over my drivers license (as a result of above)
-Deal with banks (big island trip)
-restock foodstuffs on boat (we ate them all over winter)
-visit doctor, get booster shots (again)
-finish DVD (episode 5)
-organize and put everything (less 1000 lbs) back on the boat.
-Cover car, furniture, and drain water pipes

forty days and counting. Think we'll do it?

One more note
I'm on facebook as Sandrine Sims if you have been looking. http://www.facebook.com/people/Sandrine-Sims/1449033008

Peace everyone!
S&G

[freshnel]

A short update on the DVD release
It seems that the post, human error, link errors, and misunderstandings are delaying the DVD release of April 20th, but then hey it's not the 20th YET!
I know there will be a few days delay in any case so don't go hassling filmbaby hehe, it's not their fault.
If you want to check if it *is* finally online, go to http://www.thebigsailboatproject.com and follow the link.
We may well miss the release as we'll be on our way at the end of the month

Peace and fair winds to all,
Sandy