Travel Camping Camper

I decided that a Roof Tent was the way to go with camping.

But then I thought thats a bit high off the ground , and started to think of differeent options. BING the brain went off and I thought what about a folding tent trailer, Brilliant !!!!!!. Not so much as about a million people had thought of it before me. The advantage was that I would be able to copy someone else and use their ideas.

I had an old folding motorcycle trailer that I could take apart and rebuild into the camping trailer I wanted. This has drawers for storage, batteries for power and stabilizers when unhitched.

Well this is it. I think its pretty neat and I have trailed it around for a weekend to see what its like. Its easy to tow and the tend unfolds quickly and easily. The tent also has a closed cell mattress and built in LED lighting.  

Das Boot

Well SV Bora DA is coming along nicely. I have finished most of the upgrades including the cabin, engine, self steering, MackPack, Jib strip, electrical etc etc. And the dinghy got a new engine!! The funny thing is that it took so long and if you ask me what I did last weekend its hard to be specific.

Working on a boat is an odd experience.

Everything and I mean everything takes 5 times longer. Its a mix of inaccessible places that you need to get access to, never having the right tool or parts ( no matter how much you plan ahead, and the difficulty of just moving about in a confines space. Of course everything also costs 5 times as much because its Marinised whatever that means, and half the time doesn't fit.

But I have only a few more things I would like to do , one of which is to fit a wind charger which will help power

They are not cheap and its a nice to have rather than a need to have, but I want to be power independent and this is a good addition. A watermaker would also be nice but there are easier ways of producing fresh water. The problem is that there is always something to do to make it better and its easy to become a dock queen. So sailing is what we will do and off we will go.

SV Bora DA, Sabre 34

SV Bora Da
In 2015 I bought a Sabre 34 Targa. I had been looking for a boat for some time and had seen the boat on the owners FB page. I had been following their Blog on their adventures and at the last blog they had crossed the Atlantic on the way to the Med. Then suddenly their boat was for sale as they had found another. Initially I wasn't terribly interested. It was smaller than I intended to get and was at the top of my price range. After a few days reflection I looked again and thought that this was potentially a great boat, and with the work done pretty reasonable. Once they were back in Florida, on a whim I drove across the state, saw the boat, immediately liked it and made a offer.

A few weeks later the boat was safely in Burnt Store Marina and I set about making her mine. I wanted to make several modifications including adding an Arch and self steering. Talk about jumping the gun. What I should have done of course was wait several months. But Im impatient and , well.........just got on with it. Once the mods were made, and a few unexpected problems found that slowed me down,  I started sailing her in Charlotte Harbor ably assisted by first mate Amanda, a friend from work.

Then a few more problems cropped up. The engine needed a new alternator, wiring loom and water pump. The wasnt easy , especially the wiring.

One thing with the Sabre is the lack of engine access. So I cut another access port in the port side cabin, with a removable door, otherwise the engine wiring couldn't be reached. I also modified the steps to be removable to access the front of the engine. So its a lot easier now to replace the filters and so on, but as with all things boats , easy is a relative word. I also recently strengthened the dodger , and re-stitched the canvas, replacing some of the 'glass'. One significant  change was the relocation of the Propane tanks. They are in the aft port locker , but the blocks an enormous amount of usable space. and I was also worried about propane sitting in the bottom of the boat. So it now sits on the aft rail, not pretty but functional.

Frankly at times its been frustrating and disillusioning. I mainly work on the boat myself, and an extra pair of hands would be welcome. I am however usually accompanied by Murphy my faithful mutt who doses in the cockpit, when she isn't being walked by Wolfgang and Helga my boat neighbors. I plan to sail to the Bahamas and down island to the BVI. Mind you , it isn't an easy proposition single-handing that much,  so I need to make it as easy as possible. So the next change will be a smaller head sail - Jib- and a Mainsail stacking system. 

BOAT stands for Break Out Another $1000, and boy does it ever.

Boat search

As my 1st post on the S/V Bora Da blog, I thought I would talk about my boat and sailing history and where I am today with finding 'the boat'.

I began sailing in  the UK on the last weekend on August 1997. How can I be so specific ? Well I crossed to the Isle of Wight from Portsmouth in the English Channel and found on our arrival that Princess Di had died in a car crash. I was invited by a sailing enthusiast friend from our days in the RAF, who assembled a crew to spend a few days at sea in a RN training sailboat. I admittedly had no idea what I was doing. As a pilot I understood the principles of lift and that a boat essentially has a big wing sticking out of it. But the practicalities and mostly the language of sailing left me a little bewildered.

I didn't get to sail again until 1999 when I moved to the USA to work at NASA. As you may know Johnson  Space Center is south of Houston ( Houston we have a problem) in a suburb called Clearlake, right next to Galveston bay. As I settled into the area and my new job and began to look for hobbies I started to fly again and took a sailing class- ASA 101. I began to sail with friends and acquired a Cape Dory 25. She was a great learner boat and I spent many a day out on the Bay. Like everyone else I made numerous mistakes and managed to ground the boat a few times.

ASA 103,4 and 5 followed and I then went sailing in the BVI. Wow that was liberating, and as I sailed to Anegada from Virgin Gorda I realised that I had truly found a passion in life. I vividly remember loosing sight of land as we made the crossing and could not have been more exhilarated.

I subsequently got a Catalina 30, which I called Bora Da ( Welsh for hello) and continued to sail in Galveston Bay. In 2007 I sold the boat and moved to Florida with the intention of getting a new boat. Life got in the way and while I continued to sail in Florida at Sarasota Bay, Tampa Bay and the Keys , ownership eluded me. I decided to relocate to Va in 2011 to take a new job , and with the intention of sailing on the Chesapeake, however life happens when you least expect it and I ended up back in Florida at the end of 2012. So the hunt is now on, and I am actively looking around the state for a boat.

Of course as everyone interested in buying a boat knows , its a thorny path filled with pitfalls, rotting decks,  and missed opportunity. Then of course one has to ask what is the boat intended for ? Coastal cruising or perhaps further afield to the Caribbean and beyond. There is the perennial argument go small and go now, or go big and later  ? Fin or full keel ? The possibilities are endless and the options can be paralyzing  I have recently tried to narrow things down an placed an offer on a boat. That didn't work out for a variety of reasons and the search continues.

So what am I looking for ? A boat that is around 38 feet capable of the Bahamas and the Caribbean. I have a financial limit for purchase and upgrades, and as I sail alone much of the time it has to be able to be single-handed. So we continue the search and the next update will be to confirm a purchase !!